Hi all, it is time again to do another preview release of MySQL Group Replication, the plugin that brings multi-master update everywhere to MySQL, like we described in Hello World post.

We are very proud to do the third preview release of MySQL Group Replication, which introduces new exciting features, please enjoy the highlights!

Introduced changes

Plugin version access control

In an evolving product like Group Replication, it is important to ensure the correct functioning of the group by automatically check that all servers have a compatible plugin version.

This feature rules the access control of different plugin versions in a group. It dictates what action is taken when a previous or future plugin version joins a group, example a lower major or minor version, by default, it is not allowed to join a group.
This mechanism is of capital importance on upgrade procedures control.

Please read the blog post Plugin version access control on MySQL Group Replication for the full details.

Free-Standing Plugin

We now release the plugin as its own module. This meaning that the plugin won’t be tied to MySQL server release cycle, instead it will have its own release cycle!
The plugin is now built independently of the MySQL server code base and instead uses the well-defined interface of MySQL 5.7 to connect to the MySQL server.
This a step forward to shorter release cycles that will allow us to fulfill users requests sooner.

Every MySQL Group Replication version will be based on a MySQL server version, since the plugin does depend on server features/interfaces, but the plugin features can and will evolve over time.
On blog post MySQL Group Replication plugin packages we explain the details.

Bug Fixes

There are a lot of bugs that have been fixed in this third preview release of MySQL Group Replication, moving quickly towards a more stable, reliable and usable plugin.

Conclusion

Go to http://labs.mysql.com/ and try the new preview release of MySQL Group Replication following the instructions at Getting started with MySQL Group Replication and send us your feedback.

Note that this is not the GA yet, so don’t use it in production and expect bugs here and there. If you do experience bugs, we are happy to fix them. All you have to do is to file a bug in the bugs DB in that case.