MySQL - automatic backup of a database

Last updated: 14/06/2018

Introduction

Kinamo Virtual Server (VPS) and Kinamo Cloud Server customers can use a simple shell script to dump the contents of MySQL or MariaDB databases to a chronologically ordered map.

Isn't my database backed up already?

The advantage of such an easy backup is the ease of data protection in case of a database crash and the flexibility to quickly restore an entire database, without having to ask a file level based restore by Kinamo support. Another advantage is the ease of restoring InnoDB databases in case of a system crash.
Working with a MySQL or MariaDB database dump makes a restore easier, since working with IDB files can quickly become a problem when trying to do a restore.

Kinamo offers the following script, we advise you to put the script in /usr/sbin/local.
In order not to over-complexify this post we have named it kinamo_mysqlbackup.sh.

Step 1: Copy the script

#!/bin/bash

# Basic configuration: datestamp e.g. YYYYMMDD

DATE=$(date +"%Y%m%d")

# Location of your backups (create the directory first!)

BACKUP_DIR="/backup/mysql"

# MySQL login details

MYSQL_USER="root"
MYSQL_PASSWORD="YOURSECUREPASSWORD"

# MySQL executable locations (no need to change this)

MYSQL=/usr/bin/mysql
MYSQLDUMP=/usr/bin/mysqldump

# MySQL databases you wish to skip

SKIPDATABASES="Database|information_schema|performance_schema|mysql"

# Number of days to keep the directories (older than X days will be removed)

RETENTION=14

# ---- DO NOT CHANGE BELOW THIS LINE ------------------------------------------
#
# Create a new directory into backup directory location for this date

mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR/$DATE

# Retrieve a list of all databases

databases=`$MYSQL -u$MYSQL_USER -p$MYSQL_PASSWORD -e "SHOW DATABASES;" | grep -Ev "($SKIPDATABASES)"`

# Dumb the databases in seperate names and gzip the .sql file

for db in $databases; do
echo $db
$MYSQLDUMP --force --opt --user=$MYSQL_USER -p$MYSQL_PASSWORD --skip-lock-tables --events --databases $db | gzip > "$BACKUP_DIR/$DATE/$db.sql.gz"
done

# Remove files older than X days

find $BACKUP_DIR/* -mtime +$RETENTION -delete

Copy the entire contents of the block above to a script names kinamo_mysqlbackup.sh and put it in the folder /usr/local/sbin/.

Change the constant variables as you wish (for example, your password) and make sure the folder /backup/mysql exists.

Step 2: Modify the script's rights

Give the script execution rights

chmod 755 kinamo_mysqlbackup.sh

Step 3: Create a cron job

Next thing is to set up a simple cronjob to schedule a backup every night at 1 am:

vi /etc/crontab

0 1 * * * root /usr/local/sbin/kinamo_mysqlbackup.sh

Restart the cron daemon

Save the crontab and restart the cron service with one of the following commands, depending on your Linux distro:

service cron restart
service crond restart

Every night, the script will add a backup of all your databases in the folder /backup/mysql/YYYYMMDD/<yourdatabase dump>