Retrieve the error logs

To analyse problems on a SQL Server instance, retrieve the SQL Server error logs (ERRORLOG). They hold a great deal of useful information.

Retrieve the logs

The error logs are text files, in a specific directory under the SQL Server data folder.

You can find its path with this query:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('ErrorLogFileName');

There you will find ERRORLOG, the current log, and the ERRORLOG.* files, where * is a number. After a rotation — usually at instance restart — the previous log becomes number 1, the one before it number 2, and so on.

Zip them: these files compress extremely well.

Then send me the archive.