4.2.3 Verifying a Backup

You can check the integrity of your backup using the validate command. The following is a sample command for validating a backup image and the output for the successful validation:

$ mysqlbackup --backup-image=/home/meb/mysql/backups/testback3.mbi validate
MySQL Enterprise Backup  Ver 8.4.0-commercial for Linux on x86_64 (MySQL Enterprise - Commercial)
Copyright (c) 2003, 2024, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Starting with following command line ...
mysqlbackup
--backup-image=/home/meb/mysql/backups/testback3.mbi
validate

IMPORTANT: Please check that mysqlbackup run completes successfully.
           At the end of a successful 'validate' run mysqlbackup
           prints "mysqlbackup completed OK!".

240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: Backup Image MEB version string: 8.4.0
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: MySQL server version is '8.4.0'
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: The backup image has no keyring.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: Creating 14 buffers each of size 16777216.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: Validate operation starts with following threads
                               1 read-threads    6 process-threads
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: Validating image ... /home/meb/mysql/backups/testback3.mbi
240426 13:09:04 PCR1     INFO: Validate: [Dir]: meta
240426 13:09:04 PCR3     INFO: Validate: [Dir]: datadir/mysql
240426 13:09:04 PCR3     INFO: Validate: [Dir]: datadir/performance_schema
240426 13:09:04 PCR6     INFO: Validate: [Dir]: datadir/pets
240426 13:09:04 PCR6     INFO: Validate: [Dir]: datadir/sys
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: datadir/mysql.ibd validated.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: datadir/mysql/backup_history.ibd validated.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: datadir/mysql/backup_progress.ibd validated.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: datadir/sys/sys_config.ibd validated.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: datadir/undo_001 validated.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: datadir/pets/cats.ibd validated.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: datadir/undo_002 validated.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: datadir/ibdata1 validated.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: Validate operation completed successfully.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: Backup Image validation successful.
240426 13:09:04 MAIN     INFO: Source Image Path = /home/meb/mysql/backups/testback3.mbi

mysqlbackup completed OK!

Furthermore, you can also verify that your backup has been successful by restoring the backup data on a different server and run the MySQL daemon (mysqld) on the new data directory. You can then execute SHOW statements to verify the database and table structures, and execute queries to verify further details of the database. See Section 4.2.4, “Restoring a Database” for the basic steps for restoring a backup, and see Chapter 5, Recovering or Restoring a Database Server for more detailed instructions.

Warning

Do not try to verify a backup by starting a MySQL Server using a backup directly. You should never start a server using a raw backup directory as a data directory, as the two types of directories are different and the action will crash the server and might corrupt your backup. Start the server only after performing the proper restore operation. See Appendix A, Frequently Asked Questions for MySQL Enterprise Backup for details."