How to Decrease the log file (.ldf) size

mike.chary · August 17th, 2007, 09:25 AM

Hi All,

My SQL Server Database .ldf size is increasing. I want to decrease the size of the log file (.ldf). I tried with DBCC SHRINKFILE, Is there any other way.

Please give me an idea.

Thanks in advance.

planoie · August 20th, 2007, 02:45 PM

Do you want to shrink it once or prevent it from growing? When you create a database you can set it to use Simple logging mode which I believe will reduce the size of the transaction log, but doesn't provide as much failure protection. This is usually acceptable for development DBs.

You could set up a maintenance plan to run the database shrink on a periodic schedule.

-Peter

KiwiStonewall · September 6th, 2007, 11:27 PM

The log file will not shrink until it has been backed up at least twice along with the databse. Once that has been done it will shrink - Check your maintenance plan that both the database & log file are regularly backed up.

The backup processes mark the log with what parts can be cleaned up and what parts are needed to recover the database.

planoie · September 7th, 2007, 10:11 AM

KiwiStonewall-

Is there some action aside from a backup that can be done that marks log parts as cleanable? Does detaching a database commit everything to it such that the log can be shrunk?

-Peter

Jeff Moden · September 7th, 2007, 07:31 PM

From BOL... my favorite resource :D

Truncating the transaction log:

Code:

BACKUP LOG { database_name | @database_name_var } 
{ 
    [ WITH 
        { NO_LOG | TRUNCATE_ONLY } ] 
}

NO_LOG | TRUNCATE_ONLY
Removes the inactive part of the log without making a backup copy of it and truncates the log. This option frees space. Specifying a backup device is unnecessary because the log backup is not saved. NO_LOG and TRUNCATE_ONLY are synonyms.

After backing up the log using either NO_LOG or TRUNCATE_ONLY, the changes recorded in the log are not recoverable. For recovery purposes, immediately execute BACKUP DATABASE.

And, no, I've never heard nor have ever seen that you need to do at least 2 backups to clear the log... it has always worked on the first backup on every database I've ever worked with.

--Jeff Moden