Question

Automated cPanel backup with email

Asked by: lanmenz

Quite simply I need a script that will backup all my cPanel databases and then email them to my email address which I can then automate as a cron job.

Thus far I've tried the attached script which executes successfully and sends me an email with the correct number of SQL attachments, however all the files are empty.

I've also tried using 'AutoMySQLBackup' (http://sourceforge.net/projects/automysqlbackup/files/)

However I recieve the following error: '/bin/sh: /home/mysite/backup.sh: /bin/bash
: bad interpreter: No such file or directory' hence I don't think bash is installed on my server.

I would be most grateful for a solution to this.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-07-23 at 03:03:19ID24593971
Tags

cPanel

,

cron

,

backup

,

email

,

apache

,

linux

,

perl

Topics

CPanel

,

Apache Web Server

,

Perl Programming Language

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
15

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Use Cpanel Cron jobs to schedule backup and email
    Hi, I'm using cpanel with have cron jobs funtion. But i don't know write a script to schedule follow list: - Back up database (all database of specific database), compress and email to me (require) - Back up public_html and upload to remote ftp (optional) All backup file mu...
  2. how to view current cron jobs in cPanel?
    How do I view current cron jobs in cPanel?

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: bounsyPosted on 2009-07-23 at 11:07:42ID: 24928197

Can you cut and paste the code?  EE is not letting me view the attachment.

 

by: lanmenzPosted on 2009-07-23 at 12:41:03ID: 24929221

No probs, see code snippet attached.

Many thanks

#!/usr/bin/perl
 
use strict;
use MIME::Lite;
use DBI;
 
open(STDOUT, ">/dev/null");
open(STDERR, ">/dev/null");
 
## Set your e-mail address
my $email = '';
 
## Set the message of the backup e-mail
my $subject = 'Database Backup';
 
## Set your cpanel username
my $user = '';
 
## Set your cpanel password
my $pass = '';
 
my @databases;
 
my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:mysql::localhost', $user, $pass);
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("show databases");
$sth->execute;
while (my($db) = $sth->fetchrow_array) {
        push(@databases, $db);
}
$sth->finish;
$dbh->disconnect();
 
if (!-d "/home/" . $user . "/sqldumps") {
        system("mkdir","-p","/home/" . $user . "/sqldumps");
}
 
foreach my $database (@databases) {
        system("/usr/bin/mysqldump -u " . $user . " -p" . $pass . " " . $database . " >/home/" . $user . "/sqldumps/" . $database . ".sql");
}
 
my $mime_msg = MIME::Lite->new(
        To => $email,
        Subject => $subject,
        Type =>'multipart/mixed'
);
 
foreach my $database (@databases) {
        $mime_msg->attach (
                Path => "/home/" . $user . "/sqldumps/" . $database . ".sql",
                Disposition => 'attachment'
        );
}
MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -oi");
$mime_msg->send();
 
foreach my $database (@databases) {
        unlink("/home/" . $user . "/sqldumps/" . $database . ".sql");
}
 
close(STDERR);
close(STDOUT);
                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:
44:
45:
46:
47:
48:
49:
50:
51:
52:
53:
54:
55:
56:
57:
58:
59:
60:
61:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: Adam314Posted on 2009-07-23 at 20:56:11ID: 24932172

On line 17, you need to enter your username.
On line 20, you need to enter your password.

Is your home directory /home/<user>?  If not, line 33 and line 38 will need to be updated to reflect your home directory.

Have you looked in the /home/<user>/sqldumps directory?  Are there files there?  Do they have the correct data?

 

by: lanmenzPosted on 2009-07-24 at 01:51:34ID: 24933123

Hi there,

Yeah I removed my username and password from the script for secirity.  Also the home directory is /home/user/ as per the script.

I can see that the directory /sqldumps/ has been created, but there is no data in there - I've tried with permissions 755 and 777 just to be sure
.

I'd be most grateful for any other suggestions.

Cheers.

 

by: Adam314Posted on 2009-07-24 at 07:42:48ID: 24935382

Does /usr/bin/mysqldump exist?

 

by: lanmenzPosted on 2009-07-24 at 07:49:59ID: 24935442

no I can't see that directory anywhere on the server (from my ftp account), but then I can't see /usr/bin/perl either but it must be there because the perl script runs fine!

Cheers.


