I needed to backup some sftp sites and mysql from a remote server to my local server at home. Piece of cake in Python.

After that I add it as a Jenkins script to schedule periodic backups:

import shutil
import os
import paramiko
import pysftp
import select

import logging

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)


def sftp_backup(ssh_host=None, ssh_username=None, ssh_password=None, source_directory=None, local_directory=None):
    with pysftp.Connection(ssh_host, username=ssh_username, password=ssh_password, log=True) as sftp:
        sftp.chdir(source_directory)

        # first remove the local directory to make room
        try:
            logging.info('Removing local directory: {}'.format(local_directory))
            shutil.rmtree(local_directory)
            logging.info('Done removing local directory: {}'.format(local_directory))
        except:
            logging.info('Can\'t delete {}. Probably does not exist'.format(local_directory))

        # then create the directory
        if not os.path.exists(local_directory):
            logging.info('Creating empty local directory: {}'.format(local_directory))
            os.makedirs(local_directory)
            logging.info('Done creating local directory: {}'.format(local_directory))

        # recursively copy to local_directory
        logging.info('Starging to download from {} to {}'.format(source_directory, local_directory))

        sftp.get_r('', local_directory)

        logging.info('Done')


def dump_mysql_to_file_via_ssh(ssh_host=None, ssh_user=None, ssh_password=None, mysql_host=None, mysql_user=None,
                               mysql_password=None, mysql_databases=None, output_file='dump.sql'):
    logging.debug('dump_mysql_to_file_via_ssh')

    ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
    ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
    ssh.connect(hostname=ssh_host, username=ssh_user, password=ssh_password)

    stdin, stdout, stderr = ssh.exec_command('mysqldump --host={mysql_host} -u {mysql_user} -p{mysql_password} --databases {mysql_databases}'.format(
        mysql_host=mysql_host,
        mysql_user=mysql_user,
        mysql_password=mysql_password,
        mysql_databases=mysql_databases
    ))

    logging.info('Begin writing to file {}'.format(output_file))
    file = open(output_file, 'wb')

    # Wait for the command to terminate
    while not stdout.channel.exit_status_ready():
        # Only print data if there is data to read in the channel
        if stdout.channel.recv_ready():
            rl, wl, xl = select.select([stdout.channel], [], [], 0.0)
            if len(rl) > 0:
                # Print data from stdout
                r = stdout.channel.recv(1024)
                file.write(str(r))
    file.close()
    logging.info('Done writing to file.')
    ssh.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    dump_mysql_to_file_via_ssh(
        ssh_host='ssh.example.com',
        ssh_user='',
        ssh_password='',
        mysql_host='',
        mysql_user='',
        mysql_password='',
        mysql_databases='',
        output_file='sebastiannilsson.com.sql'
        )
    sftp_backup(ssh_host='ssh.example.com', ssh_username='', ssh_password='', source_directory='', local_directory='')