I have one database whose size is growing very fast. Curruntly its size is aruond 60GB however after executing db_spaceused stored procedure i could verify that more that 40 GB is unused(unused space is different, not reserved space which i unsderstand is for table growth). And actual data size is around 10-12 GB and few GB’s in reserved space.
Now to collect that unsused space i tried to use the shrink operation but it turned out to be not helping. After searching further i also found not to use the shrink DB as that causes the data fragments to get genrated resulting in the dealay while disk operation. Now i am really not sure what other operation i should try to recollect the space and recollect the DB. I unsertand that due to the size queries might be taking longer that expected and reclaiming this space could help with the performance (not sure ).
While investigating i also come across Gererate Scripts feature. It helps exporting data, schema also but i am not sure if it also help creating script(everying user, permission and other things also) so that script will help creat as is replica(deep copy/clone) of DB using create scema and then populating it with data to other db/server ?
Any pointer would be helpful.
If your database is 60Gb it means it had grown to 60gb. Even if the data is only 20Gb, you probably have operations that grow the data from time to time (eg. nightly index maintenance jobs). The recommendation is to leave the database at 60Gb. Do not attempt to reclaim the space, you will only cause harm and whatever caused the database to grow to 60Gb to start with it will likely occur again and trigger database growth.
In fact, you should to the opposite. Try to identify why it grew to 60Gb and extrapolate what will happen when your data reaches 30Gb. Will the database grow to 90Gb? If yes, the you should grow it now to 90Gb. The last thing you want is for growth to occur randomly, and possibly run out of disk space at a critical moment. In fact you should check right now if your server has Instant File initialization enabled.
Now of course, the question is: what would cause 3x data size growth, and how to identify it? I don’t know of any easy method. I would recommend start by looking at your SQL Agent jobs. Check your maintenance scripts. Look into the application itself, does it has a pattern of growth and delete for data? Look at past backups (you do have them, right?) and compare.
BTW I assume due diligence and you checked that the data file has grown to 60Gb. If is the LOG file that has grown then is easy, it means you enabled full recovery model and forgot to backup the log.