Linux Perform MySQL Backup to time-based path from Webmin

Question

I was trying to setup a scheduled task in Linux Ubuntu Server 12.04 (CronJob) to perform a daily backup of all my MySQL Databases on midnight.

I have installed the known Webmin (A nice web interface for managing the Web Servers).

So my issue is: whenever the backup is being performed, the files are getting overwritten!

That means: The backup of the day before yesterday are LOST, only the "Yesterday" backup is being saved!

I have tried something like setting dynamic file path like:

/var/www/mysqlbackups/%d-%m-%y

but I had no success with that :(

Can anybody help me.

Thanks alot guys.

Answer 1

I made a shell script (not for webmin). Put it in /etc/cron.daily.

The scripts makes a backup of the database (stores it as .gz), then uploads it by ssh to another server. For the auth. i setup ssh keys, so no password is needed. The backup files have a unique name, so you don't overwrite the backup files.

This is how you can create a filename within script:

now=`date  +%Y%m%d_%H%M`
dst_path=/var/local/backups
filename="$dst_path/$database.$now.sql.gz"

Then you should write a a small script that removes all backup files that are older then x days.

#!/bin/sh

#
# Creates a backup of a MySQL databases and uses ssh (sFTP) to send if  to another server
# This script shouldbe called from the crontab

PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

# MySQL user and password
mysql_cmd=/opt/bitnami/mysql/bin/mysqldump
mysql_usr=user_name
mysql_pass=password

# destination ssh
dst_user=user_name
dst_hostname=192.168.1.1

# Database to backup
database=test

# create timestamp
now=`date  +%Y%m%d_%H%M`

# where we store the files
dst_path=/var/local/backups

# backup filename
filename="$dst_path/$database.$now.sql.gz"
dst_filename="$database.$now.sql.gz"

# run backup
$mysql_cmd -u $mysql_usr --password=$mysql_pass  $database | gzip > $filename

# upload to sever (ssh)
scp $filename $dst_user@$dst_hostname: