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    • Database sizes

    Posted by Josephine Tan posts: 84 Singapore

    Hi! Just realise that the databases for two of my wikis are quite large: around 13MB and 22MB. Is this normal?

    My wikis work fine when I don't log in. Upon logging in, the wikis crawl for ages. Does this have anything to do with the database sizes? Can the databases be pruned?

    Reads: 2650
    Posted by Gary Cunningham-Lee posts: 4664 Japan

    > Hi! Just realise that the databases for two of my wikis are quite large: around 13MB and 22MB. Is this normal?
    >
    > My wikis work fine when I don't log in. Upon logging in, the wikis crawl for ages. Does this have anything to do with the database sizes? Can the databases be pruned?

    Your database sizes are probably normal. Do you store images in the database or in the file directory? Images can really increase the size of the database.

    But database size itself isn't really a problem, I think, except that backups take longer and, in my case, I've had problems with image data from the database not working when restoring from a backup. That's why I now store images in the file system.

    Maybe what slows Tiki down when you log in is additional modules, etc., that are displayed for logged-in users. Is there significantly more displayed to logged-in users than to anonymous ones at your site?

    -- Gary

    Posted by Josephine Tan posts: 84 Singapore

    > Your database sizes are probably normal. Do you store images in the database or in the file directory? Images can really increase the size of the database.

    One wiki has some images initially. After that, I've disabled image uploading. btw, where does one set the db vs file thing? Thot i saw that somewhere, cannot remember now.

    > Maybe what slows Tiki down when you log in is additional modules, etc., that are displayed for logged-in users. Is there significantly more displayed to logged-in users than to anonymous ones at your site?

    Two or three customized menus and one or two additional modules. Dun think this is significant.

    btw, what about PHP memory limit? My web host has set it 16MB.

    Posted by Gary Cunningham-Lee posts: 4664 Japan

    > > Your database sizes are probably normal. Do you store images in the database or in the file directory? Images can really increase the size of the database.
    >
    > One wiki has some images initially. After that, I've disabled image uploading. btw, where does one set the db vs file thing? Thot i saw that somewhere, cannot remember now.

    Well, let's reflect a moment. This involves administrating images..... 😉

    > > Maybe what slows Tiki down when you log in is additional modules, etc., that are displayed for logged-in users. Is there significantly more displayed to logged-in users than to anonymous ones at your site?
    >
    > Two or three customized menus and one or two additional modules. Dun think this is significant.

    A good test would be to temporarily turn off each module (one at a time, then both, etc.) to see what change there might be in performance. If it isn't the modules, then the question is what other differences there are between Tiki's interactions with logged-in and not logged-in users. I guess these mostly involve permission checking but I don't know how much the complexity increases for logged-in people, since even anon users require some checking. Notice your database query stats in the bottom bar; see how much greater the figure might be when logged in.

    > btw, what about PHP memory limit? My web host has set it 16MB.

    Tikis often run fine with less than that. As I recall, the main symptom of low memory is pages not displaying at all or just partially. I don't know if slow (but eventually complete) displays are due to low memory.

    -- Gary

    Posted by Josephine Tan posts: 84 Singapore

    > Well, let's reflect a moment. This involves administrating images..... 😉

    Er, Images Gallery?!

    > A good test would be to temporarily turn off each module (one at a time, then both, etc.) to see what change there might be in performance. If it isn't the modules, then the question is what other differences there are between Tiki's interactions with logged-in and not logged-in users.

    A computer centre guy at my workplace suggested that the problem could be at the point when the web server's trying to access the database.

    Posted by Gary Cunningham-Lee posts: 4664 Japan

    > > Well, let's reflect a moment. This involves administrating images..... 😉
    >
    > Er, Images Gallery?!

    More specifically, the Admin Image Galleries page (tiki-admin.php?page=gal). Check the "Use a directory to store images" box.

    Then you need to input the path to a directory (folder) that you'll put the images in. You could use an existing Tiki img folder for this. But I made a new "image_uploads" directory so these images don't mix with the Tiki archive images.

    If you don't know the server computer's path (not the Web address) to the directory, click on the "phpinfo" link in the Admin menu. About a third of the way down that page, under "Apache Environment" is the "Document Root" variable. The value here is the server computer's path to your Tiki root directory. So add a slash and the name of your image directory, followed by another slash. and input the complete path on the Admin Galleries page.

    > > A good test would be to temporarily turn off each module (one at a time, then both, etc.) to see what change there might be in performance. If it isn't the modules, then the question is what other differences there are between Tiki's interactions with logged-in and not logged-in users.
    >
    > A computer centre guy at my workplace suggested that the problem could be at the point when the web server's trying to access the database.

    Which is why checking the number of database queries is significant. On this forum page I see 457 database queries used. Looking at this page with another browser, not logged in, "only" 344 queries are made. The relative difference could be a lot greater for a less info-intense site.

    -- Gary


    Posted by sylvie greverend posts: 1092
    With mysql, you can try to optimize the tables
    Posted by Josephine Tan posts: 84 Singapore

    > With mysql, you can try to optimize the tables

    Please pardon my ignorance, Sylvie - how do I optimize the tables in mysql?


    Posted by Josephine Tan posts: 84 Singapore

    Thank you, Gary and Sylvie.

    You are both such a great help. 😀

    Posted by sylvie greverend posts: 1092

    If I follow ... about 50 current tikiwiki users... I wish you the best for your diploma? certification? whatever dead line you have
    the tw team

    Posted by Josephine Tan posts: 84 Singapore

    > If I follow ... about 50 current tikiwiki users... I wish you the best for your diploma? certification? whatever dead line you have
    > the tw team

    Thanks, Sylvie.

    Not sure what you mean by "about 50 current tikiwiki users...". ❓


    Posted by Josephine Tan posts: 84 Singapore

    Gary, Sylvie,

    Come to think of it: if every page refresh accesses that many databases, is it possible to to have an option where only the main page (e.g. a wiki page) is refreshed each time a wiki link is clicked?

    For each of the modules on the left or right, is it possible to add a tiny refresh button? Then, I presume, the number of databases accessed each time would be much fewer.

    rgds,
    jo