Ingest data from self-hosted MySQL

This page shows you how to stream data from a self-hosted MySQL database to Materialize using the MySQL source.

💡 Tip: For help getting started with your own data, you can schedule a free guided trial.

Before you begin

A. Configure MySQL

1. Enable GTID-based binlog replication

Before creating a source in Materialize, you must configure your MySQL database for GTID-based binlog replication. This requires the following configuration changes:

Configuration parameter Value Details
log_bin ON
binlog_format ROW This configuration is deprecated as of MySQL 8.0.34. Newer versions of MySQL default to row-based logging.
binlog_row_image FULL
gtid_mode ON
enforce_gtid_consistency ON
replica_preserve_commit_order ON Only required when connecting Materialize to a read-replica for replication, rather than the primary server.

For guidance on enabling GTID-based binlog replication, see the MySQL documentation.

2. Create a user for replication

Once GTID-based binlog replication is enabled, we recommend creating a dedicated user for Materialize with sufficient privileges to manage replication.

  1. As a superuser, use mysql (or your preferred SQL client) to connect to your database.

  2. Create a dedicated user for Materialize, if you don’t already have one:

    CREATE USER 'materialize'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY '<password>';
    
    ALTER USER 'materialize'@'%' REQUIRE SSL;
    
  3. Grant the user permission to manage replication:

    GRANT SELECT, RELOAD, SHOW DATABASES, REPLICATION SLAVE, REPLICATION CLIENT, LOCK TABLES ON *.* TO 'materialize'@'%';
    

    Once connected to your database, Materialize will take an initial snapshot of the tables in your MySQL server. SELECT privileges are required for this initial snapshot.

  4. Apply the changes:

    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
    

B. (Optional) Configure network security

NOTE: If you are prototyping and your MySQL instance is publicly accessible, you can skip this step. For production scenarios, we recommend configuring one of the network security options below.

There are various ways to configure your database’s network to allow Materialize to connect:

  • Allow Materialize IPs: If your database is publicly accessible, you can configure your database’s firewall to allow connections from a set of static Materialize IP addresses.

  • Use an SSH tunnel: If your database is running in a private network, you can use an SSH tunnel to connect Materialize to the database.

Select the option that works best for you.

  1. In the SQL Shell, or your preferred SQL client connected to Materialize, find the static egress IP addresses for the Materialize region you are running in:

    SELECT * FROM mz_egress_ips;
    
  2. Update your database firewall rules to allow traffic from each IP address from the previous step.

To create an SSH tunnel from Materialize to your database, you launch an VM to serve as an SSH bastion host, configure the bastion host to allow traffic only from Materialize, and then configure your database’s private network to allow traffic from the bastion host.

  1. Launch a VM to serve as your SSH bastion host.

    • Make sure the VM is publicly accessible and in the same VPC as your database.
    • Add a key pair and note the username. You’ll use this username when connecting Materialize to your bastion host.
    • Make sure the VM has a static public IP address. You’ll use this IP address when connecting Materialize to your bastion host.
  2. Configure the SSH bastion host to allow traffic only from Materialize.

    1. In the SQL Shell, or your preferred SQL client connected to Materialize, get the static egress IP addresses for the Materialize region you are running in:

      SELECT * FROM mz_egress_ips;
      
    2. Update your SSH bastion host’s firewall rules to allow traffic from each IP address from the previous step.

  3. Update your database firewall rules to allow traffic from the SSH bastion host.

C. Ingest data in Materialize

1. (Optional) Create a cluster

NOTE: If you are prototyping and already have a cluster to host your MySQL source (e.g. quickstart), you can skip this step. For production scenarios, we recommend separating your workloads into multiple clusters for resource isolation.

In Materialize, a cluster is an isolated environment, similar to a virtual warehouse in Snowflake. When you create a cluster, you choose the size of its compute resource allocation based on the work you need the cluster to do, whether ingesting data from a source, computing always-up-to-date query results, serving results to clients, or a combination.

In this case, you’ll create a dedicated cluster for ingesting source data from your MySQL database.

  1. In the SQL Shell, or your preferred SQL client connected to Materialize, use the CREATE CLUSTER command to create the new cluster:

    CREATE CLUSTER ingest_mysql (SIZE = '200cc');
    
    SET CLUSTER = ingest_mysql;
    

    A cluster of size 200cc should be enough to process the initial snapshot of the tables in your MySQL database. For very large snapshots, consider using a larger size to speed up processing. Once the snapshot is finished, you can readjust the size of the cluster to fit the volume of changes being replicated from your upstream MySQL database.

2. Start ingesting data

Now that you’ve configured your database network, you can connect Materialize to your MySQL database and start ingesting data. The exact steps depend on your networking configuration, so start by selecting the relevant option.

  1. In the SQL Shell, or your preferred SQL client connected to Materialize, use the CREATE SECRET command to securely store the password for the materialize MySQL user you created earlier:

    CREATE SECRET mysqlpass AS '<PASSWORD>';
    
  2. Use the CREATE CONNECTION command to create a connection object with access and authentication details for Materialize to use:

    CREATE CONNECTION mysql_connection TO MYSQL (
        HOST <host>,
        PORT 3306,
        USER 'materialize',
        PASSWORD SECRET mysqlpass,
        SSL MODE REQUIRED
    );
    
    • Replace <host> with your MySQL endpoint.
  3. Use the CREATE SOURCE command to connect Materialize to your Azure instance and start ingesting data:

    CREATE SOURCE mz_source
      FROM mysql CONNECTION mysql_connection
      FOR ALL TABLES;
    
    • By default, the source will be created in the active cluster; to use a different cluster, use the IN CLUSTER clause.

