Understanding database replication and data protection concepts

From the perspective of the Linux system administrator, nothing is going to be as important as database protection which includes, just as it does with systems in general, both disaster avoidance and disaster recovery. Because databases are so critical, and because they are so common, and additionally because their needs are so different from what we typically encounter otherwise in our systems, we are breaking them out here so that we can tackle the nearly unique needs of the database world with respect to data protection.

Because databases store structured data, they come with all of the challenges to protect what we face with heavily used storage systems, which they effectively are. Because databases are highly stateful we must be very careful that we do not break state when looking at data protection.

What does all of this mean in the simplest of terms? Basically, databases are all about storing data and to do...