Automated Drupal database backups using Drush, Bash and Cron

Drush + Bash + Cron: Datbase Backup Goals

• Scan sites directory for a given drupal install
• Find all multisite folders/symlinks
• For each multisite:
• Use Drush to clear cache - we dont want cache table bloating up the MySQL dump file
• Use Drush to delete watchdog logs - we dont want watchdog table bloating up the MySQL dump file
• Use Drush to backup the database to pre-assigned folder
• Use tar to compress and timestamp the Drush generated sql file
• Setup Crontab to run perodically with the above commands as a bash file

Assumptions and Instructions

You will need to adjust the Bash file if any of these are not the same on your server

• Drupal is installed in /var/www/html/drupal
• Multisites are setup in the /var/www/html/drupal/sites folder
• Backup folder exists in /var/www/backup/sqldumps
• Drush is already installed in /root/drush/drush. If drush is not installed follow this Drush installation guide
• AWK is already installed, if not, type: sudo yum install gawk

Drush Backup BASH file

Copy paste the code below and create a new bash file ideally in your/root home folder. Make the Bash file executable.

 

#!/bin/bash
#
 
# Adjust to match your system settings
DRUSH=/root/drush/drush
ECHO=/bin/echo
FIND=/usr/bin/find
AWK=/bin/awk
 
# Adjust to match your system settings
docroot=/var/www/html/drupal
backup_dir=/var/www/backup/sqldumps
 
multisites=$1
 
START_TIME=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M);
 
# Add all multisites for a given docroot into a list. Detects all web addresses which are a directory which isn't named all, default or ends in .local.
if [ "${multisites}" = "all" ];then
	# If multisites are folders change -type d
	# If multisites are symlinks change -type l
	# Adjust $8 to match your docroot, it $x needs to be the name of the multisite folder/symlink
	multisites_list="`$FIND ${docroot}/sites/* -type l -prune | $AWK -F \/ '$8!="all" && $8!="default" && $8!~/\.local$/ { print $8 }'`"
else
	multisites_list=$multisites
fi
 
 
# Must be in the docroot directory before proceeding.
cd $docroot
 
for multisite in $multisites_list
do
	# Echo to the screen the current task.
	$ECHO
	$ECHO "##############################################################"
	$ECHO "Backing up ${multisite}"
	$ECHO
	$ECHO
 
	# Clear Drupal cache
	$DRUSH -y -u 1 -l "${multisite}" cc all
 
	# Truncate Watchdog
	$DRUSH -y -u 1 -l "${multisite}" wd-del all
 
	# SQL Dump DB
	$DRUSH -u 1 -l "${multisite}" sql-dump --result-file="${backup_dir}"/"${multisite}".sql
 
	# Compress the SQL Dump
	tar -czv -f "${backup_dir}"/"${START_TIME}"-"${multisite}".tar.gz -C "${backup_dir}"/ "${multisite}".sql
 
	# Delete original SQL Dump
	rm -f "${backup_dir}"/"${multisite}".sql
 
	$ECHO
	$ECHO
	$ECHO "Finished backing up ${multisite}"
	$ECHO
	$ECHO "##############################################################"
 
done

 

Setup Crontab

Assuming your bash file containing the code above is saved as /root/drush_backup.sh, you can setup a crontab for root user.

 

crontab -e
1 1 * * * /root/drush_backup_db.sh