How to remove SQL Server Error Logs

I have six error logs plus the current. They are taking up 10G of disk space on my hard drive on my VPS server. Thats about 25% of the server space. The largest file is 6G and growing.

How can I remove the error logs as I don't need them and reduce the size in which the archive files grow to before recycling.

Thanks,

Thats about 25% of the server space.

First and foremost, you really need to increase the size of your drive or move the error logs to a different drive. ~40GB for a C:\ drive might've been an okay default years ago, but you can quickly burn through that with misc files from applications - as you're seeing.

You can easily configure this via SQL Server Configuration Manager:

by modifying the directory for the -e parameter, which controls the error log destination.


How can I remove the archive logs as I don't need them and reduce the
size in which the archive files grow to before recycling.

You can of course just delete the files manually, but it sounds like you really want to reduce the number of logs used and/or reduce their size.

The steps contained in the above link detail how to do this in SQL Server Management Studio:



-
In Object Explorer, expand the instance of SQL Server, expand
Management, right-click SQL Server Logs, and then click Configure.

-
In the Configure SQL Server Error Logs dialog box, choose from the
following options.


a. Log files count


Limit the number of the error log files before they are recycled


Check to limit the number of error logs created before they are
recycled. A new error log is created each time an instance of SQL
Server is started. SQL Server retains backups of the previous six
logs, unless you check this option, and specify a different maximum
number of error log files below.


Maximum number of error log files


Specify the maximum number of archived error log files created before
they are recycled. The default is 6, not including the current one.
This value determines the number of previous backup logs that SQL
Server retains before recycling them.


b. Log file size


Maximum size for error log file in KB


You can set the size amount of each file in KB. If you leave it at 0
the log size is unlimited.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#253472, answer score: 10