From allenkan.com/blog
useful sql backup command
1. dump the DB into a sql file
mysqldump -u <username> -p<password> <database> > <output file name>.sql
2. compress it
gzip <Filename>
3. Ftp send to backup server
** it is not suggested because backup ftp account and the backup data is sent in plain text format **
ftp -n $ftpserver <<END_SCRIPT
quote USER $ftpuser
quote PASS $ftppwd
put $gzipOutFile
quit
END_SCRIPT
exit 0