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Restore

How to backup and restore a MySQL database on Windows and Linux

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Why backup and restore

This is a quick guide demonstrating how you can backup and restore a MySQL database on Windows and Linux using Adminer.

You may need to know how to backup a restore a database for a number of reasons..

e.g

  • Send the database to someone to debug or give feedback while learning.
  • Move the database from a local machine to the cloud
  • Move the database from cloud vendor A to cloud vendor B
  • etc.

Having a backup of the VM is good but having a backup of the database too is better. I use UpCloud for hosting my VM’s and setting backups is easy. But I cannot download those backups.

UpCloud Backup Screen

Murphy’s Law

“If anything can go wrong, it will”

The most important reason for taking a backup and knowing how to restore it is for disaster recovery reasons.

Backup (the easiest way) with Adminer

Adminer is a free PHP based IDE for MySQL and other databases. Simply install Adminer and save the file on your local computer or remote web server directory.

FYI: The Adminer author Jakub Vrana has a patron page, I am a patron of this awesome software.

Snip from Adminers website. “Adminer (formerly phpMinAdmin) is a full-featured database management tool written in PHP. Conversely to phpMyAdmin, it consist of a single file ready to deploy to the target server. Adminer is available for MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL, Oracle, Firebird, SimpleDB, Elasticsearch andMongoDB.”

adminer.php file icon screenshot

TIP: The file would be publicly accessible to anyone so don’t save it to a common area, obfuscate the file, protect it of delete the file when you are done using it.

Once Adminer is installed load it in a web browser, login with your MySQL credentials. Once you login you will see all databases and an Import and Export menu.

Adminer main screen, all databases and import and export menu.

tbtest is a simple database with one table and 4 fields (ID, Key, Value and Modified)

.Click Export to open the export screen.

Export screen showing a list of databases and export options

Click Export, a SQL file will be generated (this is the export of the database).

Here is a save of the file:
https://fearby.com/wp-content/uploads/export.txt

Exported view of https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-admin-export-import-management.html

Its that simple.

If I add a binary blob file to the table and upload a PNG file lets see how the export looks.

Screenshot o the new table with a blog field in Adminer UI

Let export the database again in Adminer and check out the output. I used Sublime Text editor to view the export file.

New Export shows the binary file in the Backup SQL file

Restore (the easiest way) with Adminer

OK lets delete the tbtest database and then restore it with Adminer. I used Adminer to delete (DROP) the database.

Database dropped with Adminer

Database “dbtest” deleted.

Now lets create a blank database to restore to (same name).

Create database screen.

Database created.

dbtest created.

Now lets import the database backup using Adminer.

Click Import, select the backup file and un-tick Stop on errors.

Import screenshot, dxtest selectded, Restore file selected, stop on errors disabled

TIP: The 2MB next the the choose file button is defined by your web server and PHP configuration. If you are trying to import a larger database (e.g 80MB) first increase the limits in your web server and PHP (via php.ini).

The Import (restore should take seconds)

Import Success

The database was imported from a backup, all tables and records imported just fine.

The database was imported from a backup

Bonus methods.

On Ubuntu use this guide to backup from the command line. If you use the Oracle MySQL Workbench read this.

I hope this helps someone.

No matter what server-provider you are using I strongly recommend you have a hot spare ready on a different provider

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No matter what server-provider you are using I strongly recommend you have a hot spare ready on a different provider

Aside

If you have not read my previous posts I have now moved my blog to the awesome UpCloud host (signup using this link to get $25 free UpCloud VM credit). I compared Digital Ocean, Vultr and UpCloud Disk IO here and UpCloud came out on top by a long way (read the blog post here). Here is my blog post on moving from Vultr to UpCloud.

Buy a domain name here

Domain names for just 88 cents!

Now on with the post.

Murphy’s Law

I recently had an issue where I set up a website for a friend. I invested 6 hours into setting up..

I setup…

  • Debian OS
  • NGINX Web Server
  • MySQL Database
  • PHP 7.2
  • PHP-FPM Child Workers
  • HTTPS Certificate
  • Security (Firewall/Headers/SSH, WordPress, Plugins etc).
  • Installed WordPress and Plugins
  • Setup DNSSEC
  • Etc

I had tested GTMetrix scores = less than 1 second.  Security headers were tested and I was happy with the site.

The server and backups were automatically deleted after 7 days while I was away from my keyboard because I assumed the account was valid and had credits.

