Hi -
The "lock table" issues you're talking about are discussed here:
http://forums.mysql.com/read.php?34,...7019#msg-87019
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/mysqldump.html
In our shop, stopping the web server and mysql once a week, taking a mysqldump (with the server down), and then starting things back up is No Big Deal. I assume that's probably not the case in your scenario
But taking a backup every hour on a live, 1++GB production database probably isn't the best approach, either.
What should you do?
"It depends". On, among other things:
1. Your MySQL version
2. Whether you're using InnoDB, myISAM, or "something else"
3. Your database access patterns (mostly updates? lots of complex queries? heavy transactional use? other?)
4. Your resources (disk, CPU, RAM ... and $$$ budget)
5. Etc etc
Replication is certainly worth considering. The full MySQL documentation is on-line, but this little "howto" might be helpful:
http://www.howtoforge.com/mysql_database_replication
Incremental backups might be an even better solution for you:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/...p-methods.html
http://www.linuxbackups.org/mysql-backup
http://www.sqlpronews.com/2010/0511.html
<= Incremental backups are NOT a substitute for periodic full backups...
... but they might be an excellent alternative for you
And yes, I'd probably still recommend sticking with the table locks even for the incremental backup, but the performance impact for incremental backups should be minimal.
IMHO...