5.1.4 Table-Level Recovery (TLR)

Table-Level Recovery (TLR) allows selected tables (or schemas) to be restored from a backup (be it a full backup, a partial backup, or a backup created using transportable tablespaces (TTS)) using the --include-tables and --exclude-tables options. The feature is also known as partial restore in this manual. Here are some general requirements for performing a TLR or partial restore:

The destination server must be running.
The required parameters for connecting to the server (port number, socket name, etc.) are provided as command-line options for mysqlbackup, or are specified in the [client] section of a defaults file.
The destination server must be using the same page size that was used on the server on which the backup was made.
The innodb_file_per_table option must be enabled on the destination server.
For non-TTS backups: The tables being restored must already exist on the destination server, in the same table definition.
For TTS backups: The tables being restored must not already exist on the destination server.
While it is not necessary to specify the --datadir option when partially restoring a backup, if the option is specified, its value must match that of the target server, or the restore operation will fail .

Here are some limitations for a TLR or partial restore:

Individual partitions cannot be selectively restored. Tables selected by the --include-tables and --exclude-tables options are always restored in full.
Partial restores cannot be performed with incremental backups.
Binary, relay, and undo logs are not restored.
For non-TTS backups only, these additional limitations apply:
- After partial restores, tables could contain changes from uncommitted transactions.
- The auto-increment values of the restored tables for a partial restore might not be the same as they were at the end of the backup process.
- Encrypted InnoDB tables cannot be included in a partial restore.

The following command restores the table cats in the pets schema from the backup:

Example 5.7 Restoring A Selected Table from an Image Backup

mysqlbackup --socket=/tmp/restoreserver.sock --include-tables="^pets\.cats" --backup-dir=/dba/backuptmp \
 --backup-image=/dba/my.mbi copy-back-and-apply-log

The following command restores all tables in the “sales” database from the backup, but excludes the table with the name “hardware” :

Example 5.8 Restoring Selected Tables in a Schema from an Image Backup

mysqlbackup --socket=/tmp/restoreserver.sock --include-tables="^sales\." \ 
  --exclude-tables="^sales\.hardware$" --backup-dir=/dba/backuptmp --backup-image=/dba/my.mbi \
  copy-back-and-apply-log

Also see Section 5.1.5, “Restoring Backups Created with the --use-tts Option” for additional information on partial restores using TTS backups.