This article includes a sample startup (or autoexec) stored procedure named sp_archivelog6 that can archive an infinite number of SQL Server error logs.
Database administrators may want to keep more than the default six archived (plus one current) SQL Server error logs. In SQL Server 6.5, the number of error logs that you can archive is limited to six. In SQL Server 7.0, you can archive a finite, but customizable, number of error logs.
Note In SQL Server 2000, you can configure a finite number of error logs that are created before they are recycled by using SQL Server Enterprise Manager. As a result, you no longer have to create and run this stored procedure if you want to archive a finite number of error logs. In contrast, you have to create and run this stored procedure if you want to archive an infinite number of error logs. For example, you can use this stored procedure to archive all the error logs.
The procedure in this article does have a trade off however, because the archives take up more disk space.
Edit the attached script if your path to your error logs is not C:\Mssql\Log (you also may have to change variable sizes). You can test the stored procedure by restarting the service several times and by opening the ASCII file named Errorlog.yyyymmdd (in the SQLServer \Log folder). You can also edit the script to make the destination somewhere other than the \Log folder. The success or failure of the copy command in the following procedures can also be logged in the active error log if you remove the no_output argument.
Sample Code
USE MASTER
GO
IF EXISTS
(
SELECT * FROM sysobjects
WHERE id = OBJECT_ID('dbo.sp_archivelog6')
AND sysstat & 0xf = 4
)
DROP PROCEDURE dbo.sp_archivelog6
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_archivelog6 AS
DECLARE @PathNoExt char(22)
DECLARE @PathISO char(30)
DECLARE @CopyAppendCmd char(129)
DECLARE @CopyCmd char(103)
-- Edit path below to point to your log folder.
SELECT @PathNoExt =
'C:\MSSQL\LOG\errorlog.'
SELECT @PathISO =
@PathNoExt + CONVERT(char(8), GETDATE(), 112)
SELECT @CopyAppendCmd =
'IF EXIST ' + @PathISO + ' COPY '
+ @PathISO + '+' + @PathNoExt + '6 '
+ @PathISO
SELECT @CopyCmd =
'IF NOT EXIST ' + @PathISO + ' COPY '
+ @PathNoExt + '6 ' + @PathISO
EXEC('xp_cmdshell "' + @CopyAppendCmd + '", no_output')
EXEC('xp_cmdshell "' + @CopyCmd + '", no_output')
GO
sp_makestartup sp_archivelog6
GO
sp_makestartup sp_archivelog6
sp_procoption sp_archivelog6, startup, true