Lesson Learned

  • Always have a backup (of the server, setup/ www, MySQL etc).
  • Script setups (Ansible, Puppet or Scripts) to sate time redeploying if need be.
  • Backups are not always available.
  • Do have setup documented (Check)
  • Do have a disaster plan

I have guides on setting up a server on UpCloud, AWS, Vultr, Digital Ocean but setting up can be rather repetitive so how can you prevent resetting up servers?

Why Plan for the Worst

  • Companies disappear.
  • Some hosts go down.
  • Some hosts have weird trial modes and internal process that could take your site down.
  • Human error?
  • Murphy’s Law

How I will prevent this in future

  1. I am building a Java desktop app for Windows/OSX/Linux app that will deploy and set up on UpCloud/Vultr/Digital Ocean providers and allow for 1 click deploy and backup and restore.
  2. I am going to re-establish replication between servers with RSync etc.
  3. I am going to start to automate installs and environments.
  4. I am going to set up a hot (ready to go) Green/Blue mirrored environments (www and DB server) on different providers in case of emergency. Then I can set the active live servers with DNS (blog posts soon).
  5. Consider a server farm (same provider or different providers)

I hope this guide helps someone.

Please consider using my referral code and get $25 UpCloud VM credit if you need to create a server online.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

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Revision History

v1.0 Initial Post

How to use the UpCloud API to manage your UpCloud servers

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How to use the UpCloud API to manage your UpCloud servers.

If you have not read my previous posts I have now moved my blog etc to the awesome UpCloud host. Sign up using this link to get $25 free credit.

I recently compared Digital Ocean, Vultr and UpCloud Disk IO here and UpCloud came out on top by a long way (read the blog post here).

Here is my blog post on moving from Vultr to UpCloud.

Spoiler: UpCloud performance is great.

Upcloud Site Speed in GTMetrix

I have never had an UpCloud page load take longer than 2 seconds since moving.

UpCloud API

UpCloud has an API that we can opt into to using where we can manage servers. Read the official UpCloud API documentation here.

The API allows you to control:

  • Accounts
  • Pricing
  • Zones
  • Timezones
  • Plans
  • Servers
  • Storages
  • IP-Addresses
  • Firewall
  • Tags
  • etc

Create a sub-account to query the API

You should create a new user account (in the UpCloud dashboard) just for API access. I created two accounts for use on my server and on my home laptop and my server (and set a limiting IP(s) that can access it).

Create a Sub Account for API Access

Login to your UpCloud account (create an account here and get $25 free credit),

  1. Click My Accounts,
  2. Click User Accounts,
  3. Click Change on your user and enable API connections.
  4. TIP: Set up an IP rule to limit access to your API for security (I set up a VPN to get a static IP on my dynamic IP Internet host at home)).
  5. Save the changes

Enable API Connections

TIP: Lockdown the account to have the minimum permissions required.

e.g

  • Disable access to the control panel (Untick).
  • Allow API Connections (Tick) and specify an IP
  • Disable access to billing contact (Untick).
  • Disable access to billing section in the control panel (Untick).
  • Disable allowing of emails to billing contact (Untick).
  • Allow or Remove access to all server (or manually add access to desired servers)
  • Allow or Remove access to modify storage (or manually allow or remove access to desired storage)
  • etc

Lock down the account to the minimum needed

Save the account.

Now let’s make our first API call

I use OSX and I use the awesome Paw API testing tool from https://paw.cloud (This is not a plug, they are awesome). Postman is a popular API testing tool too. Any good programing language or CLI will allow you to send API requests.

First, let’s prepare the authorization string (this is a Base64 encoded combination of your username and password) read more here.

  1. Head over to https://www.base64encode.org/
  2. Click the Encode tab
  3. Add your “username:password” (without the quotes).
  4. Click Encode

A Base64 string will be outputted 🙂

e.g > eW91cmFwaXVzZXJuYW1lOnlvdXJzdXBlcnNlY3VyZXBhc3N3b3Jk

fyi

You can encode also Encode and Decode Base64 from the Ubuntu Command line

Encode Base64 from the CLI Sample

Decode Base64 from the CLI Sample

Now we can add an “Authorization Basic” token to the API request in Paw.

Authorization Header added with my base64 token.

A quick test of the UpCloud Prices API endpoint https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/price reveals the API is working.

