# InnoDB backup - using per-table tablespaces

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/innodb-backup-using-per-table-tablespaces/198>\
**Category:** Other MySQL® Questions\
**Created:** [February 9, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/innodb-backup-using-per-table-tablespaces/198 "2007-02-09T17:10:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@sean](https://forums.percona.com/u/sean)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/innodb-backup-using-per-table-tablespaces/198/1 "2007-02-09T17:10:04Z")

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Hi, I have a quesiton about the binary backup process of InnoDB using per-table tablespaces. It’s very common for us to move binary files between servers in a pool and this is very easy with MyISAM tables. (We typically move one table because we’ve added an index). However is this the same process for InnoDB?

I am aware from the docs that:  
“1. stop the server  
2. make sure it was a clean shutdown  
3. make a copy of the following:  
A. .frm  
B. .ibd (includes shared and per-table tablespaces)  
C. log files  
D. config files”

But again, the question is, if i’m moving just one table (table.frm and table.ibd), do I need to copy the shared tablespace?

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**Author:** ![Victoria](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ea5d25/32.png) [@Victoria](https://forums.percona.com/u/Victoria)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 1:24pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/innodb-backup-using-per-table-tablespaces/198/2 "2007-02-17T13:24:39Z")

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InnoDB stores table definition in shared tablespace so you can not freely move .idb files like you can do with MyISAM tables.

It is possible though with ALTER TABLE … DISCARD/IMPORT TABLESPACE like described at:  
[http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/multiple-tablespaces](http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/multiple-tablespaces). html

So if you have ‘clean’ table.ibd file you can:

- create table `table` with the same structure
- ALTER TABLE … DISCARD TABLESPACE
- copy table.ibd file to database dir
- ALTER TABLE … IMPORT TABLESPACE