Backups in the cloud
Time to embrace the cloud. I previously had a script on my server performing a daily backup of the SQL databases (a mysqldump) that operate many of my sites. It didn’t make much sense to dump the backups on the same server; for the obvious reason that you’re unprotected against server problems, but also because it eats into the relatively more expensive hosting bandwidth and hard disk space provided from a typical VPS service.
RentACoder.com came to the rescue once again. For just $10, a new script that was created which carries out the same database dump, but now moves it to Amazon’s S3 platform. The service is ridiculously cheap – it’ll probably set me back around a buck a month.
Some brief instructions to get you started:
- First, download the free Amazon A3 PHP class.
- Grab my MYSQL Backup Dump on Amazon S3 Script.
- Get yourself a Amazon S3 account.
- Edit the script to include your Amazon S3 credentials and database details.
- Upload the files on to your server.
- To test or run, hit the script from the browser or through SSH.
- Optionally, add a task in Crontab to execute the script on a periodic basis.
Drop me an email if you require help, have feature suggestions or bug reports.
Update: I’ve added a buy-me-a-coffee donation link to this and other posts where I’ve provided something that can offer value to others. One donation so far!
