Galera Cluster is a synchronous multi-master clustering solution for MySQL databases. It enables organizations to achieve high availability and scalability by providing active-active database clustering with real-time replication. Let’s explore its history and features:

History of Galera Cluster for MySQL:
– Galera Cluster was initially developed by a company called Codership and was released as an open-source project in 2007.
– It was built on top of MySQL and introduced the concept of synchronous replication, where data is replicated across multiple nodes in real-time, ensuring consistency and avoiding data conflicts.
– Over the years, Galera Cluster gained popularity as a reliable and robust clustering solution for MySQL databases, and it has been widely adopted in various industries.

Features of Galera Cluster for MySQL:
1. Synchronous Replication: Galera Cluster provides synchronous replication, ensuring that data changes are propagated to all nodes in the cluster in real-time. This eliminates data inconsistencies and provides high data integrity.
2. Active-Active Clustering: Galera Cluster allows all nodes in the cluster to serve read and write requests, creating an active-active database environment. This enables load balancing and improves scalability by distributing the workload across multiple nodes.
3. Automatic Data Conflict Resolution: Galera Cluster automatically resolves conflicts that may occur when simultaneous changes are made to the same data on different nodes. It uses a deterministic algorithm to determine the winning transaction and maintain data consistency.
4. Zero Data Loss: Due to its synchronous replication mechanism, Galera Cluster ensures zero data loss in the event of a node failure. All committed transactions are replicated to all nodes before being acknowledged, guaranteeing data durability.
5. Multi-Master Topology: Galera Cluster supports multi-master topology, allowing any node to accept read and write requests. This provides flexibility in database design and allows for easy scaling and distribution of the workload.
6. Transparent Failover: In the event of a node failure, Galera Cluster automatically detects the failure and redirects the client connections to other healthy nodes, ensuring uninterrupted service availability.
7. Scalability and Performance: Galera Cluster allows organizations to scale their database infrastructure horizontally by adding more nodes to the cluster. This improves performance and allows for increased capacity to handle growing workloads.
8. Easy Deployment and Management: Galera Cluster integrates seamlessly with standard MySQL distributions, making it easy to deploy and manage. It leverages familiar MySQL tools and commands, reducing the learning curve for administrators.
9. High Availability: Galera Cluster provides high availability by maintaining multiple copies of the data across different nodes. In case of a node failure, the cluster continues to operate, and the data remains accessible without interruption.
10. Active Development and Community Support: Galera Cluster is actively developed and supported by the open-source community. Regular updates, bug fixes, and feature enhancements ensure that it stays aligned with evolving customer needs and the latest MySQL versions.

Galera Cluster for MySQL is a powerful and feature-rich clustering solution that brings high availability and scalability to MySQL databases. Its synchronous replication, active-active clustering, and automatic conflict resolution make it an attractive choice for organizations seeking robust and reliable database clustering capabilities.