[sstillwell@aerostich.com]

I guess I just run a bash script via cron that optimizes my tables and then backs them up.

#Change the 5 variables below to fit your computer/backup
COMPUTER=`/bin/hostname -s` # Name of this computer
CREDENTIALS="-u your_username -pyour_password"
BACKUPDIR=/backup # Where to store the backups
MYSQLDUMP="/usr/bin/mysqldump"
MYSQLCHECK="/usr/bin/mysqlcheck"
DATABASE="your_database"

#You should not have to change anything below here
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
DOW=`date +%a` # Day of the week e.g. Mon

# Optimizes the database
$MYSQLCHECK $CREDENTIALS -o -B $DATABASE

# Dumps the mysql db to a file in the backup dir
$MYSQLDUMP --opt $CREDENTIALS $DATABASE > $BACKUPDIR/$COMPUTER.$DOW.$DATABASE.sql