4.1.2 Grant MySQL Privileges to Backup Administrator

For most backup operations, the mysqlbackup command connects to the MySQL server using the credentials supplied with the --user and --password options. The specified user needs certain privileges. You can either create a new user with a minimal set of privileges, or use an administrative account such as root. Here are the privileges required by mysqlbackup:

• The minimum privileges for the MySQL user with which mysqlbackup connects to the server are:

  • RELOAD on all databases and tables.

  • CREATE, INSERT, DROP, and UPDATE on the tables mysql.backup_progress and mysql.backup_history, and also SELECT and ALTER on mysql.backup_history.

  • SUPER, to enable and disable logging, and to optimize locking in order to minimize disruption to database processing.

  • REPLICATION CLIENT, to retrieve the binary log position, which is stored with the backup.

  • PROCESS, to process DDL statements with the ALGORITHM = INPLACE clause.

  • SELECT on performance_schema.replication_group_members, to know whether the server instance is part of a Group Replication setup and, if so, to gather information on the group members (required by release 4.1.2 and later).

  To create a MySQL user (mysqlbackup in this example) and set the above-mentioned privileges for the user to connect from localhost, issue statements like the following from the mysql client program:

  CREATE USER 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
  GRANT RELOAD, SUPER, PROCESS ON *.* TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';
  GRANT CREATE, INSERT, DROP, UPDATE ON mysql.backup_progress TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';
  GRANT CREATE, INSERT, SELECT, DROP, UPDATE, ALTER ON mysql.backup_history 
      TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';
  GRANT REPLICATION CLIENT ON *.* TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';
  GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_group_members TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';

• The following additional privileges are required when using MySQL Enterprise Backup 4.1.2 or later for the first time on a MySQL Server that has been upgraded from 5.7.22 or earlier and has been backed up by MySQL Enterprise Backup before:

  • CREATE, INSERT, and DROP on mysql.backup_history_old.

  • CREATE, INSERT, DROP, and ALTER on mysql.backup_history_new.

  Grant these privileges by issuing these sample statements at the mysql client:

  GRANT CREATE, INSERT, DROP ON mysql.backup_history_old TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';
  GRANT CREATE, INSERT, DROP, ALTER ON mysql.backup_history_new TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';

  Note

  If you are working with a multiprimary Group Replication setting, make sure these privileges are granted on all primary nodes; see also Chapter 8, Using MySQL Enterprise Backup with Group Replication.

  These privileges are for the attempt to migrate the mysql.backup_history table to a newer format (see Appendix D, Backup History Table Update for details), and they are no longer needed after the first backup operation by MySQL Enterprise Backup 4.1.2 or later has taken place on the server, by which point they can be revoked.

• The following additional privileges are required for using specific features of MySQL Enterprise Backup:

  • For using transportable tablespaces (TTS) to back up and restore InnoDB tables:

    • LOCK TABLES and SELECT for backing up tables. CREATE for restoring tables.

    • DROP for dropping tables if the restore fails for some reasons.

    • FILE for restoring tables in external tablespaces outside of the server's data directory.

  • For creating tape backups using the System Backup to Tape (SBT) API :

    • CREATE, INSERT, DROP, and UPDATE on the mysql.backup_sbt_history table

  Set those additional privileges if you are using the features that require them. To set all of them, issue a statement like the following from the mysql client program:

  GRANT LOCK TABLES, SELECT, CREATE, DROP, FILE ON *.* TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';
  GRANT CREATE, INSERT, DROP, UPDATE ON mysql.backup_sbt_history TO 'mysqlbackup'@'localhost';

• For privileges required for using MySQL Enterprise Backup with a Group Replication setting, see Chapter 8, Using MySQL Enterprise Backup with Group Replication.