5.4 Relay Log and Replication Metadata Repositories

5.4.1 The Relay Log

5.4.2 Replication Metadata Repositories

A replica server creates several repositories of information to use for the replication process:

• The replica's relay log, which is written by the replication I/O (receiver) thread, contains the transactions read from the replication source server's binary log. The transactions in the relay log are applied on the replica by the replication SQL (applier) thread. For information about the relay log, see Section 5.4.1, “The Relay Log”.

• The replica's connection metadata repository contains information that the replication receiver thread needs to connect to the replication source server and retrieve transactions from the source's binary log. The connection metadata repository is written to the mysql.slave_master_info table.

• The replica's applier metadata repository contains information that the replication applier thread needs to read and apply transactions from the replica's relay log. The applier metadata repository is written to the mysql.slave_relay_log_info table.

The replica's connection metadata repository and applier metadata repository are collectively known as the replication metadata repositories. For information about these, see Section 5.4.2, “Replication Metadata Repositories”.

Making replication resilient to unexpected halts.  The mysql.slave_master_info and mysql.slave_relay_log_info tables are created using the transactional storage engine InnoDB. Updates to the replica's applier metadata repository table are committed together with the transactions, meaning that the replica's progress information recorded in that repository is always consistent with what has been applied to the database, even in the event of an unexpected server halt. For information on the combination of settings on the replica that is most resilient to unexpected halts, see Section 3.2, “Handling an Unexpected Halt of a Replica”.