3. Persistent Storage Cleanup

Persistent Storage Cleanup


  • One of the issues we have noted is that the server tends to lag heavily when people are accessing PS.

    Part of this is due to the PS code, which is currently being worked on to optimize it (though no changes have yet been made on the live server).

    A much larger part is due to the size of the PS database. Items go into the DB and stay there, even when PCs die, leave the server, or the maps the PS is on no longer exist.

    Each item in PS is tagged in the DB with a date that shows when it was last updated. When that item is added to or removed from PS, the date updates on the item in the DB.

    Over time, the PS DB has gotten very large, and it has now reached a point where it is so large I cannot restore it from backups.

    One month from today, I will delete all items from the PS DB that have not been updated in the last six months.

    Before that time, anyone who wants to keep the items in their PS that have been there for more than 6 months, will need to access their PS, remove the items, close the PS, open it back up, and put the items back in. This will update the dates on the items.

    This will unfortunately cause some unavoidable server lag while people are accessing their PS to update items, but it will help deal with the lag we are seeing on PS access once the old items are removed.


  • OK folks, I have good news and bad news with regard to this.

    The good news is, the cleanup is complete.

    The bad news is, it was a little more thorough than I planned.

    Due to a malformed SQL query, I accidentally deleted all the records in the PS DB.

    Since its been a while since a restore of this DB was possible, the last backup I have is from november of last year.

    I restored that one, after deleting any record older than 2008.

    What this means is that PCs will lose anything that was put in PS after that date.

    It also means that anything removed from PS after that date will be back, unless it hadn't been touched before 2008.

    For old items that PCs wanted to keep, I have a full copy of the november 2009 PS on the test server - items can be pulled from it, saved to your avatar, and imported into Narf as needed for unique items.

    I will do as much of this as I can, but some of it will fall to other DMs.

    My apologies to everyone affected.


  • Reminder - sometime not long after 24 hours from this post, I will be cleaning up the PS DB, as mentioned in the first post of this thread.