26 Aug 2022 Databases Public Cloud

How to Backup MySQL on Bitnami WordPress to S3

By Andrew Baker · Group CIO, Capitec Bank · 26 August 2022

Free forever · One-click restore · S3, Google Drive & Dropbox

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Backing up a Bitnami WordPress MySQL database to S3 requires using mysqldump to export the database, then uploading the dump file using the AWS CLI. Run mysqldump with your Bitnami credentials to create a SQL file, configure AWS CLI with your IAM access keys, then use the aws s3 cp command to transfer the backup file to your designated S3 bucket.

How to Backup MySQL on Bitnami WordPress to S3Andrew Baker's Technology Blog Posts, 26/Aug/2022
https://andrewbaker.ninja/2022/08/26/how-to-backup-mysql-on-bitnami-wordpress-to-s3/

Article Summary

1.
What it is
This article explains how to backup a WordPress MySQL database from a Bitnami server to Amazon S3 and restore it on a new server after a site failure.
2.
Why it matters
Website failures can cause data loss, and having a reliable backup and recovery process protects your content and prevents having to recreate articles or other database content from scratch.
3.
Key takeaway
Regular automated MySQL backups to S3 with proper restoration procedures can save you from losing valuable website data during server failures or upgrades.

285 words · ~2 min read

I recently managed to explode my wordpress site (whilst trying to upgrade PHP). Anyway, luckily I had created an AMI a month ago – but I had written a few articles since then and so wanted to avoid rewriting them. So below is a method to create a backup of your wordpress mysql database to S3 and recover it onto a new wordpress server. Note: I actually mounted the corrupt instance as a volume and did this the long way around.

Step 1: Create an S3 bucket to store the backup

$ aws s3api create-bucket \
>     --bucket andrewbakerninjabackupdb \
>     --region af-south-1 \
>     --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=af-south-1
Unable to locate credentials. You can configure credentials by running "aws configure".
$ aws configure
AWS Access Key ID [None]: XXXXX
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: XXXX
Default region name [None]: af-south-1
Default output format [None]: 
$ aws s3api create-bucket     --bucket andrewbakerninjabackupdb     --region af-south-1     --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=af-south-1
{
    "Location": "https://andrewbakerninjabackupdb.s3.amazonaws.com/"
}
$

Note: To get your API credentials simply go to IAM, Select the Users tab and then Select Create Access Key

Step 2: Create a backup of your MsSql database and copy it to S3

For full backups follow the below script (note: this wont be restorable across mysql versions as it will include the system “mysql” db)

# Check mysql is install/version (note you cannot restore across versions)
mysql --version
# First get your mysql credentials
sudo cat /home/bitnami/bitnami_credentials
Welcome to the Bitnami WordPress Stack

******************************************************************************
The default username and password is XXXXXXX.
******************************************************************************

You can also use this password to access the databases and any other component the stack includes.

# Now create a backup using this password
$ mysqldump -A -u root -p > backupajb.sql
Enter password: 
$ ls -ltr
total 3560
lrwxrwxrwx 1 bitnami bitnami      17 Jun 15  2020 apps -> /opt/bitnami/apps
lrwxrwxrwx 1 bitnami bitnami      27 Jun 15  2020 htdocs -> /opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs
lrwxrwxrwx 1 bitnami bitnami      12 Jun 15  2020 stack -> /opt/bitnami
-rw------- 1 bitnami bitnami      13 Nov 18  2020 bitnami_application_password
-r-------- 1 bitnami bitnami     424 Aug 25 14:08 bitnami_credentials
-rw-r--r-- 1 bitnami bitnami 3635504 Aug 26 07:24 backupajb.sql

# Next copy the file to your S3 bucket
$ aws s3 cp backupajb.sql s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb
upload: ./backupajb.sql to s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb/backupajb.sql
# Check the file is there
$ aws s3 ls s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb
2022-08-26 07:27:09    3635504 backupajb.sql

OR for partial backups, follow the below to just backup the bitnami wordpress database:

# Login to database
mysql -u root -p
show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| bitnami_wordpress  |
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
| sys                |
+--------------------+
exit
$ mysqldump -u root -p --databases bitnami_wordpress > backupajblight.sql
Enter password: 
$ ls -ltr
total 3560
lrwxrwxrwx 1 bitnami bitnami      17 Jun 15  2020 apps -> /opt/bitnami/apps
lrwxrwxrwx 1 bitnami bitnami      27 Jun 15  2020 htdocs -> /opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs
lrwxrwxrwx 1 bitnami bitnami      12 Jun 15  2020 stack -> /opt/bitnami
-rw------- 1 bitnami bitnami      13 Nov 18  2020 bitnami_application_password
-r-------- 1 bitnami bitnami     424 Aug 25 14:08 bitnami_credentials
-rw-r--r-- 1 bitnami bitnami 2635204 Aug 26 07:24 backupajblight.sql
# Next copy the file to your S3 bucket
$ aws s3 cp backupajblight.sql s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb
upload: ./backupajblight.sql to s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb/backupajblight.sql
# Check the file is there
$ aws s3 ls s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb
2022-08-26 07:27:09    2635204 backupajblight.sql

Step 3: Restore the file on your new wordpress server

Note: If you need the password, use the cat command from Step 2.

#Copy the file down from S3
$ aws s3 cp s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb/backupajbcron.sql restoreajb.sql --region af-south-1
#Restore the db
$ mysql -u root -p < restoreajb.sql

Step 4: Optional – Automate the Backups using Cron and S3 Versioning

This part is unnecessary (and one could credibly argue that AWS Backup is the way to go – but am not a fan of its clunky UI). Below I enable S3 versioning and create a Cron job to backup the database every week. I will also set the S3 lifecycle policy to delete anything older than 90 days.

# Enable bucket versioning
aws s3api put-bucket-versioning --bucket andrewbakerninjabackupdb --versioning-configuration Status=Enabled
# Now set the bucket lifecycle policy
nano lifecycle.json

Now paste the following policy into nano and save it (as lifecycle.json):

{
    "Rules": [
        {
            "Prefix": "",
            "Status": "Enabled",
            "Expiration": {
                "Days": 90
            },
            "ID": "NinetyDays"
        }
    ]
}

Next add the lifecycle policy to delete anything older than 90 days (as per above policy):

aws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle --bucket andrewbakerninjabackupdb --lifecycle-configuration file://lifecycle.json
## View the policy
aws s3api get-bucket-lifecycle-configuration --bucket andrewbakerninjabackupdb

Now add a CronJob to run every week:

## List the cron jobs
crontab -l
## Edit the cron jobs
crontab -e
## Enter these lines. 
## Backup on weds at 12:00 and copy it to S3 at 1am (cron format: min hour day month weekday (sunday is day zero))
1 0 * * SAT /opt/bitnami/mysql/bin/mysqldump -A -uroot -pPASSWORD > backupajbcron.sql
1 2 * * SAT /opt/bitnami/mysql/bin/mysqldump -u root -pPASSWORD --databases bitnami_wordpress > backupajbcronlight.sql
0 3 * * SAT aws s3 cp backupajbcron.sql s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb
0 4 * * SAT aws s3 cp backupajbcronlight.sql s3://andrewbakerninjabackupdb

How to Backup MySQL on Bitnami WordPress to S3

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