Rsync for website backup in a shared hosting environment
3. Grab the MySQL Databases
Unfortunately, because of the limitations of shared hosting environments, the filesystem you just pulled in will not contain the MySQL database that is an integral component of many dynamic web services including WordPress. There are two ways around this.
One is to set up a cron job on the hosting server in order to run a database backup tool that then drops the output somewhere where you can access it with the rsync job. The best tool for this is mysqldump
[3], which is the main utility for taking backups of MySQL databases. mysqldump
can be used for both the backup and restoration of MySQL. You might wish to configure something like this, for instance:
mysqldump -u myuser -p'password' database.msql /home/backup/sql/mydatabase.sql
Alternatively, some CMSs come with a built-in or add-on tool for backing up the database. For instance, WordPress users can install the WP Database Backup plugin to periodically generate and then save a copy of the MySQL database in a table you can access with rsync. You'll have to manually enable local backups as the plugin, by default, expects that you'll be backing up directly to a remote on the cloud. To prevent the accumulation of large amounts of storage that will count against your storage limit, I also limited the amount of MySQL backups that can be stored to two.
4. Script and Automate
Now that you have tested out the two rsync pulls required, it's time to put your commands into a Bash script and set it up in cron to run automatically. The beauty of rsync is that, unlike full backups, it only moves in the changes to the filesystem between runs. That means less unnecessary data transfer – which is especially important if you're mirroring that backup from your local to an off-site location such as a public cloud.
I built two directories within a backup folder that I created to host the backups on my NAS (which, in turn, mirrors the copies up to another cloud). I called these /files/
and /db/
and put the filesystem and MySQL backups into these subfolders respectively. You can set up the job to run however often you want.
To build a master backup script you can either run a script that calls the other scripts, or you can just call all the commands from one script. For this demonstration, I have chosen the latter approach (Listing 1).
Listing 1
Backup Script
#!/bin/bash rsync -arvz -e 'ssh -p 12345' yourhost@123.456.789.71:/home/youruser/public_html /backups/hosting/website1/files rsync -arvz -e 'ssh -p 12345' yourhost@123.456.789.71:/home/youruser/backups/mysql/ /backups/hosting/website1/mysql Exit
If you are backing up several websites, you can add the sites sequentially. You can increase the verbosity by adding up to three v
s. If you need to troubleshoot the script from a monitored terminal, then I recommend choosing this approach.
Conclusion
After you have the basic backup pull working, then you may wish to create weekly and monthly snapshots as well as daily ones. To achieve this, you can create /weekly
and /monthly
folders and then run rsync jobs between the daily and monthly snapshots to those (doing this locally saves time). Just make sure that the cron jobs are set to run at the appropriate interval.
As a final note: this backup still will not capture everything in cPanel, although it might be useful to roll back changes to, say, a WordPress theme. If you want to do the former, then cPanel has a native backup tool that creates full backups of the hosting environment. It's a good idea to do both (and evaluate what MSPs and third-party tools can achieve).
You can use the technique described in this article to create local backup copies of your shared hosting environment onto a Linux host using only rsync, a few cron jobs, and, if preferred, a WordPress plugin.
Infos
- rsync: https://rsync.samba.org
- rclone: https://rclone.org
- mysqldump: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/mysqldump.html
« Previous 1 2
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
So Long Neofetch and Thanks for the Info
Today is a day that every Linux user who enjoys bragging about their system(s) will mourn, as Neofetch has come to an end.
-
Ubuntu 24.04 Comes with a “Flaw"
If you're thinking you might want to upgrade from your current Ubuntu release to the latest, there's something you might want to consider before doing so.
-
Canonical Releases Ubuntu 24.04
After a brief pause because of the XZ vulnerability, Ubuntu 24.04 is now available for install.
-
Linux Servers Targeted by Akira Ransomware
A group of bad actors who have already extorted $42 million have their sights set on the Linux platform.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils Linux Laptop Featuring AMD Ryzen CPU
This latest release is the first laptop to include the new CPU from Ryzen and Linux preinstalled.
-
XZ Gets the All-Clear
The back door xz vulnerability has been officially reverted for Fedora 40 and versions 38 and 39 were never affected.
-
Canonical Collaborates with Qualcomm on New Venture
This new joint effort is geared toward bringing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core to Qualcomm-powered devices.
-
Kodi 21.0 Open-Source Entertainment Hub Released
After a year of development, the award-winning Kodi cross-platform, media center software is now available with many new additions and improvements.
-
Linux Usage Increases in Two Key Areas
If market share is your thing, you'll be happy to know that Linux is on the rise in two areas that, if they keep climbing, could have serious meaning for Linux's future.
-
Vulnerability Discovered in xz Libraries
An urgent alert for Fedora 40 has been posted and users should pay attention.