To back up and restore your MySQL database, perform these steps:

1. Under the commands directory in your project's home directory, create a bash script: backup_mysql_db.sh. Start the script with variable and function definitions, as follows:

/home/myproject/commands/backup_mysql_db.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
SECONDS=0
export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myproject.settings.production
PROJECT_PATH=/home/myproject
REPOSITORY_PATH=${PROJECT_PATH}/src/myproject
LOG_FILE=${PROJECT_PATH}/logs/backup_mysql_db.log
DAY_OF_THE_WEEK=$(LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 date +"%w-%A")
DAILY_BACKUP_PATH=${PROJECT_PATH}/db_backups/${DAY_OF_THE_WEEK}.sql
LATEST_BACKUP_PATH=${PROJECT_PATH}/db_backups/latest.sql
error_counter=0

echoerr() { echo "$@" 1>&2; }

cd ${PROJECT_PATH}
mkdir -p logs
mkdir -p db_backups

source env/bin/activate
cd ${REPOSITORY_PATH}

DATABASE=$(echo "from django.conf import settings; print(settings.DATABASES['default']['NAME'])" | python manage.py shell -i python)
USER=$(echo "from django.conf import settings; print(settings.DATABASES['default']['USER'])" | python manage.py shell -i python)
PASSWORD=$(echo "from django.conf import settings; print(settings.DATABASES['default']['PASSWORD'])" | python manage.py shell -i python)

EXCLUDED_TABLES=(
django_session
)

IGNORED_TABLES_STRING=''
for TABLE in "${EXCLUDED_TABLES[@]}"; do
    IGNORED_TABLES_STRING+=" --ignore-table=${DATABASE}.${TABLE}"
done

2. Then, add commands to create a dump of the database structure and data:

echo "=== Creating DB Backup ===" > ${LOG_FILE}
date >> ${LOG_FILE}

echo "- Dump structure" >> ${LOG_FILE}
mysqldump -u "${USER}" -p"${PASSWORD}" --single-transaction --no-data "${DATABASE}" > "${DAILY_BACKUP_PATH}" 2>> ${LOG_FILE}
function_exit_code=$?
if [[ $function_exit_code -ne 0 ]]; then
    {
        echoerr "Command mysqldump for dumping database structure 
         failed with exit code ($function_exit_code)."
        error_counter=$((error_counter + 1))
    } >> "${LOG_FILE}" 2>&1
fi

echo "- Dump content" >> ${LOG_FILE}
# shellcheck disable=SC2086
mysqldump -u "${USER}" -p"${PASSWORD}" "${DATABASE}" ${IGNORED_TABLES_STRING} >> "${DAILY_BACKUP_PATH}" 2>> ${LOG_FILE}
function_exit_code=$?
if [[ $function_exit_code -ne 0 ]]; then
    {
        echoerr "Command mysqldump for dumping database content 
         failed with exit code ($function_exit_code)."
        error_counter=$((error_counter + 1))
    } >> "${LOG_FILE}" 2>&1
fi

3. Add commands to compress the database dump and to create a symbolic link, latest.sql.gz:

echo "- Create a *.gz archive" >> ${LOG_FILE}
gzip --force "${DAILY_BACKUP_PATH}"
function_exit_code=$?
if [[ $function_exit_code -ne 0 ]]; then
    {
        echoerr "Command gzip failed with exit code 
         ($function_exit_code)."
        error_counter=$((error_counter + 1))
    } >> "${LOG_FILE}" 2>&1
fi

echo "- Create a symlink latest.sql.gz" >> ${LOG_FILE}
if [ -e "${LATEST_BACKUP_PATH}.gz" ]; then
    rm "${LATEST_BACKUP_PATH}.gz"
fi
ln -s "${DAILY_BACKUP_PATH}.gz" "${LATEST_BACKUP_PATH}.gz"
function_exit_code=$?
if [[ $function_exit_code -ne 0 ]]; then
    {
        echoerr "Command ln failed with exit code 
         ($function_exit_code)."
        error_counter=$((error_counter + 1))
    } >> "${LOG_FILE}" 2>&1
fi

4. Finalize the script by logging the time taken to execute the previous commands:

duration=$SECONDS
echo "------------------------------------------" >> ${LOG_FILE}
echo "The operation took $((duration / 60)) minutes and $((duration % 60)) seconds." >> ${LOG_FILE}
exit $error_counter

5. In the same directory, create a bash script, restore_mysql_db.sh, with the following content:

# home/myproject/commands/restore_mysql_db.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
SECONDS=0
PROJECT_PATH=/home/myproject
REPOSITORY_PATH=${PROJECT_PATH}/src/myproject
LATEST_BACKUP_PATH=${PROJECT_PATH}/db_backups/latest.sql
export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myproject.settings.production

cd "${PROJECT_PATH}"
source env/bin/activate

echo "=== Restoring DB from a Backup ==="

echo "- Fill the database with schema and data"
cd "${REPOSITORY_PATH}"
zcat "${LATEST_BACKUP_PATH}.gz" | python manage.py dbshell

duration=$SECONDS
echo "------------------------------------------"
echo "The operation took $((duration / 60)) minutes and $((duration % 60)) seconds."

6. Make both scripts executable:

$ chmod +x *.sh

7. Run the database backup script:

$ ./backup_mysql_db.sh

8. Run the database restoration script (with caution if in production):

$ ./restore_mysql_db.sh