Prevent non-replication writes to MySQL slave?

Solution 1:

Enable the read-only option in my.cnf. It can also be specified as a flag on the command line using --read-only with mysqld.

Solution 2:

As an alternative to setting read_only=1 (e.g. when there are other scratchpad/reporting/development databases on the slave instance), I sometimes strip all privileges other than SELECT from all users to the DB that I am replicating.

That is, after running the GRANT command on the master, I run the REVOKE command on the slave.


Solution 3:

As of MySQL 5.7.8, there is now a super_read_only option, which prevents even SUPER users from performing client updates. It does not disrupt the replication process. As with other settings, it can be set:

  • in command line format (--super_read_only=ON),
  • as a variable in my.cnf (super_read_only=1), or
  • from the client prompt (SET GLOBAL super_read_only = 1;).

Note that:

  • Enabling super_read_only implicitly enables read_only
  • Disabling read_only implicitly disables super_read_only

Some caveats:

  • Neither read_only nor super_read_only will prevent operations on temporary tables.
  • They will not prevent metadata operations like ANALYZE TABLE and OPTIMIZE TABLE.
  • Bugs for certain queries with super_read_only enabled have been reported.

Reference: https://www.percona.com/blog/2016/09/27/using-the-super_read_only-system-variable/