Intelligent Proxy

Make It Smarter: Tuning MySQL Client Request Routing for Tungsten Connector

Watch our new on-demand webinar: “An introduction to database proxies (for MySQL)”. From a simple database connectivity scenario all the way through to advanced database connectivity setups and proxy functionalities, this webinar provides a solid introduction to database proxies (for MySQL).

This is the first in a series of blogs we’ll be publishing in 2020 with regards to database proxies for MySQL, including our very own Tungsten Proxy, which we’ll introduce to the MySQL community in more detail in the coming months.

The power of Tungsten Clustering for MySQL / MariaDB is its built-in intelligent MySQL proxy, known as the Tungsten Connector. The Connector has built-in read-write splitting capabilities, and it is also possible to configure different algorithms which select the appropriate slave (i.e. Round-Robin or Lowest-Latency).

Database Proxies provide a single entry point into MySQL for the calling client applications. Proxies are wonderful tools to handle various situations like a master role switch to another node for maintenance, or for transparency with read and write connections. However, when the time comes to perform the switch action, all of the calling clients have been funneled through the proxy, so identification of the calling host from the database itself becomes difficult.

Part of the power of Tungsten Clustering for MySQL / MariaDB is its intelligent MySQL Proxy, known as the Tungsten Connector. Tungsten Connector has three main modes, and depending on the type of operations you are performing (such as if you need read-write splitting), we help you choose which mode is best. Hence the question, "How can I tell which Tungsten Connector mode I am using: Bridge, Proxy/Direct or Proxy/SmartScale?"

This blog is about configuring Tungsten for PCI compliance.

In this blog post we will discuss how to use the Tungsten Connector keep-alive feature to ensure long-running MySQL & MariaDB/Percona Server client sessions stay connected in a Tungsten Cluster.

When it comes to zero downtime, proxies are the first line components of a cluster. In order to achieve High Availability (HA) for MySQL, MariaDB and Percona Server, a commonly deployed setup consists of configuring load balancers (hardware or software) on top of those proxies.

When deploying Tungsten Clustering for MySQL / MariaDB / Percona Server, we always recommend an odd number of Manager nodes in each cluster. Let's take a look at how having an odd number of Managers helps keep a Tungsten Cluster functioning and avoids data corruption scenarios (i.e. "split brain").

You already know about the Tungsten Connector which is the "secret sauce" that routes your application database traffic to the appropriate MySQL data source of your cluster. Have you ever wondered how the Connector keeps track of the cluster configuration? How it always knows which host is the master (or masters in a Composite Multimaster topology), and which are slaves?

This blog discusses some of the ways you can configure your MySQL / MariaDB / Percona Server slaves using Tungsten Clustering.