| title | excerpt | updated |
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Web hosting - My database is full, what should I do? |
Find out what to do when your database is saturated |
2025-02-19 |
A database can, for example, store data related to a website and its functionalities. This information is structured so that your website can easily access it, allowing for optimal and customised access for users/visitors to your website.
During its use, a database can acquire, modify or delete information (connection data, user data, display data, data necessary for your website to work properly, etc.).
In some cases, the database stores such a large amount of information that it will saturate its allocated storage space. When a database is full, this state is called overquota.
This tutorial will show you the actions you can take when your OVHcloud shared database is close to saturation, or is already in overquota.
This guide explains possible actions when your database is full.
- Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
- An OVHcloud web hosting plan with an associated OVHcloud shared database
Warning
OVHcloud provides services which you are responsible for with regard to their configuration and management. You are therefore responsible for ensuring they function correctly.
If you experience any difficulties following the steps in this tutorial, we recommend contacting a specialist provider or reach out to the OVHcloud community. We will not be able to assist you. You can find more information in the Go further section of this guide.
When your OVHcloud shared database reaches a certain saturation level (overquota), our robots will send a notification to the email address of the database’s administrator contact.
The first email will be sent when your database has consumed more than 80% of its storage capacity. A second email is sent when 90% of this storage capacity is reached.
When your database is in overquota, you will be sent a third warning email. Your database will then switch to READ ONLY. You can no longer add or modify your database entries, but they are still accessible to read and delete.
A database is made up of one or more tables, themselves consisting of one or more rows organised using predetermined columns.
The first step is to identify the large table or tables in your database.
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All the following actions described in this tutorial will be performed from the phpMyAdmin interface.
phpMyAdmin{.external} is available on all OVHcloud shared databases. This database management application makes it easy to perform the manual actions you can perform with your database.
If your database is hosted on a Web Cloud Databases solution, please refer to our guide on “Web Cloud Databases - Logging in to your database”, then skip to step 1.2 of this guide.
Retrieve your database access data directly from your website’s configuration file. Perform this action using step 1 in our guide to changing a database password.
To connect to the database via phpMyAdmin, click on the tabs below to view each of the 5 steps.
[!tabs] Step 1
Log in to the OVHcloud Control Panel, then go to the
Web Cloud{.action} section.
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Step 2
Click the
Hosting plans{.action} menu, then select the Web Hosting plan concerned.
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Step 3
On the page that pops up, click on the
Databases{.action} tab.
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Step 4
On the new page, a table will appear containing the databases you have created.
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Note the
Usernameand theServer addressof your database that is full. You can view this information in the table listing your databases.To the right of the database concerned, click the
...{.action} button, thenGo to phpMyAdmin{.action}.Step 5
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Enter the login information for your database, then click
Login{.action}.
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From here on, your actions affect the content of your database. The changes you make in phpMyAdmin can have irreversible consequences if they are not carried out correctly.
Be sure about each command you execute on the database. If you experience any difficulties, we recommend contacting a specialist provider. OVHcloud cannot assist you with the content of your database.
Once connected, the following page is displayed:
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Click on "Your database name"{.action} in the left-hand column, then on Size{.action} in the top right-hand corner of the table that appears:
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The largest tables appear at the top of the sorted list. Identify them, then go to Step 2.
Once you have identified the large tables, determine whether all of their content is required for your site to work.
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If you are using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla!, PrestaShop or Drupal, make sure that your large tables are not linked to a recently installed or updated plugin/theme.
In this case, contact the developer of the plugin/theme to determine appropriate actions to take on your CMS.
For other CMS types, we recommend that you contact your CMS publisher before you perform the following actions.
Below are links to the official CMS websites for the OVHcloud 1-click modules:
- WordPress{.external}
- Joomla!{.external}
- PrestaShop{.external}
- Drupal{.external}
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If your website is a customised software, developed by a specialist provider, we recommend that you contact them for support.
Once you have determined whether or not the contents of your tables are necessary for your site to work, you have several options:
You will need to upgrade your database service to one that includes more space for databases.
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To increase the size allocated to your database, you will need to create a new, larger database, and copy the contents of the old database into the new one. You cannot directly increase the size of a database linked to a web hosting plan.
Consult our Web Cloud Databasess offer to choose your new database service.
We recommend this solution for large databases.
You can duplicate the content of your OVHcloud database directly to another of your OVHcloud databases, using a feature in your OVHcloud Control Panel. To do this, please refer to our guide "Duplicating the contents of one database to another".
If you are migrating to a database outside of the Start SQL and Web Cloud Databases solutions, you can manually move the content from your old database to a new one using our guides:
- Export your existing database
- First steps with Web Cloud Databasess
- Import your old database into your Web Cloud Databasess solution
Before you do the following, check if the data in the large table corresponds to items that can be deleted from your CMS admin panel.
Examples:
- Old comments/posts
- Items in your CMS's
Trashmenu - Data related to an old theme and/or plugin
[!alert]
The rest of this tutorial will show you how to delete data stored in your database. Be sure of the actions you need to take or contact a specialist provider if in doubt.
OVHcloud shared databases have several SQL commands to influence their content.
In the case of an overquota or large table, three commands are available.
You can perform these requests from the phpMyAdmin interface, via the SQL{.action} tab:
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- The DELETE command
You can use it to remove one or more rows from a given table. This command is useful if part of the table content is required for your website to work properly.
Example:
DELETE FROM `table_1` WHERE `id` = 1In this example, the command deletes the row or rows in the table_1 whose value in the id column is 1.
- The TRUNCATE command
This command deletes all rows from a given table.
Example:
TRUNCATE TABLE `table_1`In this example, the command deletes all rows from the table_1 without exception.
- The DROP command
It allows you to completely remove a table and all the rows it contains. This command should not be used if the table is still required.
Example:
DROP TABLE `table_1`In this example, the command deletes the table table_1 and all rows in it.
Our robots in charge of quota checks pass very regularly on our infrastructure.
If they find that your database is no longer in overquota when they visit your services, they will automatically remove the “READ ONLY” status.
Once you have carried out the necessary operations on your database, you just need to wait for our robots to pass on to your services.
However, you can force them through your services to speed up the process. To do this, you will need to ask our robots to recalculate your service/database quota.
Click on the tabs below to view each of the 5 steps.
[!tabs] Step 1
Log in to the OVHcloud Control Panel, then go to the
Web Cloud{.action} section.
Step 2
Click the
Hosting plans{.action} menu, then select the Web Hosting plan concerned.
Step 3
On the page that pops up, click on the
Databases{.action} tab.
Step 4
On the new page, a table will appear containing the databases you have created. To the right of the database concerned, click the
...{.action} button, thenRecalculate the quota{.action}.
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Step 5
In the window that pops up, click the
Confirm{.action} button directly.
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Once launched, the operation may take several minutes. When it ends, the "READ ONLY" status of your database disappears.
Your database is now fully operational again.
Click on the tabs below to view each of the 3 steps in turn.
[!tabs] Step 1
Log in to the OVHcloud Control Panel, then go to the
Web Cloud{.action} section.
Step 2
Click the
Web Cloud Databases{.action} menu, then choose the Web Cloud Databases solution concerned.
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Step 3
In the General information box, you will see Used space. Click the
...{.action} button on the right, thenRefresh your database quota{.action}.
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Once launched, the operation may take several minutes. When it ends, the "READ ONLY" status of your database disappears. Your database is now fully operational again.
Duplicating the contents of one database to another
For specialised services (SEO, development, etc.), contact OVHcloud partners.
If you would like assistance using and configuring your OVHcloud solutions, please refer to our support offers.
Join our community of users.