Until now, our backup strategy didn’t allow for an easy restore of single MySQL databases. Customers that needed to have their database restored sometimes had to endure one or two hours until their website was reset to its previous state again. The reason was that we had chosen the backup method of making a consistent snapshot of the complete MySQL server. So, in order to restore one or more single databases, we first had to restore this snapshot to a spare server where we then were able to dump the single databases that we actually needed.

We’re happy to announce that this weakness has been resolved! Our database backup now works in two phases:

1. Write a database dump for every single database on the server. These dumps are stored locally in generations (daily/weekly/monthly).
2. Copy the dump files to our well-proven enterprise backup system.

With this new strategy, we have stored all database content at several ages and in multiple places and are still able to quickly restore a single database right from its most recent dump file.

We’re optimistic that this change will significantly shorten the time-to-resolve of our customer’s database restore requests.