# xtrabackup switches for backup

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-switches-for-backup/4776>\
**Category:** Percona XtraBackup\
**Created:** [March 14, 2016, 12:42pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-switches-for-backup/4776 "2016-03-14T12:42:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![johntest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@johntest](https://forums.percona.com/u/johntest)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2016, 12:42pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-switches-for-backup/4776/1 "2016-03-14T12:42:38Z")

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Hi all,  
I am trying to make the backups as fast as possible.  
Currently I am using the following switches

innobackupex --no-lock --parallel=8 --rsync /backupdir

Using --no-lock as we were seeing lots of flush table read locks.  
What can be the highest value for --parallel switch? I would this is based on number of cores but I’ve gone upto like 200 and it still works.

Also what else can I use here to make the backup even faster?

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mirfan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/mirfan/32/16890_2.png) [@mirfan](https://forums.percona.com/u/mirfan)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 4:32am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-switches-for-backup/4776/2 "2016-03-26T04:32:20Z")

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[–no-lock](https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-xtrabackup/2.2/innobackupex/innobackupex_option_reference.html#cmdoption-innobackupex--no-lock) option disables FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK. Is all your tables are InnoDB ? Make sure when using --no-lock option you should execute any DDL during backup in progress or any updates on non-innodb tables. Did you checked “[backup locks](https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-server/5.6/management/backup_locks.html#backup-locks)” this block updates to non-transactional tables and DDL statements for all tables.  
To accelerate backups you may use compression along streaming. Check details in documentation [Accelerating the backup process](https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-xtrabackup/2.2/innobackupex/parallel_copy_ibk.html)