How do I export a site without it's Node data?

Question

I have a site with very high volumes of data (1000+ nodes per day * 3+ years and growing each day). When we need to create a development snapshot of this database it takes FOREVER to import it.

I know this is a long shot, but is there a way to export this database without our node data? Specifically which tables can we excise?

I know as we add more and more custom modules, more and more things will break when we do something like this. But let's say we are just using Drupal 6 core modules with CCK. Would it be possible then? If not, what would we break by doing this and could breaking it be fixed?

Answer 1

Could you just export the db in a typical fashion? Via PHPmyadmin or command line?

Also, Backup and Migrate lets you choose to export table structure without data.

Answer 2

I actually discovered AN answer to my problem. But I won't give myself the check, because it doesn't answer the core question of "What tables can I lose if I don't care about node content?".

We found a way to copy the binary data itself. Wasn't much documentation on this method though. It DOES require you have root on the box you are working on though. Specifically what we do is:

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop
# cd /var/lib/mysql
# tar -czf mydb.tgz mydb
# /etc/init.d/mysql start

This creates a backup of the binary data itself. Then we move that tar over to our dev box and do:

# mysql -u root -p
> CREATE DATABASE mydb;
> QUIT;
# /etc/init.d/mysql stop
# cd /var/lib/mysql
# rm -r mydb
# tar -xzf mydb.tgz
# /etc/init.d/mysql start

The database won't know the difference. This GREATLY speeds up the time it takes to move very large databases from one box to another.

Hope this helps someone else. But I definitely still want an answer to the original question. Thanks to everyone who is helping!

Answer 3

Here is Entity relationship diagram might be helpful
https://drupal.org/node/1785994

Drupal 7 core tables:
https://www.drupal.org/node/2360815