Set Up Physical Cluster Replication

• The system virtual cluster for administration tasks in both clusters, and starting the replication stream from the standby cluster.
• The application virtual cluster on the primary cluster to work with databases, tables, workloads, and so on.

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Overview

1. Create and start the primary cluster.
2. Configure and create a user on the primary cluster.
3. Create and start the standby cluster.
4. Configure and create a user on the standby cluster.
5. Securely copy certificates.
6. Start the replication stream from the standby cluster.

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Before you begin

• Two separate CockroachDB clusters (primary and standby) with a minimum of three nodes each, and each using the same CockroachDB v23.2 version. The standby cluster should be the same version or one version ahead of the primary cluster. The primary and standby clusters must be configured with similar hardware profiles, number of nodes, and overall size. Significant discrepancies in the cluster configurations may result in degraded performance.
  • To set up each cluster, you can follow . When you start each node in your cluster with the cockroach start command, you must pass the --config-profile flag with a replication value. Refer to cluster creation steps for the primary cluster and for the standby cluster for details.
  • The tutorial creates a self-signed certificate for each self-hosted cluster. To create certificates signed by an external certificate authority, refer to .
• All nodes in each cluster will need access to the Certificate Authority for the other cluster. Refer to Copy certificates.
• The primary and standby clusters must have the same . For example, replicating a multi-region primary cluster to a single-region standby cluster is not supported. Mismatching regions between a multi-region primary and standby cluster is also not supported.

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Step 1. Create the primary cluster

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Start the primary cluster

--config-profile replication-source

cockroach start \
--certs-dir=certs \
--advertise-addr=<node1 address \
--join=<node1 address,<node2 address,<node3 address \
--cache=.25 \
--max-sql-memory=.25 \
--background \
--config-profile replication-source

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Connect to the primary cluster system virtual cluster

1. To connect to the system virtual cluster, pass the options=-ccluster=system parameter in the URL:
   cockroach sql --url \
   "postgresql://root@{node IP or hostname}:26257?options=-ccluster=system&sslmode=verify-full" \
   --certs-dir "certs"
   
   The prompt will include system when you are connected to the system virtual cluster.

2. Confirm the status of your virtual cluster:
   SHOW VIRTUAL CLUSTERS;
   
   The output will include the system interface and the application virtual cluster:
   id |    name     | data_state | service_mode
   ---+-------------+------------+---------------
   1  | system      | ready      | shared
   2  | template    | ready      | none
   3  | application | ready      | shared
   (3 rows)
   
   Because this is the primary cluster rather than the standby cluster, data_state of all rows is ready, rather than replicating or another status.

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Create a replication user and password

1. From the primary’s system virtual cluster SQL shell, create a user and password:
   CREATE USER {your username} WITH PASSWORD '{your password}';
   
2. Grant the to your user:
   GRANT SYSTEM REPLICATION TO {your username};
   
   If you need to change the password later, refer to .

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Connect to the primary virtual cluster (optional)

1. If you would like to run a sample workload on the primary’s application virtual cluster, open a new terminal window and use to run the workload. For example, to initiate the workload:
   cockroach workload init movr "postgresql://root@{node_advertise_address}:{node_advertise_port}?options=-ccluster=application&sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=certs/ca.crt&sslcert=certs/client.root.crt&sslkey=certs/client.root.key"
   
   Replace and with a node’s IP address or hostname and port. The cockroach workload command does not support connection or security flags like other . Instead, you must use a at the end of the command. As a result, for the example in this tutorial, you will need:
   • options=-ccluster=application
   • sslmode=verify-full
   • sslrootcert={path}/certs/ca.crt: the path to the CA certificate.
   • sslcert={path}/certs/client.root.crt: the path to the client certificate.
   • sslkey={path}/certs/client.root.key: the path to the client private key. For additional detail on the standard CockroachDB connection parameters, refer to .
2. Run the movr workload for a set duration using the same connection string:
   cockroach workload run movr --duration=5m "postgresql://root@{node_advertise_address}:{node_advertise_port}?options=-ccluster=application&sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=certs/ca.crt&sslcert=certs/client.root.crt&sslkey=certs/client.root.key"
   
3. To connect to the primary cluster’s application virtual cluster, use the ccluster=application parameter:
   cockroach sql --url \
   "postgresql://root@{node IP or hostname}:26257?options=-ccluster=application&sslmode=verify-full" \
   --certs-dir "certs"
   
   The prompt will include application when you are connected to the application virtual cluster.
4. Create a user for your primary cluster’s application virtual cluster:
   CREATE USER {your username} WITH PASSWORD '{your password}';
   
5. You can connect to the with this user to observe activity on the primary cluster. Open a web browser at https://{node IP or hostname}:8080/ and enter your credentials.

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Step 2. Create the standby cluster

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Start the standby cluster

cockroach start \
--certs-dir=certs \
--advertise-addr=<node1 address \
--join=<node1 address,<node2 address,<node3 address \
--cache=.25 \
--max-sql-memory=.25 \
--background \
--config-profile replication-target

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Connect to the standby cluster system virtual cluster

1. To connect to the system virtual cluster, pass the options=-ccluster=system parameter in the URL:
   cockroach sql --url \
   "postgresql://root@{node IP or hostname}:26257?options=-ccluster=system&sslmode=verify-full" \
   --certs-dir "certs"
   
   The prompt will include system when you are connected to the system virtual cluster.
2. Add your cluster organization and to the cluster:
   SET CLUSTER SETTING cluster.organization = 'your organization';
   
   SET CLUSTER SETTING enterprise.license = 'your enterprise license';
   
3. Confirm the status of your virtual cluster:
   SHOW VIRTUAL CLUSTERS;
   
   The output will show the system interface, but no application virtual cluster:
   id |   name   | data_state | service_mode
   ---+----------+------------+---------------
   1  | system   | ready      | shared
   2  | template | ready      | none
   (2 rows)
   
   The configuration profile included at startup creates the template virtual cluster with the same set of capabilities per CockroachDB version. When you start a replication stream, you can specify the template VC with LIKE to ensure other virtual clusters on the standby cluster will work in the same way. Refer to Step 4: Start replication for syntax details.

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Create a user for the standby cluster

1. Create a user:
   CREATE USER {your username} WITH LOGIN PASSWORD {'your password'};
   
2. To observe the replication activity, your user will need privileges:
   GRANT admin TO {your username};
   
   Open the DB Console in your web browser: https://{node IP or hostname}:8080/, where you will be prompted for these credentials. Refer to for more detail on tracking relevant metrics for your replication stream.

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Step 3. Copy certificates

1. Name the ca.crt from the primary cluster to a new name on the standby cluster. For example, ca_primary.crt.
2. Securely copy ca_primary.crt to the certs directory of the standby cluster nodes.

1. Name the ca.crt from the standby cluster to a new name on the primary cluster. For example, ca_standby.crt.
2. Securely copy ca_standby.crt to the certs directory of the primary cluster nodes.

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Step 4. Start replication

1. From the standby cluster, use your connection string to the primary. The connection string contains:
   • The replication user and password that you created for the primary cluster.
   • The node IP address or hostname of one node from the primary cluster.
   • The path to the primary node’s certificate on the standby cluster.
     CREATE VIRTUAL CLUSTER application LIKE template
     FROM REPLICATION OF application
     ON 'postgresql://{replication user}:{password}@{node IP or hostname}:26257?options=-ccluster=system&sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=certs/{primary cert}.crt';
     
     Including the LIKE template parameter ensures that the virtual cluster on the standby is created with the correct capabilities, which manage what the virtual cluster can do. LIKE will refer to a virtual cluster on the CockroachDB cluster you’re running the statement from. Once the standby cluster has made a connection to the primary cluster, the standby will pull the topology of the primary cluster and will distribute the replication work across all nodes in the primary and standby.
2. To view all virtual clusters on the standby, run:
   SHOW VIRTUAL CLUSTERS;
   
   The standby cluster will show the application virtual cluster is in a replicating state.
   id |        name        |     data_state     | service_mode
   ---+--------------------+--------------------+---------------
    1 | system             | ready              | shared
    2 | template           | ready              | none
    3 | application        | replicating        | none
   (3 rows)
   
   The standby cluster’s virtual cluster is offline while the replication stream is running. To bring it online, you must explicitly .
3. To manage the replication stream, you can the replication stream as well as the current details for the job:
   ALTER VIRTUAL CLUSTER application PAUSE REPLICATION;
   
   ALTER VIRTUAL CLUSTER application RESUME REPLICATION;
   
   SHOW VIRTUAL CLUSTER application WITH REPLICATION STATUS;
   
   id |        name        |     data_state     | service_mode | source_tenant_name |                                                     source_cluster_uri                                              | replication_job_id |        replicated_time        |         retained_time         | cutover_time
   ---+--------------------+--------------------+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------------
   3  | application        | replicating        | none         | application        | postgresql://{user}:{password}@{hostname}:26257?options=-ccluster%3Dsystem&sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=redacted | 899090689449132033 | 2023-09-11 22:29:35.085548+00 | 2023-09-11 16:51:43.612846+00 |     NULL
   (1 row)s
   
   With the replication stream running, you can monitor the job via the DB Console, SQL shell, or Prometheus. You can also verify data is correct on the standby cluster at a specific point in time. For more detail, refer to .

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Connection reference

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What’s next