Can you use MySQL to replicate data over a network from several sites?

Can you use MySQL to replicate data over a network from several sites?

Is MySQL a good fit for replicating from several hundred point-of-sale database sites to a single database over a network that is not always reliable? This is an interim project as we are waiting for a decision that would replace all of our disparate POS systems with a single solution, however in the mean time the data has to be collected and analyzed.

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Typically MySQL replication is used to push data out, not pull it in. For example, it is common to have MySQL run a single master with multiple slaves, and it does not support a single MySQL instance running as a slave to multiple masters.

That being said, it depends on what you want to do. If you are looking for a central backup of multiple MySQL servers, you can run a single machine with multiple instances, each acting as a slave to an individual remote server.

If you want a central analysis machine without two-way replication (data just comes from the remote servers), you could script a process where each remote server ships data to the central machine, or makes it available for pulling. Then the data can be loaded into a central MySQL instance which is used for analysis.

If your systems are pretty disparate, you may need to find a common format like CSV and ship the data to the central server for loading using FTP, Rsync, or the like.

This was first published in June 2005

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