"Microsoft SQL Server" foldere size increasing day by day unnaturally.

Question

I Installed sql server and ms sql server management studio about a month ago. The "Microsoft SQL Server" folder size is increasing day by day. at one point the folder size was 126gb. Therefore I deleted it. But it did not deleted all the files. An error message said another program is using this folder etc. But it did deleted most of the junk in the folder and reduced the size in to 6gb. But the file size is increasing again. now it's about 20gb large. I checked the folder with Kaspersky and the folder was virus free. I tried to delete again but this time the folder size is not decreasing. software is working btw. And I can't uninstall it because I need it for my university studies. I also had a really hard time installing it since I upgraded to windows 11. Please help me before I ran out of storage.

Answer 1

As a default, SQL Server uses "Full Recovery" mode for all databases. This will cause the .log file to grow until a backup is done. If you are not doing regular log backups, the .log file will continue to grow.

If you do not need "point in time" recovery, you should change your database to "simple recovery mode".

Once the file grows, SQL Server will NEVER shrink the physical size of the file. You must manually run a shrink to shrink the physical size of the file(s).

See:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/backup-restore/recovery-models-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver16

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/databases/shrink-a-database?view=sql-server-ver16

Answer 2

I am going to shot from the hip and make these assumptions:

• You have installed SQL 2019.
• You selected the Polybase feature.
• You did not apply any Cumulative Update after the install.

To confirm my theory, go to"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL15.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\Polybase". I would expect that you find some very big dump files. Or some - probably quite a few by now! Just delete them all.

Action: download and install the most recent Cumulative Update of SQL 2019 to stop the dumps from occurring.

Also, do you really plan to use the Polybase feature? If not, I would recommend that you uninstall it, because it adds some noise to your server.

Answer 3

Hi @Poorna106-5935,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

"Microsoft SQL Server" foldere size increasing day by day unnaturally.

Given that your folders keep growing, it's most likely caused by the size of your data files or the size of your log files. They are stored by default in: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQLXX.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA
Here is a related article including steps about Shrink SQL Server Database: https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/6888/shrink-database-sql-server/
As for log file, if you use full backup mode, then you can create a maintenance schedule or manually back up the log files regularly so that you can prevent them from growing.
If you don't need to use full backup mode, you can use simple backup mode like Tom said. In simple recovery mode, the logs are almost never managed. Each time CheckPoint may truncate the logs to reclaim inactive VLFs in order to reuse the space.

Best regards,
Seeya

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Answer 4

The "Microsoft SQL Server" folder size is increasing day by day

Then lookup all files in that folder by detail; we can't do that for you.