How come Im getting error saying transaction log Full?

Hello,

I have a process that failed with the following error message. The SQL server error messages also said the Transaction log was full and there was not enough disc space.

Strangely, when I checked all the drives on the server, there was plenty of free space, the smallest amount free on one drive, where SQL server is located was 20GB. I am confused.

I backed up the DB to another server and deleted a lot of the transaction logs and now the drive has 30GB and is okay.

Does anyone know how the transaction log fills up? Can I change a setting somewhere to increase the maximum size of the transaction log? Or maybe change the location where it is saved to another drive? Or have it automatically cleared out every once in a while?

Any of your input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Rodney

-----------------------
DS-DBMS-E400: UDA driver reported the following on connection 'Data Target
(ODBC)':
DMS-E-DBPARSER, The underlying database detected an error during processing of
the SQL request.
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]The log file for database
'ancosalesdm' is full. Back up the transaction log for the database to free up
some log space.
(for details, see Build_SAL_FA_ShipSKU_0584.log)
[PROGRESS - 00:32:42] Build Node 68 'SAL_FA_ShipSKU'; failed
DS-DBMS-E400: UDA driver reported the following on connection 'ALIAS_00DF1E74':
DMS-E-GENERAL, A general exception has occurred during operation 'execute
immediate'.
The log file for database 'ancosalesdm' is full. Back up the transaction log
for the database to free up some log space.
DMS-E-GENERAL, A general exception has occurred during operation 'execute
immediate'.
General SQL Server error: Check messages from the SQL Server.
DS-DBMS-E400: UDA driver reported the following on connection 'ALIAS_00DF1E74':
DMS-E-GENERAL, A general exception has occurred during operation 'rollback
transaction'.
The ROLLBACK TRANSACTION request has no corresponding BEGIN TRANSACTION.
DMS-E-GENERAL, A general exception has occurred during operation 'rollback
transaction'.
General SQL Server error: Check messages from the SQL Server.
-----------------------In Enterprise Manager, right click the DB and go to Properties. From there you can check to see if your Transaction Log has a size limit, and can adjust it if necessary.|||If you are not doing transaction log backups, you need to set the recovery mode on this database to Simple. This will make sure it doesn't just keep growing until it fills up.|||all this is good, but if a transaction affects a really large amount of data the recovery mode is irrelevant. the log will continue growing (if the setting to allow growth is on) until it reaches the limit specified or the limit of the disk.|||That's true, and if this is the case, you will need to break the transaction into smaller pieces. You can also insert CHECKPOINT at various places in your transaction if you need to, but this would be a pretty rare case.sql