comparison guide self-hosted · April 22, 2026 · 11 min read

Percona XtraBackup vs MyDumper vs MariaDB Backup: Best MySQL Backup Strategy 2026

Compare Percona XtraBackup, MyDumper, and MariaDB Backup for self-hosted MySQL and MariaDB databases. Includes Docker setup, backup scripts, and restore procedures.

Pi Stack Team Editorial Team

If you run MySQL or MariaDB in production — whether on bare metal, in Docker containers, or inside Kubernetes — you need a reliable backup strategy. The built-in mysqldump utility is fine for small databases, but it becomes unacceptably slow and locks tables once you cross a few gigabytes.

Three open-source tools dominate the self-hosted MySQL/MariaDB backup landscape: Percona XtraBackup, MyDumper, and MariaDB Backup (mariabackup). Each takes a fundamentally different approach, and the right choice depends on your database engine, size, and recovery time objectives.

This guide covers installation, Docker deployment, backup and restore procedures, and a detailed comparison to help you pick the right tool.

For related backup reading, see our general backup tools comparison and the PostgreSQL backup guide.

Why Self-Hosted MySQL Backups Matter

Database backups are your last line of defense against data loss. Whether you face hardware failure, accidental DROP TABLE statements, ransomware, or migration between servers, having tested backups is non-negotiable.

Self-hosted backup tools give you three advantages over managed cloud solutions:

Full data sovereignty — your backups never leave your infrastructure
No vendor lock-in — backup files are standard formats you control
Cost predictability — no per-GB storage fees from cloud providers

For a complete backup reliability strategy, check out our backup verification and testing guide to ensure your backups are actually restorable.

How Each Tool Works

The fundamental difference lies in backup methodology: physical vs logical.

Physical Backups (Percona XtraBackup, MariaDB Backup)

Physical backup tools copy the actual database data files at the block level. They operate directly on the InnoDB/XtraDB storage engine files (.ibd, .ibdata1) without going through the SQL layer.

Key characteristics:

Fast — limited only by disk I/O throughput
Non-blocking — InnoDB hot backups work while the server handles queries
Full backup only — you cannot restore individual tables from a physical backup
Size matches the actual data on disk

Logical Backups (MyDumper)

Logical backup tools export data by executing SELECT queries against the database and writing the results as SQL statements (or other formats). MyDumper does this in parallel across multiple threads.

Key characteristics:

Slower — goes through the SQL execution engine
Granular — you can restore individual databases or tables
Cross-version compatible — logical dumps can be restored on different MySQL/MariaDB versions
Cross-engine — works with any storage engine (InnoDB, MyISAM, Aria)

Quick Comparison Table

Feature	Percona XtraBackup	MyDumper	MariaDB Backup
Backup type	Physical (hot)	Logical (parallel)	Physical (hot)
Latest version	8.4.0	v1.0.0	12.2.2 (bundled)
GitHub stars	1,516	3,119	7,482 (MariaDB/server)
Language	C++	C	C/C++
MySQL support	MySQL 8.0, 8.4	MySQL 5.7, 8.0, 8.4	MySQL 5.7, 8.0
MariaDB support	MariaDB 10.4+	MariaDB 10.3+	MariaDB 10.1+ (native)
InnoDB	Yes	Yes	Yes
MyISAM	Partial (FTWRL)	Yes	Yes
Aria engine	No	Yes	Yes
Parallel backup	No (single stream)	Yes (configurable threads)	No (single stream)
Parallel restore	No	Yes (myloader)	No
Incremental backup	Yes	No	Yes
Point-in-time recovery	With binary logs	No	With binary logs
Individual table restore	No	Yes	No
Compressed backups	Yes (qpress, xbstream)	Yes (gzip, zstd)	Yes (qpress, xbstream)
Docker image	`percona/percona-xtrabackup`	`mydumper/mydumper`	Part of `mariadb` image
Best for	Large databases, minimal downtime	Selective restore, migration	MariaDB environments

Percona XtraBackup: Installation and Usage

Percona XtraBackup is the most widely adopted physical backup tool for MySQL and MariaDB. It creates non-blocking hot backups of InnoDB and XtraDB databases by reading data pages directly from the storage engine.

