Version

XT 7.0A and later

Date

21 May 2004

Summary

When Argent is installed using SQL Server as the backend, the transaction log files can grow large.

Technical Background

When Argent is installed using SQL Server backend, at least 500 MB should be pre-allocated for transaction log.

SQL Server automatically grows the space used by the database and transaction log.

We have seen the transaction log grow to 20 GB for some busy Argent installations.

SQL Server does not truncate the transaction log unless a backup is done or a Customer explicitly truncates the log.

Also, when the transaction log is truncated, SQL Server does not automatically shrink the size.

Resolution

There are several options to deal with a quickly growing transaction log.

Regular SQL Server backup

A SQL Server job can be defined to execute at a defined interval.

When the backup is done, the transaction log will be truncated.

Though it does not shrink the size, it does prevent the unrestricted growth of the transaction log.

Run Argent SQL maintenance script

Customize the sample script DBMaint.sql.sample to do the job.

See Also: What Argent Housekeeping Is There?

Set the recovery mode for the Argent database to be ‘simple’ instead of ‘full’.

This allows the minimum transaction log to be generated.