PRB: Database Dumps and Restore May Fill Up MSDB Database

• Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5

SYMPTOMS

SQL Executive-based tasks fail and the following error message is returned:

   Error: 1105, Severity : 17, State 2
   Can't allocate space for object '%.*s' in database '%.*s' because the
   '%.*s' segment is full. If you ran out of space in Syslogs, dump the
   transaction log. Otherwise, use ALTER DATABASE or sp_extendsegment to
   increase the size of the segment.

1. Scheduled dumps and restores.

CAUSE

The MSDB database is full.

WORKAROUND

In SQL Server 6.5, the following tables have been added to the MSDB database to aid in maintaining backup information:

sysbackupdetail : Specifies a summary of the devices used to backup (dump). sysbackuphistory : Specifies a summary of each backup operation (dump). sysrestoredetail : Specifies a summary of the devices used to restore (load). sysrestorehistory : Specifies a summary of each restore operation (load).

SQL Server automatically maintains a complete online backup and restore history in the MSDB database. This information includes who performed the backup, when it was done, and which devices or files it is stored on.

The System Administrator has to monitor these tables to delete old entries in these tables to make sure that MSDB database does not fill up.

The following stored procedure can be used to delete entries from these system tables in the MSDB database.

use master go sp_configure 'allow', 1 go reconfigure with override go drop proc sp_cleanbackupRestore_log

   go
   create proc sp_cleanbackupRestore_log
   @DeleteBeforeDate datetime
   as
   begin
      Delete from msdb.dbo.sysbackupdetail where backup_id
         in (Select backup_id from msdb.dbo.sysbackuphistory where backup_start <=
   @DeleteBeforeDate)
      Delete from msdb.dbo.sysbackuphistory where backup_start  <=
   @DeleteBeforeDate
      Delete from msdb.dbo.sysrestoredetail where restore_id
         in (Select restore_id from msdb.dbo.sysrestorehistory where backup_start <=
   @DeleteBeforeDate)
      Delete from msdb.dbo.sysRestorehistory where backup_start <=
   @DeleteBeforeDate
   end

You will then need to run the newly created stored procedure. For example, if you wanted to delete all the entries in the tables listed in the stored procedure that occured before January 2, 1997, you would run the following:

exec sp_cleanbackupRestore_log  '1/2/97'