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20.1.4.3 Fault-tolerance

MySQL Group Replication builds on an implementation of the Paxos distributed algorithm to provide distributed coordination between servers. As such, it requires a majority of servers to be active to reach quorum and thus make a decision. This has direct impact on the number of failures the system can tolerate without compromising itself and its overall functionality. The number of servers (n) needed to toleratef failures is thenn = 2 x f + 1.

In practice this means that to tolerate one failure the group must have three servers in it. As such if one server fails, there are still two servers to form a majority (two out of three) and allow the system to continue to make decisions automatically and progress. However, if a second server failsinvoluntarily, then the group (with one server left) blocks, because there is no majority to reach a decision.

The following is a small table illustrating the formula above.

Group Size

Majority

Instant Failures Tolerated

1

1

0

2

2

0

3

2

1

4

3

1

5

3

2

6

4

2

7

4

3