Multiple data sources, databases, schemas and replication setup

Using multiple data sources

To use multiple data sources connected to different databases, simply create multiple DataSource instances:

import { DataSource } from "typeorm"

const db1DataSource = new DataSource({
    type: "mysql",
    host: "localhost",
    port: 3306,
    username: "root",
    password: "admin",
    database: "db1",
    entities: [__dirname + "/entity/*{.js,.ts}"],
    synchronize: true,
})

const db2DataSource = new DataSource({
    type: "mysql",
    host: "localhost",
    port: 3306,
    username: "root",
    password: "admin",
    database: "db2",
    entities: [__dirname + "/entity/*{.js,.ts}"],
    synchronize: true,
})

Using multiple databases within a single data source

To use multiple databases in a single data source, you can specify database name per-entity:

import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column } from "typeorm"

@Entity({ database: "secondDB" })
export class User {
    @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
    id: number

    @Column()
    firstName: string

    @Column()
    lastName: string
}
import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column } from "typeorm"

@Entity({ database: "thirdDB" })
export class Photo {
    @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
    id: number

    @Column()
    url: string
}

User entity will be created inside secondDB database and Photo entity inside thirdDB database. All other entities will be created in a default database defined in the data source options.

If you want to select data from a different database you only need to provide an entity:

const users = await dataSource
    .createQueryBuilder()
    .select()
    .from(User, "user")
    .addFrom(Photo, "photo")
    .andWhere("photo.userId = user.id")
    .getMany() // userId is not a foreign key since its cross-database request

This code will produce following SQL query (depend on database type):

SELECT * FROM "secondDB"."user" "user", "thirdDB"."photo" "photo"
    WHERE "photo"."userId" = "user"."id"

You can also specify a table path instead of the entity:

const users = await dataSource
    .createQueryBuilder()
    .select()
    .from("secondDB.user", "user")
    .addFrom("thirdDB.photo", "photo")
    .andWhere("photo.userId = user.id")
    .getMany() // userId is not a foreign key since its cross-database request

This feature is supported only in mysql and mssql databases.

Using multiple schemas within a single data source

To use multiple schemas in your applications, just set schema on each entity:

import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column } from "typeorm"

@Entity({ schema: "secondSchema" })
export class User {
    @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
    id: number

    @Column()
    firstName: string

    @Column()
    lastName: string
}
import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column } from "typeorm"

@Entity({ schema: "thirdSchema" })
export class Photo {
    @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
    id: number

    @Column()
    url: string
}

User entity will be created inside secondSchema schema and Photo entity inside thirdSchema schema. All other entities will be created in a default database defined in the data source options.

If you want to select data from a different schema you only need to provide an entity:

const users = await dataSource
    .createQueryBuilder()
    .select()
    .from(User, "user")
    .addFrom(Photo, "photo")
    .andWhere("photo.userId = user.id")
    .getMany() // userId is not a foreign key since its cross-database request

This code will produce following SQL query (depend on database type):

SELECT * FROM "secondSchema"."question" "question", "thirdSchema"."photo" "photo"
    WHERE "photo"."userId" = "user"."id"

You can also specify a table path instead of entity:

const users = await dataSource
    .createQueryBuilder()
    .select()
    .from("secondSchema.user", "user") // in mssql you can even specify a database: secondDB.secondSchema.user
    .addFrom("thirdSchema.photo", "photo") // in mssql you can even specify a database: thirdDB.thirdSchema.photo
    .andWhere("photo.userId = user.id")
    .getMany()

This feature is supported only in postgres and mssql databases. In mssql you can also combine schemas and databases, for example:

import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column } from "typeorm"

@Entity({ database: "secondDB", schema: "public" })
export class User {
    @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
    id: number

    @Column()
    firstName: string

    @Column()
    lastName: string
}

Replication

You can set up read/write replication using TypeORM. Example of replication options:

const datasource = new DataSource({
  type: "mysql",
  logging: true,
  replication: {
    master: {
      host: "server1",
      port: 3306,
      username: "test",
      password: "test",
      database: "test"
    },
    slaves: [
      {
        host: "server2",
        port: 3306,
        username: "test",
        password: "test",
        database: "test"
      }, {
        host: "server3",
        port: 3306,
        username: "test",
        password: "test",
        database: "test"
      }
    ]
  }
});

With replication slaves defined, TypeORM will start sending all possible queries to slaves by default.

