A practical guide to real-time CDC with MySQL

Change Data Capture (CDC) is a technique used to monitor and track changes in databases like MySQL in real time, facilitating seamless data integration with analytics platforms such as ClickHouse® OLAP systems. This guide details the process of setting up a real-time CDC pipeline using Confluent Cloud and Tinybird. MySQL's Binary Log (binlog) serves as the backbone for CDC, capturing data changes that are then streamed to Tinybird through a Kafka topic managed by Confluent's MySQL CDC Connector, which is based on Debezium. Tinybird processes these change streams, enabling real-time SQL-based analytics and providing accessible API endpoints. The setup involves several steps, including configuring the MySQL server, establishing connections with Confluent Cloud, and setting up Tinybird as a destination for these streams. Deduplication strategies are crucial to maintain data integrity, as CDC streams can produce duplicate events. Tinybird's platform facilitates the creation of real-time APIs and analytics over these change streams, offering a scalable solution for real-time data processing. The guide also notes the applicability of CDC to other databases like MongoDB and PostgreSQL, highlighting Tinybird's capability to support diverse data systems.