Changefeed DDL Replication

This document describes the rules and special cases of DDL replication in TiCDC.

DDL allow list

Currently, TiCDC uses an allow list to determine whether to replicate a DDL statement. Only the DDL statements in the allow list are replicated to the downstream. The DDL statements not in the allow list are not replicated.

The allow list of DDL statements supported by TiCDC is as follows:

• create database
• drop database
• create table
• drop table
• add column
• drop column
• create index / add index
• drop index
• truncate table
• modify column
• rename table
• alter column default value
• alter table comment
• rename index
• add partition
• drop partition
• truncate partition
• create view
• drop view
• alter table character set
• alter database character set
• recover table
• add primary key
• drop primary key
• rebase auto id
• alter table index visibility
• exchange partition
• reorganize partition
• alter table ttl
• alter table remove ttl

DDL replication considerations

Asynchronous execution of ADD INDEX and CREATE INDEX DDLs

When the downstream is TiDB, TiCDC executes ADD INDEX and CREATE INDEX DDL operations asynchronously to minimize the impact on changefeed replication latency. This means that, after replicating ADD INDEX and CREATE INDEX DDLs to the downstream TiDB for execution, TiCDC returns immediately without waiting for the completion of the DDL execution. This avoids blocking subsequent DML executions.

During the execution of the ADD INDEX or CREATE INDEX DDL operation in the downstream, when TiCDC executes the next DDL operation of the same table, this DDL operation might be blocked in the queueing state for a long time. This can cause TiCDC to repeatedly execute this DDL operation, and if retries take too long, it might lead to replication task failure. Starting from v8.1.2, if TiCDC has the SUPER permission of the downstream database, it periodically runs ADMIN SHOW DDL JOBS to check the status of asynchronously executed DDL tasks. TiCDC will wait for index creation to complete before proceeding with replication. Although this might increase replication latency, it avoids replication task failure.

DDL replication considerations for renaming tables

Due to the lack of some context during the replication process, TiCDC has some constraints on the replication of RENAME TABLE DDLs.

Rename a single table in a DDL statement

If a DDL statement renames a single table, TiCDC only replicates the DDL statement when the old table name matches the filter rule. The following is an example.

Assume that the configuration file of your changefeed is as follows:

[filter]
rules = ['test.t*']

TiCDC processes this type of DDL as follows:

Rename multiple tables in a DDL statement

If a DDL statement renames multiple tables, TiCDC replicates the DDL statement only when the old database name, old table names, and new database name all match the filter rule.

In addition, TiCDC does not support the RENAME TABLE DDL that swaps the table names. The following is an example.

Assume that the configuration file of your changefeed is as follows:

[filter]
rules = ['test.t*']

TiCDC processes this type of DDL as follows:

DDL statement considerations

When executing cross-database DDL statements (such as CREATE TABLE db1.t1 LIKE t2) in the upstream, it is recommended that you explicitly specify all relevant database names in DDL statements (such as CREATE TABLE db1.t1 LIKE db2.t2). Otherwise, cross-database DDL statements might not be executed correctly in the downstream due to the lack of database name information.

Notes on using event filter rules to filter DDL events

If a filtered DDL statement involves table creation or deletion, TiCDC only filters out the DDL statement without affecting the replication behavior of DML statements. The following is an example.

Assume that the configuration file of your changefeed is as follows:

[filter]
rules = ['test.t*']

matcher = ["test.t1"] # This filter rule applies only to the t1 table in the test database.
ignore-event = ["create table", "drop table", "truncate table", "rename table"]