Read Replica

Noun · Development

Definitions

  1. A read-only copy of a primary database that receives replicated writes asynchronously (or semi-synchronously), allowing read traffic to be distributed across multiple instances. Read replicas reduce load on the primary, improve read throughput, and can serve as failover candidates, though they may serve slightly stale data due to replication lag.

    In plain English: A copy of a database that only answers questions (reads) and stays updated from the main database, so the main one isn't overwhelmed.

    Example: "Analytics queries run against the read replica so they don't compete with production writes on the primary."

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