mysqldump to a tar.gz

Solution 1:

mysqldump --opt <database> | gzip -c | ssh user@wherever 'cat > /tmp/yourfile.sql.gz'

You can't use tar in a pipe like this, and you don't need it anyway, as you're only outputting a single file. tar is only useful if you have multiple files.

Solution 2:

If you are running this locally just use the following command to backup your database & zip it using gzip:

mysqldump -u userName -p (passwordPrompt) yourDatabaseName | gzip -c > output.gz 

(Edit: fixed -c key)

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Solution 3:

Use a named pipe.

mkfifo mysql_pipe
gzip -9 -c < mysql_pipe > name_of_dump.gz &
mysqldump database > mysql_pipe 
rm mysql_pipe

I use it all the time, it'a awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Named_pipe

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Solution 4:

I wrote a quick script to suck down a remote mysql database. It uses mysql compression, gzip and ssh compression. Sucked down a multi GB database at an incredible rate.

    ssh -C user@host "mysqldump --opt --compress database <table> | gzip -9 -c" > outputfile.sql.gz

A side benefit is that it requires no free space on the source database server, so you can use it to backup a database on a server with zero free disk space before going in an pruning your data.

Hope it helps somebody.

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Solution 5:

Use pv and monitor rate!

mysqldump prod_db -h dbslave | pv | gzip -c > prod_2012_08_20.dump.tgz

Or, if you know the size (3GB), get an accurate estimate:

mysqldump prod_db -h dbslave | pv -s 3g | gzip -c > prod_2012_08_20.dump.tgz