Making the Database as Small as Possible
 

Hey gang. I'm trying to make the database backup of our forum smaller. I know we need to prune some old users and threads. But I was wondering what other ways there are that I might be overlooking.

I know I read somewhere about a way to purge the signature data, but I cannot find it. I was also wondering if avatar info was part of that and, if so, if there's a way to clear that out too.

Any links, suggestions, ideas would be appreciated.

Have you already made sure that your attachments, avatars and user profile pictures are all in the file system, not the database?

Yup, they are all in the file system. I think there are maybe some custom avatars that aren't, but those are very few.

To be honest, keeping signature, attachment and avatar information is not a high priority. We had to change the file structure anyway, so most everyone was going to have to choose a new avatar. We don't use attachments. And signatures have gotten a little out of hand. If there's a way to start from scratch, that would be beneficial for me on a couple of fronts.

When you say start from scratch, you mean delete all avatars and signatures? Or do you mean start your whole forum over from scratch?

I want to keep posts and threads and such. Hence the reason for the backup. Extraneous things like signatures and avatar settings and things like that are not important. Anything to make the backup smaller, and by extension make transferring it to the new server not take as long.

I did do a mass pruning of some older obsolete threads and inactive posters. But is there anything else I didn't think of? I seem to remember someone saying you could purge signature data, but I can't seem to find it. Will purging some account settings make a difference/even possible?

How big is the DB after dumping?

Xfer'ing a DB over shouldn't be that bad thru ftp, are you using --opt as well when dumping it and then compressing it for xfer to the new server?

Server related maintenance isn't really my forte. The fellow who donates his server space is the one handling transferring the backup. He simply requested that I do what I can to make the backup smaller then it was when we did our test run. I think the backup was somewhere in the neighborhood of 56 MB, but that's after it's been compressed. He said it took over 10 hours, and since I know his time is limited, I wanted to make it easier on him.

How do i make my made my attachments, avatars and user profile pictures are all in the file system, not the database?

10 hrs for a 56mb ds xfer to another server, i think there is something else going on with the FTp connections on one of the servers, that should be maybe a 5 minute xfer from server to server.

I wouldn't waste your time compressing it any further, the DB isnt the issue.

In the admincp under each option in the left menu, attachments --> attachment storage type, do the same for the others you want to move.

please explain more:
/path/to/your/attachment/directory
now as an example give me a path ? outside the forum folder or inside ? and for avatars also