Database Limits

[AnkisethGallant]

I'm thinking about getting a VBulletin board. How much space will the board take up in the database? I have 100 MB of webspace for the site, so I only want to use about 60 MB for the boards. Is there any way I can limit the size?

[AnkisethGallant]

Need some help here. Anyone?

[Cary]

It depends on the size of your board.
It takes about 750KB for a new install.

[AnkisethGallant]

Alright. I've easily got the 750 kb limit beaten, but how much does the database take up once posts start piling in? Is there any way to limit the amount of space it uses?

[Steve Machol]

It really depends. Do you plan to allow file uploads? What is the traffic your expect for your forums? Visitor per day, members, posts per day, etc?

The vB files themselves take up less than 1 Mb. It's the database that counts. You can alway reduce the size of the database by pruning threads on a regular basis, not allowing file uploads, reducing or eliminating the search index.

[AnkisethGallant]

I plan not to allow file uploads, and I plan on small traffic, maybe a hundred or two posts per day.

How can you find the size of the database so I'll know when to start deleting threads?

[Steve Machol]

You can use phpMyAdmin to see the size of all the tables in the database.

One thing to keep in mind is that you'll want to make regular backups of the database. Therefore you might need more space on the server just to hold the backup. Frankly 100 Mb is pitifully small space in this day and age. You can probably get by for awhile, but eventually you'll want to find a better web host.

[AnkisethGallant]

The 100 Megs I'm getting is free, so I'm not going to be one to complain about small space. I don't anticipate ever getting many more than maybe 100 users anyway, so it should be fine.

[jmd]

Ummm I’m running my forum and website on 50 megs with lost left over.

Just how much space is needed for say 100 active members? I still have 15 megs free, would this cause a problem with the performance of my forum.

I can easily get more space.

Cheers


Thanks

[Steve Machol]

It's hard to say how much space you'll need because of all the unknown variable. Just keep an eye on it and increase your space when you need to.

[Ian]

Originally posted by AnkisethGallant
How can you find the size of the database so I'll know when to start deleting threads?

There's also a hack that does just this... It's called, "Admin Quick Stats" and it was made by freddie.

[AnkisethGallant]

Sounds cool, thanks a lot.

[George L]

Re: Database Limits

Originally posted by AnkisethGallant
I'm thinking about getting a VBulletin board. How much space will the board take up in the database? I have 100 MB of webspace for the site, so I only want to use about 60 MB for the boards. Is there any way I can limit the size?

With vB there is 2 different types of disk space usage.
1. web space - for php/html/image files and you vB files
2. mysql database space - which is separate from web space in that the mysql database space resides on a different partition from web space on nearly all web hosts.

When you use vB, you have to take into account, both web space and mysql database space. vB 2.2.4 consists of

1. php/image files in the zip file you download = 1.65mb in size once the vB zip file is extracted and uploaded to your web site account.

2. mysql database space which holds your vB data.
- on initial install the mysql database space used is ~2mb which is mainly the database table structure and initial data in the database tables.
- once you start posting, adding threads, members, polls, private messages, attachments, avatars etc, your mysql database space is the one that mainly grows and should be your main concern - mysql disk space.

How much mysql disk space is used is highly dependent on the type of forum you run, and such factors as
- your avergae allowed attachment and avatar size
- how many attachments and avatars you have stored in your vB database
- how many private messages you have stored in your vB database from members
- how many posts and threads you have and the size and variables you have set for your searchindex
- how many members you have
- how many forums you have
and so on.