Like in the offline world backups are an important part of a webmaster’s disaster prevention and recovery strategy in the online world. Websites are usually made up of files on a web server and contents stored in a database. The best option to backup those files and databases is to run a cron job that backs up all files and moves them to another backup location so that the websites can be recovered even if the server should be damaged (storing the files on the same server can be problematic if the hard drive fails for instance which can mean that neither the current files and databases nor the backups can be accessed).
Webmasters who want to create a quick local copy of their MySQL database have also several options at hand. They can connect via ssh to the server and create a database backup or use phpMyAdmin if the database is not that big.
Another comfortable option is the offsite backup software MySQL Backup Tool for the Windows operating system. The Open Source software can be used to create a backup of a specified local or remote MySQL database.
The user has to enter the login credentials of the MySQL database (MySQL username, password and database name) and define a backup location on the local computer system. It is optionally possible to block some database tables from being backed up with the backup tool.
Other options include password protecting the backed up databases, compressing them (recommended), storing them in separate files or a single file and the insert method. Settings can be saved so that they become available on consecutive starts of the offsite backup software. A click on Start Backup will initiate the backup process. The software displays status information on the screen.
MySQL Backup Tool is a handy software program for Windows users who want to backup MySQL databases occasionally. The application can be added to the Windows Task Scheduler so that the backups are performed regularly. The program can be downloaded from the project’s website over at Sourceforge. (via Addictive Tips)
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“It is optionally possible to block some database tables from being backed up with the backup tool”
..hmmmmm?
Looks very handy indeed, thanks for the mention Martin.
@raman: Read.