Maintenance Procedures

[ShadowRider]

Daryl and Barry,
 
I just completed running routine maintenance and I will list what I did. You guys can then do this anytime you feel the need. These aren't critical issues and don't need to be run often but it is a way to remove unwanted and unneeded stuff from the forum, that accumulates over time.
 
In Admin Control Panel under Maintenance button go to the Update Counters button. There are 10 items you can perform without any problem. They aren't numbered but I have numbered them in the order they appear, from top to bottom.
 
1) Update User Titles and Ranks
2) Rebuild Thread Information
3) Rebuild Forum Information
4) Fix Broken User Profiles
5) DO NOT TOUCH THIS ONE - Rebuild Search Index
6) Rebuild Post Cache
7) [Empty Signature Cache- I haven't done this one, but it should be ok to do]
8) DO NOT TOUCH THIS ONE - Rebuild Statistics
9) Rebuild Similar Threads
10) Delete Duplicate Threads
11) [Rebuild Attatchment Thumbnails- I haven't done this one, but it should be ok to do]
12) [Rebuild User Reputation- I haven't done this one, but it should be ok to due and use
      the default value of 10]
13) Update User Names
14) DO NOT TOUCH THIS ONE - Update Post Counts
15) DO NOT TOUCH THIS ONE - Rebuild Styles
16) Remove Orphan Threads
17) Remove Orphan Posts
 
Many of these functions will have a default value in the white box, use the default value in each operation.
 
Lastly, there is a new version of vBulletin available and we will update to it as soon as we get some information from our Server, at which time we will get information that will enable us to do our own database back ups as well. We hired it done last time but this needs to be done frequently, at least once a month if not weekly and it is long over due. This one task is probably the most important task of all of them. If THL ever crashes again, we would still have all our files as of the last update and we would be able to bring THL back. Without the database backups, we would lose THL completely.
 
Look these tasks over and get familiar with them. Run a  few of them every now and then so you can see the process. If you do all 10 of the ones I did, in sequence, it will take about an hour. I would suggest making sure two people aren't trying to perform the same task at the same time. I don't know what would happen, but I wouldn't want to try to find out.
 
I'll let you know when we have the information we need from the server and have done the backup and update.
 
Gordon

[rockinbbar]

Thanks Gordon!

I knew there was some we shouldn't mess with, so I've not messed with any of them before.

Thanks for taking the time to show us & keep us in the loop.

Hope Sharon & yourself are well.

Barry

[Daryl (deceased)]

Thanks Gordon!
 
Daryl