Automatic Failover With MariaDB Monitor
Automatic Failover With MariaDB Monitor
The MariaDB Monitor is not only capable of monitoring the state of a MariaDB primary-replica cluster but is also capable of performing failover and switchover. In addition, in some circumstances it is capable of rejoining a primary that has gone down and later reappears.
Note that the failover (and switchover and rejoin) functionality is only supported in conjunction with GTID-based replication and initially only for simple topologies, that is, 1 primary and several replicas.
The failover, switchover and rejoin functionality are inherent parts of the MariaDB Monitor, but neither automatic failover nor automatic rejoin are enabled by default.
The following examples have been written with the assumption that there
are four servers - server1, server2, server3 and server4 - of
which server1 is the initial primary and the other servers are replicas.
In addition there is a monitor called TheMonitor that monitors those
servers.
Somewhat simplified, the MaxScale configuration file would look like:
[server1] type=server address=192.168.121.51 port=3306 [server2] ... [server3] ... [server4] ... [TheMonitor] type=monitor module=mariadbmon servers=server1,server2,server3,server4 ...
Manual Failover
If everything is in order, the state of the cluster will look something like this:
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
If the primary now for any reason goes down, then the cluster state will look like this:
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Down │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴────────────────┘
Note that the status for server1 is Down.
Since failover is by default not enabled, the failover mechanism must be invoked manually:
$ maxctrl call command mariadbmon failover TheMonitor OK
There are quite a few arguments, so let's look at each one separately
call command indicates that it is a module command that is to be
invoked,
mariadbmon indicates the module whose command we want to invoke (that
is the MariaDB Monitor),
failover is the command we want to invoke, and
TheMonitor is the first and only argument to that command, the name of
the monitor as specified in the configuration file.
The MariaDB Monitor will now autonomously deduce which replica is the most appropriate one to be promoted to primary, promote it to primary and modify the other replicas accordingly.
If we now check the cluster state we will see that one of the remaining replicas has been made into primary.
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Down │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
If server1 now reappears, it will not be rejoined to the cluster, as
shown by the following output:
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
Had auto_rejoin=true been specified in the monitor section, then an
attempt to rejoin server1 would have been made.
In MaxScale 2.2.1, rejoining cannot be initiated manually, but in a subsequent version a command to that effect will be provided.
Automatic Failover
To enable automatic failover, simply add auto_failover=true to the
monitor section in the configuration file.
[TheMonitor] type=monitor module=mariadbmon servers=server1,server2,server3,server4 auto_failover=true ...
When everything is running fine, the cluster state looks like follows:
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
If server1 now goes down, failover will automatically be performed and
an existing replica promoted to new primary.
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬────────────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼────────────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Down │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼────────────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼────────────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼────────────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴────────────────────────┘
If you are continuously monitoring the server states, you may notice for a
brief period that the state of server1 is Down and the state of
server2 is still Slave, Running.
Rejoin
To enable automatic rejoin, simply add auto_rejoin=true to the
monitor secion in the configuration file.
[TheMonitor] type=monitor module=mariadbmon servers=server1,server2,server3,server4 auto_rejoin=true ...
When automatic rejoin is enabled, the MariaDB Monitor will attempt to rejoin a failed primary as a replica, if it reappears.
When everything is running fine, the cluster state looks like follows:
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
Assuming auto_failover=true has been specified in the configuration
file, when server1 goes down for some reason, failover will be performed
and we end up with the following cluster state:
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Down │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
If server1 now reappears, the MariaDB Monitor will detect that and
attempt to rejoin the old primary as a replica.
Whether rejoining will succeed depends upon the actual state of the old primary. For instance, if the old primary was modified and the changes had not been replicated to the new primary, before the old primary went down, then automatic rejoin will not be possible.
If rejoining can be performed, then the cluster state will end up looking like:
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
Switchover
Switchover is for cases when you explicitly want to move the primary role from one server to another.
If we continue from the cluster state at the end of the previous example
and want to make server1 primary again, then we must issue the following
command:
$ maxctrl call command mariadbmon switchover TheMonitor server1 server2 OK
There are quite a few arguments, so let's look at each one separately
call command indicates that it is a module command that is to be
invoked,
mariadbmon indicates the module whose command we want to invoke,
switchover is the command we want to invoke, and
TheMonitor is the first argument to the command, the name of the monitor
as specified in the configuration file,
server1 is the second argument to the command, the name of the server we
want to make into primary, and
server2 is the third argument to the command, the name of the current
primary.
If the command executes successfully, we will end up with the following cluster state:
$ maxctrl list servers ┌─────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Server │ Address │ Port │ Connections │ State │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server1 │ 192.168.121.51 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Master, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server2 │ 192.168.121.190 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server3 │ 192.168.121.112 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ ├─────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ server4 │ 192.168.121.201 │ 3306 │ 0 │ Slave, Running │ └─────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
