![[Warning]](/media/com_docimport/admonition/warning.png) | Warning |
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These features are only available on sites using the MySQL database server. |
The database is the most important part of our websites. It holds all the data and most configuration options, i.e. everything which makes our site what it is. However, since data is being written to and deleted from the database, the database tables are becoming fragmented. This can lead to slower responses. In some extreme cases the tables can become corrupt and stop working.
On a hard drive you know that you can always defragment it and run chkdisk or fsck (depending on your Operating System). For databases you have to go through a tedious process using a database administration tool, such as phpMyAdmin, to repair and optimize each and every table. Admin Tool's Database Tools are here to automate this tedious process for you!
There are three tools available:
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will run the repair and optimisation process on all of your site's tables. If the process hangs for a long time after the first time you use it, run it again. The usual problem is that the Joomla! sessions table is so bloated that PHP times out waiting for your database server to optimise this table.
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will purge (completely empty) and optimize only the sessions table. Doing so will log everybody out of the site, including yourself. Use this option sparingly and only when you observe severe problem when users are trying to log into the site.
A cut-down version of the optimisation process, addressing only the sessions table, can be scheduled to run on a timely basis by using the parameters of the "System - Admin Tools" plugin of the Professional release.
![[Note]](/media/com_docimport/admonition/note.png) | Note |
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Admin Tools no longer offers a tool to change the database collation. Joomla will automatically convert your database to UTF8MB4 if you are using a version of MySQL or MariaDB released after early 2015. |