File system or Database?

What is the difference on storing custom images and attachments in the database and the filesystem?
Is something of thoose better then the other? Why?

 

always use the filesystem when you can. Its quicker and more efficient and will keep your site running smooth and your database size to a minimum

 

But why is it important to keep you database size to an minimum?

 

lots of reasons, mainly because file system is faster

 

hahaha thanks for that I never knew the difference and this answered the question for me!

 

There are pros and cons to both methods.

Database storage-

• Management is easier especially when creating backups or moving servers. Everything is one place.
• Works out of the box in a multi-server environment
• Many shared hosting providers use open_basedir and other security measures which prevent vBulletin from storing attachments and other uploads to the file system.
• Its main disadvantage is that storing binary files in the database can lead to corruption if you change the database encoding.
• Database size will also be large however as queries are indexed speeds shouldn't be slower with proper hardware.

File Storage

• Lower file size of the database files. Though the database is still necessary and used to retrieve information about the attachments before loading.
• Somewhat easier lookup though the OS will maintain its own database for file location on the disk. This can be faster but is not necessarily so.
• Can be managed through the file system including anti-virus scanning.
• Can be stored outside the webroot (can't do this with avatars and profile pictures though).
• Harder to manage. Files are stored in multiple directories that belong to the webserver, not the user. Permission management can be a big issue.
• Difficult to maintain if you use multiple web and database servers.
• More difficult to move servers.

That being said, if your hosting provider allows it, than you should use File System Storage. The benefits outweigh the consequences.

 

I always use the file system so I can keep as much out of the database as possible.

 

I use the file system because it's easier to back up a small database.

 

Do you backup the file structure every time you do? Because you should.

 

I don't I'm pretty lazy with the filesystem back ups since I hardly get any attachments posted i generally do them once or twice a week where as the DB I backup daily

 

I use the file system - my database is already 800 megs - 1 gig. With several thousand attachments, I wonder how many gigs the database would be if all of those files were stored in it.