# Spider Functions

- [SPIDER\_BG\_DIRECT\_SQL](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/spider/spider-functions/spider_bg_direct_sql.md): This UDF allows you to execute SQL statements on remote data nodes in the background, enabling concurrent processing and non-blocking operations.
- [SPIDER\_COPY\_TABLES](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/spider/spider-functions/spider_copy_tables.md): Learn how to use this function to copy table data from one Spider link ID to another, useful for migrating data or rebalancing shards without stopping the service.
- [SPIDER\_DIRECT\_SQL](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/spider/spider-functions/spider_direct_sql.md): This function executes an SQL string directly on a specified remote backend server, allowing for maintenance tasks or queries that bypass local parsing.
- [SPIDER\_FLUSH\_TABLE\_MON\_CACHE](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/spider/spider-functions/spider_flush_table_mon_cache.md): Use this UDF to refresh the cache used by Spider's monitoring threads, ensuring that the status of remote tables and connections is up to date.


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