MySQL Backup Tricks And Tips

Tutorials & Methods
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1- All Databases

You need SSH access and possible Super User Privileges to run this commands.

mysqldump --all-databases | gzip > /path/backups/backup_$(date "+%b-%d-%Y-%H-%M-%S").sql.gz

mysqldump : utility to dump mysql database

-u specifies the user with mysql privileges with DB privileges… In this tutorial, I am using root user

-p specifies the password flag needed by the user.

-h flag specifies the host you are connecting to… You can simply ignore this if its localhost but if it’s a remote IP, you need to specify the IP address…

gzip : Utility to compress the .sql file after dump file is created.

date : $(date “+%b-%d-%Y-%H-%M-%S”) by adding this you are giving a date and time to your backups…

Single Databases"

If you’re just trying to backup a simple database you can run this command

mysqldump -h localhost -u root -ppassword dbname | gzip > /path/backups/backup_$(date "+%b-%d-%Y-%H-%M-%S").sql.gz

2 - To export the data to a remote host. I advice using rsync for this.

Eg. command to transfer the backup to a backup server…

Code:

rsync -av --progress /your/local/backup/directory/backup_$(date "+%b-%d-%Y-%H-%M-%S") .sql.gz [email protected]:/home/backups

rsync -av --progress /your/local/backup/directory/backup_$(date "+%b-%d-%Y-%H-%M-%S") .sql.gz

rsync – tool to transfer files

-v flag needed to view the output of rsync

–progress flag to see the progress of the transfer

/your/local/backup/directory path to your backup directory

backup_$(date “+%b-%d-%Y-%H-%M-%S”) .sql.gz this will be your backup file if you used the backup eg.in my first post.

[email protected]:/home/backups

root the user that has access to the remote server receiving the backup, in my case it;s root, you can change this accordingly.

@remote.ip.address.here the remote location or IP address eg. @45.36.324.23

: add this if the remote is using default SSH ports…

/home/backups this is the drectory you want the backup to be stored into

3 - Fast data import trick

$ mysqldump -h localhost -u root -p --extended-insert --quick --no-create-info mydb mytable | gzip > mytable.sql.gz

A bit more about this line:

  • --extended-insert: it makes sure that it is not one INSERT per line, meaning a single statement can have dozens of rows.
  • --quick: useful when dumping large tables, by default MySQL reads the whole table in memory then dumps into a file, that way the data is streamed without consuming much memory.
  • --no-create-info : this means only the data is being exported, no CREATE TABLE statements will be added

To do the import do this:

Disable foreign key checks when importing batch data in MySQL

SET foreign_key_checks = 0;
/* do you stuff REALLY CAREFULLY */
SET foreign_key_checks = 1;

Add SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0; to the beginning of your sql file

or

  1. cat <(echo "SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;") data.sql | mysql

or

  1. mysql --init-command="SET SESSION FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;"

You don’t need to run SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1 after as it is reset automatically after the session ends

Checkout Google if you are interested in backing up to their Cloud Service

ENJOY & HAPPY LEARNING! :blush:

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