FIX: BizTalk Server Never Purges Persistence Database

When you use XLANG schedules with transactions or long-running actions, the persistence database is filled with all the information that is related to that schedule instance. However, this information is never purged. Even when a schedule has run to completion and the information on the database is no longer useful, all of the information is still stored. As a result, the database continues to grow in size and consumes resources indefinitely.

Microsoft does not recommend manually deleting records in the database because the schema is complex and there is a risk of deleting useful live information about your business processes that are running.

BizTalk Server has no built in facility for purging the persistence database.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To resolve this problem, install SQL Server Database stored procedures that will correctly purge the database of expired schedule instances. Schedule these cleanup procedures periodically by using SQL Server jobs.

The Xlang_Purge_Script.sql SQL Server script is available for purging the BizTalk Server persistence database. It contains the following stored procedures:

• sp_CleanInstance: Transactionally deletes a completed or stopped schedule instance and its child instances.
• sp_CleanDoneInstances: Deletes all completed or stopped schedule instances.
• Sp_CleanDoneModuleInstances: Deletes all completed or stopped schedule instances of a particular type of schedule.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000 Service Pack 1.