Encrypted InnoDB tablespace backups¶

Starting with MySQL 5.7, InnoDB supports data encryption for InnoDB tables stored in file-per-table tablespaces. This feature provides at-rest encryption for physical tablespace data files.

For an authenticated user or application to access an encrypted tablespace, InnoDB will use the master encryption key to decrypt the tablespace key. The master encryption key is stored in a keyring. xtrabackup supports two keyring plugins: keyring_file, and keyring_vault. These plugins are installed into the plugin directory.

Making a backup
Restoring backup when keyring is not available

Making a backup ¶

Using `keyring_file` plugin ¶

In order to backup and prepare database containing encrypted InnoDB tablespaces, specify the path to keyring file as the value of the --keyring-file-data option.

xtrabackup --backup --target-dir=/data/backup/ --user=root \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

Note

for use with MySQL prior to 5.7.13 --server-id option is added to the backup creation command, making previous example to look like the following:

xtrabackup --backup --target-dir=/data/backup/ --user=root \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring --server-id=1

After xtrabackup is finished taking the backup you should see the following message:

xtrabackup: Transaction log of lsn (5696709) to (5696718) was copied.
160401 10:25:51 completed OK!

Warning

xtrabackup will not copy keyring file into the backup directory. In order to be prepare the backup, you must make a copy of keyring file yourself.

Preparing the Backup

In order to prepare the backup you’ll need to specify the keyring-file-data (server-id is stored in backup-my.cnf file, so it can be omitted when preparing the backup, regardless of the MySQL version used).

xtrabackup --prepare --target-dir=/data/backup \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

After xtrabackup is finished preparing the backup you should see the following message:

InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 5697064
160401 10:34:28 completed OK!

Backup is now prepared and can be restored with --copy-back option. In case the keyring has been rotated you’ll need to restore the keyring which was used to take and prepare the backup.

Using `keyring_vault` plugin ¶

Support for encrypted InnoDB tablespace backups with keyring_vault has been implemented in Percona XtraBackup 2.4.11. Keyring vault plugin settings are described here.

Creating Backup

Command like

xtrabackup --backup --target-dir=/data/backup --user=root

will create a backup in the /data/backup directory.

After xtrabackup is finished taking the backup you should see the following message:

xtrabackup: Transaction log of lsn (5696709) to (5696718) was copied.
160401 10:25:51 completed OK!

Preparing the Backup

In order to prepare the backup xtrabackup will need an access to the keyring. Since xtrabackup doesn’t talk to MySQL server and doesn’t read the default my.cnf configuration file during prepare, the user will need to specify keyring settings via the command line:

xtrabackup --prepare --target-dir=/data/backup \
--keyring-vault-config=/etc/vault.cnf

Note

Please look here for description of keyring vault plugin settings.

After xtrabackup is finished preparing the backup you should see the following message:

InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 5697064
160401 10:34:28 completed OK!

Backup is now prepared and can be restored with --copy-back option:

xtrabackup --copy-back --target-dir=/data/backup --datadir=/data/mysql

Incremental Encrypted InnoDB tablespace backups with `keyring_file`¶

The process of taking incremental backups with InnoDB tablespace encryption is similar to taking the Incremental Backups with unencrypted tablespace.

Creating an Incremental Backup

To make an incremental backup, begin with a full backup. The xtrabackup binary writes a file called xtrabackup_checkpoints into the backup’s target directory. This file contains a line showing the to_lsn, which is the database’s LSN at the end of the backup. First you need to create a full backup with the following command:

$ xtrabackup --backup --target-dir=/data/backups/base \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

Warning

xtrabackup will not copy keyring file into the backup directory. In order to be prepare the backup, you must make a copy of keyring file yourself. If you try to restore the backup after the keyring has been changed you’ll see errors like ERROR 3185 (HY000): Can't find master key from keyring, please check keyring plugin is loaded. when trying to access encrypted table.

If you look at the xtrabackup_checkpoints file, you should see some contents similar to the following:

backup_type = full-backuped
from_lsn = 0
to_lsn = 7666625
last_lsn = 7666634
compact = 0
recover_binlog_info = 1

Now that you have a full backup, you can make an incremental backup based on it. Use a command such as the following:

xtrabackup --backup --target-dir=/data/backups/inc1 \
--incremental-basedir=/data/backups/base \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

Warning

xtrabackup will not copy keyring file into the backup directory. In order to be prepare the backup, you must make a copy of keyring file yourself. If the keyring hasn’t been rotated you can use the same as the one you’ve backed-up with the base backup. If the keyring has been rotated you’ll need to back it up otherwise you won’t be able to prepare the backup.

