September 26, 2008 at 1:11 pm
What to do if we are running low on server disk space?
September 26, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Add more disks
Delete unnecessary files.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
September 29, 2008 at 2:51 am
Instead of firefighting, determine what's causing the problem:
- start monitoring your databases, so you can predict diskspace issues.
- implement warnings/alerts
- make sure you backup your logfiles for full-recovery databases (common pitfall)
As a temporary solution check your databases for free space. If it's too much, consider shrinking (don't shrink on a regular base, just as an escape and when it's useful)
Wilfred
The best things in life are the simple things
September 29, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Start with basic - what is my daily growth on my databases that i have.
Monitor this daily and determine what databases grew over the day.
If you have 10 GIG data and 2 GIG Log and then tomorrow you got
100 GIG data and 200 GIG Log what happened from one day to another.
Without knowing what the databases are to start with you do not know if particular problems are eating your space - perhaps it was a program that looped and took all the data in the log.
if over a week you experience that you do need 20 GIG of data then you can plan what size you need your SAN or disks to be and determine if you really have the capacity.
September 30, 2008 at 7:08 am
You might also check your transaction log file(s) and see if they have unrestricted growth. If so they can become resourse hogs very quickly. Set up a maintenance plan to backup and/or truncate them on a regular basis.
September 30, 2008 at 2:28 pm
TRACEY (9/29/2008)
plan what size you need your SAN or disks to be
curious, yulichka doesn't make any mention of a SAN at all :ermm:
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"Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉
October 1, 2008 at 4:52 am
I guess we're all assuming here that SQL is installed on this server (a fair assumption given what we're all here for!) 🙂
But as everyone else has pretty much covered the SQL stuff, I'd go back to Gail's response and look at any unnecessary files. If you have server backup jobs running do they leave a cached file anywhere? Is there any software installed that's not required, and if so can you remove any associated files? Can you compress any of the directories or files, or archive stuff? Can you relocate any of the files to different disks/servers?
And going back to SQL stuff now, do you store database backups on the server? If so, how many and can you look at reducing the number you keep? Can the backups be sent to a different server?
October 1, 2008 at 7:14 am
The above suggestions (especially finding what is using the space and monitoring growth) are excellent places to start.
Also, check to make sure there are not extra copies of service pack installation files, or old backups put outside of the expected backup directories. Basically find the biggest files that you know for sure no longer need to be there.
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A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html
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