What is the role of MySQL Router?

MySQL Router is a proxy used to distribute database requests, helping applications communicate with MySQL databases in a more efficient and reliable manner. Its main purpose is as follows:

1. Load balancing: MySQL Router can distribute database requests to multiple backend MySQL servers to achieve load balancing. It can distribute requests to available servers based on different strategies such as round-robin, random, and weight, thus avoiding performance degradation caused by overload on a single server.
2. High availability: MySQL Router can monitor the health status of backend MySQL servers and automatically redirect requests to other available servers when a server failure is detected. This can improve the availability of the database, reducing downtime caused by a single server failure.
3. Automatic failover: MySQL Router can automatically perform failover in a master-slave replication architecture. In the event of a failure of the primary server, it can automatically redirect requests to a new primary server without the need for manual intervention.
4. Database sharding: MySQL Router can distribute data shards across different servers, improving the scalability and performance of the database. This allows for handling larger data volumes and higher concurrent requests.

In conclusion, MySQL Router can offer improved performance, availability, and scalability, helping applications better manage and access MySQL databases.