The /data/backups/inc1/ directory should now contain delta files, such as ibdata1.delta and test/table1.ibd.delta. These represent the changes since the LSN 7666625. If you examine the xtrabackup_checkpoints file in this directory, you should see something similar to the following:

backup_type = incremental
from_lsn = 7666625
to_lsn = 8873920
last_lsn = 8873929
compact = 0
recover_binlog_info = 1

The meaning should be self-evident. It’s now possible to use this directory as the base for yet another incremental backup:

xtrabackup --backup --target-dir=/data/backups/inc2 \
--incremental-basedir=/data/backups/inc1 \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

Preparing the Incremental Backups

The --prepare step for incremental backups is not the same as for normal backups. In normal backups, two types of operations are performed to make the database consistent: committed transactions are replayed from the log file against the data files, and uncommitted transactions are rolled back. You must skip the rollback of uncommitted transactions when preparing a backup, because transactions that were uncommitted at the time of your backup may be in progress, and it’s likely that they will be committed in the next incremental backup. You should use the --apply-log-only option to prevent the rollback phase.

Warning

If you do not use the --apply-log-only option to prevent the rollback phase, then your incremental backups will be useless. After transactions have been rolled back, further incremental backups cannot be applied.

Beginning with the full backup you created, you can prepare it, and then apply the incremental differences to it. Recall that you have the following backups:

/data/backups/base
/data/backups/inc1
/data/backups/inc2

To prepare the base backup, you need to run --prepare as usual, but prevent the rollback phase:

xtrabackup --prepare --apply-log-only --target-dir=/data/backups/base \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

The output should end with some text such as the following:

InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 7666643
InnoDB: Number of pools: 1
160401 12:31:11 completed OK!

To apply the first incremental backup to the full backup, you should use the following command:

xtrabackup --prepare --apply-log-only --target-dir=/data/backups/base \
--incremental-dir=/data/backups/inc1 \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

Warning

Backup should be prepared with the keyring that was used when backup was being taken. This means that if the keyring has been rotated between the base and incremental backup that you’ll need to use the keyring that was in use when the first incremental backup has been taken.

Preparing the second incremental backup is a similar process: apply the deltas to the (modified) base backup, and you will roll its data forward in time to the point of the second incremental backup:

xtrabackup --prepare --target-dir=/data/backups/base \
--incremental-dir=/data/backups/inc2 \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

Note

--apply-log-only should be used when merging all incrementals except the last one. That’s why the previous line doesn’t contain the --apply-log-only option. Even if the --apply-log-only was used on the last step, backup would still be consistent but in that case server would perform the rollback phase.

Backup is now prepared and can be restored with --copy-back option. In case the keyring has been rotated you’ll need to restore the keyring which was used to take and prepare the backup.

Restoring backup when keyring is not available ¶

While described restore method works, it requires an access to the same keyring which server is using. It may not be possible if backup is prepared on different server or at the much later time, when keys in the keyring have been purged, or in case of malfunction when keyring vault server is not available at all.

A --transition-key=<passphrase> option should be used to make it possible for xtrabackup to process the backup without access to the keyring vault server. In this case xtrabackup will derive AES encryption key from specified passphrase and will use it to encrypt tablespace keys of tablespaces being backed up.

Creating the Backup with a Passphrase

Following example illustrates how the backup can be created in this case:

xtrabackup --backup --user=root -p --target-dir=/data/backup \
--transition-key=MySecetKey

If --transition-key is specified without a value, xtrabackup will ask for it.

Note

xtrabackup scrapes --transition-key so that its value is not visible in the ps command output.

Preparing the Backup with a Passphrase

The same passphrase should be specified for the prepare command:

xtrabackup --prepare --target-dir=/data/backup

There is no --keyring-vault... or --keyring-file... options here, because xtrabackup does not talk to keyring in this case.

Restoring the Backup with a generated key

When restoring a backup you will need to generate new master key. Here is the example for keyring_file:

xtrabackup --copy-back --target-dir=/data/backup --datadir=/data/mysql \
--transition-key=MySecetKey --generate-new-master-key \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

In case of keyring_vault it will look like this:

xtrabackup --copy-back --target-dir=/data/backup --datadir=/data/mysql \
--transition-key=MySecetKey --generate-new-master-key \
--keyring-vault-config=/etc/vault.cnf

xtrabackup will generate new master key, store it into target keyring vault server and re-encrypt tablespace keys using this key.

Making the Backup with a stored transition key

Finally, there is an option to store transition key in the keyring. In this case xtrabackup will need an access to the same keyring file or vault server during prepare and copy-back, but does not depend on whether the server keys have been purged.

In this scenario three stages of the backup process are looking as following.

Backup

xtrabackup --backup --user=root -p --target-dir=/data/backup \
--generate-transition-key

Prepare

keyring_file variant:

xtrabackup --prepare --target-dir=/data/backup \
--keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

keyring_vault variant:

xtrabackup --prepare --target-dir=/data/backup \
--keyring-vault-config=/etc/vault.cnf

Copy-back

keyring_file variant:

xtrabackup --copy-back --target-dir=/data/backup --datadir=/data/mysql \
--generate-new-master-key --keyring-file-data=/var/lib/mysql-keyring/keyring

keyring_vault variant:

xtrabackup --copy-back --target-dir=/data/backup --datadir=/data/mysql \
--generate-new-master-key --keyring-vault-config=/etc/vault.cnf

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