Data storage

Prosody needs to store a certain amount of data, primarily about users. For example account names/passwords, contact lists, profiles. The storage system is extensible via plugins. We have two plugins that come with Prosody, "internal" and "sql".

Selecting a storage backend

Select the storage backend to load with the 'storage' configuration option. It is not necessary to add storage plugins to modules_enabled - they are loaded automatically on-demand.

Example to use the "internal" storage backend for all stores:

    storage = "internal"

Example to store rosters using "sql", and everything else using the default "internal" backend:

    storage = {
         roster = "sql";
    }

Example to store everything using "sql", except accounts:

    default_storage = "sql"
    storage = {
        accounts = "internal";
    }

Backends

Name	Description	Archive support
internal	Default file-based storage.	Yes
sql	SQL database support.	Yes
memory	Keeps data in memory only, intended for tests, not for production	Yes
null	Built-in backend that always fails to load/save data.	No
none	Backend where all stores are always empty and saving data always fails.	No

Additional storage backends are available in from the Community modules project.

Common stores

These are the stores used by core modules. Usually stores will have the same name as the module using it. Community modules may use additional stores.

Store	Description	Modules
accounts	Account details, such as (hashed) password	mod_auth_internal_plain, mod_auth_internal_hashed
account_details	Extra account details	mod_register
roster	User contact lists	mod_roster, rostermanager
vcard	Profile details and avatar	mod_vcard
private	Private XML storage data	mod_private
blocklist	Blocked JIDs	mod_blocklist
privacy	Privacy lists	mod_privacy
archive	Message archives	mod_mam
muc_log	MUC message archives	mod_muc_mam
persistent	Set of persistent MUC rooms	mod_muc
config	Room configuration	mod_muc
offline	Offline messages	mod_offline
pubsub_nodes	PubSub node configuration	mod_pubsub
pubsub_data	PubSub node data (archive type)	mod_pubsub
pep	PEP node configuration	mod_pep
pep_data	PEP node data (archive type)	mod_pep

Migrating data between stores

Prosody includes a migration tool.