Automate MySQL database dump

Question

Hello All,
I am fairly new to Unix administration,OS X in particular. I am in need of opinions for the easiest wasy to automate a command to dump a MySQL database on a rotating weekly basis. I only want 7 days worth of dumps to reside there. I have been doing it manually with the following command (I have replaced sensitive information in quotes).
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqldump --user="username" --password="password" --opt "database" | gzip --best > /Volumes/MySQLDB_Dump/rgps_db_dump112906.mysql.gz
The only part that would need to be scripted would be the date, so I think the following script would work...
#!/bin/bash
# RGPS MySQL backup script
# MySQL Database Backup
DATE=`date +%Y.%m.%u` # Year, Month, Day of Week
echo "Performing MySQL Database and system Backup. "
echo ""
echo "Dumping MySQL database to /Volumes/MySQLDB_Dump/rgps_db_dump$DATE.mysql.gz"
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqldump --user="username" --password="password" --opt "database" | gzip --best > /Volumes/MySQLDB_Dump/rgps_db_dump$DATE.mysql.gz
echo ""
I am just not sure if automator or cron (I assume this is in OS X since it is BSD) would be best to keep a rotating cycle. IF anyone knows if MySQL has its own utitlity to do this that would be great. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks again.

Answer 1

Julie,
I may be out of place here but I don't think MySQL will make a good
adatabase for Portal Server. Native MySQL is designed for
non-transactional work. Yes MySQL now have transactions, but with the
JDBC Isolation Levels, I have heard of people having problems with this
functionality.
I Suggest if you stay with open source Databases that Postgresql may be
a better fit, as it's structure is more like Oracles except for
translations fr varchar2 and Number formats.
-- Well There is my 2 cents worth.
Tony McClay
Java Architect
"Mr BigMAN"
Julie wrote:
Are there MySql database scripts for all the tables?