On an 2008 server I had a space issue. Unwilling or unable to upgrade I needed to find the client some more space on the drive.
Even after cleaning out the usual temp files etc. I still needed more.
I noticed the WSUS database ,mdb was one of the largests files at 26Gb.
-How to reduce the size safely-
Open the SQL manager,
enter "\\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query" in the 'server' field and connect.
You will now be connected to the WSUS SUDB database!
WSUS logs everything it does to a table in this database.
We don't need to keep all of this.
The logs live in the table "tbEventInstance".
Delete all of these like this:
Click on the database name 'SUSDB'
Click 'New Query'
Type 'truncate table tbEventInstance' in to the Query Editor
Click the 'Execute' button - or press F5.
This should clear out a lot of space.
-Shrink the DB file-
Where data has been deleted from the database, this will not be reflected in the file size until the file is shrunk.
Do this:
Right click on the database name ("SUSDB") on the left
From 'Tasks', select 'Shrink'=>'Files'
In the wizard, change the "Shrink Action" from "Release Unused Space" to "Reorganise pages before releasing unused space. This takes the holes out of the file.
Change the number in the "Shrink File To" box to match the number it tells you the minimum can be. In my case, it told me it could shrink it to 2Gb (from just over 30Gb)
Click "OK" and wait for a very long time.....like a day!
You should now have reduced the size of the DB considerably.