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MySQL

To configure a backup of a MySQL database, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the client area with your email and password.
  2. Select from the left menu Active services -> Delta Cloud Backup and select your service to open its settings.
  3. Select Protected items and click the Add protected item button. To be able to add one, you must have previously added and connected a device successfully.
  4. You will see a screen where you need to specify two things:
    • Select the device you want to back up.
    • Select the type of protected item.
  5. After the second option, select MySQL. This type is suitable for Linux, Windows, and macOS. You can add multiple protected items for each device.

Connection authentication

After selecting the backup type as MySQL, the backup tool needs to verify whether it can successfully connect to the MySQL server. To do this, you need to correctly enter the username, password, server, and port in the fields on the left. Please note that the user you will use for the MySQL backup must have sufficient privileges. The recommended minimum privileges that this user should have are SELECT, SHOW VIEW, TRIGGER, LOCK TABLES, and PROCESS. The PROCESS option applies only to MySQL version 5.7.31 and 8.0.21 and above. If the MySQL server is on the same device on which you are adding this protected item, then we recommend using localhost as the host name. This option is set by default. The access port in this situation is also 3306 and is set by default.

On the right side, you have SSL options. These options are not mandatory and are used only if you decide to perform a remote backup. These options provide you with the ability to use an SSL connection with the remote side (if the remote side supports it), as well as options for using a self-signed certificate.

Adding protected items

From here you have two options:

  • Browse items: with this option you can browse the current databases in MySQL and specify only those
  • Add item: from here you can specify all databases instead of listing them one by one. You can also include or exclude a specific database.

You can enter one or more protected items.

Advanced mysqldump settings

From here you have additional flexibility and control over the MySQL backup process. These settings are optional and not necessary unless you need additional control:

  • Isolation: for more information about this option, you can read the official MySQL documentation. We advise leaving this option at its default if you are not sure what to set.
  • Path to mysqldump: please note that for this backup to work, the mysqldump program must be installed and available in $PATH. If it is not available but you have it installed elsewhere, you can specify an additional path to it.
  • Additional parameters: if you want mysqldump to be invoked with additional parameters, you can do so from here. The parameters are specified as-is (in raw form). More information about these parameters can be found in the official mysqldump documentation.

Adding additional commands (before and after execution)

This menu is optional. Here you can add a custom command to be executed before starting the backup process, after completing the backup process, or after generating a snapshot. For example, you can use this feature if you want to receive emails from your server after generating a backup by specifying the exact command for it, or if you want to receive a push notification in your chat system (Slack, etc.) after the backup completes.

Schedule

By setting up a schedule, you ensure that a given protected item on a given device will be backed up exactly at the time you specified. Here you can choose how often to start the specific backup - daily (once a day), weekly (once a week), and monthly (once a month).

Frequency Description
Daily execution Here you can only set the time at which the backup should start, for example at 12:00.
Weekly execution Here, in addition to the time, you can also select on which day of the week it should start. For example on Sunday, at 12:00.
Monthly execution Here you can set the day of the month and time at which the backup should start. For example, on the 1st of every month, at 12:00.

Additionally, you need to select the storage location. This storage location is provided by us and is the only option. When creating an execution schedule, you also have the Random delay option. This option provides the ability for a random delayed start. For example, if you have set the backup to start at 12:00 and there is a random delay of 60 minutes, then the backup will start randomly between 12:00 and 12:59. This option can be useful if you have other running processes during that time and do not want them to fully overlap with your backup.

Advanced schedule settings

In addition to setting up a schedule, you also have the option to configure additional settings, which are described here:

Option Description
Skip if already running If this same backup is already started and there is such a running process, then the next backup will be skipped.
Limit backup to use only 1 disk thread By default, the backup process runs in multithreaded mode. If you find that the backup process consumes too many resources, you can limit it to using only 1 thread.
Use files instead of RAM (slower) The backup software works in such a way that to start a backup, it needs to check what was previously stored and what needs to be archived. This calculation is performed on the fly and uses RAM to be faster. If the device being backed up has limited memory, you can limit its consumption with this option.
Allow backup of empty files If you know you have empty files and for some reason it is important that they also exist in the backup, then you can enable this option.
Cancel backup if still running for more than If the backup process takes longer than a time specified by you, you can use this option to have the process terminated.
Limit archive transfer speed Since the storage location is remote, it is logical that some traffic is used for transferring backup data. You can limit the speed if you do not want the backup to consume a certain capacity of the total transfer bandwidth.
Apply retention policy after backup This retention policy is an internal process that takes care of data consistency. We recommend leaving it set to "Automatic".

Retention period

The retention period is the time for which you want all backup copies to be kept for the specific protected item. Here you have two options - to keep all copies and never delete them, or to retain a specific number of copies according to criteria you define. The criteria for retaining a specific number of backups are as follows:

The last [...] copies
The last [...] copies, at most one per day
The last [...] copies, at most one per week
The last [...] copies, at most one per month
All backup copies from the last [...]
All backup copies newer than a specific date
One copy every day for the last [...] days
One copy every week for the last [...] weeks
One copy every month for the last [...] months

Depending on which option you have selected, you will be able to configure various combinations of count, date, days, weeks, or months.