Backing up and Restoring MySQL with mysqldump

I backup and restore databases across servers every few months, but each time I have to resort to reading this very verbose documentation. The steps below are a no fuss way to do this each time.

Backup Server

SSH into the server with the database that you wish to backup run the following command.

mysqldump -u root -p $DB_NAME > $DB_NAME.sql

Copy the File to Destination Server

Using scp, we can securely transfer the backup

scp $DB_NAME.sql $USER@$SERVER:

Restore on Destination Server

SSH into the server with the database that you wish to restore. From the the previous step the backup file should now be located in the root directory.

1. Create new database

   mysql -u root -p -e 'CREATE DATABASE $DB_NAME'
   

2. Restore your backup

   mysql -u root -p $DB_NAME < $DB_NAME.sql
   

If you made it this far, you should probably follow me on twitter. 🙂 Follow @levlaz