phpMyAdmin can be used to export or backup MySQL databases easily. However, if the database size is very big, it probably won’t be a good idea. phpMyAdmin allows users to save database dump as file or display on screen, which involves exporting SQL statements from the server, and transmitting the data across slower network connection or Internet to user’s computer. This process slow the exporting process, increase database locking time and thus MySQL unavailability, slow the server and may simply crash the Apache HTTPD server if too many incoming web connections hogging the system’s resources.
