How to create automatic backup for our database using cron and bash

| Added: Nov. 7, 2023 | Total views: 630

In this post I will show you how to create automatic backup for our database using cron and bash.

My Django project has a database file called db.sqlite3 which is as you can see sqlite3 file. Inside I have profile settings like social media links, created articles and newsletter subscribers list. I will create a backup every 12 hrs and in my case it will be a full backup.

Preparation

To store my backup, I will create bd_backup dir inside my var directory:

Then I will create a file for our database backup script. Good practice is to locate your scripts used by cron inside etc location. We will create a sub dir called cron-scripts/.

let’s make our script executable using:

to run and edit we will use nano editor. Remember as /etc/ is owned by root we have to insert sudo command to get permission for editing.

 

Coding 

Once we have created and opened our script file, lets make some code:

sudo - is needed because we are saving into root directory, 

--absolute-names - attribute prevents relative path error,

-czvf - are standard attributes for this function for more details check documentary.

 

Cron setup

Lets test script using:

and check results:

As we can see, the script has successfully created a backup inside db_backup directory. Now let's use cron to automate it.

Use command crontab -e to open cron file via editor:

I'm setting up a backup job to be done every 12 hrs at 00.00 and 12.00. Please remember that cron script are executed within the context of the user who created the cron job.

 

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