Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days, Second Edition

Backing Up

Backing up is a vital part of the administration of any database system. Reasons for creating a backup can range from fire and theft to accidental user corruption of data. But whatever the reason and the perceived risk, making a backup addresses a real business issue, and backups must be regarded as a core part of any IT strategy.

Just as important as the backing-up process is the intended method of restoring data. Any survival plan must have at its core the intended means of getting data back onto the system—or onto a new system—in an appropriate time scale. In these days of online databases, a downtime of just minutes can be a serious issue, so your plans must have system recovery as their key deliverable, not merely a library of ...