Installation on Linux

1
2
3
4
5
# Debian/Ubuntu
apt update && apt install -y percona-xtrabackup-84

# RHEL/CentOS/AlmaLinux
dnf install -y percona-xtrabackup-84

Docker Deployment

Percona provides an official Docker image with ~904,000 pulls:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
version: "3.8"
services:
  xtrabackup:
    image: percona/percona-xtrabackup:8.4.0-5
    container_name: xtrabackup
    volumes:
      - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql:ro
      - ./backups:/backups
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=your-root-password
    network_mode: host
    entrypoint: ["xtrabackup", "--backup",
                 "--target-dir=/backups/full",
                 "--host=127.0.0.1",
                 "--user=root",
                 "--password=your-root-password"]

volumes:
  mysql-data:
    external: true

Taking a Full Backup

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
# Full backup to /backups/full
xtrabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/full \
  --user=root \
  --password=your-password

# Prepare the backup (make it consistent for restore)
xtrabackup --prepare \
  --target-dir=/backups/full

# Copy back to MySQL data directory
# IMPORTANT: Stop MySQL first
systemctl stop mysql
rm -rf /var/lib/mysql/*
xtrabackup --copy-back \
  --target-dir=/backups/full
chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
systemctl start mysql

Incremental Backups

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
# Base full backup
xtrabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/base \
  --user=root --password=your-password

# First incremental (based on full backup)
xtrabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/inc1 \
  --incremental-basedir=/backups/base \
  --user=root --password=your-password

# Second incremental (based on first incremental)
xtrabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/inc2 \
  --incremental-basedir=/backups/inc1 \
  --user=root --password=your-password

# Prepare: apply full, then each incremental in order
xtrabackup --prepare --apply-log-only --target-dir=/backups/base
xtrabackup --prepare --apply-log-only --target-dir=/backups/base --incremental-dir=/backups/inc1
xtrabackup --prepare --target-dir=/backups/base --incremental-dir=/backups/inc2

Compressed Backups

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
# Backup with streaming compression
xtrabackup --backup \
  --stream=xbstream \
  --compress \
  --target-dir=/backups/full \
  --user=root --password=your-password \
  > /backups/full_backup.xbstream

# Decompress and extract
xbstream -x < /backups/full_backup.xbstream -C /backups/extracted/
xtrabackup --decompress --target-dir=/backups/extracted/

MyDumper/MyLoader: Installation and Usage

MyDumper is a logical backup tool that exports MySQL data in parallel using multiple threads. It produces one file per table, making it easy to restore individual tables or databases. The companion tool, myloader, reads the backup and imports it in parallel.

Installation on Linux

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
# Debian/Ubuntu
apt update && apt install -y mydumper

# RHEL/CentOS/AlmaLinux (requires EPEL)
dnf install -y epel-release
dnf install -y mydumper

# Build from source (for latest version)
apt install -y build-essential cmake libglib2.0-dev libmysqlclient-dev \
  zlib1g-dev libpcre3-dev libssl-dev
git clone https://github.com/mydumper/mydumper.git
cd mydumper
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
make install

Docker Deployment

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
version: "3.8"
services:
  mydumper:
    image: mydumper/mydumper:latest
    container_name: mydumper
    volumes:
      - ./backups:/backups
    network_mode: host
    entrypoint: ["mydumper",
                 "--host=127.0.0.1",
                 "--user=root",
                 "--password=your-root-password",
                 "--outputdir=/backups",
                 "--threads=4",
                 "--compress",
                 "--compress-protocol"]

volumes:
  backup-data:
    driver: local

Taking a Backup

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
# Basic parallel backup with 4 threads and compression
mydumper --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --user=root \
  --password=your-password \
  --outputdir=/backups/full \
  --threads=4 \
  --compress

# Backup specific databases only
mydumper --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --user=root \
  --password=your-password \
  --outputdir=/backups/specific \
  --threads=4 \
  --compress \
  --database=myapp_db

# Backup with regex table filter (exclude log tables)
mydumper --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --user=root \
  --password=your-password \
  --outputdir=/backups/filtered \
  --threads=4 \
  --compress \
  --regex='^(?!(mysql\.|performance_schema\.|.*_log$))'

Restoring with MyLoader

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
# Restore the entire backup in parallel
myloader --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --user=root \
  --password=your-password \
  --directory=/backups/full \
  --threads=4 \
  --compress-protocol

# Restore into a different database
myloader --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --user=root \
  --password=your-password \
  --directory=/backups/full \
  --threads=4 \
  --database=new_db_name

# Restore with overwrite (drops existing tables)
myloader --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --user=root \
  --password=your-password \
  --directory=/backups/full \
  --threads=4 \
  --overwrite-tables

MariaDB Backup (mariabackup): Installation and Usage

MariaDB Backup (mariabackup) is a fork of Percona XtraBackup 2.3, maintained by the MariaDB team as part of the MariaDB Server distribution. It supports MariaDB-specific storage engines like Aria and is optimized for MariaDB’s latest features.

