SQL database is growing too large, even after removing objects. (4257845)

Databases can grow quite large over time. In the case of the Management History within Active Roles, the database will keep growing as is its nature with logging all actions, until a cleanup occurs to remove old entries.

With Microsoft SQL Server however, when deleting rows from a database, the white space is not recovered so the size of the database continues to grow. The unfortunate part is that when doing a shrink on a database, it can fragment the database badly and may cause performance issues. Once this has been done, a defrag on the database can be done to cure the fragmentation.

The unfortunate part about the defrag is that it will end up causing the size of the database to grow even larger than it was prior to performing a database shrink. Because of this, we do not advise performing a database shrink on an SQL database.

One option is to add additional drive space to accommodate for the growing database.  If this is not a viable solution, there are two options available that will clear up unused database white space.

Option 1:

Perform a full backup of the database and restore it over the original, replacing it. White space doesn't get backed up so only the data will be re-written to the new database. 

Option 2:

In SQL Management Studio perform an export of the schema and data to an SQL Query and then use the query to recreate the database.

If performing either of these options, you must stop all Active Roles services that use the database in question during this process.

For further support regarding Microsoft SQL server and these options, please contact Microsoft support.