WSS log files growing out of control

Question

I'm using Microsoft's WSSv3 demo Virtual PC demo and the VHD is growing out of control.

Using Folder Size I was able to trace it down to the WSS log files.
Today I have two log files that grew to excessive size.

1) 2.5GB within 30 minutes and then

2) 2.1GB within 2 hours

I'm trying to review the content with LTFViewer, but the files may be to large as the viewer freezes up The surrounding log files have the following content that repeats every 5 minutes

OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    E-Mail    The Incoming E-Mail service has completed a batch.  
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    E-Mail    The Incoming E-Mail service has completed a batch.  
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    E-Mail    The Incoming E-Mail service has completed a batch. 
w3wp.exe (0x0C44)        General   Entering MRU trim routine.    
w3wp.exe (0x0C44)        General   Initial table size: 41125202 in 222 entries   
w3wp.exe (0x0C44)        General   Final table size: 41125202 in 222 entries     
w3wp.exe (0x0C44)        General   Exiting MRU trim routine.     
w3wp.exe (0x071C)        General   Entering MRU trim routine.    
w3wp.exe (0x071C)        General   Initial table size: 19857672 in 90 entries    
w3wp.exe (0x071C)        General   Final table size: 19857672 in 90 entries  
w3wp.exe (0x071C)        General   Exiting MRU trim routine.     
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    General   Entering MRU trim routine.    
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    General   Initial table size: 0 in 0 entries    
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    General   Final table size: 0 in 0 entries  
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    General   Exiting MRU trim routine.     
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    E-Mail    The Incoming E-Mail service has completed a batch.  
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    E-Mail    The Incoming E-Mail service has completed a batch.  
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x06C0)    E-Mail    The Incoming E-Mail service has completed a batch.

Again, this just started today and I'm running out of hard drive space on my Host.

Thanks

Answer 1

Hey Steve,

It's possible to set limits on the log files through the object model (SPDiagnosticsService), but not through the STSADM command line tool - until now:

http://stsadm.blogspot.com/2008/06/trace-log-settings.html

This is an add-in for STSADM that will let you move the logs to a different drive, restrict the log file count, and log times.

-Oisin

Answer 2

Figured it out

the following line was being logged x30 times a millisecond.

Timestamp
04/03/2009 09:48:47.86 

Process
OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0DE8)

TID
0x06D0

Area
Windows SharePoint Services

Category
Timer

EventID
5uuf

Level
Monitorable

Message
The previous instance of the timer job 'Config Refresh', id
'{975F79C9-1B0D-4D14-BD60-C531FF142500}' for service
'{6C881CF7-F11F-457B-A757-68862E0059E6}' is still running, so the
current instance will be skipped. Consider increasing the interval
between jobs.

http://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/steventap/Blog/archive/2007/01/19/managing-sharepoint-2007-moss-application-log-size.aspx

This blog post describes how to fix