Offsite Backup Solution MySQL Backup Tool

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:08:55 +0000

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)

Automatically Send MySQL Database Backup To Gmail

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:14:26 +0000

Webmasters have to make sure that their websites and files are getting backed up regularly to be prepared when something unforeseen happens. This unforeseen event can be a hacker attack, a database crash, a fire in the data center of the hoster or human error. Whatever the cause is it can have a severe impact on the service and business if backups are not available to restore the website or service.

Many web hosting companies offer backup space and create backups regularly. Some on the other hand ask for additional payments or do not offer this backup service at all. It then is up to the webmaster or server administrator to ensure that the data gets backed up regularly so that it can be restored when needed.

One option that is becoming increasingly popular is to backup data and send it to an offsite storage space. Backup2Mail is such a script. It can initiate automatic MySQL database backups on Linux servers using cron jobs and transfer these backups to a Gmail account. The only restriction is that the size of the zipped database should not exceed the maximum attachment limit of Gmail which is currently 25 Megabytes.

The developer provides instructions on how to setup the MySQL database backup and Gmail transfer on his website. It basically means that the user needs to edit an index.php file to provide the script with the MySQL information and GMail data. The only thing left after this step is to create a cron job so that the script is executed regularly on the server. Backups will from then on be created automatically on the web server and send to the Gmail account.

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Offsite Backup Solution MySQL Backup Tool

Automatically Send MySQL Database Backup To Gmail