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Backup database (quick reference)

This page is a cheat-sheet of the most common dump commands. For full, copy-paste recipes — including restore steps and an automated, scheduled job — use the per-database Tutorials.

Create a local dump folder first:

mkdir -p ./db-dumps

Use a single rolling dump file and overwrite it each run. Do not create a new timestamped filename every day — a stable path keeps uploads dedup-friendly while still producing a fresh snapshot each time.

PostgreSQL (custom-format dump)​

export PGPASSWORD='your_password'
pg_dump \
  --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --port=5432 \
  --username=postgres \
  --format=custom \
  --file=./db-dumps/app.dump \
  app_db

→ Full guide: Tutorials → PostgreSQL

MySQL / MariaDB (single transaction dump)​

mysqldump \
  --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --port=3306 \
  --user=root \
  --password='your_password' \
  --single-transaction \
  --quick \
  --routines \
  --triggers \
  app_db > ./db-dumps/app.sql

→ Full guide: Tutorials → MySQL

SQLite (consistent online backup)​

sqlite3 /path/to/app.db ".backup './db-dumps/app.sqlite'"

→ Full guide: Tutorials → SQLite

MongoDB (archive dump)​

mongodump --uri="mongodb://user:pass@127.0.0.1:27017/app_db" \
  --archive=./db-dumps/app.archive --gzip

→ Full guide: Tutorials → MongoDB

Amazon DynamoDB (table export to JSON)​

aws dynamodb scan --table-name app_table \
  --output json > ./db-dumps/app_table.json

→ Full guide: Tutorials → Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon S3 (sync a bucket locally)​

aws s3 sync s3://your-bucket ./db-dumps/your-bucket

→ Full guide: Tutorials → Amazon S3

Once a dump exists in ./db-dumps, upload it with the SDK — see Upload Backup Data and Manage Snapshots, or wire the whole thing into a cron job with Automated backup with scheduling.