Transaction Log Very BIG!!!

[HyotonKamilo]

Hi!

I got a question...

hoy i can limit my SM DB Transaction log, because it´s already on 13 GB and still growth, i need to limit the size of this file for avoying problems with Service Mangaer...

Thanks
Regards
Kamilo

[Artur]

It would help a lot if you would tell what DB you use.

If you have an MS SQL - then you have to do full backup and shrink the log.
With SQL2005 I have problems with that and have seen others do have it as well, as
it looks like not always the full backup is cutting the log.
There is another option like changing the recovery model - but this method has VERY BIG influence on possibility to restore the DB after crash. Not recommended on production.

It is not recommended on Oracle as well, the option to not use the archive logs.

If you mean sm.log - If you have not turned on the additional logging (in your sm.ini for example) then there is nothing you can do about the speed of growing this file.
But you can try to rotate the logs - search about it on this forum. Search for
an option "-maxlogsize"

regards
Artur

[HyotonKamilo]

hi artur
Thanks for your answer

i use MS SQL Express 2005 as muy database manager; and i use the SM7DEMO (the default database) i realize a backup of the database and the transaction log, to another hard drive, but this log still growth, today, the size of the file is about 17GB.

i´ll wait for yopur answer.

Regards from Colombia.
Kamilo

[HyotonKamilo]

hi again

the log i reffer to, is the log of the database, in the data folder; in MS SQL, exists a file called SM7DEMO_log.ldf, this file its very big in comparison to the database (16GB vs 2GB ).

well, this file is the transaction log of the databasse, but i can´t stop it´s filesize, today growths about 200MB, definitively it´s not normal.

Thanks!!!
Regards.
Kamilo

[Artur]

It does not make sense to compare the size of mdf to ldf files.
For example: you may have just 5 records in mdf file so the size will be about default 5MB (or even less) but if you do an update every 1ms the log file will grow as hell.

You have to schedule the full backup using MSSQL agent and shrinking the log. As I wrote:
"With SQL2005 I have problems with that and have seen others do have it as well, as
it looks like not always the full backup is cutting the log."

this is the only (and safe) way.
Other options have severe tradeoffs in term of system security.

regards
Artur