cron job to backup database and email the attachment

[gatzke]

Hi, I'm trying to backup my database and send the attachment to my hotmail account. Everything goes well using the following script, but the file doesn't get attached. Instead, I get a message of completely garbled text and squares. It's like the email was trying to read the bits from the .gz file. Here's the cron command I use:

mysqldump --user MY_USERNAME -pMY_PASSWORD --databases MY_DATABASE_NAME | gzip -cq9 > /home/MY_USERNAME/database_backup.sql.gz && mail -s "database backup" MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS < /home/MY_USERNAME/database_backup.sql.gz

[cPanelTristan]

Hi,

I want to warn against sending the backup of your database as an email attachment through possibly insecure email.

It would be far better to have it FTP securely to some location for you rather than emailing the fle, which I don't consider to be a very secure mechanism for transmission of data. Additionally, you could end up with a very large file when the database becomes large and FTP (or SCP) are better methods to transfer large files rather than email.

If you want to use FTP, you could just use the Backup method that already exists in cPanel's Backup area and call it from a cron.

Just wanted to provide those points to keep in mind.

[Spiral]

Here's the cron command I use:

mysqldump --user MY_USERNAME -pMY_PASSWORD --databases MY_DATABASE_NAME | gzip -cq9 > /home/MY_USERNAME/database_backup.sql.gz && mail -s "database backup" MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS < /home/MY_USERNAME/database_backup.sql.gz

This is very unwise on a great many levels!

You have opened up quite a few security holes if that really is your cron command and that is before even mentioning your sending your database backup by email which is a whole other Pandora's box of problems itself.

[gatzke]

OK, I think I'll take your word for it - FTP it is.

Cheers.