Installation

1
2
3
4
# mariabackup ships with MariaDB Server packages
apt update && apt install -y mariadb-backup
# or on RHEL-family:
dnf install -y MariaDB-backup

Docker Deployment

mariabackup is bundled with the official MariaDB Docker image:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
version: "3.8"
services:
  mariadb:
    image: mariadb:12.2
    container_name: mariadb-primary
    environment:
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: your-root-password
    volumes:
      - mariadb-data:/var/lib/mysql
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"

  mariabackup:
    image: mariadb:12.2
    container_name: mariabackup-runner
    volumes:
      - mariadb-data:/var/lib/mysql:ro
      - ./backups:/backups
    environment:
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: your-root-password
    depends_on:
      - mariadb
    command: >
      mariabackup --backup
      --target-dir=/backups/full
      --host=mariadb-primary
      --user=root
      --password=your-root-password

volumes:
  mariadb-data:

Taking a Full Backup

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
# Full backup
mariabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/full \
  --user=root \
  --password=your-password

# Prepare (apply redo log)
mariabackup --prepare \
  --target-dir=/backups/full

# Restore
systemctl stop mariadb
rm -rf /var/lib/mysql/*
mariabackup --copy-back \
  --target-dir=/backups/full
chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
systemctl start mariadb

Incremental Backups

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
# Base backup
mariabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/base \
  --user=root --password=your-password

# Incremental
mariabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/inc1 \
  --incremental-basedir=/backups/base \
  --user=root --password=your-password

# Prepare chain
mariabackup --prepare --apply-log-only --target-dir=/backups/base
mariabackup --prepare --target-dir=/backups/base --incremental-dir=/backups/inc1

Streaming to Remote Server

1
2
3
4
5
6
# Stream backup over SSH to remote server
mariabackup --backup \
  --stream=xbstream \
  --target-dir=/tmp \
  --user=root --password=your-password | \
  ssh backup-server "xbstream -x -C /remote/backups/"

Performance Comparison

Performance varies significantly based on database size and hardware. Here are representative benchmarks for a 50 GB InnoDB database on SSD storage:

Operation	Percona XtraBackup	MyDumper (4 threads)	MariaDB Backup
Full backup time	~3 min	~12 min	~3 min
Backup size	~50 GB (raw)	~28 GB (compressed SQL)	~50 GB (raw)
Full restore time	~5 min	~18 min	~5 min
Incremental support	Yes	No	Yes
Impact on server during backup	Minimal (I/O increase)	Moderate (CPU + queries)	Minimal (I/O increase)
Network bandwidth (streamed)	High (raw data)	Low (compressed SQL)	High (raw data)

Key takeaway: For databases over 100 GB, physical backup tools (XtraBackup, mariabackup) are significantly faster. For databases under 10 GB where you need selective restore, MyDumper provides more flexibility.

Backup Strategy Recommendations

Small Databases (< 10 GB)

Use MyDumper with 4 threads and compression. The logical format gives you per-table restore capability, and the backup size is manageable.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
# Daily full backup with compression
mydumper --host=127.0.0.1 \
  --user=backup_user \
  --password=backup_pass \
  --outputdir="/backups/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)" \
  --threads=4 \
  --compress \
  --build-empty-files

Medium Databases (10–100 GB)

Use Percona XtraBackup with weekly full backups and daily incrementals. This balances speed with storage efficiency.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
# Weekly full backup (Sunday)
xtrabackup --backup --target-dir=/backups/weekly/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

# Daily incremental (Mon-Sat)
xtrabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/daily/$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --incremental-basedir=/backups/weekly/$(date -d "last sunday" +%Y-%m-%d)

MariaDB-Only Environments

Use mariabackup. It is bundled with MariaDB, supports Aria engine, and receives updates in lockstep with the server.

Large Databases (> 100 GB)

Use Percona XtraBackup with streaming compression to a remote backup server. Incremental backups are essential to minimize I/O impact.

Which Tool Should You Choose?

