TempDB full error

Question

Hi,

I have a web application running across a few sites, and last week I got a call to say they keep getting an error when accessing one specific page.

The error is that tempdb is full, and i'm a bit stumped as to what to do about it. I've restarted the sql server (I'm led to believe this should re-create tempdb), but still the same problem.

All the other parts of the site work fine, its just this one page (its just lists job history). Anyone any idea how i can go about working out what's causing this, i'm assuming its some bad sql somewhere.

Its a sql 2000 server, an vb.net asp(2.0) web app.

Cheers Luke

Answer 1

This article contains a lot of information that might be useful in both tracking the problem down and sorting it.

Answer 2

It is almost certainly some problem with the SQL code & data that you are using for that page. Use Trace or Profiler to see what it is doing on that page.

Answer 3

Is that 'job history' page sorting a large resultset? (perhaps doing a distinct if no explicit ORDER BY?)

How much file space do you have for tempDB?

Is TempDB on its own physical drive?

How much RAM does your SQL Server have?

Answer 4

One more possibility: maybe some dumb DBA configured TempDB to have a maximum physical size, not realizing that a runaway job that fills tempdb is going to jam everything anyway.