6:20pm EST.
The Repair/Optimize finally was able to run it’s course.  After it had failed multiple times, in the vB Admin, it was showing ‘vb_post’ database table size as “0” ….but when I ran the routine it was still “doing a lot of stuff” and filling up that 4gb tmp directory so I knew it wasn’t empty…but I was worried.  Long story short, once the TMP space issue was fixed the rep/opt on vb_post took a little over 2 hours.  It appears all errors were fixed and subsequent rep/opt on the entire DB including that table now are smooth and taking a couple of minutes.  I have accessed the forums and they seem to be working as expected.  I am going to run a final site backup before turning the board back on.  Should be around or before 8:00pm EST.

5:00pm EST.
Better news?  The dude fixed the setting and it SEEMS the server is now chugging along on the repair routine.  Before, I would start it and the server would be working hard doing it’s thing….then that tmp dir would fill up after about 5 mins.  Once that was full the server stopped working and loads went to zip.  Now that the dir has been expanded she has been under load for well over an hour.  Not sure if that means this is going to work or not but it’s not what I know don’t work =P .  This bitch is old anyway and it might be time for a quick little fundraiser and moving to a less expensive, much newer server anyway.  This bitch has been serving nearly 24/7 many years.  If this repair does not work I do NOT plan to restore the backup to the CURRENT SERVER.  I would end up waiting a couple of days and I would just order a new server and try restoring the backup to that instead.  Just not sure I want to put time and effort into a 10 year old machine.  That option might take time for DNS shit and stuff but I dunno.  Rest assured I don’t plan on going anywhere, I will stay in touch here and AFAIK I have a full site Cpanel backup from last night.

3:00pm EST.
I was able to get my server company to increase the DIR size (even though that work is well out of the scope of what they are required to do).  It was set at 4.5GB.  I asked for 10GB….they completed the work and must have forgot a “0” because now there is only 1GB….doh!  I will wait for them to re-fix their fix and try to run it again soon.

11:45am EST.
I think I narrowed it down to /tmp directory filling up during the process which then makes it stall.  Trying to figure out how to make that DIR larger even though I am a chef who sells medical cannabis. =/

10:00am EST.
Not going great.  I did a complete backup before hand so at worst it will just be more time.  I really might need to just get us on a newer server.  Some of the tools are just not working well with some of our older software.  More to come but I would not expect this to come back up in hours.  Hopefully I can work it out before the end of the day.

The board will be turned off around midnight.  I will keep in touch here as I go.