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We think about moving from a master-slaves to mongodb with replica-set. Now I wonder if mongodb replicas are also set up like read-only slaves or if each mongos is able to write and sync the others like a master-master farm?

This might reduce the single source of error (master down) and also balance the write-load for scaling with best performance (not only for read, but also write...).

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A replica set can only have one primary at any particular time (one master) with the other nodes being secondaries (slaves) and so they are nothing like master-master (i.e. multi-master) replication.

You definitely should move to a replica set from master/slave configuration because that is the preferred and recommended way to replicate. From MongoDB docs: "replica sets are a functional superset of master/slave, and newer, more robust code".

When a primary fails, one of the secondaries will be automatically elected as a new primary (you can see the docs to see the details of how that happens).

You cannot get write balancing from having a replica set - you can only distribute writes by sharding in MongoDB.

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If i understand this correctly, it is only writing with one of the servers within the replica-set, but i do not have to care which one is the master? mongodb master-slaves do manage and failover or sync themselves, really possible? how inconvenient was mysql... – ledy Jun 21 '12 at 6:53
correct, the drivers keep track of which is primary and send writes to that one (and reads unless you specify slaveOk for the read). And automatic failover happens as long as the majority of the replica set is up. – Asya Kamsky Jun 21 '12 at 12:13
Trying the master slave replication by editing the config seems to work. But how can it automatically failover the master with the "hard-coded", strictly defined master=true/false in the config file on each mongos? – ledy Jun 21 '12 at 14:51
You need to use proper replica set configuration, not master/slave. See this page mongodb.org/display/DOCS/… – Asya Kamsky Jun 21 '12 at 22:58
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It pretty much like "write and sync the others like a master-master farm". as MongoDB docs said "Replica sets are a form of asynchronous master/slave replication, adding automatic failover and automatic recovery of member nodes." Please check http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Replica+Sets

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