How to install multiple Wordpress blogs with one database
So you’ve decided you want to install a Wordpress blog but don’t have any MySQL databases available in your account. Maybe you only have 1 database and it’s already being used, or maybe you have 50 and they’re all being used. Either way you’re going to have to find a way to install Wordpress so that it uses a database that already exists and contains tables.
Fortunately the Wordpress authors have made this fairly easy. During installation you’ll have the option to select a table prefix. The default is ‘wp’ but it can be anything. By using a unique table prefix for your blog you can stuff your Wordpress data into a database that already has data or you can use one database for multiple Wordpress blogs.
A couple downsides
While it sounds great that you can have all your Wordpress blogs in one database, there are a couple of downsides.
First, having several Wordpress blogs sharing a database will lead to a very large database. Backups and transfers will be much more difficult and time consuming.
And possibly more importantly upgrading Wordpress will be more difficult. Every time that I’ve upgraded a Wordpress installation there have been database changes and those were fairly easy since each blog has its own database. Had I had to upgrade a blog using a shared database the potential for problems would have been greater.
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