logfile (whitespace) and excessive growth

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logfile (whitespace) and excessive growth

apostolisep3

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Points: 191
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December 11, 2019 at 1:58 pm

#3706980

Hello guys , i am working with sql server 2017 about a year and there are some (many) things i am searching to find solutions but...
we have 2 sql 2017 server on an AG, one of the databases we have is about 70gb and the logfile every 10-12 days goes up to 500+ GB and i have to run the following script to shrink the log file

BACKUP LOG name TO DISK='NUL:' WITH NO_CHECKSUM, CONTINUE_AFTER_ERROR
Use name
dbcc loginfo
DBCC SHRINKFILE (name_log, EMPTYFILE);
After that the logfile goes to 15-16gb with 0 whitespace
and maybe next day the same logfile is +20gb (all whitespace)
what i notice is that the state of the following query is at the same state all the time
select log_reuse_wait_desc from sys.databases where name='name'
state 1 - LOG_BACKUP
and also i can see that with the follwing script
DECLARE @filename NVARCHAR(1000);
DECLARE @bc INT;
DECLARE @ec INT;
DECLARE @bfn VARCHAR(1000);
DECLARE @efn VARCHAR(10);
SELECT @filename = CAST(value AS NVARCHAR(1000))
FROM ::fn_trace_getinfo(DEFAULT)
WHERE traceid = 1 AND property = 2;
SET @filename = REVERSE(@filename);
SET @bc = CHARINDEX('.',@filename);
SET @ec = CHARINDEX('_',@filename)+1;
SET @efn = REVERSE(SUBSTRING(@filename,1,@bc));
SET @bfn = REVERSE(SUBSTRING(@filename,@ec,LEN(@filename)));
SET @filename = @bfn + @efn
SELECT
ftg.StartTime
,te.name AS EventName
,DB_NAME(ftg.databaseid) AS DatabaseName
,ftg.Filename
,(ftg.IntegerData*8)/1024.0 AS GrowthMB
,(ftg.duration/1000)AS DurMS
FROM ::fn_trace_gettable(@filename, DEFAULT) AS ftg
INNER JOIN sys.trace_events AS te ON ftg.EventClass = te.trace_event_id
WHERE (ftg.EventClass = 92 -- Date File Auto-grow
OR ftg.EventClass = 93) -- Log File Auto-grow
ORDER BY 1 desc
i see that in the specific database i have GrowthMB every 2 hours without any opentran going one.
the log file is set to autogrowth (with default values)
any help to clarify why i have to big log file and so much whitespace?
Many thanks!

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 22 total)

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muthukkumaran Kaliyamoorthy SSCoach Points: 19026 More actions · Answer 1

Have you configured transaction log backup? How frequent you are running?

Muthukkumaran Kaliyamoorthy
https://www.sqlserverblogforum.com/

apostolisep3 SSC Enthusiast Points: 191 More actions · Answer 2

yes we are running 1 full backup every night 4 differential during the day and 8 transaction log backups

but the logs are not truncated , only when using the script above.

Thanks!!!!

muthukkumaran Kaliyamoorthy SSCoach Points: 19026 More actions · Answer 3

select log_reuse_wait_desc from sys.databases where name='name'
state 1 - LOG_BACKUP

This the above always shows log backup. If yes, you need to increase the t-log backup frequency, like every 15 minutes.

Review all your agent job and make sure the reindex job are in right shape.

Muthukkumaran Kaliyamoorthy
https://www.sqlserverblogforum.com/

apostolisep3 SSC Enthusiast Points: 191 More actions · Answer 4

Thank you for your reply,

i have a job which checks for index fragmentation every day but the results are pretty low something like less than 700 pages (the fragmentation levels are between 80-95%) but the indexes are being rebuild everyday (in case of).

what exactly should i check in the reindexing process and what can i correct?

Thanks again.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736478 More actions · Answer 5

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

SSC Guru

Points: 736478

December 11, 2019 at 4:31 pm

#3707050

Is the growth linear, or is it all of a sudden one day?

apostolisep3 SSC Enthusiast Points: 191 More actions · Answer 6

apostolisep3

SSC Enthusiast

Points: 191

December 11, 2019 at 4:35 pm

#3707056

the growth is linear... 35-45GB of logfiles everyday

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736478 More actions · Answer 7

It should not be growing every day with log backups unless you have an increasing workload. I suspect you're missing something. Perhaps your log backup are not running as you think

apostolisep3 SSC Enthusiast Points: 191 More actions · Answer 8

well the program which relies on the sql server is gathering everyday through email alerts from 100+ ships and store them to the database, the data which are stored in the db in daily basis are max 500mb to 1GB which i dont think can grow the log file to 35+GB.

the AG could cause this problem or not?

the 95% of the logfile is whitespace

jasona.work SSC Guru Points: 50118 More actions · Answer 9

So a couple thoughts on this.

First, STOP doing the backup log to NUL, it'll kill your log chain if you ever need to recover.

Second, yes, step up the frequency of your log backups, 8 a day is not very frequent. Largely the frequency will depend on your workloads and how they impact the log (lots of read, not a lot of write / update / delete, you can get away with less frequent log backups.)

Third, it's time to do some "right-sizing" of your log and determining what is responsible for the growth of the log. If you've got data loads running over night, your log is growing to accommodate the transactions. More frequent log backups can help some with that, depending on the loads. I'd lean towards the following steps to clear this up.

Bump up the frequency of the log backups, maybe to every hour or half hour, or even more frequent.
Shrink the log one time AFTER you've done step 1
Let it be for a couple days to stabilize, while it's doing that, check what processes might be hitting the database overnight
See what size the log is, most likely, that's what it *NEEDS* to be to handle your normal processes

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736478 More actions · Answer 10

How do you know this is all whitespace? The log is reused and should be rewritten over time. There is a circular nature to this, with SQL Server writing through the file and then back to the beginning if you have run log backups. Those allow the log to be overwritten.

Again, I can't see your system. The AG possible would prevent log being re-used if a replica was unavailable. Same for replication or mirroring. Something is wrong with your setup, or your admin backups.

apostolisep3 SSC Enthusiast Points: 191 More actions · Answer 11

creating a separate drive for only log backups and taking transaction log backups 8 times a day would help?

BACKUP LOG 'name' to disk = 'path'

is this going to truncate the log files?

apostolisep3 SSC Enthusiast Points: 191 More actions · Answer 12

well i might be mistaken but if i run

select * from sys.dm_db_log_space_usage;

the total log size in mbs is MUCH bigger than the used log space in bytes (this is why i assumed it is white space)

muthukkumaran Kaliyamoorthy SSCoach Points: 19026 More actions · Answer 13

I suggest to read transaction log management.

Muthukkumaran Kaliyamoorthy
https://www.sqlserverblogforum.com/

apostolisep3 SSC Enthusiast Points: 191 More actions · Answer 14

muthukkumaran Kaliyamoorthy wrote:

I suggest to read transaction log management.

do you have a detailed link to read in order to apply the setting to my prod env?

Thank you!