Best practices Q: Should the backup/restore programs be version matched to the server version?

[Michael Lueck]

Greetings,

Our hosting provider recently added MySQL 5.5 database server to their prior MySQL 5.1 database server offerings.

I find that their backup/restore commands are only the MySQL 5.1 version commands.

> mysql --version
mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.1.73, for debian-linux-gnu (i486) using readline 6.1

> mysqldump --version
mysqldump Ver 10.13 Distrib 5.1.73, for debian-linux-gnu (i486)


I am concerned that the LAMP stack web application may use capabilities of MySQL 5.5 that the MySQL 5.1 tools are not capable of backing up / restoring correctly / safely.

Please provide affirmation or debunk these concerns.

I am thankful,

Michael Lueck
Lueck Data Systems
http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/