How to monitor disk space

[andreis]

Hi, we kepp running out of space with our SQL Servers data an log files more often. What disk space monitoring software would be easy and reliable to alert us before databases run out of space? Is Big Brother good? Thanks.

 

[mutley1]

Andreis,

1. What version of SQL are you running?
2. "Running out of space with our SQL Server Data and Log files". Is that the data space and log space allocated are filling up, or are they growing to actually fill the physical disk (i.e. D drive 1MB free)?
3. How do you resolve the issue currently if there is no space. Delete data or allocate more disk space?
4. Who's in charge of the capacity planning?

It is all well and good to monitor the situation and get a warning, but the root causes should be addressed to try to avoid reaching a critical point to start with.

Have a look at the above and we'll see from there.

Rgds,

M.

 

[andreis]

Hello, Mutley:
1. SQL Server 2005 and some SQL Server 2000.
2. Files actually fill physical disk.
3. dbcc shrinkdatabase works so far.
4. Capacity planning was an area of responsibility of sys admin before they hired a DBA (me).
Thanks.

 

[mutley1]

If the shrink works OK then it sounds like the data / log files are growing due to input then data is cleared out (allowing you to shrink) as they will not return unused allocated space automatically. I'm going to hazard a guess, but it's probably the log file that chews up the disk space?

Is the database in full recovery mode and are the tran logs being backed up frequently enough (to clear out written data?)

 

[katekis]

How can you tell if you are running out of space in the log? I believe I am having similar issues.

 

[andreis]

We have two dozen SQL Servers with around a hundred databases, so all cases are different. More often it's log file (backed up every hour), but in several cases it's data files that grew, possble, after optimization job of reindexing. One can tell that the space is eaten up because database freezes.

 

[mutley1]

Are you able to send mail alerts from your SQL servers? If so check out the link below.

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/art...toringdiskspaceandsendingalertswithtsql/1114/