SQL Server 2000 - Is there a fast way of deleting backup history? - sql

We have a SQL Server 2000 instance where the MSDB has grown to a huge size due to the backup history never having been deleted in several years. I would like to purge the backup history completely (I don't see why it's needed) and free up the disk space used by all this data.
I realise you can use the sp_delete_backuphistory command, but this is far too slow (nothing happens in 2+ hours) and while it's executing the transaction log file grows to fill the entire disk (several GB). SQL Server 2000 does not appear to support doing this database by database.
I need to find a way of deleting all the data which doesn't fill the disk up first. So either deleting in stages so the log doesn't grow to big, or perhaps using truncate table somehow, but I'm not sure if there's a safe way to do this, and as I'm not a SQL expert, I wouldn't really know how to do this without destroying my MSDB database!
Any help would be appreciated!


I use something like the following:
declare #oldest_date datetime, #newest_date datetime
select #oldest_date = min(backup_start_date) from backupset
select #newest_date = dateadd(day, -45, getdate())
while(#oldest_date <= #newest_date)
begin
exec sp_delete_backuphistory #oldest_date
set #oldest_date = dateadd(day, 7, #oldest_date)
end
This will delete a week's worth of history at a time until you're caught up. The nice thing is that you can stick this in a job and run it periodically (weekly, for instance) and it'll do the right thing.


Try to reduce the number of rows you delete in one go. The first parameter to sp_delete_backuphistory is the oldest day to keep.
EXEC sp_delete_backuphistory '2000-01-01'
EXEC sp_delete_backuphistory '2001-01-01'
EXEC sp_delete_backuphistory '2002-01-01'
...
It can also help to lower the recovery model to Simple if it's currently at Full.


First take a backup,
Then create database for each year and restore database from backup file for one year data.
then clear all log file after take all process.

Related

The transaction log for the database is full

I have a long running process that holds open a transaction for the full duration.
I have no control over the way this is executed.
Because a transaction is held open for the full duration, when the transaction log fills, SQL Server cannot increase the size of the log file.
So the process fails with the error "The transaction log for database 'xxx' is full".
I have attempted to prevent this by increasing the size of the transaction log file in the database properties, but I get the same error.
Not sure what I should try next. The process runs for several hours so it's not easy to play trial and error.
Any ideas?
If anyone is interested, the process is an organisation import in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
There is plenty of disk space, we have the log in simple logging mode and have backed up the log prior to kicking off the process.
-=-=-=-=- UPDATE -=-=-=-=-
Thanks all for the comments so far. The following is what led me to believe that the log would not grow due to the open transaction:
I am getting the following error...
Import Organization (Name=xxx, Id=560d04e7-98ed-e211-9759-0050569d6d39) failed with Exception:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The transaction log for database 'xxx' is full. To find out why space in the log cannot be reused, see the log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databases
So following that advice I went to "log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databases" and it held the value "ACTIVE_TRANSACTION".
According to Microsoft:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345414(v=sql.105).aspx
That means the following:
A transaction is active (all recovery models).
• A long-running transaction might exist at the start of the log backup. In this case, freeing the space might require another log backup. For more information, see "Long-Running Active Transactions," later in this topic.
• A transaction is deferred (SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition and later versions only). A deferred transaction is effectively an active transaction whose rollback is blocked because of some unavailable resource. For information about the causes of deferred transactions and how to move them out of the deferred state, see Deferred Transactions.
Have I misunderstood something?
-=-=-=- UPDATE 2 -=-=-=-
Just kicked off the process with initial log file size set to 30GB. This will take a couple of hours to complete.
-=-=-=- Final UPDATE -=-=-=-
The issue was actually caused by the log file consuming all available disk space. In the last attempt I freed up 120GB and it still used all of it and ultimately failed.
I didn't realise this was happening previously because when the process was running overnight, it was rolling back on failure. This time I was able to check the log file size before the rollback.
Thanks all for your input.

To fix this problem, change Recovery Model to Simple then Shrink Files Log
1.
Database Properties > Options > Recovery Model > Simple
2.
Database Tasks > Shrink > Files > Log
Done.
Then check your db log file size at
Database Properties > Files > Database Files > Path
To check full sql server log: open Log File Viewer at
SSMS > Database > Management > SQL Server Logs > Current

I had this error once and it ended up being the server's hard drive that run out of disk space.

Do you have Enable Autogrowth and Unrestricted File Growth both enabled for the log file? You can edit these via SSMS in "Database Properties > Files"

Is this a one time script, or regularly occurring job?
In the past, for special projects that temporarily require lots of space for the log file, I created a second log file and made it huge. Once the project is complete we then removed the extra log file.

This is an old school approach, but if you're performing an iterative update or insert operation in SQL, something that runs for a long time, it's a good idea to periodically (programmatically) call "checkpoint". Calling "checkpoint" causes SQL to write to disk all of those memory-only changes (dirty pages, they're called) and items stored in the transaction log. This has the effect of cleaning out your transaction log periodically, thus preventing problems like the one described.