    • To ingest data from specific schemas or tables, use the FOR SCHEMAS (<schema1>,<schema2>) or FOR TABLES (<table1>, <table2>) options instead of FOR ALL TABLES.

    • To handle unsupported data types, use the TEXT COLUMNS or IGNORE COLUMNS options. Check out the reference documentation for guidance.

  4. After source creation, you can handle upstream schema changes by dropping and recreating the source.

  1. In the SQL Shell, or your preferred SQL client connected to Materialize, use the CREATE CONNECTION command to create an SSH tunnel connection:

    CREATE CONNECTION ssh_connection TO SSH TUNNEL (
        HOST '<SSH_BASTION_HOST>',
        PORT <SSH_BASTION_PORT>,
        USER '<SSH_BASTION_USER>'
    );
    
    • Replace <SSH_BASTION_HOST> and <SSH_BASTION_PORT> with the public IP address and port of the SSH bastion host you created earlier.

    • Replace <SSH_BASTION_USER> with the username for the key pair you created for your SSH bastion host.

  2. Get Materialize’s public keys for the SSH tunnel connection:

    SELECT * FROM mz_ssh_tunnel_connections;
    
  3. Log in to your SSH bastion host and add Materialize’s public keys to the authorized_keys file, for example:

    # Command for Linux
    echo "ssh-ed25519 AAAA...76RH materialize" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
    echo "ssh-ed25519 AAAA...hLYV materialize" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
    
  4. Back in the SQL client connected to Materialize, validate the SSH tunnel connection you created using the VALIDATE CONNECTION command:

    VALIDATE CONNECTION ssh_connection;
    

    If no validation error is returned, move to the next step.

  5. Use the CREATE SECRET command to securely store the password for the materialize MySQL user you created earlier:

    CREATE SECRET mysqlpass AS '<PASSWORD>';
    
  6. Use the CREATE CONNECTION command to create another connection object, this time with database access and authentication details for Materialize to use:

    CREATE CONNECTION mysql_connection TO MYSQL (
    HOST '<host>',
    SSH TUNNEL ssh_connection
    );
    
    • Replace <host> with your MySQL endpoint.
  7. Use the CREATE SOURCE command to connect Materialize to your Azure instance and start ingesting data:

    CREATE SOURCE mz_source
      FROM mysql CONNECTION mysql_connection
      FOR ALL TABLES;
    
    • By default, the source will be created in the active cluster; to use a different cluster, use the IN CLUSTER clause.

    • To ingest data from specific schemas or tables, use the FOR SCHEMAS (<schema1>,<schema2>) or FOR TABLES (<table1>, <table2>) options instead of FOR ALL TABLES.

    • To handle unsupported data types, use the TEXT COLUMNS or IGNORE COLUMNS options. Check out the reference documentation for guidance.

3. Monitor the ingestion status

Before it starts consuming the replication stream, Materialize takes a snapshot of the relevant tables. Until this snapshot is complete, Materialize won’t have the same view of your data as your MySQL database.

In this step, you’ll first verify that the source is running and then check the status of the snapshotting process.

  1. Back in the SQL client connected to Materialize, use the mz_source_statuses table to check the overall status of your source:

    WITH
      source_ids AS
      (SELECT id FROM mz_sources WHERE name = 'mz_source')
    SELECT *
    FROM
      mz_internal.mz_source_statuses
        JOIN
          (
            SELECT referenced_object_id
            FROM mz_internal.mz_object_dependencies
            WHERE
              object_id IN (SELECT id FROM source_ids)
            UNION SELECT id FROM source_ids
          )
          AS sources
        ON mz_source_statuses.id = sources.referenced_object_id;
    

    For each subsource, make sure the status is running. If you see stalled or failed, there’s likely a configuration issue for you to fix. Check the error field for details and fix the issue before moving on. Also, if the status of any subsource is starting for more than a few minutes, contact our team.

  2. Once the source is running, use the mz_source_statistics table to check the status of the initial snapshot:

    WITH
      source_ids AS
      (SELECT id FROM mz_sources WHERE name = 'mz_source')
    SELECT sources.referenced_object_id AS id, mz_sources.name, snapshot_committed
    FROM
      mz_internal.mz_source_statistics
        JOIN
          (
            SELECT object_id, referenced_object_id
            FROM mz_internal.mz_object_dependencies
            WHERE
              object_id IN (SELECT id FROM source_ids)
            UNION SELECT id, id FROM source_ids
          )
          AS sources
        ON mz_source_statistics.id = sources.referenced_object_id
        JOIN mz_sources ON mz_sources.id = sources.referenced_object_id;
    

    object_id | snapshot_committed
    ----------|------------------
     u144     | t
    (1 row)
    

    Once snapshot_commited is t, move on to the next step. Snapshotting can take between a few minutes to several hours, depending on the size of your dataset and the size of the cluster the source is running in.

4. Right-size the cluster

After the snapshotting phase, Materialize starts ingesting change events from the MySQL replication stream. For this work, Materialize generally performs well with a 100cc replica, so you can resize the cluster accordingly.

  1. Still in a SQL client connected to Materialize, use the ALTER CLUSTER command to downsize the cluster to 100cc:

    ALTER CLUSTER ingest_mysql SET (SIZE '100cc');
    

    Behind the scenes, this command adds a new 100cc replica and removes the 200cc replica.

  2. Use the SHOW CLUSTER REPLICAS command to check the status of the new replica:

    SHOW CLUSTER REPLICAS WHERE cluster = 'ingest_mysql';
    

         cluster     | replica |  size  | ready
    -----------------+---------+--------+-------
     ingest_mysql    | r1      | 100cc  | t
    (1 row)
    

Next steps

With Materialize ingesting your MySQL data into durable storage, you can start exploring the data, computing real-time results that stay up-to-date as new data arrives, and serving results efficiently.

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