Automating backup for MongoDB using CRON and S3CMD

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Background
• Install and Configure S3CMD
• Backup Script
• Backup Automatization with CRON

Introduction

The tip below describes how to create an automatic backup routine for a MongoDB server in a Linux environment using the Cron scheduler and Amazon S3 to store all backup data.

Background

To complete the steps, you must have:

• MongoDB 2.2.3 or higher configured in a Linux environment (preferably in an instance on Amazon EC2) 
• Amazon S3 account to store all backup data 

Install and Configure S3CMD

S3cmd is a program that allows you to perform all operations in an Amazon S3 using the shell. 

To install and configure:

sudo su
sudo yum --enablerepo epel install s3cmd
s3cmd --configure

To test s3cmd, display all buckets in your Amazon S3 account.

s3cmd ls

Backup Script 

Create a new file shell, named as mongodb_to_s3_backup.sh using any Linux editor (I use vi)

vi mongodb_to_s3_backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
 
#Force file syncronization and lock writes
mongo admin --eval "printjson(db.fsyncLock())"
 
MONGODUMP_PATH="/usr/bin/mongodump"
MONGO_HOST="SERVER_IP_HERE" #replace with your server ip
MONGO_PORT="27017"
MONGO_DATABASE="dbname_here" #replace with your database name
 
TIMESTAMP=`date +%F-%H%M`
S3_BUCKET_NAME="bucketname_here" #replace with your bucket name on Amazon S3
S3_BUCKET_PATH="mongodb-backups"
 
# Create backup
$MONGODUMP_PATH -h $MONGO_HOST:$MONGO_PORT -d $MONGO_DATABASE
 
# Add timestamp to backup
mv dump mongodb-$HOSTNAME-$TIMESTAMP
tar cf mongodb-$HOSTNAME-$TIMESTAMP.tar mongodb-$HOSTNAME-$TIMESTAMP
 
# Upload to S3
s3cmd put mongodb-$HOSTNAME-$TIMESTAMP.tar 
   s3://$S3_BUCKET_NAME/$S3_BUCKET_PATH/mongodb-$HOSTNAME-$TIMESTAMP.tar
 
#Unlock database writes
mongo admin --eval "printjson(db.fsyncUnlock())"

Test the script and verify your Amazon S3 bucket.

bash mongodb_to_s3_backup.sh

Backup Automatization with CRON

To schedule the mongodb_to_s3_backup.sh use the cron scheduler.

sudo su
crontab -e

Each line (without comments) represents a schedule

#every day at 01h 00m
00 01 * * * /bin/bash /home/ec2-user/mongodb_to_s3_backup.sh

Just this. Any questions or problems, please, ask me and I'll help you. Be happy ;]

All codes are in my gist account at: https://gist.github.com/lazarofl/4961746