[mythtv-users] Is locking tables important when backing up mythconverg?

David Campbell dave at cpfc.org
Sat Apr 7 06:50:43 UTC 2007


Yeechang Lee wrote:
>     --set-charset
> 
> --lock-tables is what causes the fleeting frontend freezeup. Some
> quick experimenting with running my script with the addition of
> --skip-lock-tables verifies this.
> 
> So, what am I risking here, if anything, by backing up the system with
> --skip-lock-tables? Even as a database dunce I know enough about the
> concept of table locking to ensure data integrity, but does it really
> matter for what is fundamentally a single-user (mythbackend) database?
> 

You risk having an inconsistent backup of the database if inserts or 
updates are occurring during the backup.

How risky it is depends on how valuable the data is and how often it 
gets updated.

Mysqldump isn't really designed to be run in this fashion.  If you need 
backups every two hours I'd consider using hotbackups as it's faster 
(although still locks)

mysqlhotcopy --addtodest -u mysqluser -p somepass mythconverg /backupdir

or using mysql replication to have a standy database somewhere.

Dave





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