[dba-SQLServer] log file size

 > 1. What exactly do you mean by "migrate"? Do you really mean "move", or are you actually 
migrating, as in from one version or instance to another? There's a large difference between them.

1) I think I am not doing either by your standards, it is really just recreating the database from 
scratch, moving the data from old to new.

I am scripting every object in db ABC and recreating that in (new) DB XYZ.  I then append the data 
from the tables in ABC to the same tables in XYZ.  Not being a guru I don't know a more efficient 
way to do this.

I have 900 gbytes of RAID 6 SSD which I hold these things on.  I had two specific databases which 
had grown to almost 500 gigs all by themselves.  By 'shrinking' them down as described above I got 
the total file size for the two back under 200g, a worthwhile task given my limited SSD space.

 >why bother with the log in either your backups or your migration or move?

2) I wasn't aware that you could not have a log file.  AFAIK when I create the db the process 
automatically creates the db file and the log file simultaneously.  If I delete the log file (after 
detaching that is possible with a 'simple' database) it automatically creates a new one.

I pretty much come along behind and shrink the logs after major update operations.  I have been told 
to never shrink the data files because to do so fragments them so I do this 'data migration' process 
if the data files ever get outsized with major empty space.  That doesn't happen often because these 
are 'read-mostly' but once in awhile I have to do something which balloons them up.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it

On 10/4/2012 1:03 PM, Arthur Fuller wrote:
> John,
>
> A few questions.
>
> 1. What exactly do you mean by "migrate"? Do you really mean "move", or are
> you actually migrating, as in from one version or instance to another?
> There's a large difference between them.
> 2. Since your database is, except for the occasional mass-update, for all
> intents and purposes, R/O, why bother with the log in either your backups
> or your migration or move?
>
> Arthur
>