How to Configure Holland to Backup MariaDB on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

Holland is an open source backup framework written in Python. It can be used to back up several different database types using a number of methods based on the plugins you choose to install. In this tutorial we will cover how to on install and configure Holland to backup a MariaDB or MySQL databases using the common mysqldump method on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7.

0./ Create a backup user:

– We are going to create a backup user in the MariaDB Master where Holland backup will use it:

[root@sqlmaster ~]# mysql -u root -p

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'your_user_backup_name_here'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_user_backup_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> exit

1./ Install Holland and Dependencies:

– Before proceeding the installation the holland backup and Dependencies you have to install the EPEL Repository:

[root@sqlslave ~]# sudo yum install epel-release
[root@sqlslave ~]# sudo yum install holland holland-common holland-mysqldump

2./ Configure a Backup task with Holland

– The default holland backup jobs location is /etc/holland/backupsets/ where you can create new backup jobs. Let’s create a new backup job file:

[root@sqlslave ~]# cat << END > /etc/holland/backupsets/default.conf
##
## Default Backup-Set
##
## Backs up all MySQL databases in a one-file-per-database fashion using
## lightweight in-line compression and engine auto-detection. This backup-set
## is designed to provide reliable backups "out of the box", however it is
## generally advisable to create additional custom backup-sets to suit
## one's specific needs.

[holland:backup]
plugin = mysqldump
backups-to-keep = 1
auto-purge-failures = yes
purge-policy = after-backup
estimated-size-factor = 1.0

# This section defines the configuration options specific to the backup
# plugin. In other words, the name of this section should match the name
# of the plugin defined above.

[mysqldump]
file-per-database   = yes
#lock-method        = auto-detect
#databases          = "*"
#exclude-databases  = "foo", "bar"
#tables             = "*"
#exclude-tables     = "foo.bar"
#stop-slave         = no
#bin-log-position   = no

# The following section is for compression. The default, unless the
# mysqldump provider has been modified, is to use inline fast gzip
# compression (which is identical to the commented section below).
[compression]
method = gzip
options = "--rsyncable"

[mysql:client]
defaults-extra-file       = /root/.my.cnf
END

3./ Creation .my.cnf file

– In the default.conf file created we have set defaults-extra-file to /root/.my.cnf, for that reason we have to create /root/.my.cnf file and put the database credentials into it.

[root@sqlslave ~]# cat << END > /root/.my.cnf
[client]
user = your_user_backup_name_here
password = your_user_backup_password_here
host = your_master_server_ip_here
END

4./ Schedule a Backup Job using Cron

– We can use cron to schedule Holland backup job. In this example, we will configure a typical daily backup by editing root’s crontab that will be run everyday at 18:01.

[root@sqlslave ~]# sudo crontab -e -u root
01 18 * * * holland -q bk

– By default the backup location is under the directory /var/spool/holland/ you can modify it by editing the default configuration file /etc/holland/holland.conf and change the backup_directory setting.