How do I prepare a MySQL dump file to use with the MySQL ServerTemplates?

Background Information

The easiest way to run a MySQL database on a cloud instance is to use RightScale's MySQL ServerTemplates.  The MySQL Database Setups tutorials assume that you already have a MySQL dump file that you can use to set up your database in the cloud.  If you do not have a MySQL dump file, use the following instructions to create one.

Answer

The steps below explain how to create a MySQL dump file, which can then be used to initialize databases using RightScale's MySQL ServerTemplates.

You may create and compress your MySQL dump files by following these steps:

1. From the command line on the machine where MySQL is installed (locally or in an SSH session), run:

mysqldump -uusername -ppassword <database name> --opt > myDBDump

Then, you can check the output file with a text editor to verify the integrity of the data.

Next, in order to streamline the data-transfer process, use gzip to compress the dump file:

gzip -c myDBDump

Then, you will need to upload the myDBDump.gz file to an S3 bucket. When you create your MySQL database on the database server, you will run a script ("DB Create MySQL EBS Stripe volume") that will create and attach volumes that will be used to store your MySQL data. 

Alternatively, you may combine the above steps into a single command; however, do not forget to upload the generated dump file to an S3 bucket when you are finished creating it.

mysqldump -uusername -ppassword databasename | gzip -c > myDBDump.gz