How to Setup Daily and Weekly Backup Cron on Linux server

Many hosting service providers provide free or paid backup services. Hosting Management software like WHM by cPanel come with powerful backup option that can be used if you are a paid member of the software. In this post however I won’t go in details about the hosting software or their backup options. Here I will show you manual methods of taking periodic backups using scripts on a Linux based server.

In my examples I will configure daily and weekly backup options. In these examples I have used /backup folder to store scripts and backup files.

Set up Daily Backup Scripts

Create a new backup_daily.sh file.

nano backup_daily.sh

Add the following lines to backup_daily.sh file

/bin/bash /backup/script/backup_db_daily.sh \
/bin/bash /backup/script/backup_sites_daily.sh

As you just added in the two lines above we will create backup_db_daily.sh and backup_sites_daily.sh in the next steps.

Daily Database backup script

Create backup_db_daily.shwith following lines. Make changes to db details accordingly.

extrafile="/backup/my.cnf"
dir_backup_log="/backup/log"
backup_dir="/backup/daily/db"
dbname="your_database_name"
/usr/bin/mysqldump --defaults-extra-file=$extrafile $dbname | gzip >  $backup_dir/`date +%Y%m%d`-backup_filename.sql.gz
&& echo "`date +%Y%m%d` DB Daily Backup Successful" >> $dir_backup_log/backup_db_daily.log 
&& echo "`date` DB Daily Backup Successful" | mail -s "Daily Backup Status" your_email@domain.tld

Note: in order to not expose database details in the command line we are using the default-extra-file options of MySQL server. More details. For this, create a my.cnf file with the following lines of code, and store it some secured folder and mention the path in the extrafile option above. (supply database details accordingly)

[client]
user = "your_db_username"
password = "your_db_password"
host = "your_db_host"

Daily Files backup script

Create backup_sites_daily.shwith following lines. Make changes to folder path accordingly.

backup_dir="/backup/daily/files"
dir_to_backup="/var/www/html"
dir_backup_log="/backup/log"

tar czf $backup_dir/`date +%Y%m%d`-fundabook-wp-content.tar.gz $dir_to_backup \
&& echo "`date +%Y%m%d` Files Daily Backup Successful" >> $dir_backup_log/backup_sites_daily.log 
&& echo "`date` Files Daily Backup Successful" | mail -s "Daily Backup Status" your_email@domain.tld

Set up Weekly Backup Scripts

Weekly backup scripts can also be setup by modifying the daily backup scripts, as under.

Note: All files to be created within /backup/scripts folder

Create a new backup_weekly.sh file.

/bin/bash /backup/script/backup_db_weekly.sh \
/bin/bash /backup/script/backup_sites_weekly.sh

As you just added in the two lines above we will create backup_db_weekly.sh and backup_sites_weekly.sh in the next steps.

Weekly Database backup script

Create backup_db_weekly.shwith following lines. Make changes to db details accordingly.

extrafile="/backup/my.cnf"
backup_dir="/backup/weekly/db"
dir_backup_log="/backup/log"
dbname="your_database_name"
/usr/bin/mysqldump --defaults-extra-file=$extrafile $dbname | gzip >  $backup_dir/`date +%Y%m%d`-backup_filename.sql.gz && echo "`date +%Y%m%d` DB Weekly Backup Successful" >> $dir_backup_log/backup_db_weekly.log && echo "`date` DB Weekly Backup Successful" | mail -s "Weekly Backup Status" your_email@domain.tld

Weekly Files Backup Script

Create backup_sites_weekly.shwith following lines. Make changes to folder path accordingly.

backup_dir="/backup/weekly/files"
dir_to_backup="/var/www/html"
dir_backup_log="/backup/log"

tar czf $backup_dir/`date +%Y%m%d`-fundabook-wp-content.tar.gz $dir_to_backup \
&& echo "`date +%Y%m%d` Files Weekly Backup Successful" >> $dir_backup_log/backup_sites_weekly.log 
&& echo "`date` Files Weekly Backup Successful" | mail -s "Weekly Backup Status" your_email@domain.tld

Cleaning Back Ups

If you are concerned about the disk space, you may need to remove old backups periodically.

To do so, first create backup_cleaner.shwith the following lines. Make changes to folder path accordingly.

/bin/bash /backup/script/backup_cleaner_daily.sh \
/bin/bash /backup/script/backup_cleaner_weekly.sh

As added in two lines above we will create backup_cleaner_daily.sh and backup_cleaner_weekly.sh in the next two steps.

Create backup_cleaner_daily.sh and add the following code.

#! /bin/bash

find /backup/daily/* -type f -ctime +3 -exec rm -f {} \;
exit 1

Create backup_cleaner_weekly.sh and add the following code.

#! /bin/bash

find /backup/weekly/* -type f -ctime +28 -exec rm -f {} \;
exit 1

Running Back Up Scripts

Setting up cron for daily backup

crontab -e

Add the following lines to crontab file

0 0 * * 5 /bin/bash /backup/script/backup_weekly.sh > /var/log/backup_weekly.log
0 0 * * * /bin/bash /backup/script/backup_cleaner_weekly.sh > /var/log/backup_cleaner_weekly.log
0 0 * * * /bin/bash /backup/script/backup_daily.sh > /var/log/backup_daily.log
0 0 * * * /bin/bash /backup/script/backup_cleaner_daily.sh > /var/log/backup_cleaner_daily.log

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