content/news/2012-04-06-database-prune.md

   1 author: Martinp23
   2 date: 2012-04-06 20:33:38+00:00
   3 slug: database-prune
   4 title: Database prune
   5 category: community
   6 category: development
   7 category: freenode
   8 category: infrastructure
   9 category: technical
  10 ---
  11 Every couple of years, freenode likes to get out the shears and prune the services database. Recently we broke the 80,000 usercount barrier, but the services stats are way ahead:
  12
  13 > Sat 13:35:46 -OperServ(OperServ@services.)- Registered accounts: 446777<br/>
  14 > Sat 13:35:46 -OperServ(OperServ@services.)- Registered nicknames: 557497<br/>
  15 > Sat 13:35:47 -OperServ(OperServ@services.)- Registered channels: 141373<br/>
  16
  17 We've noticed that nearly half of the accounts shown there haven't been used in
  18 the past 6 months! More importantly, over the past few months many people have
  19 noticed significant waits when issuing certain services commands - and we'd
  20 like to fix that.
  21
  22 Hopefully, the [services
  23 upgrade](http://blog.freenode.net/2012/04/help-us-test-our-services-upgrade/)
  24 should help with this, but we're going to coincide this with a database prune.
  25
  26 As of the services upgrade date, any nicks unused for > 150 days are at risk of
  27 being dropped. This includes grouped nicks. The easy way to avoid this
  28 happening is to use each of your grouped nicks (while identified to the
  29 appropriate account) within the next few weeks - and to drop those that you
  30 don't need anymore!
  31
  32 The testnet (testnet.freenode.net, port 9002. 9003 for SSL) is running a
  33 database snapshot from mid-March and will be periodically updated from the
  34 production network. This database instance is being regularly pruned - so check
  35 there to see how your account will be affected (use /msg nickserv info on both
  36 the production and test networks to see the differences).
  37
  38 Remember that testnet isn't running a real-time duplicate of the production
  39 network, so when you use nicks which would be expired on the production
  40 network, they will still appear expired on testnet until the next database
  41 snapshot is migrated. Don't worry though - the actual pruning will only occur
  42 on the current database at the time of upgrade.
  43
  44 On which note.. an upgrade date hasn't been formally fixed but we're aiming for
  45 mid-May.
  46
  47 Thanks, and don't forget to [test the
  48 testnet](http://blog.freenode.net/2012/04/help-us-test-our-services-upgrade/)!