Re: Good backup software for Linux

[Dave Howorth <dhoworth@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk>]

Maurits van Rees wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 20, 2005 at 01:57:56PM +0100, Dave Howorth wrote:
>
> > Siju George wrote:
> >
> > > Relational Database Systems (RDBMS) cannot be backed up while live.
> >
> > This is just a fact of life, true for any backup system. It depends what 
> > guarantees of integrity you need and what table types you're using. I 
> > use InnoDB and want error-free backups so I just send '/etc/init.d/mysql 
> > stop' as my 'pre-client' command and '/etc/init.d/mysql start' 
> > afterwards. An alternative is to run a mysql replica. I recommend 'High 
> > Performance MySQL' by Zawodny & Balling for a survey of issues and 
> > techniques.
>
>
> I recommend using mysqlhotcopy:

This doesn't work for InnoDB tables. There is a paid-for equivalent.

> Also: take a look at mysqldump. Something like:

This takes a very long time (which locks the server) and produces a huge 
file.

Better to backup the tablespace after synchronising it by either 
stopping the server, locking a replica, or using LVM plus flushing, IMHO.

Cheers, Dave