Monsterlog file - short term solution?

Hi,
Ive inherited admin of a database of which I was a user, so I'm new to this.
The log file has grown to an enormous size. This has happened in the past
(only a couple of times in a year) and the db admin has fixed it. From
reading other posts I think I will set the recovery to SIMPLE (it is a data
warehouse). (However whatever scheme was in put in place by the admin
normally worked OK, even with recovery set to FULL, so I am not sure what ha
s
changed.)
So, I still have the problem right now of the huge log file and a database
that will not respond. Can I fix the problem without backing up the log fil
e
(to be honest the log file is of no use)? There is not enough space on disk
media to backup the log file. Is there a way of "fooling" SQL Server into
thinking it has been backed up?
Any help appreciated. And yes I will read up on BOL
Les RSounds like you have your recovery plan set to FULL. If you
truly do not need the contents of the log file then you can
truncate it
backup log <your db> with truncate_only
go
This will delete the inactive portion of the log
You can then issue a DBCC SHRINKFILE command
to reclaim disk space the log may have requested from
the operating system in the course of it's growth:
use <your db>
go
dbcc shrinkfile(<log name>, <size> )
go
Make sure you allocate enough initial space to the log
doesn't have to keep autogrowing (assuming it's set
to autogrow).
If you're using the FULL recovery model, also set it
to SIMPLE.
Before you do anything, make sure that you in fact
do not need the log info. And read up on the
backup log and dbcc shrinkfile before you run
them so you understand them.
"Les Russell" <LesRussell@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:453CEC6E-4E5F-4FDB-BE4E-20AE8CB91C16@.microsoft.com...
> Hi,
> Ive inherited admin of a database of which I was a user, so I'm new to
this.
> The log file has grown to an enormous size. This has happened in the past
> (only a couple of times in a year) and the db admin has fixed it. From
> reading other posts I think I will set the recovery to SIMPLE (it is a
data
> warehouse). (However whatever scheme was in put in place by the admin
> normally worked OK, even with recovery set to FULL, so I am not sure what
has
> changed.)
> So, I still have the problem right now of the huge log file and a database
> that will not respond. Can I fix the problem without backing up the log
file
> (to be honest the log file is of no use)? There is not enough space on
disk
> media to backup the log file. Is there a way of "fooling" SQL Server into
> thinking it has been backed up?
> Any help appreciated. And yes I will read up on BOL
> Les Rsql