August 5, 2013
By Severalnines
If you are managing a production database, chances are high that you’ve had to clone your database to a different server than the production server. The basic method of creating a clone is to restore a database from a recent backup on to a different database server. Other methods include replicating from a source database while it is up, in which case it is important the original database be unaffected by any cloning procedure.
Why Cloning?
A cloned database is useful in a number of scenarios:
- Troubleshoot your cloned production cluster in the safety of your test environment while performing destructive operations on the database.
- Patch/upgrade test of a cloned database to validate the upgrade process before applying it to the production cluster.
- Validate backup & recovery of a production cluster using a cloned cluster.
- Validate or test new applications on a cloned production cluster before deploying it on the live production cluster.
- Quickly clone the database for audit or information compliance requirements for example by quarter or year end where the content of the database must not be changed.
- A reporting database can be created at intervals in order to avoid data changes during the report generations.
- Migrate a database to new servers or a new data center.
