here’s the latest variation of my mysql backup script. for each database, it dumps the schema (table & index creation, etc) and data into separate files. I’ve found that it’s extremely convenient to have the table creation commands separate from the data.

actually, it backups up two copies of the data. one with extended inserts, one with complete inserts. In the past, i’ve had the occasional problem with restoring extended inserts – complete inserts are much slower but 100% reliable.

it dumps these to a temporary directory, and then uses rdiff-backup to make a revision-controlled backup to a standard location (/var/backups/mysql/$HOSTNAME). this can then be rsynced to another (central) host.

feel free to scavenge ideas from the script, or adapt it your needs.

it assumes there is a ~/.my.cnf file to get the login details from.

#! /bin/bash

HOST=$(hostname -s)

BACKUPDIR=/var/backups/mysql/$HOST
TMPDIR=/tmp/mysql-backups/$HOST
mkdir -p $BACKUPDIR $TMPDIR

ARGS=”–single-transaction –flush-logs –skip-opt –no-create-db –no-create-info”

DATABASES=$( mysql -D mysql –skip-column-names -B -e ‘show databases;’ | egrep -v ‘information_schema’ );

mysql -Bse “SELECT CONCAT(‘SHOW GRANTS FOR \”, user ,’\'@\”, host, ‘\’;') FROM mysql.user” | mysql -Bs | sed ‘s/$/;/g’ > mysql-grants.txt

for i in $DATABASES ; do
# “create database” lines, for easy cut-and-paste
echo “CREATE DATABASE $i;” >> $TMPDIR/mysql-create-databases.txt

echo -n “backing up $i: schema…”
mysqldump $ARGS –no-data $i > $TMPDIR/$i.schema.sql

echo -n “data…complete…”
mysqldump $ARGS –complete-insert $i > $TMPDIR/$i.data.complete.sql

echo -n “extended…”
mysqldump $ARGS –extended-insert $i > $TMPDIR/$i.data.extended.sql

echo “done.”
done

RDIFF_ARGS=”"
rdiff-backup $RDIFF_ARGS $TMPDIR/ $BACKUPDIR/

for n in db1 etc;do

try:

for db in $(mysql -u $MYSQL_USER -p$MYSQL_PASSWORD -Bse ‘show databases’);do

That way you don’t have to remember to update the script when you create new databases.

Keith

Try using both ionice and nice to drop the priority of the dumps. I use that in conjunction with rsnapshot (mentioned above), to reduce the load on a server. The combo works well.