How to Create Backups of The Database for Drupal 8 Applications Using Drush and MySQL Command

There’s always a probability of a software application crashing or encountering a technical fault. To reduce this probability, certain strategies with specific steps have to be implemented to troubleshoot or at the very least, recover from it.

In the worst-case scenario, if nothing else works, then restoring from a backup is the best possible solution. Thus, timely backup is a critical step in ensuring that data integrity remains intact.

Having a backup also ensures that you can keep on working without worrying about the possibility of losing your data.

Let us take a look at how to create backups of the database for Drupal 8 applications using Drush and MySQL command.

Why Drush and MySQL command?

Drush is a powerhouse of features. Keeping usability, terseness, and efficiency of the command-line in mind, Drush is designed to meet any challenge. It is fast, easy to customize, and integrates seamlessly.

MySQL is the best cost-effective and open-source database solution because its database server provides scalability, high performance, and supports the ability to handle deeply embedded applications. Moreover, it ensures strong data protection of data assets through SSH and SSL mechanisms.

Now, let us focus on the steps required to backup the Drupal 8 application database.

Database backup using the MySQL command

• MySQL -u root -p

Connection with MySQL

• show databases

Show all databases from MySQL

• show tables from database name

Show tables from database name

• mysqldump db_name > db_file.sql

Backup local database without a password

• mysqldump -u USERNAME -p dico db_name > db_file.sql

Backup / Local / Remote Database with Password

• mysqldump -u USERNAME -p db_name table_name > table_file.sql

Backup a single table

• mysqldump -u USERNAME -p db_name | gzip > db_file.sql.gz

Backup and compress DB using gzip

• MySQL -u USERNAME -p db_name < db_name.sql

Restore the database

• gunzip < db_file.sql.gz |MySQL| -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD db_name

Restore a gzip compressed file using gunzip

Database backup using the Drush Command

• Drush Archive-Dump

Backup both files and database in a single directory

E.g

root@grazitti:/var/www/html/drupal8#

Drush Archive-Dump backups code file and database in the same file. Database dump saved to

/tmp/drush_tmp_1509687738_59fc01bab44ad/drupal8new.sql

[success]

Archive saved to

/root/drush-backups/archive-dump/20171103054118/drupal8new.20171103_054118.tar.gz

[ok]

• Drush SQL-dump

Take SQL dump of the database using Drush

/var/www/html/drupal8# Drush

sql-dump >~/drush-backups/drupal8.sql

Drush extracts the database details from settings.php and takes backup as a drupal8.sql file in a Drush-backups folder .

You can give any custom path or custom_name.sql file for database backup .

Note – ~ denotes the root path of the server.

• Drush SQL-CLI

Restore the SQL dump database using Drush

/var/www/html/mariadb#drush sql-cli <~/drush-backups/drupal8.sql

Using this command Drush extracts the database details from settings.php file and automatically restores the database from drupal8.sql backup.

Code backup using the Tar Command

The syntax for the TAR command

tar -zcvf archive-name.tar.gz directory-name
-z : Compress archive using gzip program
-c: Create an archive
-v: Verbose i.e display progress while creating an archive
-f: Archive Filename

E.g – Suppose I want to take a backup of abc[dot]com files and folder on /var/www/prod location following command will be

www-user@web10:/var/www/prod$ tar -zcvf xyz_824022018.tar.gz abc[dot]com

This will take backup on this location

/var/www/prod/grazitti_824022018.tar.gz of the abc[dot]com folder.

Wrapping up

Kudos! You’ve learned how to create backups of the database for Drupal 8 applications using the Drush and MySQL commands. Periodic backups can mitigate unforeseen circumstances that might occur.

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