# Failed to connect error when trying to backup XtraDB Cluster Node

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/failed-to-connect-error-when-trying-to-backup-xtradb-cluster-node/40487>\
**Category:** Percona XtraBackup\
**Created:** [March 31, 2026, 12:41am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/failed-to-connect-error-when-trying-to-backup-xtradb-cluster-node/40487 "2026-03-31T00:41:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bhuang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@bhuang](https://forums.percona.com/u/bhuang)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2026, 12:41am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/failed-to-connect-error-when-trying-to-backup-xtradb-cluster-node/40487/1 "2026-03-31T00:41:37Z")

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Hi all,

I’m doing some testing with a Percona XtraDB Cluster and I am attempting to use XtraBackup to create a backup of one of the nodes. The XtraDB Cluster is running on a Docker Swarm and I am following the [documentation](https://docs.percona.com/percona-xtrabackup/8.4/docker.html#3-create-a-docker-container-from-percona-xtrabackup-image) to run XtraBackup on Docker. I made sure to run the XtraBackup container on the same host as the cluster node I am trying to back up.

Docker create command:

```auto
sudo docker create --name percona-xtrabackup --volumes-from db_pxc1.1.ylosyqc7kjeqzwm32ieif6qs3 percona/percona-xtrabackup xtrabackup --backup --datadir=/var/lib/mysql/ --target-dir=/backup --user=root --password=password

```

Error when running container:

```auto
$ sudo docker start -ai percona-xtrabackup
2026-03-31T00:27:36.993435-00:00 0 [Note] [MY-011825] [Xtrabackup] recognized server arguments: --datadir=/var/lib/mysql/
2026-03-31T00:27:36.993516-00:00 0 [Note] [MY-011825] [Xtrabackup] recognized client arguments: --backup=1 --target-dir=/backup --user=root --password=*
xtrabackup version 8.0.35-35 based on MySQL server 8.0.35 Linux (x86_64) (revision id: be447639)
2026-03-31T00:27:36.995772-00:00 0 [Note] [MY-011825] [Xtrabackup] perl binary not found. Skipping the version check
2026-03-31T00:27:36.995801-00:00 0 [Note] [MY-011825] [Xtrabackup] Connecting to MySQL server host: localhost, user: root, password: set, port: not set, socket: not set
2026-03-31T00:27:36.995856-00:00 0 [ERROR] [MY-011825] [Xtrabackup] Failed to connect to MySQL server: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)

```

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yunus.uyanik](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/yunus.uyanik/32/19250_2.png) [@yunus.uyanik](https://forums.percona.com/u/yunus.uyanik)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2026, 7:07am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/failed-to-connect-error-when-trying-to-backup-xtradb-cluster-node/40487/2 "2026-03-31T07:07:49Z")

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Hey,

Did you try specifying `--host` parameter? Or should you use a socket file.

Let us know how it goes.