docs: start of database maintenance tips

docs/database-maintenance.md

@@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
+# Database Maintenance
+
+`nostr-rs-relay` uses the SQLite embedded database to minimize
+dependencies and overall footprint of running a relay.  If traffic is
+light, the relay should just run with very little need for
+intervention.  For heavily trafficked relays, there are a number of
+steps that the operator may need to take to maintain performance and
+limit disk usage.
+
+This maintenance guide is current as of version `0.7.14`.  Future
+versions may incorporate and automate some of these steps.
+
+## Backing Up the Database
+
+To prevent data loss, the database should be backed up regularly.  The
+recommended method is to use the `sqlite3` command to perform an
+"Online Backup".  This can be done while the relay is running, queries
+can still run and events will be persisted during the backup.
+
+The following commands will perform a backup of the database to a
+dated file, and then compress to minimize size:
+
+```console
+BACKUP_FILE=/var/backups/nostr/`date +%Y%m%d_%H%M`.db
+sqlite3 -readonly /apps/nostr-relay/nostr.db ".backup $BACKUP_FILE
+sqlite3 $BACKUP_FILE "vacuum;"
+bzip2 -9 $BACKUP_FILE
+```
+
+Nostr events are very compressible.  Expect a compression ratio on the
+order of 4:1, resulting in a 75% space saving.
+
+## Vacuuming the Database
+
+As the database is updated, it can become fragmented.  Performing a
+full `vacuum` will rebuild the entire database file, and can reduce
+space.  Running this may reduce the size of the database file,
+especially if a large amount of data was updated or deleted.
+
+```console
+vacuum;
+```
+
+## Clearing Hidden Events
+
+When events are deleted, either through deletion events, metadata or
+follower updates, or a replaceable event kind, the event is not
+actually removed from the database.  Instead, a flag `HIDDEN` is set
+to true for the event, which excludes it from search results.  The
+original intent was to ensure that subsequent rebroadcasts of the
+event would be easily detected as having been deleted, and would not
+need to be stored again.  In practice, this decision causes excessive
+growth of the `tags` table, since all the previous followers are
+retained for those `HIDDEN` events.
+
+The `event` and especially the `tag` table can be significantly
+reduced in size by running these commands:
+
+```console
+PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;
+delete from event where HIDDEN=true;
+```
+
+## Manually Removing Events
+
+For a variety of reasons, an operator may wish to remove some events
+from the database.  The only way of achieving this today is with
+manually run SQL commands.
+
+It is recommended to have a good backup prior to manually running SQL
+commands!
+
+In all cases, it is mandatory to enable foreign keys, and this must be
+done for every connection.  Otherwise, you will likely orphan rows in
+the `tag` table.
+
+### Deleting Specific Event
+
+```console
+PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;
+delete from event where event_hash=x'00000000000c1271675dc86e3e1dd1336827bccabb90dc4c9d3b4465efefe00e';
+```
+
+### Deleting All Events for Pubkey
+
+```console
+PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;
+delete from event where author=x'000000000002c7831d9c5a99f183afc2813a6f69a16edda7f6fc0ed8110566e6';
+```
+
+### Deleting All Events of a Kind
+
+
+```console
+PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;
+delete from event where kind=70202;
+```
+
+### Deleting Old Events
+
+In this scenario, we wish to delete any event that has been stored by
+our relay for more than 1 month.  Crucially, this is based on when the
+event was stored, not when the event says it was created.  If an event
+has a `created` field of 2 years ago, but was first sent to our relay
+yesterday, it would not be deleted in this scenario.  Keep in mind, we
+do not track anything for re-broadcast events that we already have, so
+this is not a very effective way of implementing a "least recently
+seen" policy.
+
+```console
+PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;
+TODO!
+```
+
+### Delete Profile Events with No Recent Events
+
+Many users create profiles, post a "hello world" event, and then never
+appear again (likely using an ephemeral keypair that was lost in the
+browser cache).  We can find these accounts and remove them after some
+time.
+
+```console
+PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;
+TODO!
+```