One question that surfaces regularly in the Percona forums: Does every node in a Percona XtraDB Cluster (PXC) need to have XtraBackup installed? It's a fair question, especially when managing a mixed environment or trying to minimize the software footprint on certain nodes. Here is what the actual mechanics and testing confirm.

The Short Answer (But Read On)

It depends on what you want that node to do. The nuance matters quite a bit here, so it is worth walking through how State Snapshot Transfer (SST) works in PXC and why XtraBackup's presence — or absence — on a given node is significant.

A Quick Refresher on SST in PXC

When a new node joins a Percona XtraDB Cluster, or when an existing node has been down long enough that Incremental State Transfer (IST) is no longer possible, the cluster performs a State Snapshot Transfer (SST). This is essentially a full data …

The MySQL ODBC driver is what keeps BI tools, reporting systems, and ETL pipelines connected to MySQL without errors. Teams have depended on it for years, and it’s still vital today, especially with MySQL ranked #2 worldwide in February 2026.  However, not all ODBC drivers are built alike. There are two categories: open-source options and commercial ones. While both connect applications to […]

The post ODBC Driver for MySQL: Open-Source vs Commercial (2026)  appeared first on Devart Blog.

If you’ve ever dived into MySQL configuration, you’ve probably come across the term “SQL modes.” These are powerful settings that can change how MySQL interprets SQL queries, handles data validation, and even enforces certain standards. But with great power comes great responsibility – choosing the wrong mode can lead to unexpected behaviors, data inconsistencies, or […]

As we shared in the MySQL Belgium Days in January, and summarized in the latest blog post , we are excited to invite you to an upcoming MySQL community webinar. This is an opportunity to connect directly with the MySQL team. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at 10:00 am ET and join […]

What Happened at the Summits We just wrapped up two MySQL Community Summits – one in San Francisco in January, and one in Brussels right before FOSDEM. The energy in the rooms: a lot of people who care deeply about MySQL got together, exchanged ideas, and left with a clear sense that we need to […]

Right before FOSDEM kicked off, the preFOSDEM MySQL Belgian Days returned to the usual place in Brussels for two packed days (Jan 29-30, 2026). The format stayed true to what makes this event special: a friendly, hallway-track-heavy gathering with serious technical content — this year running two parallel tracks and the grand final: the RockStars […]

The new protocol dissector for X Protocol in MySQL was just merged to the master branch in Wireshark. To get it build Wireshark from the master branch or wait for the next release.

This protocol is using Google Protobuf, which makes it much easier to work with than the regular MySQL protocol.

See also: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/dev/mysql-server/latest/page_mysqlx_protocol.html 

If you like what Wireshark does, consider donating on https://wiresharkfoundation.org/donate/ 

MySQL 8.0 is scheduled for End of Life (EOL) in April 2026. In line with this milestone, we previously announced in this Oracle blog post that all existing MySQL HeatWave instances running version 8.0 would be automatically upgraded to the latest supported 8.4 release after April 2026. However, understanding the operational realities and planning cycles […]

MySQL is taking a significant step forward by rethinking how foreign key constraints and cascades are managed. Starting with MySQL 9.6, foreign key checks and cascade operations will be handled directly by the SQL engine rather than the InnoDB storage engine. This improvement addresses long-standing challenges with change tracking, binary log replication, and data consistency, making […]

When a replica fails due to corruption or drift, the standard solution is to rebuild it from a fresh copy of the master when pt-table-sync is not an option. Traditionally, when we need to build a new replica, we use a physical backup for speed, but there are some cases where you still need logical […]