Document importing partitioned tables for 5.6

[Alexey Kopytov]

XtraBackup allows partial backups of either individual partitions or entire partitioned tables, i.e. including all (sub)partitions of specific partitioned tables into a partial backup.

The problem with server versions up to 5.5 is that there is no server support to import either individual partitions or all partitions of a partitioned table, so partitions could only be imported as independent tables. In MySQL / PS 5.6 it is possible to exchange individual partitions with independent tables through ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/partitioning-management-exchange.html

Which means the recipe described at http://www.percona.com/doc/percona-xtrabackup/howtos/recipes_ibkx_partition.html can be amended for 5.6 to include an extra step after importing partition(s) as independent tables to swap them with existing partitions and thus, import as partitions rather than tables, if desired. That is:

1. When importing an entire partitioned table, first import all (sub)partitions as independent tables. Then create an empty partitioned table with exactly the same schema as the table being imported. Then swap empty partitions from the newly created table with individual tables corresponding to partitions that have been exported/imported on the previous steps.

2. When importing individual partitions, use an existing partitioned table and then swap partitions with individual tables.

[Shahriyar Rzayev (rzayev-sehriyar)]

Percona now uses JIRA for bug reports so this bug report is migrated to: https://jira.percona.com/browse/PXB-631