{"id":95049,"date":"2022-11-16T19:54:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T19:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/?p=95049"},"modified":"2022-11-16T19:54:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T19:54:36","slug":"backing-up-mysql-part-2-percona-xtrabackup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/blogs\/backing-up-mysql-part-2-percona-xtrabackup\/","title":{"rendered":"Backing Up MySQL Part 2: Percona XtraBackup"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no doubt about it – if you\u2019ve ever heard of Percona, you\u2019ve heard of XtraBackup as well. XtraBackup is one of the primary Percona\u2019s offerings in the backup space: the tool is famous amongst DBAs as one of the primary open-source utilities to take hot backups. The tool is known to avoid locking databases during its backup procedures – of course, it has a couple of limitations unique to itself, but that\u2019s not an obstacle for experienced database administrators across the globe: the tool is loved by pretty much everyone who uses it, and with Percona at its side, we all know that the tool is going to deliver awesomeness by day and by night.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Percona XtraBackup?<\/span><\/h2>\n

As already stated above, Percona XtraBackup is one of the primary offerings for MySQL & Percona database administrators developed by Percona. The tool is an open-source backup utility that does not lock our databases during the backup processes it performs. Percona says that their tool can provide automatic verification of backups that have been taken, offer fast dumping and restore times, and above all, it\u2019s supported by their award-winning consulting services helping us make sure that our data and its backups are in safe hands by day and by night.<\/span><\/p>\n

How To Use Percona XtraBackup?<\/span><\/h2>\n

In order to start exploring the features offered by Percona\u2019s XtraBackup, please install the tool before proceeding any further – the tool can be installed from a repo, from a tarball, from packages, or via source code – the old-fashioned way of installing the tool from a repository is a favourite option for many. To install the tool from a repo, head over to <\/span>Percona\u2019s documentation<\/span><\/a>, and once you\u2019re done installing, you can backup your data by issuing the command below (the command below will perform a full backup of your database, and then store the backup in a directory named \u201cbackups\u201d):<\/span>
\n<\/span>xtrabackup --backup --target-dir=\/backups<\/code><\/span><\/p>\n

Bear in mind that in this case, contrary to <\/span>mysqldump<\/span>, the \u201cbackups\u201d directory won\u2019t consist of only one file – Percona\u2019s XtraBackup would backup the following:<\/span><\/p>\n