Read the log file (*.LDF) in SQL Server 2008

sql sql-server-2008 logfiles
Neuvill picture Neuvill · Mar 19, 2012 · Viewed 78.4k times · Source

I'm searching for a way to read the SQL Server 2008 log file, not to show the information, but to read the meaning of the symbols and the structure of the LOG table. I'm using DBCC LOG('my_table', 3).

Answer

JdMR picture JdMR · Feb 18, 2013

First of all, in order to be able to read any meaningful data your database needs to be in full recovery mode. Otherwise you probably won't find much there. There are two ways to do this. Using undocumented SQL functions and using third-party tools.

SQL Functions:

DBCC LOG and fn_dblog - more details here and here

Third-party tools:

Toad for SQL Server (actually does a lot more than reading logs) and ApexSQL Log (focuses only on reading transaction logs).

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