Efficient way to do the Purge / Delete activity on a SQL Server Heap table

Question

Hi,
I have a huge heap table (sql 2008) on a staging database which is used to store log history for an application.
The application is not directly using this heap table.
The table is having a Date column and We have a Purge Plan to remove the records that are all older than 1 Year.
In this scenario, which one will help and support us in order to expedite the purge process ?
Whether Crating a Clustered Index or Non-Clustered Index ?
Of course, I am planning to use the following script in order to avoid Log file bloat and get rid of the blockings.
Can some help in this regard by providing suggestion.

Answer 1

I personally wouldn't create a clustered index on the table.  Adding a clustered index has two problems in your scenario.
Adding a clustered index will be time consuming and resource intensive.  Talk about log file bloat...
A clustered index will result in poorer insert performance when compared to leaving the table as a heap and adding a non-clustered index.
I would add the non-clustered index to the table on the date column you refer to, then purge data in small batches.  Although purging data in small batches might not be quite as fast as purging the data in a single batch, it won't be much slower and
will allow you to have total control over your log file.
The non-clustered index on the date column will be small since even the largest date datatypes only consume 10 bytes of space.  So for a table containing 5 billion records the non-clustered index would be only about 90 GB in size.
As stated above you could then purge data in small batches and perform log backups between batches to control log file bloat or simply switch the database to simple recovery model.