---
name: database-backup-restore
description: >
  Implement backup and restore strategies for disaster recovery. Use when
  creating backup plans, testing restore procedures, or setting up automated
  backups.
---

# Database Backup & Restore

## Table of Contents

- [Overview](#overview)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
- [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
- [Best Practices](#best-practices)

## Overview

Implement comprehensive backup and disaster recovery strategies. Covers backup types, retention policies, restore testing, and recovery time objectives (RTO/RPO).

## When to Use

- Backup automation setup
- Disaster recovery planning
- Recovery testing procedures
- Backup retention policies
- Point-in-time recovery (PITR)
- Cross-region backup replication
- Compliance and audit requirements

## Quick Start

**pg_dump - Text Format:**

```bash
# Simple full backup
pg_dump -h localhost -U postgres -F p database_name > backup.sql

# With compression
pg_dump -h localhost -U postgres -F p database_name | gzip > backup.sql.gz

# Backup with verbose output
pg_dump -h localhost -U postgres -F p -v database_name > backup.sql 2>&1

# Exclude specific tables
pg_dump -h localhost -U postgres database_name \
  --exclude-table=temp_* --exclude-table=logs > backup.sql
```

## Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the `references/` directory:

| Guide | Contents |
|---|---|
| [Full Database Backup](references/full-database-backup.md) | Full Database Backup |
| [Incremental & Differential Backups](references/incremental-differential-backups.md) | Incremental & Differential Backups |
| [Full Database Backup](references/full-database-backup-2.md) | Full Database Backup |
| [Binary Log Backups](references/binary-log-backups.md) | Binary Log Backups |
| [PostgreSQL Restore](references/postgresql-restore.md) | PostgreSQL Restore |
| [MySQL Restore](references/mysql-restore.md) | MySQL Restore |

## Best Practices

### ✅ DO

- Follow established patterns and conventions
- Write clean, maintainable code
- Add appropriate documentation
- Test thoroughly before deploying

### ❌ DON'T

- Skip testing or validation
- Ignore error handling
- Hard-code configuration values


---
Source attribution: aj-geddes
Original project: https://github.com/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/blob/3f5182cfd739fc113f4af5244a1cf342ad7f7911/skills/database-backup-restore/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 AJ Geddes

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.


# Mega AI Hub resource metadata

Creator / publisher: aj-geddes
Original project: https://github.com/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/blob/3f5182cfd739fc113f4af5244a1cf342ad7f7911/skills/database-backup-restore/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Development & Engineering
Roles: Data Engineer, Database Administrator, DevOps / SRE
Specialties: Database
Tools: MySQL, PostgreSQL
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: 72a8a514fa6c7e0d8064ea97a63122ca519180b2b5c45d6a67f121c7065918b8