Elastic pool storage utilization percent not decreasing

Question

We are using an elastic pool which has a number of databases. As an exercise we have shrunk the databases however the storage utilisation of the elastic pool (% used space) which say is at 50 % has not even reduced 1 % ,even though we have shrunk a number of databases and so we are puzzled. How does the elastic pool storage utilisation metric work?

Answer 1

Make sure the space allocated on each database was reduced. If shrinking the database does not work, try to shrink per data file.

SELECT file_id, type_desc,
       CAST(FILEPROPERTY(name, 'SpaceUsed') AS decimal(19,4)) * 8 / 1024. AS space_used_mb,
       CAST(size/128.0 - CAST(FILEPROPERTY(name, 'SpaceUsed') AS int)/128.0 AS decimal(19,4)) AS space_unused_mb,
       CAST(size AS decimal(19,4)) * 8 / 1024. AS space_allocated_mb,
       CAST(max_size AS decimal(19,4)) * 8 / 1024. AS max_size_mb
FROM sys.database_files;

The following query will give the space used on the pool.

-- Connect to master
-- Elastic pool data space used in MB  
SELECT TOP 1 avg_storage_percent / 100.0 * elastic_pool_storage_limit_mb AS ElasticPoolDataSpaceUsedInMB
FROM sys.elastic_pool_resource_stats
WHERE elastic_pool_name = 'ep1'
ORDER BY end_time DESC;

You can also get the details of each database using below script to make sure the shrink has effect. The script requires the SQL Server PowerShell module. Run it before and after each shrink to make sure shrink has effect.

$resourceGroupName = "<resourceGroupName>"
$serverName = "<serverName>"
$poolName = "<poolName>"
$userName = "<userName>"
$password = "<password>"

# get list of databases in elastic pool
$databasesInPool = Get-AzSqlElasticPoolDatabase -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -ServerName $serverName -ElasticPoolName $poolName
$databaseStorageMetrics = @()

# for each database in the elastic pool, get space allocated in MB and space allocated unused in MB
foreach ($database in $databasesInPool) {
    $sqlCommand = "SELECT DB_NAME() as DatabaseName, `
    SUM(size/128.0) AS DatabaseDataSpaceAllocatedInMB, `
    SUM(size/128.0 - CAST(FILEPROPERTY(name, 'SpaceUsed') AS int)/128.0) AS DatabaseDataSpaceAllocatedUnusedInMB `
    FROM sys.database_files `
    GROUP BY type_desc `
    HAVING type_desc = 'ROWS'"
    $serverFqdn = "tcp:" + $serverName + ".database.windows.net,1433"
    $databaseStorageMetrics = $databaseStorageMetrics + 
        (Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $serverFqdn -Database $database.DatabaseName `
            -Username $userName -Password $password -Query $sqlCommand)
}

# display databases in descending order of space allocated unused
Write-Output "`n" "ElasticPoolName: $poolName"
Write-Output $databaseStorageMetrics | Sort -Property DatabaseDataSpaceAllocatedUnusedInMB -Descending | Format-Table