SQL LDF not smaller after truncation
| KB ID: | 1876 |
| Product: | Veeam Backup & Replication 11, Veeam Backup & Replication 10a, Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5, Veeam Backup & Replication 9.0, Veeam Backup & Replication 8.0, Veeam Backup & Replication 7.0 |
| Published: | 2014-04-21 |
| Last Modified: | 2021-03-08 |
| Languages: | DE |
Challenge
After Veeam Backup & Replication or Veeam Agent for Windows successfully truncates a SQL server with Application-Aware Processing enabled, the LDF files do not become smaller.
Cause
This is due to the fact that the LDF file itself is a container, when truncation occurs the internals of the LDF are cleared and space is freed within it, but the LDF itself is not made smaller.
One could manually shrink or configure “Auto Shrink” to make the LDF itself physically smaller.
One could manually shrink or configure “Auto Shrink” to make the LDF itself physically smaller.
Solution
Considerations regarding Shrinking
The information provided below is a limited explanation of shrinking and is only intended to demonstrate how to perform a shrink operation. Veeam Support highly recommends prior to shrinking you review options with your SQL Administrator and perform independent research. There are many tech articles which recommend against shrinking when it is not strictly necessary. The impacts of shrinking (e.g. fragmentation and performance) should be fully understood prior to performing a shrink operation.
Advised reading regarding SQL shrinking can be found here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/databases/shrink-a-file
To view the actual free space within the LDF file perform the following.
- Open SQL Management Studio and connect to the SQL instance where the database in question is located.
- Right-Click on the database and go to Tasks>Shrink>Files
Note: This screenshot shows the VeeamBackup database only as an example, one should perform the srhink task against the database whose log file needs to be shrunk specifically.
- Switch to "Log" under [File type:]
This will display the current allocated space and the available free space. The database in this example is set for "Simple" recovery model which keeps the log size low, when a SQL database is configured for "Full" recovery model the LDF could be considerably larger depending on time between truncation events.
| KB ID: | 1876 |
| Product: | Veeam Backup & Replication 11, Veeam Backup & Replication 10a, Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5, Veeam Backup & Replication 9.0, Veeam Backup & Replication 8.0, Veeam Backup & Replication 7.0 |
| Published: | 2014-04-21 |
| Last Modified: | 2021-03-08 |
| Languages: | DE |
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