#### 17.2.2.4 Replication Channel Naming Conventions

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 This section describes how naming conventions are impacted by replication channels.

 Each replication channel has a unique name which is a string with a maximum length of 64 characters and is case-insensitive. Because channel names are used in the replica's applier metadata repository table, the character set used for these is always UTF-8. Although you are generally free to use any name for channels, the following names are reserved:

* `group_replication_applier`

* `group_replication_recovery`

 The name you choose for a replication channel also influences the file names used by a multi-source replica. The relay log files and index files for each channel are named `*`relay_log_basename`*-*`channel`*.xxxxxx`, where *`relay_log_basename`* is a base name specified using the [`relay_log`](replication-options-replica.html#sysvar_relay_log) system variable, and *`channel`* is the name of the channel logged to this file. If you do not specify the [`relay_log`](replication-options-replica.html#sysvar_relay_log) system variable, a default file name is used that also includes the name of the channel.

