How to Backup Your Laravel 9 Database with Spatie in Just a Few Steps

Step 1: Install Laravel 9 Application
Step 2: Configure Laravel Database Connection
Step 3: Install Laravel Spatie Package
Step 4: Register Service Provider
Step 5: Set Up Backup in Laravel
Step 6: Take Backup to Secure Laravel Data

Step 1: Install Laravel 9 Application

In this section, we will learn how to install Laravel project.

Laravel is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It aims to make the development process a pleasant one for developers.

Let’s start by installing the Laravel project on your local machine. To do so, you need to have Composer installed on your machine. If you don’t have Composer installed yet, please follow the instructions given here: https://getcomposer.org/download/

Once you have composer installed in your system, type following command in your terminal:

composer create-project laravel/laravel ProjectName --prefer-dist

This will create a new folder called “ProjectName” and install all the necessary files for it to run as a Laravel app.

Step 2: Configure Laravel Database Connection

In this step will explain how to configure a database connection in Laravel.

This can be done by opening up the .env file, which is located in the root directory of your Laravel installation. You will need to edit the following lines:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=localhost
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Step 3: Install Laravel Spatie Package

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Laravel spatie/laravel-backup Package.

The spatie/laravel-backup package is a Laravel package for backing up your application and its data. It provides many different ways to back up your data, and it also provides a variety of ways to restore it.

To install the package, open your terminal window and type the following command:

composer require spatie/laravel-backup

After execution, the PHP artisan command spatie sends the mail regarding backup; you have to define the email where you want to receive info about the backup.

Add the mail address in the .env file.

MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=demo@gmail.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"

Step 4: Register Service Provider

This section will discuss about the process of registering Laravel Service Provider.

Service providers are a great way to share code across different classes. This can be helpful in cases where you need to register a service provider for things like localization, logging, caching, and more.

Open config/app.php and add the following Spatie Backup Service Provider as shown.

'providers' => [
    ...
    ...
    ...
    Spatie\Backup\BackupServiceProvider::class,
];

Step 5: Set Up Backup in Laravel

Before making a backup make sure to publish the config file to config/laravel-backup.php by running the following code in terminal.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\Backup\BackupServiceProvider"

This is the default contents of the configuration:

