Having a website driven by MySQL database without making regular backups is courting disaster. Over the course of time the database grows larger, accumulates more records. Now just try and imagine typing in your website address in the browser only to find that it is gone forever or needs fixing due to errors. How would that make you feel? If you find yourself feeling sick just thinking about it, then why set yourself up for a fall when you can so easily make a backup of the database and sleep well at night?

Auto Backup for MySQL Professional Edition 2.1 from SwordSky Software promises to save database admins and web masters from data-loss nightmares once and for all. As the name implies, it makes backups of the MySQL database, be it local or remote, automatically. The time to back up and restore can be scheduled by the user through a wizard-driven interface, which makes backing up and restoring pretty straight forward and simple.

Auto Backup for MySQL Pro provides a pain-free way to back up MySQL databases, tables and views to SQL, PHP files, or to the other server or database. All newly-created databases and tables on the MySQL server can be backed up automatically, when you are not around. To do so, you should set the time interval for automatic backups in the scheduler. Another nice touch in Auto Backup for MySQL Pro is that it works as a stand-alone utility and doesn't require any additional software. Besides, it's not necessary to have MySQL installed on the local computer to run backups and restores. The program can even be run as a Windows Service so that you won't need to log in Windows for backing up and restoring.

Let's say, for example, you have an e-commerce website with tens of thousands orders, customer accounts with years of financial information. And one morning you wake up only to find that your MySQL server has died. That's not a problem if you made a backup, all you need to do is click RESTORE on a fresh server and your site will be up and running again in minutes! The best in using Auto Backup for MySQL Pro is that you don't have to allocate a huge chunk of your IT budget to co-location servers or expensive hot-backup tools. You can also use the program to copy the databases from one hosting to another.

The program can compress backups to GZIP files and then restore the database from GZIP files as well, saving more disk space. The size of the database is no limit because the program can back up databases exceeding 4 GB. To speed up a backup task, Auto Backup for MySQL Pro uses buffer mode. Each file may contain all databases or a selected database or a selected table. When a new backup is made, the older backup is automatically overwritten based on dates or the number of backups.

Currently Auto Backup for MySQL Professional Edition supports all MySQL character sets, including UTF8, UCS2, LATIN1 and more, supports all MySQL storage engines and table types, including InnoDB, MyISAM, BDB and more, and supports all MySQL field types, including BLOB, VARCHAR, DECIMAL and more.

"Auto Backup for MySQL Professional Edition is designed to copy everything from your MySQL databases and ensure the copy is identical to the original," says William Lee, SwordSky's CEO. "It makes backups without the user needing to know nothing more than how to run the program."

Sooner or later, your MySQL database will experience problems and heaven help you if you didn't make a backup. It's a hard lesson to learn. But with Auto Backup for MySQL Pro in place, you can now make MySQL backups easily and quickly. This is one utility application that every database admin should have in their possession.

Don't forget to back up your database!

Pricing & Availability

Auto Backup for MySQL Professional Edition 2.1 runs under Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003/Vista and supports MySQL 3.23 and upwards. The program works with MySQL Server running on Windows, Mac OS, UNIX/Linux, and all supported OS. The Pro edition costs $99.95 (US). Users, who don't require high-speed backup, file compression, the ability to run as a Windows Service, or would like to work under Windows 95/98/Me, can purchase the Standard Edition for $59.95. Licensed customers get lifetime technical support and free upgrades for 12 months from the date of purchase. More information on the product is available from www.swordsky.com.

About SwordSky Software

Founded in 2005, SwordSky Software specializes in database administration tools and utility applications for database managers. Its major products are Auto Backup for MySQL Professional Edition and Auto Backup for MySQL Standard Edition.