Backup Your Database
Before you start any upgrades on your application, we highly recommend that you take a backup of the current state of your database. Upgrading to a new app version often comes with new database migrations, which will alter the state of your database. If you need to roll back the upgrade for whatever reason, you'll want to make sure that you have a backup of the database so that you can also roll back the data to its pre-migration state.
If you've granted external access to the database, the easiest way to backup the database would be to use mysqldump from your local machine.
mysqldump -h <database-server-ip> openboxes > openboxes.sql
For example:
mysqldump -h openboxes.server.com openboxes > openboxes.sql
Or if you don't have your credentials configured in ~/.my.cnf
mysqldump -u root -p -h openboxes.server.com openboxes > openboxes.sql
A more secure way to perform the backup (and this could be basis for a cron job).
Connect to database server¶
ssh <database-server-ip>
For example:
ssh openboxes.server.com
Generate a backup¶
mysqldump openboxes > openboxes.sql
Or if you don't have your credentials configured in ~/.my.cnf
mysqldump -u root -p openboxes > openboxes.sql
Copy the backup to somewhere safe¶
scp openboxes.sql <backup-server-ip>:<backup-directory>
For example:
scp openboxes.sql backup.server.com:/backup/directory/openboxes.sql
You might elect to convert your backup script to a cron job that will run on regular intervals to take periodic backups.
In that case, you can simply wait for the cron to run, or trigger it manually to take a new backup.
Tip
When configuring your cron job, it is recommended that you specify the credentials in ~/.my.cnf so that you don't need to enter them (in plain text) in the commands of your cron scripts. See the following regarding MySQL client passwordless access