A scheduled backup using mysqldump on one of our databases is causing Too many connections. The database is of both InnoDB and MyISAM tables with size of around 500Mb. The Too many connections appears for about 2-3 minutes We understand that mysqldump locks the tables and causes all other queries and connections to pile up and jam the mysql server. We need frequent backups and we cannot afford server downtime or putting websites in maintenance mode while doing it. Our websites are global and traffic is high all the time so its hard to find a moment for backups. How can we avoid downtime during backups?Is there maybe a way to use mysqldump in way that it will not lock all tables at the same time?Is there an alternative to backing up with mysqldump?