Add Authorization Token

I can now see a full breakdown of my service prices in JSON 🙂

Query My Account

OK, Let’s see how much credit I have left by querying the https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/account, I duplicated the item in Paw and changed the URL to https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/account but no data returned?

I had to enable “Access to Billing section in Control Panel” for the user before this data returned from the API (make sense).

> HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Query (GET)

GET /1.2/account HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Authorization: Basic *******************************************

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:23:32 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 91
Server: Apache

{
   "account" : {
      "credits" : 2500.00,
      "username" : "yourapiusername"
   }
}

“2500.00” = cents ($25)

Query All of Your Servers

Ok, Let’s get server information by querying https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/server

Query (GET)

GET /1.2/server HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Authorization: Basic ##############base64hash##############

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:32:22 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 1154
Server: Apache

{
   "servers" : {
      "server" : [
         {
            "core_number" : "1",
            "hostname" : "server1nameredacted.com",
            "license" : 0,
            "memory_amount" : "2048",
            "plan" : "1xCPU-2GB",
            "plan_ipv4_bytes" : "3472464313",
            "plan_ipv6_bytes" : "166293599",
            "state" : "started",
            "tags" : {
               "tag" : [
                  "tag1"
               ]
            },
            "title" : "server1nameredacted.com",
            "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
            "zone" : "us-chi1"
         },
         {
            "core_number" : "1",
            "hostname" : "server2nameredacted.com",
            "license" : 0,
            "memory_amount" : "1024",
            "plan" : "1xCPU-1GB",
            "plan_ipv4_bytes" : "198911",
            "plan_ipv6_bytes" : "19742",
            "state" : "started",
            "tags" : {
               "tag" : [
                  "tag2"
               ]
            },
            "title" : "server1nameredacted.com",
            "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
            "zone" : "us-chi1"
         }
      ]
   }
}

Query Server Information

I have redated the UUID’s for my servers but once you know them you can query them by hitting https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/server/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:45:14 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 1656
Server: Apache

{
   "server" : {
      "boot_order" : "cdrom,disk",
      "core_number" : "1",
      "firewall" : "on",
      "host" : redacted,
      "hostname" : "server1nameredacted.com",
      "ip_addresses" : {
         "ip_address" : [
            {
               "access" : "private",
               "address" : "##.#.#.###",
               "family" : "IPv4"
            },
            {
               "access" : "public",
               "address" : "###.###.###.###",
               "family" : "IPv4",
               "part_of_plan" : "yes"
            },
            {
               "access" : "public",
               "address" : "####:####:####:####:####:####:########",
               "family" : "IPv6"
            }
         ]
      },
      "license" : 0,
      "memory_amount" : "2048",
      "nic_model" : "virtio",
      "plan" : "1xCPU-2GB",
      "plan_ipv4_bytes" : "3519033266",
      "plan_ipv6_bytes" : "168200052",
      "state" : "started",
      "storage_devices" : {
         "storage_device" : [
            {
               "address" : "virtio:0",
               "boot_disk" : "0",
               "part_of_plan" : "yes",
               "storage" : "########-####-####-####-############",
               "storage_size" : 50,
               "storage_title" : "system",
               "type" : "disk"
            }
         ]
      },
      "tags" : {
         "tag" : [
            "fearby"
         ]
      },
      "timezone" : "Australia/Sydney",
      "title" : "server1nameredacted.com",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "video_model" : "cirrus",
      "vnc" : "off",
      "vnc_password" : "#########################",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

The servers name, IPv4 and IPV6 network adapters are listed, CPU(s), Memory, Disk Sized and UUID’s are all visible 🙂

Surprisingly the VNC password is visible (enabling access to the root console).

TIP: Ensure your API account is safe and secure.

Query Storage Information

Now, Let’s query the storage with the GUID from above by querying https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

GET /1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############ HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Authorization: Basic  ##############base64hash##############

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:53:36 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 559
Server: Apache

{
   "storage" : {
      "access" : "private",
      "backup_rule" : {},
      "backups" : {
         "backup" : [
            "########-####-####-####-############"
         ]
      },
      "license" : 0,
      "part_of_plan" : "yes",
      "servers" : {
         "server" : [
            "########-####-####-####-############"
         ]
      },
      "size" : 50,
      "state" : "online",
      "tier" : "maxiops",
      "title" : "system",
      "type" : "normal",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

I can see information about the storage’s assigned server and backups 🙂

Query Backup Information

Backup storage can be queried with the same storge API endpoint https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 05:01:11 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 412
Server: Apache

{
   "storage" : {
      "access" : "private",
      "created" : "2018-06-16T04:47:56Z",
      "license" : 0,
      "origin" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "servers" : {
         "server" : []
      },
      "size" : 50,
      "state" : "online",
      "title" : "On-Demand Backup",
      "type" : "backup",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

Rename Backup

One thing that I would like to be able to do is to rename on-demand backups in the UpCloud dashboard (this is not a feature yet) but I can rename manual backup’s in the API though 🙂

Boring “On-Demand Backup” label.

