Help with crontab for backups

mushy

Hi,
I am new to php & mysql.
I like to make automatic backs at night time. I am on shared hosting and have cpanel access with cron jobs option.. I was thinking if I could run some cron job command to make automatic backups.

I read about following command

mysqldump -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASE_NAME >backup.sql

but when I put that command then I don't see anything happening...

For example, my username for db is "abc_abcd", my pass is "abcd" & my db name is "abc_abcd" then what command should I run?

One more thing. If I run the command then where would my backed up db will appear in ftp? will it be directly in public_htm/ folder or public_htm/dump/ folder or somewhere else...

One more thing. If I have a very big database then will I be able to make the backup with simple cron job command?

Also what will be the command for restoring backup...

Kindly please help....

MarkR

mushy wrote:
Hi,
but when I put that command then I don't see anything happening...

Have you tried that command out in the shell?

Before trying something as a cron job, always run it in the shell first to see if it works. This will save a lot of time trying to debug it.

One more thing. If I run the command then where would my backed up db will appear in ftp?

Unless you put it somewhere else, it will be in your home directory.

will it be directly in public_htm/ folder or public_htm/dump/ folder or somewhere else...

Only if that is your home directory.

One more thing. If I have a very big database then will I be able to make the backup with simple cron job command?

It depends. If you have a "very big" database, I strongly recommend not using shared hosting.

The command will work on any size of database I think, but it may take a long time on larger databases. Also, it must lock all the tables during backup, this may cause your web application to fail. You can change the options to disable this locking, but that may cause inconsistent backups.

Also what will be the command for restoring backup...

Read the relevant sections of the mysql manual. I recommend

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/backup-recovery.html

Or the whole section

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/backup-strategy-example.html

Mark