Paul Randal explains to the officer that the transaction log is a flat circle:
In the second part of this series, I described the structural hierarchy of the transaction log. As this post is chiefly concerned with the Virtual Log Files (VLFs) I described, I recommend you read the second part before continuing.
When all is well, the transaction log will endlessly loop, reusing the existing VLFs. This behavior is what I call the circular nature of the log. Sometimes, however, something will happen to prevent this, and the transaction log grows and grows, adding more and more VLFs. In this post, I’ll explain how all this works, or sometimes doesn’t.
Read on for a depiction of the transaction log and what can cause it to foul up.