Log File over 400gigs…need to bring this database back to life

Question

I'm not a dba so I don't understand the admin side of SQL Server too much. One of our sharepoint instances blew up and our IT staff asked if I could assist bring it back to life. I found backups for sharepoint which is great. The thing about sharepoint is it is huge with many many databases. I have recovered all but one database (Sharepoint_Config). This database Sharepoint_Config's log file is over 400 gigs large!

Remember this database is currently "disconnected" have you, meaning I do not have access to it via sql management studio, its just a physical ldf file and an mdf file. We have software that we use that can restore these physical files back to their original location. So that part is simple, however I do not want to restore an ldf file that is over 400 gigs large.

Is there anything I can do to fix this mess?

Answer 1

It sounds like no one took log backups on that database for a very long time. Restore the MDF and try:

EXEC sp_attach_single_file_db @dbname='YourDB',
@physname=N'C:\Path\To\YourDb.mdf'
GO

Then set up regular backups for those databases, both full and log backups. This is an article on log backups that might help. This is a more general article on SQL Server backups.

Good luck!