mysql-backup

Overview

mysql-backup is a simple way to do MySQL database backups and restores when the database is running in a container.

It has the following features:

• dump and restore
• dump to local filesystem or to SMB server
• select database user and password
• connect to any container running on the same system
• select how often to run a dump
• select when to start the first dump, whether time of day or relative to container start time

Backup

To run a backup, launch mysql-backup image as a container with the correct parameters. Everything is controlled by environment variables passed to the container.

For example:

docker run -d --restart=always -e DB_DUMP_FREQ=60 -e DB_DUMP_BEGIN=2330 -e DB_DUMP_TARGET=/db --link my-db-container:db -v /local/file/path:/db deitch/mysql-backup

The above will run a dump every 60 minutes, beginning at the next 2330 local time, from the database accessible in the container my-db-container.

The following are the environment variables for a backup:

You should consider the use of --env-file= to keep your secrets out of your shell history

• DB_USER: username for the database
• DB_PASS: password for the database
• DB_NAMES: names of databases to dump; defaults to all databases in the database server
• DB_DUMP_FREQ: How often to do a dump, in minutes. Defaults to 1440 minutes, or once per day.
• DB_DUMP_BEGIN: What time to do the first dump. Defaults to immediate. Must be in one of two formats:
  • Absolute: HHMM, e.g. 2330 or 0415
  • Relative: +MM, i.e. how many minutes after starting the container, e.g. +0 (immediate), +10 (in 10 minutes), or +90 in an hour and a half
• DB_DUMP_DEBUG: If set to true, print copious shell script messages to the container log. Otherwise only basic messages are printed.
• DB_DUMP_TARGET: Where to put the dump file, should be a directory. Supports three formats:
  • Local: If the value of DB_DUMP_TARGET starts with a / character, will dump to a local path, which should be volume-mounted.
  • SMB: If the value of DB_DUMP_TARGET is a URL of the format smb://hostname/share/path/ then it will connect via SMB.
  • S3: If the value of DB_DUMP_TARGET is a URL of the format s3://bucketname/path then it will connect via awscli.
• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: AWS Key ID
• AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: AWS Secret Access Key
• AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: Region in which the bucket resides
• SMB_USER: SMB username. May also be specified in DB_DUMP_TARGET with an smb:// url. If both specified, this variable overrides the value in the URL.
• SMB_PASS: SMB password. May also be specified in DB_DUMP_TARGET with an smb:// url. If both specified, this variable overrides the value in the URL.

Database Container

In order to perform the actual dump, mysql-backup needs to connect to the database container. You should link to the container by passing the --link option to the mysql-backup container. The linked container should always be aliased to db. E.g.:

docker run -d --restart=always -e DB_USER=user123 -e DB_PASS=pass123 -e DB_DUMP_FREQ=60 -e DB_DUMP_BEGIN=2330 -e DB_DUMP_TARGET=/db --link my-db-container:db -v /local/file/path:/db deitch/mysql-backup

Dump Target

The dump target is where you want the backup files to be saved. The backup file always is a gzipped file the following format:

db_backup_YYYYMMDDHHmm.sql.gz

Where:

• YYYY = year in 4 digits
• MM = month number from 01-12
• DD = date for 01-31
• HH = hour from 00-23
• mm = minute from 00-59

The time used is UTC time at the moment the dump begins.

The dump target is the location where the dump should be placed, defaults to /backup in the container. Of course, having the backup in the container does not help very much, so we very strongly recommend you volume mount it outside somewhere. See the above example.

If you use a URL like smb://host/share/path, you can have it save to an SMB server. If you need loging credentials, use smb://user:pass@host/share/path.

Note that for smb, if the username includes a domain, e.g. your user is mydom\myuser, then you should use the samb convention of replacing the '' with a ';'. In other words smb://mydom;myuser:pass@host/share/path

If you use a URL like s3://bucket/path, you can have it save to an S3 bucket.

Note that for s3, you'll need to specify your AWS credentials and default AWS region via AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY and AWS_DEFAULT_REGION

Dump Restore

If you wish to run a restore to an existing database, you can use mysql-backup to do a restore.

You need only the following environment variables:

You should consider the use of --env-file= to keep your secrets out of your shell history

• DB_USER: username for the database
• DB_PASS: password for the database
• DB_RESTORE_TARGET: path to the actual restore file, which should be a gzip of an sql dump file. The target can be an absolute path, which should be volume mounted, an smb or S3 URL, similar to the target.
• DB_DUMP_DEBUG: if true, dump copious outputs to the container logs while restoring.
• To use the S3 driver AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY and AWS_DEFAULT_REGION will need to be defined.

Examples:

1. Restore from a local file: docker run -e DB_USER=user123 -e DB_PASS=pass123 -e DB_RESTORE_TARGET=/backup/db_backup_201509271627.sql.gz -v /local/path:/backup deitch/mysql-backup
2. Restore from an SMB file: docker run -e DB_USER=user123 -e DB_PASS=pass123 -e DB_RESTORE_TARGET=smb://smbserver/share1/backup/db_backup_201509271627.sql.gz deitch/mysql-backup
3. Restore from an S3 file: docker run -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=awskeyid -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=secret -e AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=eu-central-1 -e DB_USER=user123 -e DB_PASS=pass123 -e DB_RESTORE_TARGET=s3://bucket/path/db_backup_201509271627.sql.gz deitch/mysql-backup

Automated Build

This gituhub repo is the source for the mysql-backup image. The actual image is stored on the docker hub at deitch/mysql-backup, and is triggered with each commit to the source by automated build via Webhooks.

There are 2 builds: 1 for version based on the git tag, and another for the particular version number.

License

Released under the MIT License. Copyright Avi Deitcher https://github.com/deitch

Thanks to the kind contributions and support of TraderTools.