Try this:
USE YourDB;
GO
-- Truncate the log by changing the database recovery model to SIMPLE.
ALTER DATABASE YourDB
SET RECOVERY SIMPLE;
GO
-- Shrink the truncated log file to 50 MB.
DBCC SHRINKFILE (YourDB_log, 50);
GO
-- Reset the database recovery model.
ALTER DATABASE YourDB
SET RECOVERY FULL;
GO
I hope it helps.

The following will truncate the log.
USE [yourdbname]
GO
-- TRUNCATE TRANSACTION LOG --
DBCC SHRINKFILE(yourdbname_log, 1)
BACKUP LOG yourdbname WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
DBCC SHRINKFILE(yourdbname_log, 1)
GO
-- CHECK DATABASE HEALTH --
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[checker]() RETURNS int AS BEGIN RETURN 0 END
GO

If your database recovery model is full and you didn't have a log backup maintenance plan, you will get this error because the transaction log becomes full due to LOG_BACKUP.
This will prevent any action on this database (e.g. shrink), and the SQL Server Database Engine will raise a 9002 error.
To overcome this behavior I advise you to check this The transaction log for database ‘SharePoint_Config’ is full due to LOG_BACKUP that shows detailed steps to solve the issue.

I met the error: "The transaction log for database '...' is full due to 'ACTIVE_TRANSACTION' while deleting old rows from tables of my database for freeing disk space. I realized that this error would occur if the number of rows to be deleted was bigger than 1000000 in my case. So instead of using 1 DELETE statement, i divided the delete task by using DELETE TOP (1000000).... statement.
For example:
instead of using this statement:
DELETE FROM Vt30 WHERE Rt < DATEADD(YEAR, -1, GETDATE())
using following statement repeatedly:
DELETE TOP(1000000) FROM Vt30 WHERE Rt < DATEADD(YEAR, -1, GETDATE())

adding up to the answers above, I also want to mention that, if possible, u can also free up the server to fix this issue. If the server is already full due to the database overflow, u can delete some unnecessary files from the SERVER where ur DB is built upon. At least this temporarily fixes the issue and lets you to query the DB

My problem solved with multiple execute of limited deletes like
Before
DELETE FROM TableName WHERE Condition
After
DELETE TOP(1000) FROM TableName WHERECondition

The answer to the question is not deleting the rows from a table but it is the the tempDB space that is being taken up due to an active transaction. this happens mostly when there is a merge (upsert) is being run where we try to insert update and delete the transactions. The only option is is to make sure the DB is set to simple recovery model and also increase the file to the maximum space (Add an other file group). Although this has its own advantages and disadvantages these are the only options.
The other option that you have is to split the merge(upsert) into two operations. one that does the insert and the other that does the update and delete.

Here's my hero code. I've faced this problem. And use this code to fix this.
USE master;
SELECT
name, log_reuse_wait, log_reuse_wait_desc, is_cdc_enabled
FROM
sys.databases
WHERE
name = 'XX_System';
SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX('XX_System', 'IsPublished');
USE XX_System;
EXEC sp_repldone null, null, 0,0,1;
EXEC sp_removedbreplication XX_System;
DBCC OPENTRAN;
DBCC SQLPERF(LOGSPACE);
EXEC sp_replcounters;
DBCC SQLPERF(LOGSPACE);

Solved: As per the error the free space left the in the drive is not sufficient.
to resolve it either you can extend the drive space or move the MDF/LDF/LOG file to the drive with enough space.
Note: check the existing path from below steps
Database properties -> Select File option
enter image description here

Try this:
If possible restart the services MSSQLSERVER and SQLSERVERAGENT.

Query to determine if Backup Exec is taking backups

Does anyone know any tactics to determine if backup exec is taking backup? We do not have access to the program to determine if it is in charge but are receiving alerts for failed backups. If you run the select * from dbo.backupmediaset for System databases it normally returns what software is being used, however Backup Exec will still return SQL Server.
The backupmediaset tactic also does not work for any user databases as it is only included in the msdb System DB.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Have you tried using dbo.backupset instead of dbo.backupmediaset?
SELECT TOP 20 database_name,
type,
backup_start_date,
backup_finish_date,
compressed_backup_size,
backup_size
FROM msdb.dbo.backupset
ORDER BY backup_set_id DESC;
This is what I use, the dbo.backupset table should have a history of all backups ever run on your SQL server, unless someone ins manually purging that table, which is often times overlooked.
More details at my blog:
http://stevestedman.com/2012/01/latest-backups/
I hope this helps. Have a great day!

Same Stored Procedure is taking different time to execute in SQL Server

I am facing an issue with one of stored procedure in Sql Server.
In one database the Stored procedure is taking around 27 minutes 04 seconds to execute one XML. Basic functionality of this SP is to insert/update data in different tables taking XML input. The same SP is taking only one and half minutes to execute the same XML in different databases.
We have created a backup of the database one month back, when I executed the SP with same input in Backup database it also took 1 minute 04 sec. So can anyone please tell me what should I check between the current and backuped database because the issue is really strange and it seems in my current database something has been changed recently wothout my knowledge.

