Question Moving attachments to file system?

[Badger]

Hi ...

I've now got vB Optimise 2.3.0 running well... I think ..

I've run Pingdom checks against our home page and it seems to indicate a substantial increase in performance, which seems to be improving over time, as we just started running vB Optimise this morning, Does that make sense?

In running the Optimal Settings Check, we get the results shown in the attached pic.

I can see how we run the vBulletin utility to move the attachment pics from the database to a file system, but the thought of running it scares the heck out of me.

The reason is that we're a not-for-profit research site and we've been running since 2006, So, we've accumulated a lot of valuable research pics that are attached to posts etc., so I'd hate to run this utility and blow up our database and lose everything.

I guess I'm asking how much value will we get for vB Optimise by off-loading the pics from the database and how safe is it running vBulletin's utility to do this?

Should I do anything with our site to prepare it for running the move, either before or during the execution of the move utility?

Thanks for any advice, particularly from folks who may have done this already.

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

vBulletin's utility will let you know if something went wrong, it's very detailed and full of "are you really sure" so just read everything it tells you and make sure you understand what it says before continuing

'sides, you could always take a backup before performing the procedure and then restore it later if you find something's missing

 

[Badger]

vBulletin's utility will let you know if something went wrong, it's very detailed and full of "are you really sure" so just read everything it tells you and make sure you understand what it says before continuing

'sides, you could always take a backup before performing the procedure and then restore it later if you find something's missing

Thanks Fillip ..

So, you recommend doing it for vB Optimise Pro as the benefits are worth it?

Regards,
Doug

 

[Badger]

ps ....

I moved the avatars successfully, so I need to move attachments and create a directory and vBulletin says:

"This is the file path to store attachments in. This file path should be readable AND writeable by your web server (usually CHMOD 777). It should be above your web documents root or users will be able to bypass vBulletin's permissions system and download attachments anyway."

Does that mean I CAN create it in my vBulletin forum home directory. or does it mean I have to create it a level above that? I find the statement confusing ...

Thanks ..

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

You CAN create it in your home directory, but people will be able to download attachments regardless of whether you have set them to not be able to.

 

[Badger]

You CAN create it in your home directory, but people will be able to download attachments regardless of whether you have set them to not be able to.

So, I'm better to move it a level up from my vBulletin directory where all of their data is stored?

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

If you have a /www folder or a /public_html folder, you should create the directory one level above that.

Those folders are the most common names (on a Linux server) for what's called the "web root", or what people can normally access via their web browsers.

 

[Badger]

If you have a /www folder or a /public_html folder, you should create the directory one level above that.

Those folders are the most common names (on a Linux server) for what's called the "web root", or what people can normally access via their web browsers.

Thanks ..

I find the Unix conventions confusing... I'm an old Fortran programmer out of the 1960's ..

Which of these is the best place to create the folder called "attachments" ..

/usr/www/apache/htdocs/milsurps/attachments

or

/home/badger/user/www/apache/htdocs/attachments

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

Is the htdocs folder where your forum files are?

 

[Badger]

Is the htdocs folder where your forum files are?

Forums are /usr/www/apache/htdocs/milsurps

I did a successful move from database to file system...

I had created a file called /usr/www/apache/htdocs/milsurps/attachments and made it 777

When the vBulletin utility move did its thing, for some reason it put the attachments in /usr/www/apache/htdocs/milsurps/attachment

Note, there's no "s" on the end of the directory attachment they used. The directory was 755 and they said it had to be 777, so now I'm running a change from 755 to 777 for the directory itself and all files (attachments) recursively within it. There's a freakin load of files and it's still running after 15 minutes ...

Anyway, I hope I haen't screwed anything up too bad, but their utility ran fine and all the numbers balanced.

Regards,
Doug

 

[Badger]

Just an FYI....

I finished moving my attached images out of the database to a file system using vBulletin's built-in utility function ....

What a freakin difference is size ...

The database went from over 2 1/2 Gigabytes down to 115 megabytes ...

Regards,
Doug

 

[Fillip H.]

Should make backing up your database a much less arduous task eh

 

[Trekkan]

Just an FYI....

I finished moving my attached images out of the database to a file system using vBulletin's built-in utility function ....

What a freakin difference is size ...

The database went from over 2 1/2 Gigabytes down to 115 megabytes ...

Regards,
Doug

Just don't forget to backup that attachment folder now... I made that mistake and lost everything not that long ago. I was used to it all being in the DB and when I backed up, I had it all. Now you don't. So... hopefully you've already though of that, or read this if you haven't. =)

 

[Badger]

Just don't forget to backup that attachment folder now... I made that mistake and lost everything not that long ago. I was used to it all being in the DB and when I backed up, I had it all. Now you don't. So... hopefully you've already though of that, or read this if you haven't. =)

Yes Sir ....

Thanks for the reminder ...

It backs up every night automatically along with our entire forum home directory and SQL database, to a different server on our host site, plus it backs up to two different areas on the same server.

Regards,
Doug