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Hi guys,
When I want to shrink a databasefile I do see there is approx 90% of free space and when I start the shrink it doesn't do anything.
When I want to shrink the database I do see no free space.
Can somebody explain this to me?
kr
Marco
How do you deduce that there is 90% free space?
What do you mean that "it does not do anything"? Does it stop directly, with no difference in size? Or does it just keep on spinning without any token of progress?
Why do you want to shrink the database in the first place? Shrinking a database is an exceptional operation after you've done something exceptionally. If you purged last year's data, there is not much point in shrinking. This time next year, it will be back to the same size.
Hi @Marco Bakker | DBA.nl
Have you tried rebuilding index?
What's your SQL command to shrink the database?
I tried to shrink the datafile via the GUI and saw there is 99% of unused space. And noticed when I went to shrink database there was 5% of free space. I filled in when doing shrink datafile a value, at release unused space, of the size of the datafile and that went well. Doing the same with a smaller amount went well but the amount of unused space within the datafile does not go down. It is now 3% and stays there.
Hope this helps
This can be seen via the GUI doing the shrink database option and than available free space.
The value via the GUI doing shrink data file doesn't go down. It just stops.
The reason is to free up unused space within the datafile.
No I did not do a rebuild of the indexes before I started the shrink. It that a good idea to do upfront?
I did it via the GUI.
If you are now down to 3% of unused space in the database, very likely the database will grow soon, unless this is an archive database to which no further updates will be performed.
In any case, there is no reason to try to shrink more.