Transaction Log Problem!!!

H

Hawkeye

Perch
Hopefully I can finally get some help with this issue...

My site is using an MSSQL database and I found two days ago that it had went down overnight because the transaction log had filled up (I had it set for a 30 meg limit). I went into HSPHERE and raised the limit and everything worked again.

I also sent a message to support asking that they clear the log. They said this would happen automatically with the nightly backup. I checked the next day and it has grown to 42 megs...was NOT cleared with the nightly backup.

So, I sent another message today asking that it be cleared and also asking how I could do this myself. I tried Enterprise Manager, but the Shrink Database option is greyed out. How else can I do this?

I just raised my limit again, this time to 70 megs. My transaction log file has now grown to 57 megs with no end in sight. It has STILL NOT been cleared. I believe I have reached, or will soon reach my overall limit and once again, my site will be down (100 megs overall size limit currently set...not sure how high I can go).

I ask very simply that the log be cleared. I've been trying to get this to happen for two days now and it has not.

Beyond that, I would like to have someone in support find out why it is not clearing automatically every day with the nightly backups as it should be (from what I am told).

Also, if anyone has another way I can do this in case of future emergencies, that would be appreciated.

Thank-you,

-Hawk

server: mssql1.jodoshared.com
 
When we backup your database, the transaction log is cleared and filled with white space. so your log file usage will remain static at 57MB till new log data fills it up. But since we backup databases every day, the chance of that happening is unlikely
 
Yash said:
Hi

I'm looking into this right now for you
Click to expand...

Yash, I'm not sure what was done, but I got an email this morning saying that the transaction log was reduced to 10 megs.

So, I went to my website and found that I had LOST 6 DYAS OF DATA from the database! (including about 350 forum posts). I have no idea what they did, but I am very upset at this point!

I just logged into HSPEHERE and the database for my account is completely GONE. I have nothing listed at all! ! !

Can you PLEASE look into this and see what happened?!!

Server: mssql1.jodohost.com
 
Hawkeye said:
Yash, I'm not sure what was done, but I got an email this morning saying that the transaction log was reduced to 10 megs.

So, I went to my website and found that I had LOST 6 DYAS OF DATA from the database! (including about 350 forum posts). I have no idea what they did, but I am very upset at this point!

I just logged into HSPEHERE and the database for my account is completely GONE. I have nothing listed at all! ! !

Can you PLEASE look into this and see what happened?!!

Server: mssql1.jodohost.com
Click to expand...

Our administrator was working with your database when the system locked up. We had to restart it. When checking your database it appeared to have become corrupted and we had to restore it from backup. I appologize for this and it was entirely our mistake. Let me know if there is anything we could do to help you with recovery.

As a result, your database also disappeared from the Control Panel. We had talked to PSOFT and the only way to reintroduce it into the CP is to create a new database and we'll import data from the old into it. Let me know if you want to do this
 
Yash said:
Our administrator was working with your database when the system locked up. We had to restart it. When checking your database it appeared to have become corrupted and we had to restore it from backup. I appologize for this and it was entirely our mistake. Let me know if there is anything we could do to help you with recovery.

As a result, your database also disappeared from the Control Panel. We had talked to PSOFT and the only way to reintroduce it into the CP is to create a new database and we'll import data from the old into it. Let me know if you want to do this
Click to expand...


Yash, this baffles me...I thought the point of moving to the cluster was increased reliability and nightly backups. When was the last backup of my DB done? I've got ALL data missing from the point I moved to the cluster 6 or 7 days ago!

I've seen you guys tell people here in other threads that there was NO WAY they could loose their SQL DBs (at least not more than 1 days data) because the backups were so reliable.

This is hundreds of messages and other resources we're talking about. Yes, I'm very upset...what if these were business-related customer records, etc?

What restore is currently available for me (date) in order to get more of my data back, as well as control panel functionality?

By the way, some else that upsets me is that NO ONE told me this happened until I noticed.
 
