Managing transaction log for datawarehouse

Question

I have a sql database that I dump data into every 15 minutes using SSIS. The transaction log get's huge and I back it up and shrink it a few times a week. But I know I'm doing something wrong. What is the best practice for me to maintain it? Should it stay ~1GB and I should be backing it up hourly? Since it's a datawarehouse, should I be backing it up at all? Show I be doing something different in SSIS? The datawarehouse recovery model is Bulk Logged.

Answer 1

You should also look to make sure SSIS is setup correct to do minimally logged operations as you may not have it set correctly. Then once that is working correctly, evaluate if you really need bulk logged recovery model: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175987(v=sql.105).aspx is good link on subject. If you can quickly (your definition of quick) redo the data that is lost and don't want point in time recovery of non-bulk operations, move to simple recovery, IMHO.

Answer 2

You have a few options with logs and they are related to how you are backing up your database and how much data loss you can stand. If you are doing full backups nightly for example...change you database to simple mode. This truncates your log on commit (meaning once logged operations complete the log cleans itself up) ... there are a lot of articles on this topic ... Google it up and if you need more help post back.