Statistics are up to date? exec sp_updatestats 'RESAMPLE'
Amount of data in affected tables is slightly different?
Rebuild indexes exec sp_msforeachtable 'alter index all on ? rebuild'
There are new indexes on affected tables?
Update:
There is different load over there databases/tables?
Any other maintenance tasks?
PS: All proposed code is for Sql Server

SQL Log and ACTIVE TRANSACTIONS

I have a Web Server with SQL 2008 running a simulated SQL 2005 db, and I have a local SQL 2005 db for testing environment.
This causes me to use scripts for backup/restoring data for testing as 2008 server backups do not restore to a 2005 server.
When I run this SQL Query to reduce the size of a Table on my production Web SQL Server (2008)
DELETE FROM TickersDay
WHERE (DATEDIFF(day, TickersDay.[date], GETDATE()) >= 8)
GO
I get this message:
Msg 9002, Level 17, State 4, Line 3
The transaction log for database 'VTNET' is full. To find out why space in the log
cannot be reused, see the log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databases
It comes up when I publish scripts also at times.
When I run this SQL Command I get the following Result:
SELECT [name], recovery_model_desc, log_reuse_wait_desc
FROM sys.databases
RESULT:
[name] recovery_model_desc log_reuse_wait_desc
VTNET SIMPLE ACTIVE_TRANSACTION
Here are my questions and issues:
I get it.. I have a transaction statement that needs a Rollback Command
< if ##Trancount > 0 Rollback > .. but I have 100 stored procedures so before I do that....
IN THE MEANTIME... how can I eradicate this issue?? I have tried SHRINKING and I have tried backuping up the Db...
As you can see, it is in SIMPLE mode... I do not have any idea how to backup a LOG ONLY file... (have not found how to do that)...

You might be able to get around this issue simply by getting SQL NOT to process the entire table by use the index on only the dates required to be deleted. Rephrase it to be index friendly
DELETE FROM TickersDay
WHERE TickersDay.[date] <= DATEADD(day, -8, GETDATE())
GO
If you run this frequently enough (at least daily) then it only has to process 1/9th or less via an index on TickersDay([Date]) instead of having to go through the entire table if you use DATEDIFF on the field.
If that still causes this:
The transaction log for database
'VTNET' is full
You really need to increase the Log size because I suspect it is not set to autogrow and is not big enough for this operation. Either that or start looking at batching the deletes (again assuming you have an index on date, so this efficiently targets only the 100 rows), e.g.
DELETE TOP (100) FROM TickersDay
WHERE TickersDay.[date] <= DATEADD(day, -8, GETDATE())
GO
You can either loop it (while ##rowcount > 0) or just schedule it more frequently as a trickling background delete.

There must be a way to delete data in SQL Server w/o overloading the log

I need to delete a bunch of data, and don't have the disk space for the log to continue growing. Upon looking into the matter further, it looks like there isn't any way around this, but I thought I'd ask for sure; it's difficult for me to believe that something so simple is impossible.
I tried looping, deleting in chunks, and calling shrinkfile on the log after each iteration. SQL Server just seems to ignore the shrinkfile command. Did the same with backup log (then deleting the backup file afterwards). Same thing - log just keeps on growing. The recovery model on the database I'm trying this on is simple - I thought that would make it easier, but it doesn't.

Do the delete in chunks, but rather than trying to shrink the log between times, do log backups between the chunks (that is if you're in full recovery)
The problem is that the log is full and hence has to grow. If it's full, trying to shrink it is useless, there's no free space in the log to release to the OS. What you need to do instead is make the space inside the file available for reuse.
Since the DB is in simple recovery, run the delete in chunks with a CHECKPOINT command in between each chunk. You can't do log backups in Simple recovery
Here's sample code that does deletes without filling the log (in simple recovery). DO NOT wrap this in a custom transaction. That completely defeats the point of deleting in batches as the log can't be cleared until the entire transaction commits.
(SQL 2005 and above. For SQL 2000, remove TOP and use SET ROWCOUNT)
DECLARE #Done BIT
SET #Done = 0
WHILE #Done = 0
BEGIN
DELETE TOP (20000) -- reduce if log still growing
FROM SomeTable WHERE SomeColumn = SomeValue
IF ##ROWCOUNT = 0
SET #Done = 1
CHECKPOINT -- marks log space reusable in simple recovery
END
To understand log management, take a look at this article - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/64582/

One trick I have used depending on the size of the data I'm keeping vs. the amount I'm deleting is to:
select all the "data to keep" into another table (just for temporary
storage)
truncate the original table
insert all the data from the temp storage table back into the original
It works well if the amount you are keeping is smaller than what you are deleting.
A similar option if all the database files are on the same disk (data and logs) and the data to be deleted is about half of the data, would be to export the "data to keep" to a file on a separate drive using the bcp command line utility, then truncate and insert the data file with bcp again.
I've seen the DBAs take the database offline, backup the logs, turn off the logging and do it that way but that seems like a lot of hassle. :-)

If your recovery setting is set to Full, you might try doing a transaction log backup to clear the log just before the delete.