mysqldump is an effective tool to backup MySQL database. It creates a *.sql file with DROP table, CREATE table and INSERT into sql-statements of the source database. To restore the database, execute the *.sql file on destination database. 1. Backup a single database # mysqldump -u root -p[root_password] [database_name] > dumpfilename.sql e.g. mysqldump -u root -prium mydatabase > mydumpfile.sql The sugarcrm.sql will contain drop table, create table and insert command for all the tables in the sugarcrm database. Following is a partial output of sugarcrm.sql, showing the dump information of accounts_contacts table: -- -- Table structure for table `accounts_contacts` -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `accounts_contacts`; SET @saved_cs_client = @@character_set_client; SET character_set_client = utf8; CREATE TABLE `accounts_contacts` ( `id` varchar(36) NOT NULL, `contact_id` varchar(36) default NULL, `account_id` varchar(36) default NULL, `date_modified` ...