Transaction Log Files Larger Than Data Files I'm an accidental DBA and need help determining a course of action regarding transaction log files on several databases. I ran Brent Ozar's sp_blitz to see what areas of concern there might be on an instance of SQL Server 2012 and one of the things I saw was transaction log files that are bigger than the data file.  On one database the data file is at 3.33 GB and the log is 5.19 GB. The others have a ratio that's about the same.

The instructions for this scenario indicates that the log file might need to be shrunk, but only if the database is in Full recovery mode. This database is set to Simple recovery.

Should I shrink the log files or just leave them alone?

Thanks for your time.
Jeff, Brent here. We put a lot of documentation in that URL - make sure you copy/paste the URL into your web browser to read the full documentation.

If you're in simple recovery model, and you've got log files larger than the database, there are lots of possible causes:


Someone started a transaction, locked their workstation, and went home for the weekend
Someone ran a legitimately large transaction (like a huge update across the entire database, multiple times)
The log is growing due to something other than a backup (to find out what it is, check SELECT * FROM sys.databases, and look at the log_reuse_wait_desc column)


My bigger concern would be the fact that your databases are in simple recovery model. That means you can't do a point-in-time recovery. If something goes wrong, you're restoring all the way back to your last good full backup. Businesses are often uncomfortable with that much data loss.