When group members have been set up to support cloning, the group_replication_clone_threshold system variable specifies a threshold, expressed as a number of transactions, for the use of a remote cloning operation in distributed recovery. If the gap between the transactions on the donor and the transactions on the joining member is larger than this number, a remote cloning operation is used for state transfer to the joining member when this is technically possible. Group Replication calculates whether the threshold has been exceeded based on the gtid_executed sets of the existing group members. Using a remote cloning operation in the event of a large transaction gap lets you add new members to the group without transferring the group's data to the server manually beforehand, and also enables a member that is very out of date to catch up more efficiently.
The default setting for the group_replication_clone_threshold Group Replication system variable is extremely high (the maximum permitted sequence number for a transaction in a GTID), so it effectively deactivates cloning wherever state transfer from the binary log is possible. To enable Group Replication to select a remote cloning operation for state transfer where this is more appropriate, set the system variable to specify a number of transactions as the transaction gap above which you want cloning to take place.
Do not use a low setting for group_replication_clone_threshold in an active group. If a number of transactions above the threshold takes place in the group while the remote cloning operation is in progress, the joining member triggers a remote cloning operation again after restarting, and could continue this indefinitely. To avoid this situation, ensure that you set the threshold to a number higher than the number of transactions that you would expect to occur in the group during the time taken for the remote cloning operation.
Group Replication attempts to execute a remote cloning operation regardless of your threshold when state transfer from a donor's binary log is impossible, for example because the transactions needed by the joining member are not available in the binary log on any existing group member. Group Replication identifies this based on the gtid_purged sets of the existing group members. You cannot use the group_replication_clone_threshold system variable to deactivate cloning when the required transactions are not available in any member's binary log files, because in that situation cloning is the only alternative to transferring data to the joining member manually.