Back Up and Restore TiDB Cloud Serverless Data

This document describes how to back up and restore your TiDB Cloud Serverless cluster data on TiDB Cloud.

Automatic backups

TiDB Cloud Serverless automatically backs up your cluster data, allowing you to restore data from a backup snapshot to minimize data loss in the event of a disaster.

Learn about the backup setting

Automatic backup settings vary between free clusters and scalable clusters, as shown in the following table:

• Backup Cycle is the frequency at which backups are taken.

• Backup Retention is the duration for which backups are retained. Expired backups cannot be restored.

• Backup Time is the time when the backup starts to be scheduled. Note that the final backup time might fall behind the configured backup time.

  • Free clusters: the backup time is a randomly fixed time.
  • Scalable clusters: you can configure the backup time to every half an hour. The default value is a randomly fixed time.

Configure the backup setting

To set the backup time for a scalable cluster, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the Backup page of a TiDB Cloud Serverless cluster.

2. Click Backup Settings. This will open the Backup Settings window, where you can configure the automatic backup settings according to your requirements.

3. In Backup Time, schedule a start time for the daily cluster backup.

4. Click Confirm.

Restore

TiDB Cloud Serverless clusters offer restore functionality to help recover data in case of accidental loss or corruption.

Restore mode

TiDB Cloud Serverless supports snapshot restore and point-in-time restore for your cluster.

• Snapshot Restore: restores your cluster from a specific backup snapshot.

• Point-in-Time Restore (beta): restores your cluster to a specific time.

  • Free clusters: not supported.
  • Scalable clusters: restores to any time within the last 14 days, but not before the cluster creation time or after the current time minus one minute.

Restore destination

TiDB Cloud Serverless supports restoring in-place and restoring to a new cluster.

In-place restore

Restore to the current cluster will overwrite existing data. Note the following:

• Existing connections will be terminated once the restore is started.
• The cluster will be unavailable, and new connections will be blocked during the restore process.
• Restore will affect tables in the mysql schema. Any changes to user credentials, permissions, or system variables will be reverted to their state at the backup time.

Restore to a new cluster

Create and restore to the new cluster. Note the following:

• User credentials and permissions from the source cluster will not be restored to the new cluster.

Perform the restore

To restore your TiDB Cloud Serverless cluster, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Backup page of a cluster.

2. Click Restore. The setting window displays.

3. In Restore Mode, you can choose to restore from a specific backup or any point in time.

   • Snapshot Restore
   • Point-in-Time Restore

   To restore from a selected backup snapshot, take the following steps:

   1. Click Snapshot Restore.
   2. Select the backup snapshot you want to restore from.

   To restore to a specific point in time for a scalable cluster, take the following steps:

   1. Click Point-in-Time Restore.
   2. Select the date and time you want to restore to.

4. In Destination, you can choose to restore to a new cluster or restore in-place.

   • Restore to a new cluster
   • Restore in-place

   To restore to a new cluster, take the following steps:

   1. Click Restore to a New Cluster.
   2. Enter a name for the new cluster.
   3. Choose the cluster plan for the new cluster.
   4. If you choose a scalable cluster, set a monthly spending limit, and then configure advanced settings as needed. Otherwise, skip this step.

   To restore in-place, click In-place Restore.

5. Click Restore to begin the restore process.

Once the restore process begins, the cluster status changes to Restoring. The cluster will remain unavailable until the restore is complete and the status changes to Available.

Limitations

• If a TiFlash replica is enabled, it will be unavailable for a period after the restore, because data needs to be rebuilt in TiFlash.
• Manual backups are not supported for TiDB Cloud Serverless clusters.