Backup all your MySQL databases with one line of cron
le Samedi 29 mai 2004 à 00:28 par MattAs I’ve lost some data in my MySQL database recently, I’ve decided to make backups more regularly and I’ve been playing with Cron in Cpanel in order to set up automatic backups of all my databases. Here’s a short how-to which might help some people out :
- Go to Cpanel > Cron Jobs
- Select between Standard or Advanced, that’s up to you !
- In the command field, type this :
date=`date -I` ; mysqldump -uyourusername -pyourpassword ––all-databases > /home/LOGIN/public_html/backups/xbackup_$date.sql ; gzip /home/LOGIN/public_html/backups/xbackup_$date.sql - Now let’s see what this all means : the date line formats the date so that we can append it to our backup filename. We then ask mysql to dump all databases into /home/LOGIN/public_html/backups/xbackup_$date.sql, where LOGIN is your Cpanel name, using “yourusername” as user (-u) and “yourpassword” as the password (-p). Notice the date variable inserted in the filename. Finally our SQL file is gzipped using the gzip directive.
- You now have to set your backup frequency. And relax !
Note :
- I’ve created a user “backup” with all privileges in Cpanel > MySQL databases and associated him with all my databases so that I can backup everything in one single file with just one line of cron.
- Protect your backup directory so that people cannot download the whole of you SQL data. You can enable directory protection with Cpanel > Password protect directories > *select your backup directory* > *check the box and enter a username/password* > *validate*.
That’s it ! Have fun, you should never have to worry about your databases’ backups again ;-)
Lien permanent
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le 8 octobre 2004 à 19:02 [ Citer ]
It’s working better. Except I get “date : invalid option — I
BusyBox v0.60.5 (2003.01.24-22:44+0000) multi-call binary
Usage : date [OPTION]… [+FORMAT]” Let me check the manual for MySQL. I might figure it out.
le 8 octobre 2004 à 19:59 [ Citer ]
I don’t think that -I is an option on my Redhat linux box.
I’ve got the file created now. The file isn’t named by date though.
Thanks for your help.
le 8 octobre 2004 à 22:49 [ Citer ]
Stephen,
Just found this page on shell scripting and date formatting. I have no idea if it will run on your box but it may be worth trying ;-)
Matt
le 20 décembre 2004 à 6:11 [ Citer ]
How would I get the minutes and seconds in the above date formula ?
le 21 décembre 2004 à 0:33 [ Citer ]
Hi Mike,
Mike,
According to the Unix date manual, this should be something like : date %D %M %S (date formatted mm/dd/yy with minutes and seconds).
Not tested but should be along these lines :-)
-Matt
le 25 septembre 2005 à 4:48 [ Citer ]
Hi there,
Been trying to add backup TIME to :
date=`date -I` ; mysqldump -uyourusername -pyourpassword –all-databases >/home/LOGIN/public_html/backups/xbackup_$date.sql ; gzip /home/LOGIN/public_html/backups/xbackup_$date.sql
for multiple backups in one day for eg : Wordpress.
Any ideas please ?
Thank you.
le 27 octobre 2005 à 22:31 [ Citer ]
Matt, you friggin genius ! This is exactly what i needed. Thanks a lot =) Here is the mysqldump syntax reference :
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/mysqldump.html
This is how my working version of my cron script looks :
date=`date -I` ; mysqldump -u my_username -pmyPassword my_databaseName >/home/myAccountUserName/public_html/dbbackup_$date.sql ;
gzip /home/myAccountUserName/public_html/dbbackup_$date.sql
Note the space between -u and the username.
My webhost uses cpanel so my_username and my_databaseName can easily be found in the MySQL Databases section of the cpanel home.
le 27 octobre 2005 à 22:38 [ Citer ]
My pleasure Nick, I’m glad it was of help ;-)
le 28 juin 2007 à 22:53 [ Citer ]
This works on my cpanel (note the space after “-u” and you have to have two “––” before the “all-databases”) also you should re-type everything yourself - DO NOT COPY AND PASTE !!!
date=`date -I` ; mysqldump -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD ––all-databases | gzip > /home/LOGIN/public_html/backups/xbackup_$date.sql.gz
le 30 juin 2007 à 10:24 [ Citer ]
Thanks for the heads-up Jeff, I’ve updated the article to reflect the changes.
le 9 janvier 2008 à 22:09 [ Citer ]
03;3;March
Thanks !
Any tip on how i can check if the created file indeeds restores my databases ?
le 10 janvier 2008 à 19:31 [ Citer ]
Hello Mieke,
You can check your backup on a test install via PHPMyadmin : simply upload your backup and see how it goes. Or you can open the SQL file and check its data.
I’ve been using this backup strategy for years now (one daily backup of this site every night). Works fine :)