Automated MySQL backup on Ubuntu with cron

If you would like to take periodic backups of your MySQL database, you can do it easily with cron:

open crontab file:
nano /etc/crontab

add the following line at the end of file:
*/15 * * * *       root    /usr/bin/mysqldump -u<mysql_user> -p<mysql_password> <database_name> > <directory-to-save>-<file-prefix>`/bin/date +\%Y\%m\%d-\%H\%m`.sql
(the above line orders cron to get your backup every 15 minutes)