Have atachment on one server, vBuletin on another server

[DagTore]

I want to have my atachments on another server than my vBulletin Forum..

Reason:

My vBulletin forum is hosted on a webHotell with only 1 GB space..
I have in my own house a ftp server with 200GB space..
(2048/2048 kbit internet conection)

I have allready moved images to the new server, but how to move attachments to the new server and still use the premissions from vBulletin?

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=76032

[DagTore]

Hmm.. strange.. no replys?

Maybe there is nobody using 2 or more servers to host their vBulletin forum?
Strange.. because many people brag over at vbulletin.com about them having 1 server for database, 1 server for webpages and 1 server for their attachments..

How can I do this?

Is it a big secret?

I also have another forum (a phpBB) who I use as Norwegian suport forum
(my vBulletin is a international Forum)

In this phpBB, I could choose to fill in my FTP account login and password ++
And phpBB will then put my attachments on my ftp server..

I have included a picture..

I want to have this for my vBulletin as well..
(I think many have it like this actualy..but who should I ask.. I am new to this and don`t know any coding at all.. I only think it`s trange that this is not possible in the vBulletin Out-of-the box)

And it would be helpfull if anyone wrote anything at all here...
Like It can be done or it can`t.. Just anything..
(I see many have looked my post but not write anything)
Dag Tore


I must add something: (12.02.05 kl. 05:12)

Only our forum staff is able to upload attachments
We don`t post images as attachments. Each staff has own FTP folder to put their images in using FTP program.. and using IMG Code (displaying inline)

Our files is of 3 kind:

1) .Sims2Pack
2) .package
3) .exe (selfextracting Rar made in WinRar)

The member premissions ARE verry important to us,,that they will stay intact.. who can download this file and not..

(it like when you have posted x post you can get this downloads,,when you have posted x more post you can have even more downloads to your game)

This above we have done in the Auto promote to new primary usergroup after x posts and set cron to check this every minute.
(who would like to wait forever to be promoted?)

We have like 30 steps in our promotion ladder and don`t want newbies and worse unregistred users to grab our best premium downloads.

Our WebHost is refusing to give us anything more than 1 GB og space (but they tol we could opt for eg 5x 1 GB acconts.)

What i need is quite simple..
I don`t need fancy laout changes to my forum.

Only need in admin Cp place to write:

* url of my attachment server
* ftp username
* ftp password
* file/to/my/attachments

Can this be done or not?

Our site is:

http://www.tseforums.com/ <-about The Sims 2


we want our attachments to end up here:

http://data.tseforums.com/downloads/ <-my computer on WinXP Home Edition - P4 768MB DDR RAM

To compare: http://www.tseforums.com/test/ <-our WebHost on Linux something

Another test of my own oc server is this page:

http://data.tseforums.com/project/kinder/ <-live example

Both running Apache Server


This is our Attachments Stats after 12 days of operating:
(last night it was nightmare because our attachment table crashed
So today I moved all attachments into file system)

Total Attachments 233
Disk Space Used 113.29 MB
Storage Type Attachments are currently being stored in the filesystem at /home/1/t/tseforums/www/forum/downloads
Average Attachment Filesize 497.9 KB
Total Downloads 528

By reading this numbers, I would see that we get aprox 230 MB
of attachments each month, and this will make us run out of space just after 4 months of operating..still we have this 200GB server I really want to use for this..

This is since 1.February 2005:

Threads: 143, Posts: 445, Members: 166


Dag Tore..


Edited also 12.02.05 Kl. 19:43

Added a file.. som hints.. maybe someone coder can look into this?
And make so that vBulletin also get thouse funtions..

Yhis file is from phpbb.com (in their Download sections):

Wed Feb 05, 2003 10:54 am [2.0.11] Attachment Mod

MOD Name: Attachment Mod
Author: Acyd Burn
MOD Description: This Mod adds the ability to attach files in phpBB2.

Download File: attachmod2311.zip
File Size: 362023 Bytes

Rating: 4.50 (1454 votes)


In this you can.. upload to server via ftp or normal
You can decide what extentions are alowed pr forum category

I miss having this really...

I desided to put link her instead:

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=74505

(not to come in trouble if get premisson from writer or not to have it here)

[DagTore]

Oki.. I can take a hint..
That this is not possible with vBuletin..

So.. what if I move not nonley attachments, but also the php files to my new server? (Then having vBulletin and attachments on my home server and database onley on my webhost server .)

My web host server is having ftp and database on seperate servers and i allready write in config file servername "mysql.myhostsomething.no"

[Sebastian]

anyone telling you they have attachments on a different server, db on another and web on another is probably BSing you.

why? for one, not your average coder can do it, and even if they did, it would most likely not work with vb permissions. again, it certainly possible, just not with permissions and it would require a sh!t load of hacking to the attachment file..

the ONLY real way it would be possible is to have php files on one server and the db/attachments on another.. that is possible.. but there is only one problem.. the server SHOULD be on the same network, meaning connected to the web server via 100mbit ethernet link to the db server. using host.mydomain.com in the mysql hostname is going to give you nothing but trouble: TCP overhead. if the web and db are on two different networks then you're going to experience slow downs.

[miloheckport]

Is there a way to make this work. I would like to be able to have all attachments stored in a directory on another server. Seems simple enough as long as the background process can log into an ftp site and upload the files?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

What are you trying to achieve with this?

[TomUK]

Originally Posted by Sebastian

anyone telling you they have attachments on a different server, db on another and web on another is probably BSing you.

why? for one, not your average coder can do it, and even if they did, it would most likely not work with vb permissions. again, it certainly possible, just not with permissions and it would require a sh!t load of hacking to the attachment file..

Hey hey,

This is easily possible, I recommend this strategy:
1) Keep everything the same on your main server
2) Write a program that runs on your other server that does this:
> periodically connect to your main server's SQL server.
> search for files in the attachment table that are not blank
> copy the file to the other server
> make that file's contents in the attachment table blank

Now your files are 'moved' onto your other server, while maintaining the relational links in your main server's SQL.

To allow downloads, adjust vB's download attachment logic to this:
If the file in the attachments table isn't blank, push a direct download, else generate some access key (e.g. sha1(fileid+userIP+secretkey)) and redirect the a script on your other server that checks the key, and allows the download from there;

You could imagine using a scheme like this:
otherserver.com/download.php?fileid=230&key=<some hashed or encrypted value>


hope you are inspired!



Tom

[Marco van Herwaarden]

True it can be done. But te first question before you think about solutions, is what your goal is.

Disk space?
Performance Web Server?
Performance MySQL?
What kind of network connection is between servers?

Only then you can start talk about strategy.

[TomUK]

Originally Posted by MarcoH64

True it can be done. But te first question before you think about solutions, is what your goal is.

Disk space?
Performance Web Server?
Performance MySQL?
What kind of network connection is between servers?

Only then you can start talk about strategy.

In the first post he states he has only 1gb of disk space.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by TomUK

In the first post he states he has only 1gb of disk space.

Then surely the simplest strategy is to put it all on a server with much more than 1GB