I am currently trying to import a text file with 180+ million records with about 300+ columns into my sql server database. Needless to say the file is roughly 70 GBs large. I have been at it for days and when i get close something happens and it craps out on me. I need the quickest and most efficient way to do this import. I have tried the wizard which should have been the easiest, then i tried just saving as an ssis package. I havent been able to figure out how to do a bulk import with the settings i think would work great. The error i keep on getting is 'not enough virtual memory'. I changed my virtual memory to 36 gigs . My system has 24 gigs of physical memory. Please help me.
If you are using BCP (and you should be for files this large), use a batch size. Otherwise, BCP will attempt to load all records in one transaction.
By command line: bcp -b 1000
By C#:
using (System.Data.SqlClient.SqlBulkCopy bulkCopy =
new System.Data.SqlClient.SqlBulkCopy(sqlConnection))
{
bulkCopy.DestinationTableName = destinationTableName;
bulkCopy.BatchSize = 1000; // 1000 rows
bulkCopy.WriteToServer(dataTable); // May also pass in DataRow[]
}
Here are the highlights from this MSDN article:
Importing a large data file as a single batch can be problematic, so
bcp and BULK INSERT let you import data in a series of batches, each
of which is smaller than the data file. Each batch is imported and
logged in a separate transaction...
Try reducing the maximum server memory for SQL Server to as low as you can get away with. (Right click the SQL instance in Mgmt Studio -> properties -> memory).
This may free up enough memory for the OS & SSIS to process such a big text file.
I'm assuming the whole process is happening locally on the server.
I had a similar problem with SQL 2012 and trying to import (as a test) around 7 million records into a database. I too ran out of memory and had to cut the bulk import into smaller pieces. The one thing to note is that all the memory that the import process uses (no matter what manner you leverage) up a ton of memory and won't release said system memory until the server was rebooted. I'm not sure if this is intended behavior by SQL Server but it's something to note for your project.
Because I was using the SEQUENCE command with this process I had to leverage T-sql code saved as sql scripts and then use SQLCMD in small pieces to lessen the memory overhead.
You'll have to play around with what works for you and highly recommend to not run the script all at once.
It's going to be a pain in the ass to break it down in smaller pieces and import it in but in the long run you'll be happier.
Related
The Issue
I've been running a particularly large query, generating millions of records to be inserted into a table. Each time I run the query I get an error reporting that the transaction log file is full.
I've managed to get a test query to run with a reduced set of results and by using SELECT INTO instead of INSERT into as pre built table. This reduced set of results generated a 20 gb table, 838,978,560 rows.
When trying to INSERT into the pre built table I've also tried using it with and without a Cluster index. Both failed.
Server Settings
The server is running SQL Server 2005 (Full not Express).
The dbase being used is set to SIMPLE for recovery and there is space available (around 100 gb) on the drive that the file is sitting on.
The transaction log file setting is for File Growth of 250 mb and to a maximum of 2,097,152 mb.
The log file appears to grow as expected till it gets to 4729 mb.
When the issue first appeared the file grow to a lower value however i've reduced the size of other log files on the same server and this appears to allow this transaction log file grow further by the same amount as the reduction on the other files.
I've now run out of ideas of how to solve this. If anyone has any suggestion or insight into what to do it would be much appreciated.
First, you want to avoid auto-growth whenever possible; auto-growth events are HUGE performance killers. If you have 100GB available why not change the log file size to something like 20GB (just temporarily while you troubleshoot this). My policy has always been to use 90%+ of the disk space allocated for a specific MDF/NDF/LDF file. There's no reason not to.
If you are using SIMPLE recovery SQL Server is supposed manage the task of returning unused space but sometimes SQL Server does not do a great job. Before running your query check the available free log space. You can do this by:
right-click the DB > go to Tasks > Shrink > Files.
change the type to "Log"
This will help you understand how much unused space you have. You can set "Reorganize pages before releasing unused space > Shrink File" to 0. Moving forward you can also release unused space using CHECKPOINT; this may be something to include as a first step before your query runs.
I use the sqlcmd utility to import a 7 GB large SQL dump file into a remote SQL Server. The command I use is this:
sqlcmd -S IP address -U user -P password -t 0 -d database -i file.sql
After about 20-30 min the server regularly responds with:
Sqlcmd: Error: Scripting error.
Any pointers or advice?
I assume file.sql is just a bunch of INSERT statements. For a large amount of rows, I suggest using the BCP command-line utility. This will perform orders of magnitude faster than individual INSERT statements.
You could also bulk insert data using the T-SQL BULK INSERT command. In that case, the file path needs to be accessible by the database server (i.e. UNC path or copied to a drive on the server) and along with needed permissions. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188365.aspx.
Why not use SSIS. While I have a certificate as a DBA, I always try to use the right tool for the job.
Here are some reasons to use SSIS.
1 - Use can still use fast-load, bulk copy. Make sure you set the batch size.
2 - Error handling is much better.
However, if you are using fast-load, either the batch commits or it gets tossed.
If you are using single record, you can direct each error row to a separate destination.
3 - You can perform transformations on the source data before loading it into the destination.
In short, Extract Translate Load.
4 - SSIS loves memory and buffers. If you want to get really in depth, read some articles from Matt Mason or Brian Knight.
Last but not least, the LAN/WAN always plays a factor if the job is not running on the target server with the input file on a local disk.
