It is good practice to back up your server regularly. If you are using MySQL, the mysqldump command makes it very easy.

The typical command to back up your entire database is:

• -uroot = use username of root
• -p = ask for password
• -e = extended inserts (makes the dump 10x smaller)
• --single-transaction = run this in a single transaction (to prevent corruption)
• -q = quick
• -r = file location to store
• openmrs = name of your database

If you want to automate it, you can provide the username and password for mysql in the command:

If you want to exclude a few of the extremely large tables, you can do that too

If you are on a linux variant, you can insert the date automatically into the backup sql filename:

If you are on windows, you can insert the date automatically too, its just a little uglier:

After creating the backup .sql file, you can zip it and store it for later use.

Restoring From A Backup File

The now get the data out of an archived sql backup file and into a new database its merely three simple steps:

1. Create your new database
   • create database openmrsbackuprestoration default character set utf8;
2. Tell mysql to work against that new database
   • use openmrsbackuprestoration
3. Run the sql file
   • source backup.sql

Now wait for 1, 20, or 30 minutes and you'll have all your data back.