TiDB Sandbox

Reproducible experiments exploring TiDB ecosystem behavior, compatibility gaps, and troubleshooting patterns.

Lab Index

Data Migration (DM)

Lab	Description	Type
lab-00	Build DM Docker images from tiflow source (branch, PR, multi-PR)	Scripted
lab-01	MariaDB 10.6.13 privilege fix & workarounds	Manual
lab-02	Legacy MariaDB full-load precheck & target fixups	Manual
lab-03	Foreign keys and safe mode (short-term workaround)	Manual
lab-04	Binlog format requirements (ROW / STATEMENT / MIXED)	Scripted
lab-05	Shard merge migration (3 MySQL shards → TiDB, pessimistic mode)	Scripted
lab-06	LOCK TABLES privilege and consistency modes (vanilla MySQL vs RDS)	Scripted
lab-07	Foreign key v8.5.6 fix validation (13 scenarios, 3 PRs)	Scripted
lab-08	Column-level desensitization workarounds (source-side trigger, masking view)	Scripted
lab-09	MySQL 8.4 compatibility: full-load + incremental validation + Dumpling workaround	Scripted

Dumpling

Lab	Description	Type
lab-01	View dependencies (ordering + restore correctness)	Scripted
lab-02	Partitioned export performance (ORDER BY + composite key)	Investigation

Import Into

Lab	Description	Type
lab-01	Base64 decoding with IMPORT INTO ... SET	Manual

TiDB Lightning

Lab	Description	Type
lab-01	CREATE VIEW privilege required by Lightning conflict_view (logical + physical modes, 8 scenarios)	Manual

Sync Diff Inspector

Lab	Description	Type
lab-01	Data type validation: MySQL vs TiDB	Scripted
lab-02	TiCDC syncpoint + sync-diff-inspector validation	Scripted

TiDB

Lab	Description	Type
lab-01	SELECT ... FOR UPDATE OF: base table vs alias	Manual
lab-02	CREATE TABLE constraints and generated columns	Manual
lab-03	Vector store basics: VECTOR columns, TiFlash, HNSW indexes	Project
lab-04	FK and supporting index: MySQL 8.4 vs TiDB 8.5+	Manual
lab-05	Hibernate ORM TiDB CI	Project
lab-06	Recursive CTE fan-out: MySQL vs PostgreSQL	Manual
lab-07	VARCHAR length enforcement in non-strict SQL mode	Investigation
lab-08	SQL proxy switchover: TiProxy vs HAProxy vs ProxySQL	Scripted
lab-09	DNS failover: client behavior during endpoint resolution changes	Scripted
lab-10	Cloud DNS failover: Dedicated ↔ Essential via CoreDNS CNAME	Scripted
lab-11	Cloud proxy failover: HAProxy (L4) vs ProxySQL (L7) on EC2	Scripted
lab-13	Inline FK syntax: silent accept-and-ignore across 8 engines	Manual
lab-14	TiDB / TiKV / PD admin-endpoint binding defaults (flag inventory, bind audit, network reach)	Investigation
lab-15	TiDB cluster startup behavior with and without inter-component TLS (TLS-off vs TLS-on across bare process, multi-container deploy, and TiDB Operator; tiup playground baseline only)	Investigation

Lab Types

Type	Description	Example
Scripted	Full automation with run-all.sh	sync-diff/lab-01
Manual	Guided SQL exploration	tidb/lab-01
Project	Python/Java test harness	tidb/lab-05
Investigation	Multi-phase root-cause analysis	tidb/lab-07

Getting Started

Prerequisites: Docker, mysql client, TiUP (optional).

Pick a lab from the index. Each lab's primary .md file has a "Tested Environment" section and either a How to Run section or step-by-step instructions.

Creating a New Lab

See LAB_AUTHORING_GUIDE.md. Templates are in labs/_templates/.

License

MIT