Content database transaction log is full

Question

Hi guys,
i am facing some very serious issues right here, SharePoint content can't be updated because the transaction log drive for the logs is full. the following message is displayed in the event viewer
'The transaction for database wss_content_guid is full. To find out why space can't be reused see the log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databases'
Pls help

Answer 1

Hi,
The recommended way to truncate the transaction log if you are using a full recovery model is to back up the log. SQL Server 2005 automatically truncates the inactive parts of the transaction log when you back up the log. It is also recommended that you pre-grow the transaction log to avoid auto-growing the log. For more information about growing the transaction log, see Managing the Size of the Transaction Log File (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=124882). For more information about using a full recovery model, see Backup Under the Full Recovery Model (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127985). For more information about using a simple recovery model, see Backup Under the Simple Recovery Model (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127987).
We do not recommend that you manually shrink the transaction log size or manually truncate the log by using the Truncate method.
Transaction logs are also automatically backed up when you back up the farm, Web application, or databases by using either the SharePoint Central Administration Web site or the Stsadm command-line tool. For more information about the Stsadm command-line tool, see Backup: Stsadm operation (Windows SharePoint Services).
So I would suggest you backing up SharePoint by either the SharePoint Central Administration Web site or the Stsadm command-line tool.
For more information about Best Practice on Backups, please refer to the following articles:
Best Practice on Backups
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/07/09/best-practice-on-backups.aspx
Back up logs (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc811601.aspx
Hope this helps.
Rock Wang
Rock Wang– MSFT