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Although there are different methods for backing up MySQL and MariaDB databases, the most common and effective one is to use a native tool that both MySQL and MariaDB make available for this purpose: the mysqldump command. As its name suggests, this is a command-line executable program that allows you to perform a complete export (dump) of all the contents of a database or even all the databases in a running MySQL or MariaDB instance. Of course it also allows partial backups, i.e. only some specific tables, or even only only a subset of all the records in a table.

Creating a MySQL or MariaDB user and granting permissions to him to access a specific database and be able to write data on it is a very usual task that is necessary to perform each time you install a new application based on any of these database engines, like web applications running on top of LAMP stack. Whether it is a simple WordPress, or a more complex application tailor made, one way or another you will always have to complete these steps at some point before its deployment.

I am looking for freelance PHP programmers with initiative and entrepreneurial spirit to help me, first, take on the surplus of projects that my clients request to me and I can’t accept due to lack of time. On the other hand, but not least important, I would like to find reliable people to form a strong team to undertake and develop some projects I have in mind and others that someone may propose.

Regarding the first scenario, I would like to establish a collaborative relationship in which I would be the interface to the customer and you would perform the analysis and programming tasks that I entrusted after reaching an agreement on the economic conditions of each job, although I ideally would establish a general fee of €X per hour reviewable if any particular case might arise. I’m also a programmer, so you will always have the help and support you need from me to carry out assigned projects. If collaboration in this first stage is successful, I will love to develop the second stage with you.

After subscribing a new VPS server from my hosting provider, I found that although I could access to Plesk control panel properly, I was unable to access MySQL with the same admin’s user and password as used in Plesk. As a result, I couldn’t do anything with the database from the command line or in any other way. So I decided to manually change the admin user’s password via the mysql shell. After making such change I could perfectly log in to MySQL, but nevertheless the Plesk control panel stopped working, throwing the following exception:

This post shows how to perform a partial or full backup of MySQL databases using only PHP code. This is very useful for example when a client doesn’t provide you with access data to the database of a web application and you only have an FTP connection available, or when you do have the connection data to the database but you can’t access it through the network (only available from localhost) and you can’t use tools like mysqldump to back up the information you need because you don’t have privileges for this, or simply because you have no access to a shell to which connect and run commands.