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Back up DigitalOcean MySQL to Backblaze B2

Set up automatic, scheduled MySQL backups from DigitalOcean into your own Backblaze B2 bucket — with retention, optional encryption and failure alerts — without writing a script or maintaining a cron server.

Why back up off-platform?

DO managed databases keep 7 days of backups inside DigitalOcean. A Droplet-hosted database has nothing unless you set it up.

B2 is roughly a quarter of the price of S3 and speaks the S3 API. Ideal if you want lots of history.

Step 1 — Find your DigitalOcean database credentials

For Managed Databases: Databases → your cluster → Connection details (public network). Add the Dumpling worker IP to Trusted Sources. For a Postgres/MySQL on a Droplet, open the port in your firewall for the worker IP only.

Then allow the Dumpling worker's static IP address 2.28.121.200 to connect. Keep SSL enabled — DigitalOcean requires it. For extra safety, create a read-only user; the exact GRANT statements are in the docs.

Step 2 — Create a Backblaze B2 bucket and access key

  1. Buckets → Create a Bucket (private).
  2. Application Keys → Add a New Application Key restricted to that bucket with read/write access.
  3. Note the keyID (Access Key ID), applicationKey (Secret) and the S3 endpoint shown on the bucket, e.g. https://s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com.

In Dumpling, the endpoint is https://s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com and the region is us-west-004. B2 storage is $6/TB-month and the first 3× your stored volume in egress each month is free.

Step 3 — Create the backup job

  1. Sign in (free, no card) and add the database from step 1. Dumpling tests the connection and reports the version and size immediately.
  2. Add the Backblaze B2 bucket from step 2. Dumpling writes and deletes a tiny test object to confirm the key works.
  3. Create a job: pick a schedule (daily at 02:00 UTC is a good default), how many backups to keep, and optionally a passphrase to encrypt files client-side-decryptably.

The first backup starts right away. From then on, Dumpling runs mysqldump on schedule and streams the output straight into B2. Every run shows the object key, size, duration and log.

Restoring

Download the object from Backblaze B2 and run:

mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE restored_db"
gunzip < 2026-09-10T02-00-01Z.sql.gz | mysql restored_db

Encrypted files (.enc) decrypt with openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -pbkdf2; see the restore docs.

Prefer to do it yourself?

It is a few lines of shell — the hard part is the machine to run it, retention, and knowing when it silently stops working:

# DIY alternative: a cron job on a server you maintain
0 2 * * * mysqldump --single-transaction -h HOST -u USER -p... DB | gzip \
  | aws s3 cp - s3://BUCKET/backups/$(date -u +%FT%TZ).sql.gz --endpoint-url https://s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com
# ...plus retention, alerting, and a machine to run it on.

Dumpling exists so you do not have to babysit that cron job. The free plan covers one database with daily backups forever.

Back up DigitalOcean MySQL to B2 in 3 minutes

No agent. No card. Your bucket.

Start free →

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