Linux Shell Script to Backup Server Files

linuxscripting

I wrote a script a day ago that backs up my entire database and all of my /var/www files to a network share. It was my first try at scripting in Linux and all in all I think it is really cool. I would like to add a feature to my backup script. Currently, the script uses rsync to overwrite any existing data on the destination for the backup. I would like it actually create a unique, full backup, every time it runs. Right now I have it running every night at midnight. However, I only want to have 15 concurrent full backups at a time – so once it hits 15 backups I want it to start deleting the older backups. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Here's my current script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Mount the share
smbmount //address/folder /mnt/folder -o credentials=/root/.smbpasswd

# Synchronize the Web folder
rsync --delete -C -v -a -r /var/www /mnt/folder

# Create a backup of all databases
mysqldump -uuser -ppassword --all-databases | gzip -9 > /root/backup/Databases.sql.zip

# Copy the backup to the backup folder
cp /root/backup/Databases.sql.zip /mnt/folder/Databases.sql.zip

echo "Backup complete!"

Best Answer

Don't reinvent the wheel -- use dirvish!

Related Solutions

Linux – Help on writing Linux script to backup and ftp files to another server

I would not recommend using FTP for any files you care about (particularly database backups if that database contains customer information), but that is ultimately up to you.

To start with, script the creation of your backups on the Linux server with something like the following:

#!/bin/bash
# 
# Call script with:
# /cron-mysql_bkup.sh mysql_hostname mysql_username mysql_password /backup/directory
# 
if [ -n "$1" ]; then
 MYSQL_HOST="$1"
else
 echo "MYSQL_HOST not specified."
 exit 1
fi
if [ -n "$2" ]; then
 MYSQL_USER="$2"
else
 echo "MYSQL_USER not specified."
 exit 1
fi
if [ -n "$3" ]; then
 MYSQL_PASS="$3"
else
 echo "MYSQL_PASS not specified."
 exit 1
fi
if [ -n "$4" ]; then
 DIR_BKUP="$4"
 mkdir -p ${DIR_BKUP}
else
 echo "DIR_BKUP not specified."
 exit 1
fi
# 
# Generate filename
# 
BACKUP_FILENAME=`date "+%Y-%m-%d"`".sql"
# 
# Dump all databases
# 
mysqldump -h${MYSQL_HOST} -u${MYSQL_USER} -p${MYSQL_PASS} --all-databases > ${DIR_BKUP}/${MYSQL_HOST}/${BACKUP_FILENAME}
# 
# Write status of the operation to the mysql.log file in the backup directory
# 
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
 echo `date`" - ERROR creating backups of host "${MYSQL_HOST} >> ${DIR_BKUP}/mysql.log
else
 echo `date`" - MySQL Backup complete for "${MYSQL_HOST} >> ${DIR_BKUP}/mysql.log
 BACKUP_TAR_NAME=${BACKUP_FILENAME}".tar.gz"
 tar czf ${DIR_BKUP}/${MYSQL_HOST}/${BACKUP_TAR_NAME} ${DIR_BKUP}/${MYSQL_HOST}/${BACKUP_FILENAME} && rm ${DIR_BKUP}/${MYSQL_HOST}/${BACKUP_FILENAME}
fi

This script will:

Check to see whether all the required parameters were set
Dump all MySQL databases to a file named YYYY-mm-dd.sql under the backup directory specified (this directory will be created if it does not exist)
GZIP the file and, if the GZIP operation succeeds, delete the original SQL file

This script should be fairly straightforward for you to customize if you wish to - see the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide to learn more about doing so.

... once your databases are backed up and can be found in a specific location, why not automate backup retrieval with WinSCP instead of transferring your files over FTP?

Linux – Best Way to Prevent Root System Filling Up When a Mount Fails

Number 5 - Put a test in your backup script to ensure that the directory is mounted before continuing. The script should fail if the mount is not available or present. Or you can just make sure things are mounted prior to running the backup.

Try the mountpoint command, which checks if a specified directory is a mountpoint:

mountpoint -q /mnt/backups || mount /mnt/backups

Related Topic

Rsync – Fixing ‘chown failed: permission denied (13)’ Error