Transaction Logs will not backup 1

[calidrake]

I am using SQL Server 7.0 SP3 on Windows NT 4.0

I have a database maintenance plan that does a Full Backup of three databases every evening, and a Transaction Log backup every half-hour. The Full Backups perform flawlessly, and ONE of the transaction log backups runs fine. However the other two backups tell me:

"Backup can not be performed on this database. This sub task is ignored"

ALso, when I manually go into the database to back it up, the Transaction log option is grayed out.

I'm pretty sure transaction logs can be backed up even while a transaction is processing (please tell me if I'm wrong) but even with that it should at least complete at night. But, the weird thing is that the job says that everything completed successfully. I would appreciate any help, because this one is really getting to me.

Thanks in advance
Jay

 

[tlbroadbent]

Do you allow non-logged transactions (bulk copy or insert into) on those databases? If non-logged transactions occur, SQL cannot do a transaction backup. You'll have to do a full or differential backup. Terry

;-) The single biggest challenge to learning SQL programming is unlearning procedural programming. -Joe Celko

SQL Article links:

http://members.home.net/tlbroadbent/sqlarticles.htm

 

[calidrake]

Terry,
First, thanks for posting so fast. To give you a better look at my problem:

We use a home-written VB program to insert and update the data. To my knowledge (the developer is not in the office) they use straight insert and update statements. But even if they do..I still cannot backup the transaction log 30 minutes after the full backup (at 7:00 PM). Which I know for a fact that there are no non-logged transactions.

Jay

 

[tlbroadbent]

Make sure the "Truncate log on checkpoint" option is turned off. Terry

;-) The single biggest challenge to learning SQL programming is unlearning procedural programming. -Joe Celko

SQL Article links:

http://members.home.net/tlbroadbent/sqlarticles.htm

 

[calidrake]

Terry,
Thank you very much. Only one of the databases had it checked, but I guess it was enough. I unchecked that (and 'Select Into /Bulk Copy' along with it), and everything started working. I appreciate it.

Jay