The MySQL Enterprise Backup product performs hot backup operations for MySQL databases. The product is architected for efficient and reliable backups of tables created by the InnoDB storage engine. For completeness, it can also back up tables from MyISAM and other storage engines.
Hot backups are performed while the database is running. This type of backup does not block normal database operations, and it captures even changes that occur while the backup is happening. For these reasons, hot backups are desirable when your database “grows up” -- when the data is large enough that the backup takes significant time, and when your data is important enough to your business so that you must capture every last change, without taking your application, web site, or web service offline.
MySQL Enterprise Backup does a hot backup of all tables that use the InnoDB storage engine. For tables using MyISAM or other non-InnoDB storage engines, it does a “warm” backup, where the database continues to run, but those tables cannot be modified while being backed up. For efficient backup operations, you can designate InnoDB as the default storage engine for new tables, or convert existing tables to use the InnoDB storage engine.
For more information, see the MySQL Enterprise Backup manual, available at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-enterprise-backup/en/.