You can query the new syslogshold system table to determine the oldest active transaction in each database. syslogshold exists in the master database, and each row in the table represents either:
The oldest active transaction in a database or
The Replication Server® truncation point for the database’s log.
A database may have no rows in syslogshold, a row representing one of the above, or two rows representing both of the above. For information about how Replication Sever truncation points affects the truncation of a database’s transaction log, see the Replication Server documentation.
Querying syslogshold can help you when the transaction log becomes too full, even with frequent log dumps. The dump transaction command truncates the log by removing all pages from the beginning of the log up to the page that precedes the page containing an uncommitted transaction record (the oldest active transaction). The longer this active transaction remains uncommitted, the less space is available in the transaction log, since dump transaction cannot truncate additional pages.
For information about how to query syslogshold to determine the oldest active transaction that is holding up your transaction dumps, see Chapter 21, “Backing Up and Restoring User Databases,” in the System Administration Guide.
