To activate asynchronous connection failover for a replication channel set SOURCE_CONNECTION_AUTO_FAILOVER=1 in a CHANGE REPLICATION SOURCE TO statement for this channel. GTID auto-positioning must be in use for the channel (SOURCE_AUTO_POSITION = 1).

You also need to set the source list for the replication channel, to specify the sources that are available for failover. You set and manage source lists using the asynchronous_connection_failover_add_source and asynchronous_connection_failover_delete_source functions to add and remove single replication source servers. To add and remove managed groups of servers, use the asynchronous_connection_failover_add_managed and asynchronous_connection_failover_delete_managed functions instead.

The functions name the relevant replication channel and specify the host name, port number, network namespace, and weighted priority (1-100, with 100 being the highest priority) of a MySQL instance to add to or delete from the channel's source list. For a managed group, you also specify the type of managed service (currently only Group Replication is available), and the identifier of the managed group (for Group Replication, this is the value of the group_replication_group_name system variable). When you add a managed group, you only need to add one group member, and the replica automatically adds the rest from the current group membership. When you delete a managed group, you delete the entire group together.

The asynchronous connection failover mechanism also fails over the connection if another available server on the source list has a higher priority (weight) setting. This feature ensures that the replica stays connected to the most suitable source server at all times, and it applies to both managed groups and single (non-managed) servers. For a managed group, a source’s weight is assigned depending on whether it is a primary or a secondary server. So assuming that you set up the managed group to give a higher weight to a primary and a lower weight to a secondary, when the primary changes, the higher weight is assigned to the new primary, so the replica changes over the connection to it. The asynchronous connection failover mechanism additionally changes connection if the currently connected managed source server leaves the managed group, or is no longer in the majority in the managed group.

When failing over a connection, the source with the highest priority (weight) setting among the alternative sources listed in the source list for the channel is chosen for the first connection attempt. The replica checks first that it can connect to the source server, or in the case of a managed group, that the source server has ONLINE status in the group (not RECOVERING or unavailable). If the highest weighted source is not available, the replica tries with all the listed sources in descending order of weight, then starts again from the highest weighted source. If multiple sources have the same weight, the replica orders them randomly. If the replica needs to start working through the list again, it includes and retries the source to which the original connection failure occurred.

The source lists are stored in the mysql.replication_asynchronous_connection_failover and mysql.replication_asynchronous_connection_failover_managed tables, and can be viewed in the Performance Schema replication_asynchronous_connection_failover and replication_asynchronous_connection_failover_managed tables. The replica uses a monitor thread to track the membership of managed groups and update the source list (thread/sql/replica_monitor). The setting for the SOURCE_CONNECTION_AUTO_FAILOVER option of the CHANGE REPLICATION SOURCE TO statement, and the source list, are transferred to a clone of the replica during a remote cloning operation.