Which tables NEED to be backed up for a successful restore?

[SomeoneElse]

An SMF database has quite a few tables.

I'm looking at reducing the size of backups - even with compression, they're not small if you have a busy message board.

Do all the tables need to be included or could you, for example, not include the backup_smf_* and smf_log_* tables and still be able to restore to an empty database and end up with a working board?

[Arantor]

*Need*? The *structure* of all the tables *needs* to be there. The data... well, that's a different story.

backup_smf_* you could ditch, they're backups.

smg_log_*, that depends, some of those you want even though they're logs, things like 'which topics people have read' is in there.

As for what tables you have and which are biggest, that ultimately depends on what mods you have and what configuration you have going on your site...

What tables do you actually have, and how big are they? Because honestly that's a better approach than shotgunning tables in the hopes of shrinking backups.

[Kindred]

I mean, seriously?

I have a forum with several million posts that's been around for decades...over 2gb unconpressed.

I still take a full backup every night and copy to a separate site once a week...

Exactly how much space do you think you'll be saving?
I mean, the message table is likely to be the main component, size-wise...  and you absolutely must have that.

Thev only possible savings MIGHT be in logs... but some of those are moderately important too.

The best suggestion is probably to Clear your error logs

[Arantor]

The best suggestion is probably to Clear your error logs

This is why I wasn't going to get into 'let's pick a table to inspect then this one then this one', but just get a list of all of them with all their sizes and suggest how to bring that down knowing the collective.

I'm also betting there are tables from mods that aren't in use any more.

[SomeoneElse]

I mean, seriously?

Seriously. The available backup space for the server is about 2GB - it's deliberately smaller than the main filesystem to encourage people not to back up everything - and it's easy to get databases bigger than that.

[Arantor]

So again, tell us what tables you have and we'll tell you in what order to prioritise getting rid.

Though if that's a design setup I'd seriously consider moving host because that's not a good practice at all.

[Kindred]

Any host that does this is an idiot host.

Backup everything,  always  - unless you know how to generate incremental backups.

Convincing people to backup up partially is a sign of an incompetent host.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

it's deliberately smaller than the main filesystem to encourage people not to back up everything

That is just stupid. I highly encourage people to back up absolutely everything. Even the backups.
Believe me, you are bound to outgrow your allotted backup space at some point - Then what?
It's not about selecting what you need anymore then, instead about what you can let go...