Backup

v3.x · v4.x

Database::MySQL

Model.new(:my_backup, 'My Backup') do
  database MySQL do |db|
    # To dump all databases, set `db.name = :all` (or leave blank)
    db.name               = "my_database_name"
    db.username           = "my_username"
    db.password           = "my_password"
    db.host               = "localhost"
    db.port               = 3306
    # supplying a `socket` negates `host` and `port`
    db.socket             = "/tmp/mysql.sock"
    # specifying `sudo_user` will run the backup utility on behalf of that Unix user (instead of current one)
    db.sudo_user          = "root"
    # Note: when using `skip_tables` with the `db.name = :all` option,
    # table names must be prefixed with a database name.
    # e.g. ["db_name.table_to_skip", ...]
    db.skip_tables        = ["skip", "these", "tables"]
    db.only_tables        = ["only", "these" "tables"]
    db.additional_options = ["--quick", "--single-transaction"]
  end
end

By default, MySQL database dumps produce a single output file created using the mysqldump utility. This dump file will be stored within your final backup package as databases/MySQL.sql.

If a Compressor has been added to the backup, the database dump will be piped through the selected compressor. So, if Gzip is the selected compressor, the output would be databases/MySQL.sql.gz.

Percona XtraBackup (innobackupex)

Model.new(:my_backup, 'My Physical Backup') do
  database MySQL do |db|
    db.backup_engine      = :innobackupex
    db.name               = "my_database_name"
    db.username           = "my_username"
    db.password           = "my_password"
    db.host               = "localhost"
    db.port               = 3306
    # supplying a `socket` negates `host` and `port`
    db.socket             = "/tmp/mysql.sock"
    # specifying `sudo_user` will run the backup utility on behalf of that Unix user (instead of current one)
    db.sudo_user          = "root"
    # Connection parameters and additional_options work the
    # same as above (only `skip_tables`/`only_tables` are not
    # supported)
    db.prepare_options    = ["--use-memory=4G"]
    db.verbose            = true
  end
end

Setting backup_engine to :innobackupex will use Percona XtraBackup’s innobackupex utility instead of mysqldump to perform the backup. It doesn’t require Percona MySQL, but Percona XtraBackup must be installed.

Backups are created and prepared for restoring before compressing/splitting/etc., to reduce restore times. Because of this, the server (typically a slave) needs to have available disk space for a database copy (in addition to the space needed for the backup itself).

The skip_tables and only_tables configurations won’t work, because partial physical backups require special conditions (however, if you meet them, just add the proper parameters to additional_options).

A few (optional) extra configurations are available: