Xtrabackup對備份的數據文件支持“流”功能，即可以將備份的數據通過STDOUT傳輸給tar程序進行歸檔，而不是默認的直接保存至某備份目錄中。要使用此功能，僅需要使用--stream選項即可。如：
# innobackupex --stream=tar /backup | gzip > /backup/`date +%F_%H-%M-%S`.tar.gz
[root@localhost opt]# innobackupex --stream=tar --user=backup --password=pancou /hotbackup/full/|gzip > /opt/full`date +%F_%H-%M-%S`.tar.gz
... ...
170428 13:40:24 Executing UNLOCK TABLES
170428 13:40:24 All tables unlocked
170428 13:40:24 Backup created in directory '/hotbackup/full/'
MySQL binlog position: filename 'mysql-bin.000001', position '313', GTID of the last change ''
170428 13:40:24 [00] Streaming backup-my.cnf
170428 13:40:24 [00] ...done
170428 13:40:24 [00] Streaming xtrabackup_info
170428 13:40:24 [00] ...done
xtrabackup: Transaction log of lsn (21898933) to (21898933) was copied.
170428 13:40:24 completed OK!
甚至也可以使用類似如下命令將數據備份至其它服務器：
# innobackupex --stream=tar /backup | ssh [email protected] "cat - > /backups/`date +%F_%H-%M-%S`.tar"
---------------------------------使用xbstream流備份：
[root@localhost ~]# innobackupex --stream=xbstream --user=backup --password=pancou /hotbackup/full/ > /tmp/full_`date +%F_%H-%M-%S`.xbs
170510 12:08:14 innobackupex: Starting the backup operation
IMPORTANT: Please check that the backup run completes successfully.
At the end of a successful backup run innobackupex
prints "completed OK!".
.... ......
170510 12:08:18 Executing UNLOCK TABLES
170510 12:08:18 All tables unlocked
170510 12:08:18 Backup created in directory '/hotbackup/full/'
MySQL binlog position: filename 'mysql-bin.000005', position '339748', GTID of the last change '0-2-960'
170510 12:08:18 [00] Streaming backup-my.cnf
170510 12:08:18 [00] ...done
170510 12:08:18 [00] Streaming xtrabackup_info
170510 12:08:18 [00] ...done
xtrabackup: Transaction log of lsn (23216778) to (23216778) was copied.
170510 12:08:18 completed OK!
[root@localhost ~]# ls /tmp/
backup full_2017-05-10_12-08-14.xbs hsperfdata_nexus keyring-KtDQQF keyring-u5nHlu mysql percona-version-check sakila.sql
還原流歸檔
[root@localhost ~]# xbstream -xv -C /tmp/backup/ </tmp/full_2017-05-10_12-08-14.xbs
ibdata1
pancou/rpel_table.ibd
mysql/innodb_table_stats.ibd
mysql/gtid_slave_pos.ibd
....
[root@localhost ~]# ls /tmp/backup/
backup-my.cnf mysql percona sakila testdb xtrabackup_checkpoints xtrabackup_logfile
ibdata1 pancou performance_schema test xtrabackup_binlog_info xtrabackup_info
------------------------------------------使用流壓縮:
[root@localhost ~]# innobackupex --stream=xbstream --compress --user=backup --password=pancou /hotbackup/full/ > /tmp/full_`date +%F_%H-%M-%S`.xbs
170510 12:16:51 Executing UNLOCK TABLES
170510 12:16:51 All tables unlocked
170510 12:16:51 Backup created in directory '/hotbackup/full/'
MySQL binlog position: filename 'mysql-bin.000005', position '339748', GTID of the last change '0-2-960'
170510 12:16:51 [00] Compressing and streaming backup-my.cnf
170510 12:16:51 [00] ...done
170510 12:16:51 [00] Compressing and streaming xtrabackup_info
170510 12:16:51 [00] ...done
xtrabackup: Transaction log of lsn (23216778) to (23216778) was copied.
170510 12:16:51 completed OK!
[root@localhost ~]# ll -h /tmp/
total 110M
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4.0K May 10 12:09 backup
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 102M May 10 12:08 full_2017-05-10_12-08-14.xbs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.8M May 10 12:16 full_2017-05-10_12-16-48.xbs
--------------------------------------------------解壓縮
[root@localhost ~]# xbstream -xv -C /tmp/backup/ < /tmp/full_2017-05-10_12-16-48.xbs
[root@localhost ~]# ls /tmp/backup/
backup-my.cnf.qp mysql percona sakila testdb xtrabackup_checkpoints xtrabackup_logfile.qp
ibdata1.qp pancou performance_schema test xtrabackup_binlog_info.qp xtrabackup_info.qp
-----------------------------------------------遠程主機流壓縮備份
同時，innobackupex備份的數據文件也可以存儲至遠程主機，這可以使用--remote-host選項來實現：
# innobackupex [email protected] /path/IN/REMOTE/HOST/to/backup
[root@localhost ~]# innobackupex --stream=xbstream --compress --user=backup --password=pancou /hotbackup/full/ |ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no [email protected] "cat - > /tmp/full_`date +%F_%H-%M-%S`.xbs"
此外，在執行本地備份時，還可以使用--parallel選項對多個文件進行並行複製。此選項用於指定在複製時啓動的線程數目。當然，在實際進行備份時要利用此功能的便利性，也需要啓用innodb_file_per_table選項或共享的表空間通過innodb_data_file_path選項存儲在多個ibdata文件中。對某一數據庫的多個文件的複製無法利用到此功能。其簡單使用方法如下：
# innobackupex --parallel /path/to/backup