If you are on the same backbone with a good pipe, things go fast.
In summary, yeah you can use BCP. It is great for little quick jobs. Anything complicated with robust error handling should be done with SSIS.
Good luck,
I am converting a large SQL database (100GB stored in 10 files, with 100 tables per file) to SQLite. Right now, I am using the CodeProject C# utility, as suggested in another thread (convert sql-server *.mdf file into sqlite file). However, this approach is not entirely satisfactory for two reasons:
The conversion process usually stops abruptly when converting one of my files. Then I have to go in and check which tables were successfully converted or not.
I could manually convert 10 tables at a time; but this requires 100 repetitions and my constant presence in front of my computer.
Thank you so much for your kind regards!
It is possible a "transaction log" is being created. This is the log used to rollback changes if something goes wrong. Since your job is so large, this log file can grow too large and the process will fail.
Try this:
1) Back up the data.
2) Turn off the log with this: PRAGMA database.journal_mode = OFF;
Caveat: I've never tried this with SqlLite but other databases work in a similar fashion.
I am a C# developer, I am not really good with SQL. I have a simple questions here. I need to move more than 50 millions records from a database to other database. I tried to use the import function in ms SQL, however it got stuck because the log was full (I got an error message The transaction log for database 'mydatabase' is full due to 'LOG_BACKUP'). The database recovery model was set to simple. My friend said that importing millions records using task->import data will cause the log to be massive and told me to use loop instead to transfer the data, does anyone know how and why? thanks in advance
If you are moving the entire database, use backup and restore, it will be the quickest and easiest.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187048.aspx
If you are just moving a single table read about and use the BCP command line tools for this many records:
The bcp utility bulk copies data between an instance of Microsoft SQL Server and a data file in a user-specified format. The bcp utility can be used to import large numbers of new rows into SQL Server tables or to export data out of tables into data files. Except when used with the queryout option, the utility requires no knowledge of Transact-SQL. To import data into a table, you must either use a format file created for that table or understand the structure of the table and the types of data that are valid for its columns.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162802.aspx
The fastest and probably most reliable way is to bulk copy the data out via SQL Server's bcp.exe utility. If the schema on the destination database is exactly identical to that on the source database, including nullability of columns, export it in "native format":
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191232.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189941.aspx
If the schema differs between source and target, you will encounter...interesting (yes, interesting is a good word for it) problems.
If the schemas differ or you need to perform any transforms on the data, consider using text format. Or another format (BCP lets you create and use a format file to specify the format of the data for export/import).
You might consider exporting data in chunks: if you encounter problems it gives you an easier time of restarting without losing all the work done so far.
You might also consider zipping the exported data files up to minimize time on the wire.
Then FTP the files over to the destination server.
bcp them in. You can use the bcp utility on the destination server for the BULK IMPORT statement in SQL Server to do the work. Makes no real difference.
The nice thing about using BCP to load the data is that the load is what is described as a 'non-logged' transaction, though it's really more like a 'minimally logged' transaction.
If the tables on the destination server have IDENTITY columns, you'll need to use SET IDENTITY statement to disable the identity column on the the table(s) involved for the nonce (don't forget to reenable it). After your data is imported, you'll need to run DBCC CHECKIDENT to get things back in synch.
And depending on what your doing, it can sometimes be helpful to put the database in single-user mode or dbo-only mode for the duration of the surgery: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb522682.aspx
Another approach I've used to great effect is to use Perl's DBI/DBD modules (which provide access to the bulk copy interface) and write a perl script to suck out the data from the source server, transform it and bulk load it directly into the destination server, without having to save it to disk and move it. Also means you can trap errors and design things for recovery and restart right at the point of failure.
Use BCP to migrate data.
Another approach i have used in the past is to take a backup of the transaction log and shrink the log Prior to the migration. Split the migration script in parts and run the log backup- shrink - migrate iteration a few times.
I need to push a large SQL table from my local instance to SQL Azure. The transfer is a simple, 'clean' upload - simply push the data into a new, empty table.
The table is extremely large (~100 million rows) and consist only of GUIDs and other simple types (no timestamp or anything).
I create an SSIS package using the Data Import / Export Wizard in SSMS. The package works great.
The problem is when the package is run over a slow or intermittent connection. If the internet connection goes down halfway through, then there is no way to 'resume' the transfer.
What is the best approach to engineering an SSIS package to upload this data, in a resumable fashion? i.e. in case of connection failure, or to allow the job to be run only between specific time windows.
Normally, in a situation like that, I'd design the package to enumerate through batches of size N (1k row, 10M rows, whatever) and log to a processing table what the last successful batch transmitted would be. However, with GUIDs you can't quite partition them out into buckets.
In this particular case, I would modify your data flow to look like Source -> Lookup -> Destination. In your lookup transformation, query the Azure side and only retrieve the keys (SELECT myGuid FROM myTable). Here, we're only going to be interested in rows that don't have a match in the lookup recordset as those are the ones pending transmission.
A full cache is going to cost about 1.5GB (100M * 16bytes) of memory assuming the Azure side was fully populated plus the associated data transfer costs. That cost will be less than truncating and re-transferring all the data but just want to make sure I called it out.
Just order by your GUID when uploading. And make sure you use the max(guid) from Azure as your starting point when recovering from a failure or restart.