I have a large amount (4000) of individual databases, 90% of which are small. They all include about 20 tables each, and in total, they use about 75GB of space. All tables are MyISAM.
I want to transfer them to a newer, more powerful server with an SSD for increased performance.
We do not need to continue using MyISAM - i.e. we're not using fulltext or anything - so whilst we could convert to InnoDB and then use Xtrabackup, the time it will actually take to convert to InnoDB concerns me.
Also, during the conversion, wouldn't the database be locked? I don't want any (or at least, less than 5-10 minutes) downtime on the master server.
I cannot use Xtrabackup because it will bring everything down while it copies as it's all MyISAM. I can't use rsync because mysqld has to be stopped during the copy. I can't convert to InnoDB and then use Xtrabackup because the time it will take to convert about 80000 tables (even if they are small) concerns me, and those tables will lock during the conversion process.
And I can't find any other solutions to get this data across! Help is hugely appreciated.