<?php
return [
    'backup' => [
        /*
         * The name of this application. You can use this name to monitor
         * the backups.
         */
        'name' => env('APP_NAME', 'laravel-backup'),
        'source' => [
            'files' => [
                /*
                 * The list of directories and files that will be included in the backup.
                 */
                'include' => [
                    base_path(),
                ],
                /*
                 * These directories and files will be excluded from the backup.
                 *
                 * Directories used by the backup process will automatically be excluded.
                 */
                'exclude' => [
                    base_path('vendor'),
                    base_path('node_modules'),
                ],
                /*
                 * Determines if symlinks should be followed.
                 */
                'follow_links' => false,
                /*
                 * Determines if it should avoid unreadable folders.
                 */
                'ignore_unreadable_directories' => false,
                /*
                 * This path is used to make directories in resulting zip-file relative
                 * Set to `null` to include complete absolute path
                 * Example: base_path()
                 */
                'relative_path' => null,
            ],
            /*
             * The names of the connections to the databases that should be backed up
             * MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite and Mongo databases are supported.
             *
             * The content of the database dump may be customized for each connection
             * by adding a 'dump' key to the connection settings in config/database.php.
             * E.g.
             * 'mysql' => [
             *       ...
             *      'dump' => [
             *           'excludeTables' => [
             *                'table_to_exclude_from_backup',
             *                'another_table_to_exclude'
             *            ]
             *       ],
             * ],
             *
             * If you are using only InnoDB tables on a MySQL server, you can
             * also supply the useSingleTransaction option to avoid table locking.
             *
             * E.g.
             * 'mysql' => [
             *       ...
             *      'dump' => [
             *           'useSingleTransaction' => true,
             *       ],
             * ],
             *
             * For a complete list of available customization options, see https://github.com/spatie/db-dumper
             */
            'databases' => [
                'mysql',
            ],
        ],
        /*
         * The database dump can be compressed to decrease diskspace usage.
         *
         * Out of the box Laravel-backup supplies
         * Spatie\DbDumper\Compressors\GzipCompressor::class.
         *
         * You can also create custom compressor. More info on that here:
         * https://github.com/spatie/db-dumper#using-compression
         *
         * If you do not want any compressor at all, set it to null.
         */
        'database_dump_compressor' => null,
        /*
         * The file extension used for the database dump files.
         *
         * If not specified, the file extension will be .archive for MongoDB and .sql for all other databases
         * The file extension should be specified without a leading .
         */
        'database_dump_file_extension' => '',
        'destination' => [
            /*
             * The filename prefix used for the backup zip file.
             */
            'filename_prefix' => '',
            /*
             * The disk names on which the backups will be stored.
             */
            'disks' => [
                'local',
            ],
        ],
        /*
         * The directory where the temporary files will be stored.
         */
        'temporary_directory' => storage_path('app/backup-temp'),
        /*
         * The password to be used for archive encryption.
         * Set to `null` to disable encryption.
         */
        'password' => env('BACKUP_ARCHIVE_PASSWORD'),
        /*
         * The encryption algorithm to be used for archive encryption.
         * You can set it to `null` or `false` to disable encryption.
         *
         * When set to 'default', we'll use ZipArchive::EM_AES_256 if it is
         * available on your system.
         */
        'encryption' => 'default',
    ],
    /*
     * You can get notified when specific events occur. Out of the box you can use 'mail' and 'slack'.
     * For Slack you need to install laravel/slack-notification-channel.
     *
     * You can also use your own notification classes, just make sure the class is named after one of
     * the `Spatie\Backup\Events` classes.
     */
    'notifications' => [
        'notifications' => [
            \Spatie\Backup\Notifications\Notifications\BackupHasFailedNotification::class => ['mail'],
            \Spatie\Backup\Notifications\Notifications\UnhealthyBackupWasFoundNotification::class => ['mail'],
            \Spatie\Backup\Notifications\Notifications\CleanupHasFailedNotification::class => ['mail'],
            \Spatie\Backup\Notifications\Notifications\BackupWasSuccessfulNotification::class => ['mail'],
            \Spatie\Backup\Notifications\Notifications\HealthyBackupWasFoundNotification::class => ['mail'],
            \Spatie\Backup\Notifications\Notifications\CleanupWasSuccessfulNotification::class => ['mail'],
        ],
        /*
         * Here you can specify the notifiable to which the notifications should be sent. The default
         * notifiable will use the variables specified in this config file.
         */
        'notifiable' => \Spatie\Backup\Notifications\Notifiable::class,
        'mail' => [
            'to' => 'your@example.com',
            'from' => [
                'address' => env('MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS', 'hello@example.com'),
                'name' => env('MAIL_FROM_NAME', 'Example'),
            ],
        ],
        'slack' => [
            'webhook_url' => '',
            /*
             * If this is set to null the default channel of the webhook will be used.
             */
            'channel' => null,
            'username' => null,
            'icon' => null,
        ],
        'discord' => [
            'webhook_url' => '',
            'username' => null,
            'avatar_url' => null,
        ],
    ],
    /*
     * Here you can specify which backups should be monitored.
     * If a backup does not meet the specified requirements the
     * UnHealthyBackupWasFound event will be fired.
     */
    'monitor_backups' => [
        [
            'name' => env('APP_NAME', 'laravel-backup'),
            'disks' => ['local'],
            'health_checks' => [
                \Spatie\Backup\Tasks\Monitor\HealthChecks\MaximumAgeInDays::class => 1,
                \Spatie\Backup\Tasks\Monitor\HealthChecks\MaximumStorageInMegabytes::class => 5000,
            ],
        ],
        /*
        [
            'name' => 'name of the second app',
            'disks' => ['local', 's3'],
            'health_checks' => [
                \Spatie\Backup\Tasks\Monitor\HealthChecks\MaximumAgeInDays::class => 1,
                \Spatie\Backup\Tasks\Monitor\HealthChecks\MaximumStorageInMegabytes::class => 5000,
            ],
        ],
        */
    ],
    'cleanup' => [
        /*
         * The strategy that will be used to cleanup old backups. The default strategy
         * will keep all backups for a certain amount of days. After that period only
         * a daily backup will be kept. After that period only weekly backups will
         * be kept and so on.
         *
         * No matter how you configure it the default strategy will never
         * delete the newest backup.
         */
        'strategy' => \Spatie\Backup\Tasks\Cleanup\Strategies\DefaultStrategy::class,
        'default_strategy' => [
            /*
             * The number of days for which backups must be kept.
             */
            'keep_all_backups_for_days' => 7,
            /*
             * The number of days for which daily backups must be kept.
             */
            'keep_daily_backups_for_days' => 16,
            /*
             * The number of weeks for which one weekly backup must be kept.
             */
            'keep_weekly_backups_for_weeks' => 8,
            /*
             * The number of months for which one monthly backup must be kept.
             */
            'keep_monthly_backups_for_months' => 4,
            /*
             * The number of years for which one yearly backup must be kept.
             */
            'keep_yearly_backups_for_years' => 2,
            /*
             * After cleaning up the backups remove the oldest backup until
             * this amount of megabytes has been reached.
             */
            'delete_oldest_backups_when_using_more_megabytes_than' => 5000,
        ],
    ],
];

Step 6: Take Backup to Secure Laravel Data

We have explained how to set up the laravel app, install the spatie plugin and its basic configurations; now, we are ready to take backup.

But before that, let us swiftly reset laravel’s configuration cache; you may use the below command to clear the config cache.

php artisan config:clear

It is simple to take backup, make sure to execute the following command.

php artisan backup:run

Conclusion

This concludes our tutorial on How to Backup Your Laravel 9 Database with Spatie in Just a Few Steps. We hope you found it helpful. If you did, please share this article with your friends or family and leave us a comment to let us know what you think and stay tuned for more tutorials. If you like the tutorial please subscribe our youtube channel and follow us on social network facebook and instagram.