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Back up DigitalOcean MySQL to Wasabi

Set up automatic, scheduled MySQL backups from DigitalOcean into your own Wasabi 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.

Flat-rate hot storage with no egress or API fees. Good for larger databases with long retention.

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 Wasabi bucket and access key

  1. Create a bucket in your chosen region.
  2. Create an access key under Access Keys.
  3. Use the regional endpoint, e.g. https://s3.eu-central-1.wasabisys.com.

In Dumpling, the endpoint is https://s3.eu-central-1.wasabisys.com and the region is eu-central-1. Wasabi bills a 1 TB minimum (~$7/month) with no egress fees — worth it once you cross a few hundred GB of retained backups.

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 Wasabi 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 Wasabi. Every run shows the object key, size, duration and log.

Restoring

Download the object from Wasabi 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.eu-central-1.wasabisys.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 Wasabi in 3 minutes

No agent. No card. Your bucket.

Start free →

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