To restore a MySQL instance from a backup:
Shut down the database server using your usual technique,
such as the mysqladmin shutdown command.
Make sure the backup data is fully consistent, by either
using the backup-and-apply-log
option to perform the backup, or running
mysqlbackup with the
apply-log option after the
initial backup.
Use the mysqlbackup command with the
copy-back option. This operation copies
tables, indexes, metadata, and any other required files back
to their original locations as defined by the original MySQL
configuration file.
If the MySQL data directory already contains files (damaged
or out of date, so that you need to replace them), also
specify the --force option to enable
overwriting.
$ mysqlbackup --defaults-file=path_to_my.cnf \
--datadir=path_to_data_directory \
--innodb_log_files_in_group=N \
--innodb_log_file_size=N \
--backup-dir=path_to_backup_directory copy-back
...many lines of output...
mysqlbackup: Finished copying backup files.
101208 16:48:13 mysqlbackup: mysqlbackup completed OK!
Now the original database directory is restored from the backup, and you can restart the database server.