Rename Backups Not possible in the GUI

I tried sending JSON to https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############ to rename a backup but kept getting an error?

JSON

{
> “storage”: {
> “title”: “Latest manual backup , Working NGINX, PHP, MySQL w Tweaks”,
> “size”: “50”
> }
> }

Result

> “error_code” : “CONTENT_TYPE_INVALID”,
> “error_message” : “The Content-Type header has an invalid value.”

I googled and found an old manual for UpClouds API (official support here).

I added these missing content-type headers (108 was the length in chars of the payload)

> Content-Type: application/json; Charset=UTF-8'
> Content-Length: 108

Still no go?

I think the content-length value is wrong, more here.

I fixed it, it turned out I had a semicolon in the Content-Type value. The JSON RFC always assumes that Content-Type is UTF8 encoded (more here).

This Fails

This Works

Content-Type: application/json

Now I can rename my Backup (storage). I manually calculated the length of the JSON payload and added a “Content-Length” header and value.

Query (PUT)

Output

HTTP/1.1 202 ACCEPTED
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 05:47:02 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 453
Server: Apache

{
   "storage" : {
      "access" : "private",
      "created" : "2018-06-16T04:47:56Z",
      "license" : 0,
      "origin" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "servers" : {
         "server" : []
      },
      "size" : 50,
      "state" : "online",
      "title" : "Latest manual backup , Working NGINX, PHP, MySQL w Tweaks",
      "type" : "backup",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

Success 🙂

Backup Renamed

Create a Backup

Backups can be performed with a “/backup” added to the end of the query string.

Query (POST)

Output

Success (UpCloud GUI)

Conclusion

UpCloud does have great API docs.

I can easily integrate this into bash scripts to manage my servers via API and a future Java app for managing servers.

Paw does give CURL output to allow me to copy working API’s for use in BASH 🙂

More to come

  1. BASH Script to Deploy and configure a server on UpCloud via Initialization scripts (or manual) (1 week)
  2. JAVA App to manage your server (3 months)

If you are signing up for UpCloud please consider using my referral code and get $25 credit for free.

Read my setup guide here.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

V1.1 updated typo

v1.0 Initial Post.

Restoring a Vultr VM from a snapshot

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This is a short post showing how easy it is to restore a Vultr VM (Ubuntu) to a previous snapshot.

I have set up servers on Digital Ocean, AWS and Vultr before but it is always good to know how to restore a system when disaster strikes. Never rely on backups or snapshots to save you in the time of disaster but restoring a backup or snapshot will get you going to fast (depending on how frequent you backup). It is a good idea to know how to reconfigure your servers and also copy files and code to git or other offsite platforms regularly.

I recently had a test server fall over after upgrading MongoDB 3.4 to 3.6, I think I installed upstart to try and get MongoDB to run at startup.

My server won’t boot, bad sectors, invalid VM errors etc.

Server wont boot

I tried repairing (based on advice around removing upstart etc)

Tried Repairing

But the suggested repair was for a GUI Ubuntu (and the server did not boot anyway).

Manual repair was for GUI ubuntu

3-week old snapshots available

Snapshots available

Login to Vultr, click the server you want to restore, click Snapshots and then select the select the snapshot to restore and click the restore button on the right.

Click the server you want to restore

Restore will be started

Restore will be started

Restore may take up to 1-hour ot more. Obviously, the server will be offline during the restore.

Restore may take up to 1 hour or more.

Restore progress will be available from the main server list.

Restore progress will be available from the main server list

You will be able to see when the snapshot has been restored.

You will be able to see when the snapshot has been restored.

You can verify the server is up by accessing the server (http or root console)

You can verify this by accessing the server.

Don’t forget to take new snapshots regularly.

