TiDB Dual-Region Backup: Cost-Effective Cross-Region Disaster Recovery

Data is the most important asset for modern organizations. Effective and reliable disaster recovery solutions, such as dual-region backup, are essential for businesses to safeguard against unpredictable disasters. However, traditional methods of maintaining data centers in various regions can be intimidatingly expensive and often impractical, especially for small and medium-sized companies. 

TiDB Dedicated, a fully-managed cloud DBaaS, steps in as a practical solution. Specifically, the dual-region backup feature (Beta) of TiDB Dedicated provides a resilient and cost-effective solution for disaster recovery. 

In this post, we’ll dive deep into this new capability, with hands-on instructions to get you started quickly.

Why Do You Need Dual-Region Backup?

As the name suggests, dual-region backup allows automatic backups to a specified region. By slightly adjusting Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), this feature approaches disaster recovery with balanced cost-effectiveness and functionality. Tailor-made for cost-sensitive customers, this feature ensures robust disaster recovery solutions are within reach for a diverse user base.

Key benefits include:

• Cost-effective disaster recovery: Ideal for customers seeking an economical cross-region disaster recovery solution. By copying TiDB database backups to a different region, this capability provides an extra layer of data protection and enhances disaster recovery capabilities.
• Compliance with geographical storage requirements: This feature meets the needs of customers who need to store backups in different geographical locations from their primary operation base; adhering to compliance mandates.
• Data migration convenience: Dual-region backup offers a straightforward solution for those looking to migrate data from one region to another, facilitating easy data transfer.

In summary, TiDB Dedicated’s dual-region backup simplifies the task of replicating backups across multiple geographic regions within your primary cloud provider. 

Flexible Cluster Restoration with Dual-Region Backup

TiDB Dedicated’s dual-region backup capability empowers you with versatile options for restoring your cluster, ensuring you control the recovery process. The restoration options available cater to different scenarios:

• Local region restore: This is the go-to choice for the fastest possible recovery. It involves restoring from backups located in the same region as your restoring cluster. The advantage of this method is the speed of recovery, as data retrieval is local, ensuring minimal downtime. When you enable dual- region backup, you can set up a new cluster from backups in a secondary region with lower cost and faster speed.
• Cross-region restore: Cross-region restore allows you to restore your cluster from backups stored in a different region. This option is handy in scenarios like a regional disruption. For example, if the us-east-1 region faces a partial infrastructure failure, leaving your cluster offline. With cross-region restore, you can swiftly set up a new cluster in a different region, such as us-west-2, to ensure uninterrupted access to your data. While this could be helpful in emergencies, it’s advisable to incorporate this feature into a broader strategy, such as dual-region backup, to achieve a more robust approach to disaster recovery.

Enabling Dual-Region Backup

Configuring dual-region backup in TiDB Dedicated is straightforward. Follow these steps to enable this capability:

1. Access backup settings: Begin by navigating to the backup settings of your cluster.
2. Enable dual-region backup: Find and activate the toggle for Dual-Region Backup.
3. Select a secondary region: Choose an appropriate secondary region within your primary cloud provider. This will be the destination for backup replication.
4. Automatic replication: Once set up, your backups will automatically replicate to the chosen secondary region, eliminating the need for manual intervention.

Note: Before enabling this capability, ensure that the selected secondary region complies with your organization’s data security policies. This step is crucial for maintaining the integrity and security of your data.

Get Started Now

Whether you’re aiming for rapid local region restoration or preparing for unforeseen regional outages, TiDB Dedicated’s dual-region backup provides a dependable and flexible solution with cost efficiency. With this feature, you’re equipped to face the challenges of data protection in today’s dynamic and demanding business environment.

Explore this new capability in TiDB Dedicated and take a significant step towards fortifying your organization’s data security and disaster recovery capabilities.