Attaching a single partition to MySql on another server

[Mirek K]

Hi All,
First a bit of background. I have a huge partitioned INNODB table (daily partitions - size of 50GB each) where say only few last days need to be online/available. I would like to have the rest archived some other place on a cheap storage and to be able to restore older days on another MySql server if requested.

The general idea is that before dropping the old partitions from the primary servers I would copy them to an archive server where they would be attached to MySQL db when requested. Is there any way to do that with MySql 5.1?

Any idea how to solve this? Note that the daily data archive/restore is kind of an operational procedure which I should be eventually able to automate (based on a request via a GUI). I will need to keep the data for at least last 5 years (a tape) while the last year should be available via that procedure.

Many Thanks!
Mirek