Simon Krenger

In another post I explained how to create a full backup using MySQL Enterprise Backup. Of course, the most important part of the backup is not “making the backup” but the restore of said backup! A backup is worthless if you cannot restore it.

As you might know, I am primarily an Oracle guy. This means that for all my backup needs, I am using Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN). I recently had the task to implement MySQL Enterprise Backup for a MySQL database (mysql-advanced-5.6.15-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64). My most important resource for this task was the MySQL Enterprise Backup User’s Guide.

On a few test databases, test managers often need to preserve certain states in the database. This is why we use daily datapump scripts to create exports for archival.

It is important to note that such scripts are never a replacement for a proper RMAN backup, but an easy way to preserve multiple states of a database and reuse data where applicable.

This batch file uses the expdp tool provided by Oracle and the 7-zip archiver to compress the exports for archival. The export tool itself creates a full export of the whole database (full=y). Also, the flashback_time parameter is specified to get a consistent export.