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MDF stands for Master Data File.<br />
<br />
The reason why your MDF file is so large, can be one of the below <br />
<br />

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The data of your database is so huge, that the MDF has grown to 32GB
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The initial size of the database may be set to 32GB
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<br />
From the given information, I think the case is the first one, your data itself is so huge so you have a huge MDF file.
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MDF stands for Master Data File.

The reason why your MDF file is so large, can be one of the below


The data of your database is so huge, that the MDF has grown to 32GB
The initial size of the database may be set to 32GB

From the given information, I think the case is the first one, your data itself is so huge so you have a huge MDF file.

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Typically what &quot;bloats&quot; msdb is SSIS packages. &nbsp;If you store packages in SQL Server, they are saved in msdb.<br />
<br />
Look at the sysssis* tables, specifically sysssispackages, to determine if this is the case in your SQL instance.
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Typically what "bloats" msdb is SSIS packages.  If you store packages in SQL Server, they are saved in msdb.

Look at the sysssis* tables, specifically sysssispackages, to determine if this is the case in your SQL instance.

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To free space is important to create a SQL Server Maintenance Plan with Shrink Database and Clean Up History tasks!
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To free space is important to create a SQL Server Maintenance Plan with Shrink Database and Clean Up History tasks!

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Hello from Italy,<br />
we're running MS SQL Server 2012 under 2008 R2<br />
(under VMware ESXi 5.1)<br />
<br />
The unique database is the ERP database<br />
(the size of ERP database is 28 GB)<br />
<br />
We make the database backup two times at day<br />
(The VM is fully backed-up every night)<br />
<br />
We found MSDBData.mdf file is 32 GB !!!<br />
<br />
Two questions:<br />
1) MSDBData.mdf size may be correct?<br />
2) How can we limit the MSDBData.mdf size?<br />
(Can we modify some standard settings?)<br />
<br />
Thank you very much for your worldwide help!<br />
<br />
Mauro
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Hello from Italy,
we're running MS SQL Server 2012 under 2008 R2
(under VMware ESXi 5.1)

The unique database is the ERP database
(the size of ERP database is 28 GB)

We make the database backup two times at day
(The VM is fully backed-up every night)

We found MSDBData.mdf file is 32 GB !!!

Two questions:
1) MSDBData.mdf size may be correct?
2) How can we limit the MSDBData.mdf size?
(Can we modify some standard settings?)

Thank you very much for your worldwide help!

Mauro

MS SQL Server 2012 - How to reduce MSDBData.mdf file

Microsoft SQL Server is a suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products providing multi-user database access functionality.SQL Server is available in multiple versions, typically identified by release year, and versions are subdivided into editions to distinguish between product functionality. Component services include integration (SSIS), reporting (SSRS), analysis (SSAS), data quality, master data, T-SQL and performance tuning.