Backup and Restore ​

The DbToolsBundle comes with two Symfony Console commands to back up and restore your database but also a tiny backups manager which handle backup files for you.

Backup command ​

The backup command will use the predefined or configured binary for your database vendor with correct parameters to dump your database.

Each time you launch the backup command, a backup file is stored in a directory (See Storage section below for more information on how backup files are stored).

With time, this directory will grow, that's why a backup expiration age was added. Every time you launch the command, at the end, it will be asked if you want to remove obsolete backup files (i.e. files that have passed their expiration date).

console db-tools:backup

You can specify the behavior of the command with some options detailed below.

Connection ​

By default, the command will backup the database from the default DBAL connection.

You can choose to back up a database from another connection with --connection option:

console db-tools:backup --connection other_connection_name

Excluded tables ​

You may have configured tables to be exclude in the bundle configuration. If so, these tables will be automatically excluded each time you launch the command.

But if you want to temporarily exclude some tables, run the command with the --excluded-table option:

# Exclude a table
console db-tools:backup --excluded-table table_to_exclude

# Or more
console db-tools:backup --excluded-table table_to_exclude_1 --excluded-table table_to_exclude_2

No cleanup ​

If you want to skip the cleanup step, launch it with option `--no-cleanup':

console db-tools:backup --no-cleanup

Extra options ​

If you need to occasionally provide some custom options to the backup binary, use the --extra-options (-o) option in your command:

console db-tools:backup --extra-options "--opt1 val1 --opt2 val2 --flag"

Unless you specify the --ignore-default-options option, the custom options will be added to the default options.

Ignoring default options ​

If necessary, default options can be ignored for a backup by using the --ignore-default-options option:

# Will run a backup without any special options except essential ones:
console db-tools:backup --ignore-default-options

Restore command ​

The restore command will use predefined or configured binary for your database vendor with correct parameters to restore your database from an existing backup files.

console db-tools:restore

You can specify the behavior of the command with some options detailed below.

Connection ​

By default, the command will restore the database from the default DBAL connection.

You can choose to restore a database from another connection with --connection option:

console db-tools:restore --connection other_connection_name

Filename ​

When you launch this command, existing backup files will be listed and it will be asked you to choose the one to restore.

If you want to skip this step, or if your backup file is unknown to the storage manager, you can specify a file to restore with the --filename option:

console db-tools:restore --filename /path/to/my/backup.sql

Force ​

Each time you run this command, as it is a sensitive operation, a confirmation will be asked. If you want to skip it, use the --force option.

console db-tools:restore --force

Extra options ​

If you need to occasionally provide some custom options to the restoration binary, use the --extra-options (-o) option in your command:

console db-tools:restore --extra-options "--opt1 val1 --opt2 val2 --flag"

Unless you specify the --ignore-default-options option, the custom options will be added to the default options.

Ignoring default options ​

If necessary, default options can be ignored for a restoration by using the --ignore-default-options option:

# Will run a restoration without any special options except essential ones:
console db-tools:restore --ignore-default-options

Storage ​

As mentioned earlier on this page, the DbToolsBundle can list existing backup files when you want to restore a previous one with the restore command.

All backups are stored in a directory. By default this directory is %kernel.project_dir%/var/db_tools but you can choose the directory you want.

In this directory, each backup is put in sub-directories depending on the backup date. The backup's filename is generated from the backup date and the DBAL connection name of the database.

For a backup made the 2023-05-15 at 12:22:35 for the default connection, the filename will be : %kernel.project_dir%/var/db_tools/2023/05/default-20230515122235.sql.

Note that the file extension may vary depending on the database vendor.