Reading a transaction log file

I'm having alot of trouble reading a SQL 2000 transaction log backup file.
As far as I can see, Microsoft do not provide such a tool and so far I've
tried a product called "SLR" and "ApexSQL Log". Both look OK and work OK with
"small" log files.
My problem is that the file I need to look at is 581MB and both products
just fail miserably when trying to look at these files (I think there are
about 1.3 million transcations in this file).
Before asking why I need to look at this file, I must stress that its
because of problem (server running out of disk space, so log backups were not
happening) that the log grew so big. Unfortunately, the site does not have a
DBA and I've been called in, as this all came to light when 5 important
tables appeared to have been "re-created" (dropped and created empty, with no
indexes, etc...). That has all been recovered, but they want to know how this
happened!!
I know for a fact that this 581mb log backup contains the transactions that
did the damage.
Any other ideas will be welcome!!
Is there not a command line utility, such simpy dumps all the info in these
file to a nice readable text file?? Or should I just persevere with the 2
products mentioned above?
Thanks
Hi,
There is no command line utility to convert the transaction log to text
file. Probably you could try the Logexplorer from Lumigent.
www.lumigent.com
Thanks
Hari
SQL Server MVP
"Jason Harrington" <Jason Harrington@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:A0EAB1FD-BAC2-4201-8153-695DEEF11210@.microsoft.com...
> I'm having alot of trouble reading a SQL 2000 transaction log backup file.
> As far as I can see, Microsoft do not provide such a tool and so far I've
> tried a product called "SLR" and "ApexSQL Log". Both look OK and work OK
> with
> "small" log files.
> My problem is that the file I need to look at is 581MB and both products
> just fail miserably when trying to look at these files (I think there are
> about 1.3 million transcations in this file).
> Before asking why I need to look at this file, I must stress that its
> because of problem (server running out of disk space, so log backups were
> not
> happening) that the log grew so big. Unfortunately, the site does not have
> a
> DBA and I've been called in, as this all came to light when 5 important
> tables appeared to have been "re-created" (dropped and created empty, with
> no
> indexes, etc...). That has all been recovered, but they want to know how
> this
> happened!!
> I know for a fact that this 581mb log backup contains the transactions
> that
> did the damage.
> Any other ideas will be welcome!!
> Is there not a command line utility, such simpy dumps all the info in
> these
> file to a nice readable text file?? Or should I just persevere with the
> 2
> products mentioned above?
> Thanks
|||I'm currently in discussion with a UK reseller of this product. The
evaluation version of this product only allows you to run against "northwind"
database and one of their own.
I asked if it would be able to read a 581mb file and they said if we were
interested in buying the product, they would test it for us!!!
Not really what I wanted to hear!!
I've been running SLR all day since 9.30am this morning, its now 3.30pm and
its about 75% of the way through reading it!!! We 'll see.....
Thanks for your response.
Jason
"Hari Prasad" wrote:

> Hi,
> There is no command line utility to convert the transaction log to text
> file. Probably you could try the Logexplorer from Lumigent.
> www.lumigent.com
> Thanks
> Hari
> SQL Server MVP
> "Jason Harrington" <Jason Harrington@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
> message news:A0EAB1FD-BAC2-4201-8153-695DEEF11210@.microsoft.com...
>
>
|||We use Log Explorer and I've used it on much bigger log files than that with
no real issues.
HTH
Jasper Smith (SQL Server MVP)
http://www.sqldbatips.com
I support PASS - the definitive, global
community for SQL Server professionals -
http://www.sqlpass.org
"Jason Harrington" <JasonHarrington@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:907814B5-F9D3-492A-B024-E8DC00EFF538@.microsoft.com...[vbcol=seagreen]
> I'm currently in discussion with a UK reseller of this product. The
> evaluation version of this product only allows you to run against
> "northwind"
> database and one of their own.
> I asked if it would be able to read a 581mb file and they said if we were
> interested in buying the product, they would test it for us!!!
> Not really what I wanted to hear!!
> I've been running SLR all day since 9.30am this morning, its now 3.30pm
> and
> its about 75% of the way through reading it!!! We 'll see.....
> Thanks for your response.
> Jason
> "Hari Prasad" wrote: