MoveTables

MoveTables is a new workflow based on VReplication. It enables you to relocate tables between keyspaces, and therefore physical MySQL instances, without downtime.

Identifying Candidate Tables

It is recommended to keep tables that need to join on each other in the same keyspace, so typical candidates for a MoveTables operation are a set of tables which logically group together or are otherwise isolated.

If you have multiple groups of tables as candidates, which makes the most sense to move may depend on the specifics of your environment. For example, a larger table will take more time to move, but in doing so you might be able to utilize additional or newer hardware which has more headroom before you need to perform additional operations such as sharding.

Similarly, tables that are updated at a more frequent rate could increase the move time.

Impact to Production Traffic

Internally, a MoveTables operation is comprised of both a table copy and a subscription to all changes made to the table. Vitess uses batching to improve the performance of both table copying and applying subscription changes, but you should expect that tables with lighter modification rates to move faster.

During the active move process, data is copied from replicas instead of the primary server. This helps ensure minimal production traffic impact.

During the SwitchTraffic phase of the MoveTables operation, for primary tablets, Vitess may be briefly unavailable. This unavailability is usually a few seconds, but will be higher in the event that your system has a high replication delay from primary to replica(s).

Related Vitess Documentation