💾 MongoDB Backup via Cron

This tutorial teaches how to configure automatic backups of MongoDB using a bash script with mongodump and scheduling via cron.

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🧰 Prerequisites

• MongoDB already installed on the server

• User with permissions to perform mongodump

• Permissions to edit crontab

• Backup script configured (example below)

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📜 Backup Script

By default, MongoDB environments created on SaveinCloud already include a backup script located at:

/var/lib/jelastic/bin/backup_script.sh

This script uses the utility mongodump to generate backup files automatically.

🔧 To start using it, just edit the first variables of the script and insert your credentials, as provided by email when the environment was created.

Example:

MONGO_USERNAME="admin"
MONGO_PASSWORD="sua_senha_aqui"

After configuring, you can test the script manually by running:

bash /var/lib/jelastic/bin/backup_script.sh

Or schedule it in cron for automatic backups.

Below, we provide the full script; if you no longer have it in your environment, just create it and add the content.

If you already have the correct file, skip to the next step.

#!/bin/bash



MONGO_USERNAME="admin";

MONGO_PASSWORD="<SUA_SENHA>";

DAYS_TO_STORE=3;

BACKUP_LOG="/var/log/mongodb/backup.log";

BACKUP_DIR="/var/lib/jelastic/backup"



# DATABASES_LIST=("db1" "db2"); # Descomente para backup seletivo



function  createBackup(){

local  backup_date=$(date  +"%d-%m-%y-%H%M%S");

local  MONGODUMP=$(which  mongodump);

local  MONGOSHELL=$(which  mongo);

ARCHIVE_NAME=MongoBackup-${backup_date};

BACKUP_TARGET="$BACKUP_DIR/$ARCHIVE_NAME";



$MONGOSHELL  -u  "$MONGO_USERNAME"  -p  "$MONGO_PASSWORD"  admin  --eval  "db"  >/dev/null  2>/dev/null  || {

echo  "Login no MongoDB falhou";

return  0;

}



echo $(date) Iniciando  backup  em:  $BACKUP_TARGET

[ !  -d  $BACKUP_TARGET ] && mkdir  -p  $BACKUP_TARGET

cd  $BACKUP_TARGET



if [ !  -z  "$DATABASES_LIST" ]; then

for  dbname  in  ${DATABASES_LIST[@]}; do

$MONGODUMP  -u  "$MONGO_USERNAME"  -p  "$MONGO_PASSWORD"  -d  $dbname  >>  $BACKUP_LOG  2>&1;

done

else

$MONGODUMP  -u  "$MONGO_USERNAME"  -p  "$MONGO_PASSWORD"  >>  $BACKUP_LOG  2>&1;

fi



echo  "$(date) Compactando arquivos..."  >>  $BACKUP_LOG

cd  ..

tar  -zcvf  "$BACKUP_DIR/${ARCHIVE_NAME}.tgz"  "./$ARCHIVE_NAME"  >>  $BACKUP_LOG  2>&1;

rm  -rf  $BACKUP_TARGET;



echo  "$(date) Removendo backups mais antigos que $DAYS_TO_STORE dias..."  >>  $BACKUP_LOG

find  $BACKUP_DIR  -name  "*.tgz"  -mtime  "+${DAYS_TO_STORE}"  -exec  rm  {}  \;

echo  "$(date) Backup concluído com sucesso."  >>  $BACKUP_LOG

}



createBackup;

🔐 Permissions

Make the script executable:

chmod  +x  /caminho/para/mongo_backup.sh

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⏰ Scheduling with cron

Edit the crontab with:

crontab  -e

Add the line below to run the backup every day at 2 AM:

Or change to the time you prefer.

0 2 * * * /var/lib/jelastic/bin/backup_script.sh

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💡 Additional Tips

• Backup logs will be stored in /var/log/mongodb/backup.log

• Use .gitignore to never version your backups or scripts with passwords

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✅ Conclusion

This method ensures automatic daily backups of your MongoDB databases, with automatic file rotation and low operational impact.

Ideal for production, development, and testing environments.