 

by: bounsyPosted on 2009-07-24 at 09:49:49ID: 24936749

What happens when you run this command from the command line (making the appropriate substitutions)?

/usr/bin/mysqldump -u <username> -p<password> <database> >/home/<username>/sqldumps/<database>.sql");

I note that there is no space between -p and the password (like there is between -u and the username) on line 38.  Could this be causing the command to fail?

In general, you are not checking the return codes of any of your system calls and you're not capturing any of the output either.  At a minimum, you really ought to check the return value ($?) to ensure that the command succeeded and react appropriately when it does not.

For debugging purposes, I usually prefer to use backticks instead of the system function so that I can get the output as well.  The following shows an example of what I mean.

print `your command string goes here`;
if ($?)
{
  die "Command failed: $?";
}
                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: Adam314Posted on 2009-07-24 at 10:18:23ID: 24937002

In this case, backticks will not give you any data because STDOUT is being redirected to a file (note the ">" character in the string passed to the system function).

Since the command is being run from the CRON, any STDERR should be captured and sent to your e-mail anyways.  Do you get anything in your e-mail?

>>no I can't see that directory anywhere on the server (from my ftp account)
The ftp access must not be setup to allow you to view the entire filesystem then.  Do you have shell access to the server?  Can your host verify that /usr/bin/mysqldump exists, and is executable by you?

 

by: bounsyPosted on 2009-07-24 at 10:34:54ID: 24937155

You're right Adam314.  Lines 7 and 8 disable all STDOUT and STDERR from going to the output from cron (and therefore should never get to the e-mail).  I was just trying to point out some tips in debugging, but you definitely would need to comment out lines 7 and 8 to get the output.  (Or change them to point their output to files somewhere you can get to.)

I still think that missing space is highly suspect.  Checking the output and return value should give you some clues.

 

by: lanmenzPosted on 2009-07-24 at 10:56:46ID: 24937323

Hi guys, thanks for your help.

I'll have to check with my hosts to see if I can get access to 'usr/bin/mysqldump' although I doubt they'll let me as it's shared hosting.

In the meantime I tried changing that directory to a different one which was executable by me but still no joy - the same blank emails and no files created in the directory.

Thanks again.

 

by: bounsyPosted on 2009-07-24 at 11:21:52ID: 24937549

Have you tried any of the changes I suggested?

 

by: Adam314Posted on 2009-07-24 at 13:23:19ID: 24938759

bouncy>>Yes, those are good suggestions in general.

I agree that the missing space after the "-p" could be the cause.  To test, change line 38 to this:

system("/usr/bin/mysqldump -u " . $user . " -p " . $pass . " " . $database . " >/home/" . $user . "/sqldumps/" . $database . ".sql");
                                              
1:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: lanmenzPosted on 2009-07-25 at 07:57:34ID: 24941863

Okey dokey, cheers for the advice:

@ bounsy

I have commented lines 7 & 8 as advised - please see output below

@ Adam314

I updated line 38 as advised but the output showed password errors so I changed it back to the original which gave the output as below.

Thanks.

sh: 2M%: command not found
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
sh: 2M%: command not found
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
sh: 2M%: command not found
sh: 2M%: command not found
sh: 2M%: command not found
sh: 2M%: command not found
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
sh: 2M%: command not found
sh: 2M%: command not found
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
sh: 2M%: command not found
sh: 2M%: command not found
sh: 2M%: command not found
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
Usage: mysqldump [OPTIONS] database [tables]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --databases [OPTIONS] DB1 [DB2 DB3...]
OR     mysqldump [OPTIONS] --all-databases [OPTIONS]
For more options, use mysqldump --help
                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:
44:
45:
46:
47:
48:
49:
50:
51:
52:
53:
54:
55:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: bounsyPosted on 2009-07-26 at 12:26:22ID: 24947032

So your mysqldump command is definitely incorrect.  Based on the output, I'm guessing that "2M%" is part of your password.  Because of special characters, you will need to put your password in quotes like this.

system("/usr/bin/mysqldump -u " . $user . " -p '" . $pass . "' " . $database . " >/home/" . $user . "/sqldumps/" . $database . ".sql");

                                              
1:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: lanmenzPosted on 2009-07-27 at 02:58:10ID: 24949953

awesome that's done the trick!

Thanks for all your help, most appreciated.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...