Skip navigation links
MySQL Backup and Recovery :: 1 Backup and Recovery
1.1 Backup and Recovery Types »
Section Navigation      [Toggle]

Chapter 1. Backup and Recovery

Table of Contents     [+/-]

1.1. Backup and Recovery Types
1.2. Database Backup Methods
1.3. Example Backup and Recovery Strategy     [+/-]
1.4. Using mysqldump for Backups     [+/-]
1.5. Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery Using the Binary Log     [+/-]
1.6. MyISAM Table Maintenance and Crash Recovery     [+/-]

It is important to back up your databases so that you can recover your data and be up and running again in case problems occur. MySQL offers a variety of backup strategies from which you can choose the methods that best suit the requirements for your installation. This chapter discusses several backup and recovery topics with which you should be familiar:

  • Types of backups: Logical versus physical, full versus incremental, and so forth

  • Methods for creating backups

  • Recovery methods, including point-in-time recovery

  • Backup scheduling, compression, and encryption

  • Table maintenance, to enable recovery of corrupt tables

Additional Resources

Resources related to backup or to maintaining data availability include the following:

  • A forum dedicated to backup issues is available at http://forums.mysql.com/list.php?93.

  • Details for mysqldump, mysqlhotcopy, and other MySQL backup programs can be found in MySQL Programs.

  • The syntax of the SQL statements described here is given in SQL Statement Syntax.

  • For additional information about InnoDB backup procedures, see Chapter 3, Backing Up and Recovering an InnoDB Database.

  • Replication enables you to maintain identical data on multiple servers. This has several benefits, such as allowing client query load to be distributed over servers, availability of data even if a given server is taken offline or fails, and the ability to make backups with no impact on the master by using a slave server. See Replication.

  • MySQL Cluster provides a high-availability, high-redundancy version of MySQL adapted for the distributed computing environment. See MySQL Cluster. For information specifically about MySQL Cluster backup, see Online Backup of MySQL Cluster.