By default, MySQL 8 sets binary log retention to 2592000 seconds (30 days) and the maximum size of each binary log to 1GB.

This can mean that the MySQL binary logs can consume a large amount of space on your server with the default settings - especially on very active databases.

Manually purging binary logs

If you need to clear space immediately on your server, you can also manually clear the binary logs by issuing the following command in a MySQL prompt:

mysql> PURGE BINARY LOGS BEFORE NOW() - INTERVAL 3 DAY;
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This would clear any binary logs older than 3 days. You can adjust the interval as required so that you can clear the desired amount of space.

Setting log retention period

If space is a long-term concern, you can reduce the retention period by setting the binlog_expire_logs_seconds to less than 30 days (e.g. 259200 seconds - 3 days). This will then consume less space on disk whilst still enabling you to setup replication on your MySQL database.

To change this setting in the OPC, you can add this setting to the custom database configuration on the database page:

1. Navigate to the database you want to change the settings for in the navigation menu:

   

2. Click the "Edit" button a the bottom of the page:

   

3. Enter the configuration settings you wish to apply in the text box and click "Save Changes":

   

[mysqld]
binlog_expire_logs_seconds = 259200
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1. The progress screen will confirm that changes have been applied:

   

2. You can then view the updated settings on the database information page: