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[DrByte]

If all the original ZC tables were MyISAM and the Ceon tables were the only InnoDB tables, then your ibdata files (the InnoDB data) were probably the culprit there.

And ibdata files are only "copyable" when MySQL is shut down. Otherwise they're "open" and rarely ever copy cleanly or completely. So backups of files for InnoDB data are rarely reliable unless MySQL is shut down first. For InnoDB it's better to do a database dump/export instead.

[pixelpadre]

OK, you are right. Lost a lot of sleep over this. I still dont know what happened other than the mysql shutdown. It could have been an attack that overwhelmed the server or ......insufficient memory...1gb. or a combination.

I was able to get sql running again by renaming the 3 ibdata files in mysql directory. That was a start. But upon inspection in the database files...all that remained were .frm files. It was really weird how only the ceon files were affected on all of my ZC sites. On my other sites, I lost most of my tables. I stumbled upon /backups in my directory and found all of the dbase backups made several hours before the crash.

Two days later it happened all over again. Exactly the same files affected. How strange is that? Since the second crash, I moved half of my stuff to another server and everything seems to be running without any problem. I also set up CSF config file to block bad logins for 1 hours and notify me via email. Lots of blocking going on for bad logins. China and Vietnam seem to be at the top of the list.

I am leaning towards insufficient memory at the heart of the problem. But my gut tells me, someone made that happen in an unnatural way.

[pixelpadre]

Huh...I just read dr. last post more closely. So you are saying that ceon is innodb and ZC is myisam. Thats amazing. And it appears that all files that were myisam were left untouched. I even had non-ZC databases that were mixed with the two types. In those the same thing happened. ibdata was destroyed while the other data was fine. Sound like myisam is the only way to go. So now that we know that myisam was not vulnerable, can we say what caused the crash and/or damage?

And can I convert the ibdata to myisam?

Big kudo for the big reveal.

[DrByte]

So you are saying that ceon is innodb and ZC is misaim.

I suspect Ceon used InnoDB because he wanted to use transactions, or needed InnoDB's alternate approach to record locking to support the features in his code.

InnoDB isn't "wrong". But it's rarely properly optimized in the MySQL server. InnoDB serves a purpose. And MyISAM serves a purpose. One should use the right tool for the job. But if one is going to use it, one also needs to ensure that the infrastructure is prepared to support it.

can we say what caused the crash and/or damage?

I think whoever has access to your server is in the best position to answer that.
I doubt it has anything to do with "excess Zen Cart traffic".
But if there's some OS-vulnerability or MySQL vulnerability that an attacker was trying to exploit, that might be a culprit.

And can I convert the ibdata to myisam?

Sure: Use phpMyAdmin (or equiv) to change the table type from InnoDB to MyISAM.
But remember that in doing so you will lose all the benefits that InnoDB offers.