  • all queries performed by the find methods or SelectQueryBuilder will use a random slave instance

  • all write queries performed by update, create, InsertQueryBuilder, UpdateQueryBuilder, etc will use the master instance

  • all raw queries performed by calling .query() will use the master instance

  • all schema update operations are performed using the master instance

Explicitly selecting query destinations

By default, TypeORM will send all read queries to a random read slave, and all writes to the master. This means when you first add the replication settings to your configuration, any existing read query runners that don't explicitly specify a replication mode will start going to a slave. This is good for scalability, but if some of those queries must return up to date data, then you need to explicitly pass a replication mode when you create a query runner.

If you want to explicitly use the master for read queries, pass an explicit ReplicationMode when creating your QueryRunner;

const masterQueryRunner = dataSource.createQueryRunner("master")
try {
    const postsFromMaster = await dataSource
        .createQueryBuilder(Post, "post", masterQueryRunner) // you can either pass QueryRunner as an optional argument with query builder
        .setQueryRunner(masterQueryRunner) // or use setQueryRunner which sets or overrides query builder's QueryRunner
        .getMany()
} finally {
    await masterQueryRunner.release()
}

If you want to use a slave in raw queries, pass slave as the replication mode when creating a query runner:

const slaveQueryRunner = dataSource.createQueryRunner("slave")
try {
    const userFromSlave = await slaveQueryRunner.query(
        "SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1",
        [userId],
        slaveQueryRunner,
    )
} finally {
    return slaveQueryRunner.release()
}

Note: Manually createdQueryRunner instances must be explicitly released on their own. If you don't release your query runners, they will keep a connection checked out of the pool, and prevent other queries from using it.

Adjusting the default destination for reads

If you don't want all reads to go to a slave instance by default, you can change the default read query destination by passing defaultMode: "master" in your replication options:

const datasource = new DataSource({
  type: "mysql",
  logging: true,
  replication: {
    // set the default destination for read queries as the master instance
    defaultMode: "master",
    master: {
      host: "server1",
      port: 3306,
      username: "test",
      password: "test",
      database: "test"
    },
    slaves: [
      {
        host: "server2",
        port: 3306,
        username: "test",
        password: "test",
        database: "test"
      }
    ]
  }
});

With this mode, no queries will go to the read slaves by default, and you'll have to opt-in to sending queries to read slaves with explicit .createQueryRunner("slave") calls.

If you're adding replication options to an existing app for the first time, this is a good option for ensuring no behavior changes right away, and instead you can slowly adopt read replicas on a query runner by query runner basis.

Supported drivers

Replication is supported by the MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Cockroach, Oracle, and Spanner connection drivers.

MySQL replication supports extra configuration options:

{
  replication: {
    master: {
      host: "server1",
      port: 3306,
      username: "test",
      password: "test",
      database: "test"
    },
    slaves: [{
      host: "server2",
      port: 3306,
      username: "test",
      password: "test",
      database: "test"
    }, {
      host: "server3",
      port: 3306,
      username: "test",
      password: "test",
      database: "test"
    }],

    /**
    * If true, PoolCluster will attempt to reconnect when connection fails. (Default: true)
    */
    canRetry: true,

    /**
     * If connection fails, node's errorCount increases.
     * When errorCount is greater than removeNodeErrorCount, remove a node in the PoolCluster. (Default: 5)
     */
    removeNodeErrorCount: 5,

    /**
     * If connection fails, specifies the number of milliseconds before another connection attempt will be made.
     * If set to 0, then node will be removed instead and never re-used. (Default: 0)
     */
     restoreNodeTimeout: 0,

    /**
     * Determines how slaves are selected:
     * RR: Select one alternately (Round-Robin).
     * RANDOM: Select the node by random function.
     * ORDER: Select the first node available unconditionally.
     */
    selector: "RR"
  }
}
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