Restoring from Backups

Tutorial Overview

This tutorial describes how to restore files, directories, and databases from backups, focusing on both rsync file backups and mysqldump database backups.

Prerequisites

Access to a backup created by rsync or mysqldump.

Steps

Step 1: Restoring Files and Directories with rsync

1. Use rsync to restore a directory from a backup location (replace /backup/documents_backup and /home/user/documents):

sudo rsync -a /backup/documents_backup/ /home/user/documents

The trailing / after documents_backup is important as it tells rsync to copy the contents rather than the directory itself.

2. Verify the Restoration:

Check the restored files and directories:

ls /home/user/documents

3. Restore Specific Files:

If only certain files need restoration:

sudo rsync -a /backup/documents_backup/important_file.txt /home/user/documents

Step 2: Restoring a MySQL Database from a mysqldump Backup

1. Log into MySQL:

mysql -u root -p

2. Create the Database to Restore:

If the database doesn’t exist, create it:

CREATE DATABASE database_name;

3. Restore the Backup:

Use the following command to restore from the backup file:

mysql -u root -p database_name < /backup/database_name_backup.sql

Step 3: Restore All Databases

1. If a full backup of all databases was made, use:

mysql -u root -p < /backup/all_databases_backup.sql

2. Verify the Restoration:

Check that the restored data is available:

SHOW DATABASES;
USE database_name;
SHOW TABLES;

Step 4: Restoring Compressed Backups

1. If the .sql backup file is compressed, decompress it first:

gunzip /backup/database_name_backup.sql.gz

2. Restore the Decompressed Backup:

mysql -u root -p database_name < /backup/database_name_backup.sql

Backup and Recovery