Kevin Hill notes that the error log isn’t just for errors:
SQL Server’s Error Logs often get overlooked, until something breaks. But if you know how to use them, they can tell you what went wrong before you’re knee-deep in outage mode.
Whether you’re a sysadmin who inherited SQL or an MSP juggling multiple environments, understanding the ErrorLog is low effort, high return.
Let’s decode the basics.
Click through for examples of information you can find in the error log. Kevin mentions cycling the error log weekly. Back in my DBA days, I’d cycle them daily because I didn’t want the files to grow too large and become unwieldy. Some of this, of course, depends upon how hard people are pushing that box and how much you need to log.