Hello all, I have a general question. I have been backing up my database and Drupal installation, having started with a DB given to me that was around 51MB. I have not added much content (maybe 10 pages?), but I have emptied the caches and run update.php after uninstalling and installing a few modules over the past few weeks. But my question is, why would my DB be only around 14MB now? I am worried that somewhere I lost some content, but after checking my main menu links/site sections at the end of each day, I have not found anything wrong-but there are hundreds of articles. Does DB size drop significantly if emptying caches before dumping? If you know any threads that will help, feel free to put them here. Also, are there any good ways to check the presence of content across the site reliably? Thank you!
By jcharlesberry on
Comments
Size of database
I can't say anything specific with regard to your DB, and don't have any favorite resources I can share discussing the topic. But in my limited experience I would say that, yes, emptying caches can make a huge difference in DB size.
DB size can vary dramatically among sites, but at a glance, I'd think that the 14MB you report is within the ballpark of an expected Drupal site DB size. (I welcome corrections from anyone who's spent more time looking at these things, though.)
Thank you
Thank you. I had no idea it could be that much bigger, but thanks for putting my mind at ease. One more thing-in addition to the questions about checking content after backup-do I have to put the site in maintenance mode before dumping it or are there any other steps I need to take before the dump? Thanks.
Exporting DB
By "dumping", you mean simply exporting a copy of the DB for backup purposes? If so, I'm not aware of a need to put the site in maintenance mode before performing the export; I've never done so, and haven't run into problems.
(I can imagine, in theory, that the export might tax the server and cause slowdowns or other problems for visitors... but I can't confirm that that, or anything else, is a real worry when exporting a DB. I welcome comments from anyone else who does know better!)
"are there any other steps I need to take before the dump?"
Forgive the literal bathroom humor, but just as I was reading that line, my child shuffled into the room to report that she'd forgotten to check for toilet paper before... you know. That was a bizarre little coincidence!
(But to the question: No, I'm not aware of any other steps needed.)
thanks
Thank you for the info on backing up a copy.