Databases

[DrPerceptron]

Couple of odd questions... one leads on to the other (or not at all...)

 

1. Is there actually a way of assigning a single user access to more than one database within Plesk?

 

2. Is there any advantage to running multiple databases instead of using table prefixes to differentiate content?

 

 

Basically, I'm trying to run a multi-site setup using a single users table... the way I've always done it is using multiple databases... but since Plesk doesn't (in an obvious manor) provide any way of assigning a single user to multiple databases, I can't use that way - but I've never really tried using tables.

 

In the long run will it make a difference? Talking on a site with around 5-6 thousand visitors a month (unique)

[Michael]

Contacting your host directly should provide you the answer to Plesk. If they supply the product they should answer questions like yours (if they're any good)

 

As for multiple databases, the main advantage is you could host these on different physical servers which could speed things up. Again it depends on number of users, and the type of hosting you're using. Shared, VPS or Dedicated for example.

[THERADIOTUBBY]

After reading this thread I need some clarification;

 

I run a webserver at our college; Server 2003, iis 6 with PHP and Mysql

 

This runs our moodle, joomla and a number of other PHP/SQl apps like calandars etc

 

At the moment these are all run from one database with tables with separate prefixes etc. mainly because I was new to sql when I set it up.

 

I am unlikely to want to split these on to different servers

 

Is having them all in one database causing any performance hit?

 

Is it likely to cause any problems in the future?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[Michael]

In a way (similar to RAID), RAID0 would in theory perform quicker than RAID1, so splitting databases into smaller chunks and running on multiple servers would speed things up. It really depends how big the databases are and how powerful the servers are.

[Guest leeneilson]

When I used to use plesk you could use your main usename/password from the control panel, which had access to all databases.

 

As for seperating them in different databases it will help performance, and also is easier to work with.

 

Hope that helps

[SteveBentley]

After reading this thread I need some clarification;

 

I run a webserver at our college; Server 2003, iis 6 with PHP and Mysql

 

This runs our moodle, joomla and a number of other PHP/SQl apps like calandars etc

 

At the moment these are all run from one database with tables with separate prefixes etc. mainly because I was new to sql when I set it up.

 

I am unlikely to want to split these on to different servers

 

Is having them all in one database causing any performance hit?

 

Is it likely to cause any problems in the future?

 

Your main risk is that if the database gets trashed you lose all of the services while you're restoring it, rather than just the one. I guess there's also a potential security issue that a vulnerability in one app could lead to data used by the other applications being compromised.

 

It's not too big a job to split these into seperate databases, either on the same server or a different one - stop the applications writing to the database, dump the database to a .sql file, make a copy for each of the databases you want to end up with, delete the queries which create the tables for other apps, and then import the file into a new db. Then change your script which connects to the database to look for a new database name. There's no reason to (and I would strongly advise that you don't) change the table prefixes.