How do I tell what is filling up the transaction log?

We have a transaction log on a sql database and for some reason it has filled up to 50GB when our live system only has about 2GB. Is there any way I can profile sql or the transaction log to try and find out why this particular one has grown so much?

Start by investigating what is holding up the log reuse. Read Factors That Can Delay Log Truncation, look at log_reuse_wait_desc value is sys.databases. Based on what you find there, there could be several potential actions.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#25742, answer score: 5