How to manage MySQL backups

Or how to give access to them to clients

[EvertVd]

I am a freelancer and I have about 35 CMS websites under my "constant" care and growing. All of those send me a copy of the database to my mail account automatically every night so I have a daily backup.
Recently I have been thinking about how I could give my clients access to these backups as well when needed. Anything can happen to me, and if something happened to one of my clients websites while I was unreachable or worse, they would need access to those backups.
I tried automatic forwarding the backups but after a survey i found out most clients "loose" those mails at some point in the process. And obviously when something happens to me, another webdev needs access, not the client. I would need to make the process both simple and away from interference.

So the best solution I can think of is using online file storage. But it needs to have the following features:

1) Able to upload files via email
2) Password restricted access on directory basis (every client has his/her own folder)
3) Clients do not need to have a account on the service.
4) remove files after xx days (not mandatory, but would be nice)

So does anyone know of a service that offers all this? Or does anyone have a better solution to my 'problem'?

[jecasc]

You could use mysqldumper (Open Source) and then use the built in FTP feature to upload the backup on a server of your choice.

[mysqldumper.net...]

The software supports up to 3 FTP servers per backup, so you could safe one backup for each website on a separate location for your use and another copy on a separate space for each of your clients.

In addition you can send the backups by email.

The software supports as many databases as you want - however it's a little tricky to set up. At first glace you can get the impression it only supports one database, but this is not the case. You can add multiple database configurations.

Here a forum thread that explains how to do that:

[forum.mysqldumper.de...]

[EvertVd]

Hmm, seems promising. The multiople databases is easy to figure out, thanks for the link. What I cannot seem to find however is how to run the php backup automatically, I guess a cron job would have to be made somehow? Which is a shame, since some of my clients have webhosting where cron-jobs, curl and perl are a no-go. Right now I have this script in place where the first page to be accessed by a visitor after midnight will call and run my backup-script. I guess I could adapt that script to work here if I can figure out where I can socket.
I'll post a question on their forums. Thanks again for the link, I had never heard of this.

[jecasc]

Yes, there is a script that starts the backup, which is usually done by a cronjob. However you can execute the script from anywhere by http, no need for file access. So you could easily trigger it from your website.