Recently checking one of the WordPress website into our dedicated server we figured out the website is using more than 1GB space which is very unusual for a informative website ????
Guessing many of us is having that question when we came across these kind of situations we check every where and sometime we get working more than we should meaning, we reinstall or do some fatal upload/download process. In this blog we will have few right places that i feel we should check when we have any suspicious WordPress websites.
- File Manager :- Our first and most preferable location will be the cPanel and other file management UI’s, we should look for any unusual or weird files that uses more than 1mb in nature and if we found we should clean them up or higher someone professionals to do so. In case if you are doing, than we always should take backup before we get assure and cleanup anything. Though its lengthy but quite effective in nature.
- Database :- Always check for any extra fields or tables that uses more space than other tables, in our case we found wordfence is one of the plugin that is using more than 50 mb of database which is again is not a good ideal situation that Database should have. Check the wp_users table and verify your current users, if you have any other suspicious users than please check the rights or backup them and delete, that can be a very standard practice.
- Error_log files :- Error log is one of the file that may help us in case you are a pro, but most of the time its just using and foot prints of all logins and access to your servers, file managers, WordPress and any other platforms. Make sure you clean them up or backup in proper way.
- Backup :- Backup Process is usually a standard practice but again to have multiple backups is pointless. We often left up old backups and old homework files on the server and not thinking about to delete or clean them up. In our situation, our developers often works with direct access and rename the files with old or any specific names that can be known to them, and when they finish their working they always clean and delete them. More to that we often have scripts that put our files or migrate files to a different server location like google drive, or our local file storage again that process left of either the error_logs or files that lies usesless on the server.
- Plugins:- Many of us uses many of the plugins that is either active which is usefull and helps wordpress to work more efficiently but there are always inactive plugins as well, we should either clean them up or keep upgrading them or delete them. Always plugins that is not updated create vulnerable process to your wordpress and creates the foot prints in terms of error_logs.
- Cron jobs :- Cron Jobs are always there within your WordPress make sure you have full control and what kind of footprints the are creating.
In brief we should be more conscious and maintain our file manager and websites by log in regularly or when ever we can. We should have knowledge of the infrastructure and architecture of WordPress or any framework which we use to support our websites. Any unusual or abnormal files should be cleared up or noticed to the concern person.