Dump MySQL databases and compress them before uploading them to Dropbox for a simple off-site backup. Backups are kept for 7 days.
Forked from mysql-dropbox-backup and modified to suit my needs.

Mainly, removing the openssl encryption I don't need and switching the db_ignore to a db_include which makes more sense to me.

mysql-dropbox-backup is a simple shell script that will use mysqldump to export the databases you select to a compressed tarball. Then proceeds to upload them to Dropbox for a simple off-site backup solution. The script makes use of the Dropbox-Uploader project by Andrea Fabrizi. Run it as a daily cron job to keep 7 days of backups. On each run it will try to delete the backup taken 7 days ago.

Creating a backup is of-course important. Especially creating an off-site backup can be useful. Should your server burn down or the company that hosts your stuff dissappear.

For myself, I use this to backup WordPress databases. But any kind of MySQL/MariaDB database will work.

• cURL
• A Dropbox account
• Dropbox-Uploader

Most Linux systems will come with cURL installed. Dropbox gives away 2GB of storage for free.

First grab a copy of Dropbox-Uploader, follow its installation instructions, and link it to your Dropbox account.
I have it installed in my home directory, but pick any location the works for you.

Next get a copy of mysql-dropbox-backup.sh and mysql-dropbox-backup.cnf, and save them in the same directory as dropbox_uploader.sh.

Edit mysql-dropbox-backup.cnf to add your MySQL connection details.

Edit the top section of mysql-dropbox-backup.sh to configure the database names that you want to back up. If your mysql-dropbox-backup.cnf files is someplace else change the path to that too.

mysql-dropbox-backup is run from the CLI, taking no parameters.
The script is verbose and will output which databases were backed up and what its doing...

./mysql-dropbox-backup.sh

Ideally it be run as a daily cron job. After uploading the present backup, it will attempt to delete the backup from 7 days previous, so that only one week of backups are kept.

Something like:

0 1 * * * cd /path/to/where/the/scripts/are && sh mysql-dropbox-backup.sh

Or:

0 1 * * * cd /path/to/where/the/scripts/are && sh mysql-dropbox-backup.sh>>backup.log

If you want the output in a log file so you can check on its progress later on.

In the unfortunate event that you need to restore a backup, simply download the file from Dropbox and unarchive it:

Something like: \

tar xz 2024-06-07.tgz

Then the SQL files will be available to restore within the resulting directory.