1. Operation Type: Galera Cluster is a synchronous multi-master clustering solution for MySQL, while Liquibase is a database schema migration tool for tracking, managing, and applying database changes.
2. Functionality: Galera Cluster focuses on providing high availability by replicating data across multiple nodes in real-time, ensuring data consistency and fault tolerance, whereas Liquibase is designed to manage database schema changes and versioning, allowing developers to track, apply, and roll back database changes in a controlled manner.
3. Data Replication: In Galera Cluster, data replication occurs synchronously between all nodes in the cluster, ensuring that each node has the same data at any given time, while Liquibase does not handle data replication, focusing solely on managing schema changes and migrations.
4. Cluster Management: Galera Cluster requires a specific configuration and setup to establish a well-functioning cluster, including node synchronization, quorum requirements, and conflict resolution mechanisms, whereas Liquibase does not involve cluster management and is primarily focused on database schema changes.
5. Performance Impact: Implementing Galera Cluster can introduce overhead due to synchronous replication and consensus-building processes, potentially impacting write performance, while Liquibase, being a schema migration tool, does not directly impact database performance but can influence application deployment times.
6. Use Case: Galera Cluster is suitable for scenarios requiring high availability, real-time data synchronization, and automatic failover in MySQL databases, while Liquibase is preferred for managing and automating database schema changes in development, testing, and production environments.

In Summary, the key differences between Galera Cluster and Liquibase lie in their operation type, functionality, data replication approach, cluster management requirements, performance impact, and specific use cases.