Use the Tran Log % Used alert in Mini DBA to monitor Azure SQL Database instances and make this condition visible before it becomes a wider database incident.
Mini DBA describes this alert as: Transaction Log file at high % use may need increasing in size A full or near full transaction log may cause bad database performance and will likely have a run-away query with poor design causing it The default evaluation frequency is Minute, so the alert is intended to be close enough to operational reality for live triage.
This alert gives Mini DBA a focused signal for a condition that can affect Azure SQL Database reliability, performance, or operational visibility. It helps the team move from a general problem report to a specific metric, threshold, and investigation path.
Enable it once the instance has a normal workload baseline. It is especially useful on busy OLTP, reporting, and integration systems where resource pressure can quickly become user-visible.
Threshold meaning: % used. Major threshold: 98 %. Minor threshold: 90 %. Comparison direction: "over". Use higher thresholds on batch-heavy, development, or intentionally bursty systems where brief pressure is expected. Use lower thresholds on latency-sensitive production systems, small instances with little headroom, and services with strict recovery or availability commitments.
Free space by removing safe-to-delete files, expanding the volume or tablespace, moving growth-heavy objects, correcting retention settings, or shrinking only after a documented one-off event. For recovery-related areas, verify that backups and log shipping or archiving are healthy before deleting anything.
Storage alerts should usually stay enabled even on quiet systems because the impact of missing them is high. Tune warning thresholds to leave enough time for approval, provisioning, and validation, especially when storage changes are handled by another infrastructure team.