An instance cannot be cloned from a different MySQL server series. For example, you cannot clone between MySQL 8.0 and MySQL 8.4, or MySQL 8.4 and MySQL 9.7, but can clone within a series such as MySQL 9.7.0 and MySQL 9.7.5.

A MySQL 9.7 instance can only be cloned to a higher, consecutive MySQL server series. For example, you can clone to the LTS version MySQL 10.7, assuming 10.7 is the consecutive LTS version.

It is not possible to clone to a lower LTS version. For example, 9.7 to 8.4.

A MySQL 9.7 instance cannot be cloned to a higher, non-consecutive MySQL server series. For example, you cannot clone between MySQL 9.7 and MySQL 11.7, assuming 11.7 is a later, non-consecutive LTS version.

Only a single MySQL instance can be cloned at a time. Cloning multiple MySQL instances in a single cloning operation is not supported.

The X Protocol port specified by mysqlx_port is not supported for remote cloning operations (when specifying the port number of the donor MySQL server instance in a CLONE INSTANCE statement).

The clone plugin does not support cloning of MySQL server configurations. The recipient MySQL server instance retains its configuration, including persisted system variable settings (see Section 7.1.9.3, “Persisted System Variables”.)

The clone plugin does not support cloning of binary logs.

The clone plugin only clones data stored in InnoDB. Other storage engine data is not cloned. MyISAM and CSV tables stored in any schema including the sys schema are cloned as empty tables.

Connecting to the donor MySQL server instance through MySQL Router is not supported.

Local cloning operations do not support cloning of general tablespaces that were created with an absolute path. A cloned tablespace file with the same path as the source tablespace file would cause a conflict.