Full Tutorial: How to Set Up Automatic Backups on Linux Server (Files + Database)

1. ✅ Why Automatic Backups Are Important

• Servers can crash — hardware failures, power loss, bugs.

• Human error — mistakes happen (wrong command, delete by accident).

• Updates or migrations sometimes go wrong.

• Automatic backups = safety net. You sleep better knowing data is safe.

If you manage a website, application data, database — backups must be part of your routine.

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2. 🛠️ Tools You Need (Nothing Fancy)

• A Linux server (Ubuntu / Debian / similar).

• Access to the terminal (SSH).

• Basic permissions (should allow creating and scheduling scripts).

• Enough disk space or external backup storage (local folder, remote server, cloud, etc.).

• Ability to schedule jobs — we’ll use cron.

No paid software needed — everything uses open-source tools built into Linux.

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3. 💾 Backup Files — Create a Backup Script

Create a folder for your backup scripts, e.g.:

mkdir -p ~/backup-scripts
cd ~/backup-scripts

Create a file named backup_files.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# Variables
SRC="/var/www/html"               # folder you want to backup
DEST="/home/username/backups"     # backup destination folder
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S)
FILENAME="backup-files-$DATE.tar.gz"

# Create backup
tar -czf "$DEST/$FILENAME" "$SRC"

# Optional: delete backups older than 30 days
find "$DEST" -type f -name "backup-files-*.tar.gz" -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

Save the file and make it executable:

chmod +x backup_files.sh

📄 Explanation (Beginner-friendly):

• tar -czf ... → compress and archive your folder into a .tar.gz.

• date +... → stamps the backup file with current date/time (so every backup is unique).

• find ... -mtime +30 -exec rm {} → deletes backup files older than 30 days (so you don’t run out of space).

This simple script is all you need to backup a folder properly.

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4. 🗄️ Backup Database (e.g. MySQL/MariaDB) — Script Example

If your server uses MySQL or MariaDB:

Create another script backup_db.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# Variables
DB_NAME="myapp"
DB_USER="root"
DB_PASS="yourpassword"
DEST="/home/username/backups"
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S)
FILENAME="backup-db-$DB_NAME-$DATE.sql.gz"

# Dump database and compress
mysqldump -u $DB_USER -p$DB_PASS $DB_NAME | gzip > "$DEST/$FILENAME"

# Optional: delete backups older than 14 days
find "$DEST" -type f -name "backup-db-*.sql.gz" -mtime +14 -exec rm {} \;

Make executable:

chmod +x backup_db.sh

📝 Explanation:

• mysqldump exports the entire database to a text SQL file.

• Piped to gzip to compress (saves disk space).

• Backup file named with timestamp for uniqueness.

• Old backups automatically removed after 14 days.

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5. 📅 Automate with Cron — Schedule Backups

Open your crontab:

crontab -e

Then add lines (for example):

# backup files every day at 02:00
0 2 * * * /home/username/backup-scripts/backup_files.sh

# backup database every day at 03:00
0 3 * * * /home/username/backup-scripts/backup_db.sh

This will run the file‐backup at 02:00, and the database backup at 03:00, every day.

✅ Why this matters:

• You don’t need to remember — backups run automatically.

• Even if server crashes at night — your data is safe.

• You get regular snapshots you can restore from.

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6. 🔐 (Optional but Recommended) — Store Backups Off-site or Remote

Local backups are good — but what if your server disk fails?

Better: copy backups to another server or cloud storage.

Example using rsync → remote server:

rsync -avz /home/username/backups/ user@remote-server:/remote-backups/

You can add this to the end of your backup script.

Or use cloud storage (S3, Dropbox, etc.) — but that’s advanced (for another tutorial).

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7. 🛠️ How to Restore from Backup (Files & Database)

Restore files:

tar -xzf backup-files-2025-12-08_02-00-00.tar.gz -C /var/www/html

Restore database (MySQL example):

gunzip < backup-db-myapp-2025-12-08_03-00-00.sql.gz | mysql -u root -p myapp

Always test restores on a staging server first — to ensure backups are valid.

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✅ Best Practices & Tips

• Always store backups outside original folder (don’t backup inside server root).

• Use timestamps to avoid overwriting old backups.

• Rotate and delete old backups — avoid disk full.

• Secure backup folder (permissions, maybe encryption) if data sensitive.

• Test backups regularly — a backup that can't be restored is useless.

• Write logs (optional) — useful to track what happened and when.