Using pt-online-schema or gh-ost? Of course you are; everyone in the MySQL industry does. But now there’s a new online schema change tool that will obsolete these two: Spirit by renowned MySQL expert Morgan Tocker.

But first, why Spirit? Why a new online schema change (OSC) tool? Size and speed: pt-online-schema (pt-osc) and gh-ost can alter a 1 TB table in reasonable time: maybe a week or so depending on the server. But a 2 TB table? You could be waiting quite awhile.

In 2023 and beyond, that’s no longer reasonable. The MySQL industry needs an OSC tool capable of far greater size and speed. I want an OSC tool that can handle 10 TB in 5 days.

Neither pt-osc nor gh-ost can do that—not even close! Here’s what the difference looks like (drawn to scale):

I want significantly more runway from an OSC tool. Although 10 TB was my challenge, we engineer conservatively so that 15 TB is feasible, too.

Spirit meets and exceeds the challenge: we’ve seen it alter 10 TB in 3.75 days (90 hours).

Morgan Tocker wrote and released Spirit on October 23, 2023 as free open source software built for the MySQL industry. Read his two-part release announcement for more details.

Spirit is a new online schema change tool that, I expect, will serve the MySQL industry for the next 10 years. As the original author of pt-online-schema-change (which has served the industry for the last 12 years), I encourage you to put pt-osc to rest and use (and contribute to) Spirit instead.

Source: https://hackmysql.com/future-of-mysql-schema-change-spirit/
Copyright 2025 Daniel Nichter