Unfortunately, it is not possible to do either one. Once you create `/dev/drbd0` on both DB Servers, you have to mount the DRBD Primary on a folder. That folder cannot have anything with active file handles. The protocol I use is: drbdadm primary drbd0 mount /dev/drbd0 /var/lib/mysql service mysql start You want DRBD to house MySQL Data. Here is what you must do instead service mysql stop mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql_old mkdir /var/lib/mysql chown mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql drbdadm primary drbd0 mount /dev/drbd0 /var/lib/mysql cp -R /var/lib/mysql_old /var/lib/mysql chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql service mysql start As shown, stopping mysqld is mandatory.