Efficient way to backup MySQL database

Question

I'm using mysqldump to backup my database. Since the database and webserver are on the same machine, the mysqldump takes all the CPU and the site 'goes down' until the mysqldump finishes.

Is the solution to move database to another machine and do backups on that machine? Are there other alternatives?

Answer 1

It might be a little too much, but I'll suggest to use replication. There is a master-slave replication with MySQL. This will allow you to have and identical DB (read-only) on another machine at all times and doesn't require your machine to work too hard since it happens all the time. It's also pretty easy to set up. You can read more about it here: mysql site description

Answer 2

i use mysql administrator from the old mysql gui tools to create backup from my website to my pc.

~90 mb backup take less than 2 minutes

Answer 3

If you want smooth backups (without interfering the production system) the master-slave replication is a very good way to do it. However you might not want to reserve a server for a backup slave and indeed mysqldump is using a lot of resources.

You can try Percona XtraBackup which is an open source tool. Works on the file system level and much faster than mysqldump. http://www.percona.com/doc/percona-xtrabackup/ You can even try it on your current setup as it doesn't put any locks on tables.