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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-11T20:43:13+00:00

How do I increase the size of the transaction log? Is is also possible

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How do I increase the size of the transaction log? Is is also possible to temporarily increase the transaction log?

Let’s say I have the following scenario. I have a Delete operation that’s too big for the current transaction log. I wan’t to:

  • Increase the transaction log (can I detect the current size?, can I tell how large I need the transaction log to be for my operation?)
  • (Perform my operation)
  • Backup the transaction log
  • Restore the size of the transaction log.
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Short answer:

    Long answer: you can use ALTER DATABASE ... MODIFY FILE to change the size of database files, including LOG files. You can look up master_files/sysfiles (2k) or <dbname>.sys.database_files (2k5/2k8) to get the logical name of the log. And you can use DBCC SHRINKFILE to shrink a file (if possible).

    can I tell how large I need the
    transaction log to be for my
    operation?

    It depends on a lot of factors (is this new data? is it an update? is it a delete? what recovery model? Do you have compression on SQL 2k8? etc etc) but is usually bigger than you expect. I would estimate 2.5 times the size of the update you are about to perform.

    Update:

    Missed you say is an DELETE. A rough estimate is 1.5 times the size of the data deleted (including all indexes).

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