Don't forget to take new snapshots regularly

Consider automated backups

Consider automated backups

Now I just needed to follow my guide on installing MongoDb 3.6 as this was the only change in the last 3 weeks (festive holidays).

Oh, and I had to patch for Spectre and Meltdown.

Yes you can restore a  smaller VM onto a larger VM just not  a larger snapshot onto a smaller,

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

v1.2 Restoring a smaller snapshot onto a larger VM info

v1.1 Patch for Spectre and Meltdown

v1.0 Initial post

Restoring lost files on a Windows FAT, FAT32, NTFS or Linux EXT, Linux XFS volume with iRecover from diydatarecovery.nl

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Below is my quick guide to showing how I recover lost files on a removable (or internal drive) with software on Windows. This is not a paid advert but this is what works for me (and has worked with everything I have thrown at it). Tell me what works for you (especially on OSX).

“Helping one person might not change the world but it could change the world for one person” – Buddha.

I hope this guide helps someone, I have never seen someone happier than when I have been able to restore lost files or photos for someone. Not everyone backs up data (read my guide here).

Before you start

Don’t touch (format, access or install software) onto drives and USB drive that you want to restore files from or you may overwrite files on that drive. Doing this will potentially block the ability to restore files. Electronics die, software gets corrupted, this can be complex so If in doubt seek professional help and advice before proceeding. This is advice only and it’s your call with your data, Restoring files on damaged magnetic or USB drives can damage the data storage platter or storage chips, so proceed at your own risk. (legal disclaimer over, good luck).

More on how file systems and storage work

How File Systems Work

How the File Allocation Table Works

Installing DIY Data Recovery

The DIY Data Recovery software can restore images (photos) from a UBS, SD card or files (images or non-images) from data or operating system drives. If you have a system or data drive from a PC you can plug it into another PC running DIY Dat Recovery and scan and restore from the possibly bad drive to a good host drive, never restore files to a bad drive from a bad drive. I am an Apple Mac user now but only know of this Windows method for restoring files, please let me know of an Apple Mac way to restore files on FAT, NTFS and other file systems, please.

I usually connect USB drives directly or connect SATA drives via a small caddy

On a working Windows computer install DIY Data Recovery software from here.

Install

Plugin your dead USB or another drive to restore files from (do not interact with the drive once Windows can see it).

Insert Drive

Do not format or modify the drive if prompted (cancel this screen).

Dont Format

Sometimes Windows will offer to fix it (do not interact with this dialogue).

From memory, you can follow the steps below on a free trial version but you will need a paid version (serial number) to actually restore files. The free trial will show files that it can restore though. I paid about $60 for the software a few years ago, it is currently 59 EUROS. Enter your serial number if you have one.

Register iRecovery

After you register it (or continue with the free trial) select the drive to scan for files and click Next.

Select Drive

Here is another unreadable SATA drive

DIY Data Recovery will scan each sector and try and find files. On a smaller healthy drive, the scan won’t take long, on a larger drive (e.g a 2TB NTFS drive it may take 18+ hours).

In this case, we can see the USB drive has two bad sectors (red squares) at the front of the USB stick in the file system sectors (green squares). This possibly happened when the USB was pulled out when the operating system was writing to the USB stick. If the USB was dying the bad sectors would be at random positions.

Data fragments are listed as blue squares.

Let it scan

Here is another sample scan results

When the scan is done click ‘Save” to save the found sectors state (saving the state can save you time later).

Disclaimer: Clicking save does not save lost files it just saves the current scan state.

choose Files to recover

You can click the legend button to see the state of each file (Not processed, Presumably valid, Invalid, bad sectors etc)

Tick the files you want to be restored.

Legend

FYI: You will see some files you know, some files you forgot and some weird files. Restoring files is hit and miss and you may never see files again (do backup). Benjamin Franklin once said “Failing to plan is planning to fail”, You can also say “Failing to backup is guaranteeing lost data”.

Restoring Files

Do

  • Create a folder on your working Desktop to restore files to.
  • Do increase Read and Write cache
  • Do set longer Timeouts (e.g 1000, 5000, 10000, 60000)

Restore

Click “Start copying the selected files” to restore.

restore

Hopefully, you will have files restored, if not seek professional help. I’d recommend keeping the corrupt or source drive in a drawer, you may be able to use other tools to restore more files at a later date.

Restored Files

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Revision History

V1.1 Added more screenshot from a second DATA drive scan

v1.0 Initial Post