The cPanel backup interface allows you to generate and download a backup of your MySQL databases. Backing up your website’s database periodically is always recommended, as it can save you from a lot of pain in case anything happens with your data. It is often necessary to take a backup (or “dump”) of an entire database management system along with all databases and tables, including the system databases which hold the users, permissions, and passwords.

1) Log into cPanel.

2) Look for the “Files” section and click on the “Backup” icon.

3) In the “Partial Backup” section under “Download a MySQL Database Backup “ click on your database name you want to backup, in this case, it’s chemiclo_demo and the download will start automatically.

A copy of the database will now to saved on your PC, and you should now see the compressed .sql.gz file in the folder your web-browser downloaded it.

How to restore a MySQL Database Backup

If your database is corrupted or you have removed some useful data,  restoring the database from a previous working backup might be a great option to save the day. Luckily this can easily be done by following the next steps:

1) Log into cPanel.

2) Look for the “Files” section and click on the “Backup” icon.

3) In the “Partial Backup” section click the “Choose File” button located under “Restore a MySQL Database Backup “  and select the backup file you want to use from your PC and click “Open“.

4) Now the name of the backup file you selected should be displayed, please double check that this is the right backup and click “Upload“.

5) A new tab will open showing you information about the restore process.

1) Click the database you wish to export, in this example we’ll use the chemiclo_demo database.

2) Next, click on the “Export” tab and select the format in which you want to export the database.

3) Click on the “Go” button to start the export/backup process of the entire database.

4) You can also export only certain tables from your database, from the export tab go to the “Export Method” section click on the “Custom – display all possible options“. This will show you a list of all the tables created in the database.

5) Select the tables you want to export, leave the other options unchanged and click on the “Go” button to proceed.

1) First, we’ll need to select the database, in this example, we’ll use the chemiclo_demo database.

2) We’ll see here all the tables within this database listed, click on the “Drop” link next to the table you wish to delete (drop).

3) A confirmation pop-up message will appear, make sure you are deleting the right table and click “OK“. A message will appear indicating that your table has been dropped and the table is no longer listed in the database’s list of tables.

4) We can also delete (drop) specific fields from this table by clicking the delete icon. In this example, we selected the test3 table and dropped the junk field.

5) A confirmation pop-up message will appear, make sure you are deleting the right field and click “OK”.

1) First, we’ll need to select the database, in this example, we’ll use the chemiclo_demo database.

2) You’ll notice that we have a couple of test tables already created, to create a new database table just enter the name of the table in the “Name” field and the number of fields you want for this table and click “Go”.

3) We’ve created the table “demo” and added two columns (name and phone), now we need to set the details of each field within this new table and select Type of data the column will hold.  Some of the most  common types are:

INT = INTEGER – used to store a number that can be written without a fractional component. (e.g. 2, 10, -44). An integer can be zero, positive, and negative.
CHAR = Characters – used to store character string value of fixed length, the maximum number is of characters is 255.
VARCHAR = Variable Length Characters – used to store variable length alphanumeric data and can store up to 65,535 characters.
TEXT = used for holding large amounts of text.
DATE = Will only hold dates.
DATETIME = Will hold both a date and a time.

4) We can also define the Length/Values if necessary, the CHAR type will require you to specify the maximum number of characters allowed. All the other fields are optional, however, if you need more detailed information about all the options available you can check the MySQL Reference Manual.

5) When finished, click “Save”.  A message will appear indicating that your table has been created.

1) Log into cPanel.

2) Look for the “DATABASES” section and click on “MySQL® Databases”.

3) Look for the “Current Users “ section, here you can either change the password, rename or delete a MySQL username. Click on any of these links and follow the on-screen instructions to complete your action.

1) Log into cPanel.

2) Look for the “DATABASES” section and click on “MySQL® Database Wizard “.

3) In the next window enter the name of your database and hit “Next Step”.

4) Here you’ll need to choose the username and enter the password you want to be associated with the user in both fields. You can also click the “Password Generator” and cPanel generates a random, strong password for your username.

5) On the next page, you’ll assign privileges for the user to the database. If you want to assign full privileges for the user just check the box next to “All Privileges” and then click Next Step.

6) You’ll see a confirmation message that the database and username have been created.