SQL Backups

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

How do you handle database backups?

I'm running mysqldump on my mysql databases. It's starting to become a problem because one table has a few million rows now. I've never used the hot backup method, but I can because I use the MyISAM storage engine.

One thing I might do in the future is start a replication server and back that up instead of the production server.

For my MSSQL databases, I run the standard backup utility in the "Enterprise Manager". It's amazingly fast on large databases. Restoring from that backup file has been fast too.

What do you do?

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

My cPanel servers are automatically backed up using their backup scripts. For my home server, I use AutoMySQLBackup. It's just an interface to mysqldump, but I've never had a problem with it, even on larger databases.

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

Do you lock tables when you do the backup? I'm considering unlocking tables during the backup. If I ever need to restore, I can manually delete abandoned records.

The problem I have is there are people using the database at all hours so whenever I run the backup, it locks them out for a few minutes.

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

It doesn't lock the tables as far as I know. I would think that anybody that is using the site during the backup has missed the cut-off. Their data will be backed up the next time 'round.

I'm assuming by orphaned records, you mean where table1 is in relationship with table2, and a record was inserted in table1 & table2 after table1 was backed up, but table2 wasn't.

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

Drupal has a nice little module:

Backup and Migrate

it creates scheduled backups and on demand backups, and restores from backups

I also use it when moving a dev site from my machine online, I make a default installation and import the dev database! Much easier than mucking around in phpMyAdmin!

They have: 12 posts

Joined: Feb 2009

I use phpMyAdmin for my backups - it works okay. But I think I should look into some of the other things you guys are using.

They have: 13 posts

Joined: Feb 2009

Speaking of backups, I don't know where to find backups plugins in wordpress 2.7 Sad. need help ?

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