> 1. backing up my mysql databases is it enough to cp /var/lib/mysql and > /user/lib/mysql or i have to export them? and if thats the case how can i > export? For MySQL backups I use the mysqldump utility, which dumps the data as pure SQL. This may not be the best option if you have a huge amount of data though. /usr/bin/mysqldump --lock-tables --add-locks --add-drop-table -u root --databases my_database > my_database-091021.sql