Question
By default, MySQL has the innodb_file_per_table option disabled. Due to this, how do I enable it so that InnoDB will give free space back to the server?
Answer
To enable innodb_file_per_table, you will need to edit the /etc/my.cnf and add this into your global options so that it loads on startup:
innodb_file_per_table=ON
Once that is set, please restart MySQL so it loads the new configuration. Some more information on this can be located at:
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/innodb-file-per-table-tablespaces.html