XF 2.2 Warning: Too many files on my server (Avatars)

[BubbaLovesCheese]

My hosting company is sending me warnings that I have too many files on my server. They narrowed it down to the Avatars.

Apparently Xenforo stores 5 copies of the Avatars for each 1 user, which makes around a million files on my server.

I find this a bit odd (or maybe not) but is there a work-around where Xenforo can either store 1 image per user, or perhaps store the files in a zip folder to reduce the number of individual files?

Any solution that doesn't include "get a new server" would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Chris D]

Well, I won't immediately say "get a new server" but I will say that this is the first time I recall a host simply saying that you have too many files. What significance is the number of files you have versus simply the total disk space being used?

We store 5 copies of the avatars because we serve different sizes in different situations which is one way to reduce bandwidth which most hosts like you to keep as low as possible.

It is possible to store files (as many as you want!) in a service like Amazon AWS S3 or Digital Ocean Spaces or other S3 compatible storage services.

XF supports this natively and there is a guide here (plus some additional files to download) to enable that:

Using DigitalOcean Spaces or Amazon S3 for file storage in XF 2.1 & XF 2.2

XenForo Version Compatibility The download is only compatible with XenForo 2.1 and XenForo 2.2. XenForo 2.3 is supported by following the guide but the download attached to this resource is no longer required. Why this guide? Since XenForo...

xenforo.com

You can either offload just the contents of your data directory (which is avatars, attachment thumbnails and others) or also offload the contents of your internal_data directory (which is mostly full-size attachments).

 

[Mr. Jinx]

My hosting company is sending me warnings that I have too many files on my server. They narrowed it down to the Avatars.

I had the same problem with my hosting provider. They had a limit of 300.000 files.
The hosting provider said this was sufficient for all their sites. I switched to another provider and I'm running my own VPS (again).

ps: XF is using quite a lot of inodes compared to other sites like Joomla/Wordpress.

 

[Kirby]

Any solution that doesn't include "get a new server" would be appreciated.

Disallowing users to upload custom avatar would be a solution

As Chris has already pointed out, it is normal behaviour to have 5 "copies" and should not be a problem (unless you hava a not thaat good host).

 

[Xon]

How Xenforo caches styles/languages will chew through a shocking amount of files as well.

Mostly you don't need to care however

 

[BubbaLovesCheese]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your replies. I opted for the Amazon S3 bucket solution.

@Chris D - Your guide was awesome. Though I am still having issues finding the correct combination of permission to make the avatars and attachments viable. Hopefully you can help me clear that up, Thanks.

First off, The Avatars are not showing, and when I "open image in new tab", I see this message:


Secondly, these are the settings I currently have:



So I guess my questions are:

1. Are the "public access settings" correct? Because I still don't see my Avatars.
2. Should it be showing the amazon URL in the address bar?
3. Which Files/folder should be private/public? Are where do I change them?

Thanks a million!