bitnami /opt/bitnami/mysql/data increases in size over time

I'm having a similar issue as to what is described in this post which never received an answer. Essentially, I'm running bitnami and my server space is filling up over time on what is a very simple static website. I narrowed the cluprit down to the /opt/bitnami/mysql/data folder which seems to be increasing in size at a rate of about 158KB per minute (aka 230MB per day). Some potentially relevant (or irrelevant) info I noticed: Running sudo du -b yields the following > 10553149373 ./data but running ls -l yields the following > drwxr-x--- 7 mysql root 12288 Dec 25 06:25 data The size of the data folder is stationary in the case of the ls command as each time I run that I get the same output. But the du command shows that the size is growing. And note the size difference between the two (I understand that du shows allocated space and ls shows actual usage. Why would one be so much bigger than the other - and why does du show it growing while ls does not).