# Preparing xtrabackup data

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/preparing-xtrabackup-data/23048>\
**Category:** Percona XtraBackup\
**Created:** [June 22, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/preparing-xtrabackup-data/23048 "2023-06-22T16:58:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ahmadzadaa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/ahmadzadaa/32/10433_2.png) [@ahmadzadaa](https://forums.percona.com/u/ahmadzadaa)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/preparing-xtrabackup-data/23048/1 "2023-06-22T16:58:31Z")

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While I check [this](https://docs.percona.com/percona-xtrabackup/8.0/howtos/setting_up_replication.html#1-make-a-backup-on-the-source-and-prepare-it:~:text=on%20the%20source%3A-,%24,-xtrabackup%20%2D%2Duser%3D) xtrabackup blog section I see it uses --user and --password along with --prepare, because I this I was always thinking that --prepare is something needs user/password and backed up database to be running. But While I check other resources in the internet (like [this](https://docs.percona.com/percona-xtrabackup/2.4/backup_scenarios/full_backup.html#preparing-a-backup:~:text=%24%20xtrabackup%20%2D%2Dprepare%20%2D%2Dtarget%2Ddir%3D/data/backups/)) they don’t use username/password. So does --prepare really needs to be done on source side, with username/password and access to backedup mysql if we gonna use backup for mysql replication setup?

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**Author:** ![Marcelo\_Altmann](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/marcelo_altmann/32/11299_2.png) [@Marcelo\_Altmann](https://forums.percona.com/u/Marcelo_Altmann)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 5:27pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/preparing-xtrabackup-data/23048/2 "2023-06-22T17:27:20Z")

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Hi @ahmadzadaa

Thanks for your question. --prepare is done totally offline and --user/–password are not required. I will ask the documentation team to fix the link you mentioned.