Mass Prune Users more than 40,000

[zylstra]

How can I delete more than 100,000 users? When I try to delete more than a couple 10s of thousands with the default admincp feature my browser hangs.

[kpmedia]

You can directly query the database.

However, some of this depends on your server settings. Posting a request for 100,000 may exceed the server limits for PHP or MySQL. So perhaps query (prune) in smaller groupings?

[Lynne]

No, don't directly query the database unless you know exactly what you are doing. Deleting users effects more than just the user table.

You are going to have to delete the users in batches of 10K or so.

[beerguy]

I'm in the same boat. However I can't seem to delete more than 1,000 at a time. Is there a setting somewhere that limits the number of deletions at one time?

[Lynne]

It's a limit due to your server configuration, not vbulletin.

[beerguy]

Thanks for the reply. That's actually good news because it means I can change it :-)

Any idea where that setting is? Thanks in advance for the help.

[Lynne]

When you try to remove too many users, an error should show up in your error_logs (if you don't know where they are, ask your host) and that will tell you what the exact server issue is.

[beerguy]

Unfortunately when we try to delete anything over 1,000 nothing happens. There is no error in the log file. The web page says Invalid Entry and then returns back to the Prune/Delete page.

Any idea on where the setting is to increase the number? If it's a config file can you point us in the direction of where the file resides?

Thanks.

[Lynne]

I honestly do not know the setting. I know that on my server, I can easily delete batches of 5,000. I think I even did 10,000 a few times.

[Max Taxable]

Are these spam accounts being deleted?

[beerguy]

They are people in "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" status. There are about 250,000 and for some reason our system is a hard limit at 1,000 at a time. Our sysadmin can't find any setting anywhere that lets us change this. I can't fathom deleting them 1,000 at a time :-(

Thanks.

[beerguy]

Bumping this thread as we still haven't figured out where to change the setting that controls how many users we can delete at a time.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.

[kh99]

When you go to Prune/Move users, you select the usergroup and other fields, then hit "Find". Does the error happen then, or do you get to the next page with the Delete/Move radio buttons?

[beerguy]

Hi. I can do the search and it will return the list of users that meet the criteria. In our case all I'm trying to find are people in the "Users Awaiting Confirmation" group. I add to the search "has not logged on for x days" to narrow down the number of results. I get the results list just fine. Depending on the number of days I enter I can get anywhere from a few to 100,000 results. If I then click the delete button at the bottom and have even 1,001 records selected it errors out. If I select the number of days just right I can get the results to come back with less than 1,000 records and it successfully deletes them so I know it works. It's just limited to 1,000 at a time and we have over 200k records.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Lynne]

Take a look at your error_logs when you try to delete more than 1000 users and see what the php error is. That is the php variable you will need to modify to be able to remove move than 1000 users at a time. (It isn't a vBulletin variable, it is a server variable you need to modify - probably need to ask your host to modify, that is.)

[beerguy]

Thanks for the reply. I've asked our host to look into this and either he can't find the correct log file or he isn't seeing anything in the logs. Do you know the path to the log file that he should be checking?

[Lynne]

Hosts put their error_logs in different places, so I don't know where your host has put it.

[zeropaid]

This is the error I got in my logs.


PHP Warning: Unknown: Input variables exceeded 1000. To increase the limit change max_input_vars in php.ini. in Unknown on line 0, referer: http://www.xxx.com

[tbworld]

This is the error I got in my logs.

PHP Warning: Unknown: Input variables exceeded 1000. To increase the limit change max_input_vars in php.ini. in Unknown on line 0, referer: http://www.xxx.com

http://www.php.net/manual/en/info.configuration.php#ini.max-input-vars

Set this value in your "php.ini" file. Obviously set the value greater than 1000. But, do not get carried away with the number.
max_input_vars = 1500;

You may have to see your server host as "lynne" suggested, if you cannot change your php.ini file.

[zeropaid]

Set this value in your "php.ini" file.

Don't do that. Set it in your .htaccess file and remove once you are done. Adjusting this number is a security risk.

php_value max_input_vars 3000
php_value suhosin.get.max_vars 3000
php_value suhosin.post.max_vars 3000
php_value suhosin.request.max_vars 3000

[tbworld]

Don't do that. Set it in your .htaccess file and remove once you are done. Adjusting this number is a security risk.

php_value max_input_vars 3000
php_value suhosin.get.max_vars 3000
php_value suhosin.post.max_vars 3000
php_value suhosin.request.max_vars 3000

"zeropaid" is right in that there can be a potential security risk here with certain versions of servers and php. I was really pointing out what the problem was on the most simplistic level. He might not even have access to his php.ini. Anyway, good point :)

http://www.redhat.com/archives/enterprise-watch-list/2012-January/msg00020.html

[DeMonViTo]

if you have suhosin edit suhosin.ini and remove ; and check
suhosin.post.max_vars =
suhosin.request.max_vars =

:)

[washingtonboise]

Vbulletin needs to be recoded for this common need so that it can do the work in smaller bits instead of doing everything at once. Do not blame the host, that shifts blame for an issue that is common enough that the burden of support is squarely with vbuleltin.

Solution:
If a batch is 100k in total, then the actual processing happens 1K at a time. I'm fairly certain that vbulletin is capable of this. The way that mass prune works is broken if you can't actually 'mass prune'

[leemart44]

works good, then delete it

[webnsn]

Put 1,00,000 in Admin tab and you can delete, i do normally evey monthend for users waiting for gmail confirmation