Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Step by Step

Chapter 7. Partitioning

After completing this chapter, you will be able to

• Create partition functions

• Create partition schemes

• Partition tables and indexes

• Maintain partitions

• Move data in and out of tables using partitioning

Table partitioning was first introduced in SQL Server 2005 to allow users to split large tables across multiple storage structures. Previously, objects were restricted to a single filegroup that could contain multiple files. However, the placement of data within a filegroup was still determined by SQL Server.

Table partitioning allows tables, indexes, and indexed views to be created on multiple filegroups while also allowing the DBA to specify which portion of the object will be stored on a specific filegroup.

The process for partitioning ...