Scenario	Recommended Tool	Reason
MySQL 8.4, large DB	Percona XtraBackup	Fastest physical backup, incremental support
MariaDB production	MariaDB Backup	Native support, Aria engine compatibility
Need per-table restore	MyDumper	Logical backup with individual table files
Cross-version migration	MyDumper	Logical dump works across MySQL/MariaDB versions
Minimal storage budget	MyDumper	Compressed SQL is typically 40-60% of raw size
Point-in-time recovery	XtraBackup or mariabackup	Combine with binary log replay
MariaDB + MySQL mixed	Percona XtraBackup	Supports both MySQL and MariaDB

FAQ

What is the difference between physical and logical MySQL backups?

Physical backups copy the actual database data files at the block level (.ibd, .ibdata1). They are fast and non-blocking but require the full dataset to be restored. Logical backups export data as SQL statements through the database engine, making them slower but allowing individual table restoration and cross-version compatibility.

Can I use Percona XtraBackup with MariaDB?

Yes. Percona XtraBackup 8.4 supports MariaDB 10.4 and later. However, for MariaDB-specific storage engines like Aria, you should use mariabackup instead, as XtraBackup only supports InnoDB and XtraDB engines.

Does MyDumper support incremental backups?

No. MyDumper only supports full logical backups. Each backup exports the entire selected dataset. If you need incremental backups, use Percona XtraBackup or mariabackup, both of which support incremental backup chains.

How do I automate MySQL backups with cron?

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
# Add to crontab (crontab -e)
# Daily full backup at 2 AM
0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/mydumper --host=127.0.0.1 --user=backup --password=pass \
  --outputdir="/backups/$(date +\%Y-\%m-\%d)" --threads=4 --compress

# Weekly cleanup: delete backups older than 30 days
0 3 * * 0 find /backups -type d -mtime +30 -exec rm -rf {} +

Which tool is fastest for restoring a single table?

MyDumper. Since it exports each table as a separate SQL file, you can restore a single table by running myloader on just that file. Physical backup tools (XtraBackup, mariabackup) require restoring the entire database, then extracting the needed table.

Can I back up a running MySQL server without locking tables?

Yes, but only for InnoDB/XtraDB tables with physical backup tools. Percona XtraBackup and mariabackup use InnoDB’s crash recovery mechanism to create consistent hot backups without blocking writes. MyDumper briefly acquires a global read lock (FTWRL) to establish a consistent snapshot, which blocks writes for a few seconds.

How do I encrypt MySQL backups?

For XtraBackup and mariabackup, use --encrypt=AES256 with --encrypt-key or --encrypt-key-file:

1
2
3
4
xtrabackup --backup \
  --target-dir=/backups/encrypted \
  --encrypt=AES256 \
  --encrypt-key-file=/etc/backup/encrypt.key

For MyDumper, pipe the output through GPG:

1
2
mydumper --outputdir=/tmp/dump --threads=4
tar czf - -C /tmp/dump . | gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 > backup.tar.gz.gpg

Advertise here

Why Self-Hosted MySQL Backups Matter

How Each Tool Works

Physical Backups (Percona XtraBackup, MariaDB Backup)

Logical Backups (MyDumper)

Quick Comparison Table

Percona XtraBackup: Installation and Usage

Installation on Linux

Docker Deployment

Taking a Full Backup

Incremental Backups

Compressed Backups

MyDumper/MyLoader: Installation and Usage

Installation on Linux

Docker Deployment

Taking a Backup

Restoring with MyLoader

MariaDB Backup (mariabackup): Installation and Usage

Installation

Docker Deployment

Taking a Full Backup

Incremental Backups

Streaming to Remote Server

Performance Comparison

Backup Strategy Recommendations

Small Databases (< 10 GB)

Medium Databases (10–100 GB)

MariaDB-Only Environments

Large Databases (> 100 GB)

Which Tool Should You Choose?

FAQ

What is the difference between physical and logical MySQL backups?

Can I use Percona XtraBackup with MariaDB?

Does MyDumper support incremental backups?

How do I automate MySQL backups with cron?

Which tool is fastest for restoring a single table?

Can I back up a running MySQL server without locking tables?

How do I encrypt MySQL backups?

Related Articles

Vitess: Self-Hosted MySQL Horizontal Scaling Guide 2026

pgBackRest vs Barman vs WAL-G: Self-Hosted PostgreSQL Backup Guide 2026

Duplicati vs Duplicacy vs Duplicity: Self-Hosted Encrypted Backup Tools Compared 2026