Delayed replication allows specifying that a replication slave should lag behind the master by (at least) a specified amount of time (specified in seconds). Before executing an event, the slave will first wait, if necessary, until the given time has passed since the event was created on the master. The result is that the slave will reflect the state of the master some time back in the past.

The default is zero, no delay.

Delayed replication is enabled using the MASTER_DELAY option to CHANGE MASTER:

  CHANGE MASTER TO master_delay=3600;

A zero delay disables delayed replication. The slave must be stopped when changing the delay value.

Three fields in SHOW SLAVE STATUS are associated with delayed replication:

1. SQL_Delay: This is the value specified by MASTER_DELAY in CHANGE MASTER (or 0 if none).
2. SQL_Remaining_Delay. When the slave is delaying the execution of an event due to MASTER_DELAY, this is the number of seconds of delay remaining before the event will be applied. Otherwise, the value is NULL.
3. Slave_SQL_Running_State. This shows the state of the SQL driver threads, same as in SHOW PROCESSLIST. When the slave is delaying the execution of an event due to MASTER_DELAY, this fields displays: "Waiting until MASTER_DELAY seconds after master executed event".