I doubled check with our administrator. You database was restored to the latest copy which isn't more than 24 hours old. Are you SURE that you have lost 6 days of data because that's very hard to believe. We have no backup that old
 
had a chat with Harish, was working on your database earlier today:

Yash says:
harish, how old is that backup?
Harish says:
it was taken today
Yash says:
was it?
Harish says:
before working on the problem
Yash says:
ok
Yash says:
are you 100% sure?
Harish says:
yes...and from that only it was restored
Harish says:
no doubt of that
Yash says:
ok
Click to expand...

He said he backed up your DB before working on it. That's what we always do to prevent things like this
 
We dropped your database backup file into your root folder. Try restoring it on your local SQL server

Yash says:
are you sure you didn't restore this from the customer's backup he sent you a week ago?
Yash says:
remember?
Harish says:
no i didn't restore from that that
Yash says:
ok
Harish says:
i restored from only that backup which i had taken before working on the problem
Yash says:
could you double check the date of that backup file and tell me
Harish Kumar says:
it is 12/19/2003 2:49AM
Yash says:
ok
Harish Kumar says:
server time
Yash says:
could you put that in ****'s root directory on win1?
Yash says:
the backup?
Harish says:
what
Harish says:
backup database
Yash says:
yes
Harish says:
ok
Yash says:
ok, great
Harish says:
1min
Yash says:
sure
Harish says:
ok, it is in customer's root
Yash says:
ok, great
Click to expand...
 
Yash said:
I doubled check with our administrator. You database was restored to the latest copy which isn't more than 24 hours old. Are you SURE that you have lost 6 days of data because that's very hard to believe. We have no backup that old
Click to expand...

Yash, double-check it again - I am *absolutely sure* that I have lost this much data. I am sure because the site just came back online recently and we have lost EVERYTHING since the initial conversion. The date of the last post now is December 1st, but the actual date we started was around the 12th. Everything is dated.

I see that another restore was attempted because today's posts are missing now, but it is back to the same backup I started today with...which is not from the past 24 hours.

So, as of now, the only backup is still from a week ago. Please keep looking - I don't want to loose all of this.
 
Hi

Read my last post post. We put a copy of the backup in your root directly. Please check that backup
 
Yash said:
Read my last post post. We put a copy of the backup in your root directly. Please check that backup
Click to expand...

Ok, downloaded that locally and it is the same copy that you currently have restored to my public site, which is a week old. That *can't* be the copy that he made just before doing the work. Can we try another backup? I'd be happy with the one before that if it is yesterday at this point.
 
Unfortunately that is the only backup we have. I checked our backup server as well, it has the same backup copy. I really don't understand how this happened. Harish is an experienced SQL Server DB admin and I'm surprised something like this could happen

We are investigating this right now. When we reach a conclusion, I'll let you know. We're taking this very seriously. Harish has been working for the last hour on this (currently 12AM here)
 
Yash said:
Unfortunately that is the only backup we have. I checked our backup server as well, it has the same backup copy. I really don't understand how this happened. Harish is an experienced SQL Server DB admin and I'm surprised something like this could happen

We are investigating this right now. When we reach a conclusion, I'll let you know. We're taking this very seriously. Harish has been working for the last hour on this (currently 12AM here)
Click to expand...


Ok, Please let me know the results.

I'd also like clarification on if there are actually nightly backups, or only weekly backups of these DBs.
 
OK, we discovered another thing. The latest backup is around 100KB bigger than the backup you asked us to restore from about a week ago.
 
Hawkeye said:
I'd also like clarification on if there are actually nightly backups, or only weekly backups of these DBs.
Click to expand...

daily, the databases have schedules tasks which back them up every 24 hours (at 12 AM server time). We then move them to our backup server
 
Yash said:
OK, we discovered another thing. The latest backup is around 100KB bigger than the backup you asked us to restore from about a week ago.
Click to expand...


100K isn't much, but lets restore it to the public site and take a look...much of these posts are converted into pure text, so it is possible we could have more data there.
 
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