Question about table partitioning...

Question

Hello, all.  I'm using SQL 2012 Enterprise.  I have 8 very large tables (the largest two having 227M and 118M records, and the others between 11M-44M records).  For performance reasons, I'm considering partitioning the tables across multiple
files/filegroups.  For my largest table (227M records), the data is spread across years 2011, 2012, and 2013 with 2013 having 104M records.  So naturally I'm considering partitioning on a Date column.  My question is should I go with four partitions
(2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 for new data) and still end up with a very large aggregation of data on the 2013 partition (104M) or should I further breakdown the 2013 partition into months now having 12 partitions for 2013 alone, and then I'm OK with all
of 2011 and 2012 on their own partitions.  Again, this is for one table.  I'd still like to partition the other 7 large tables.  In the end, I could end up with many, many partitions and hence many, many filegroups.  I'm interested in how
others partition MULTIPLE large tables.  Can you share partition functions/schemes across tables?
Any thoughts, your own personal experiences, etc would be greatly appreciated.  Also, can someone recommend a good book, article, blog, etc on partitioning large databases.
Thanks much in advance.
Roz

Answer 1

If you query against more than one partition I have doubts  you will gain performance...
-- Create partition functions
CREATE PARTITION FUNCTION PF1(INT) AS RANGE RIGHT FOR VALUES (1, 2, 3);
CREATE PARTITION FUNCTION PF2(INT) AS RANGE RIGHT FOR VALUES (1, 2);
-- Create filegroups
ALTER DATABASE testdb ADD FILEGROUP FG7;
ALTER DATABASE testdb ADD FILEGROUP FG6;
ALTER DATABASE testdb ADD FILEGROUP FG5;
ALTER DATABASE testdb ADD FILEGROUP FG4;
ALTER DATABASE testdb ADD FILEGROUP FG3;
ALTER DATABASE testdb ADD FILEGROUP FG2;
ALTER DATABASE testdb ADD FILEGROUP FG1;
-- Create partition schemes
CREATE PARTITION SCHEME PS1 AS PARTITION PF1
TO (FG1, FG2, FG3, FG4);
CREATE PARTITION SCHEME PS2 AS PARTITION PF2
TO (FG5, FG6, FG7);
CREATE VIEW [dbo].[partition_info] 
AS
SELECT
DB_NAME() AS 'DatabaseName'
,OBJECT_NAME(p.OBJECT_ID) AS 'TableName'
,p.index_id AS 'IndexId'
,CASE
WHEN p.index_id = 0 THEN 'HEAP'
ELSE i.name
END AS 'IndexName'
,p.partition_number AS 'PartitionNumber'
,prv_left.value AS 'LowerBoundary'
,prv_right.value AS 'UpperBoundary'
,ps.name as PartitionScheme
,pf.name as PartitionFunction
,CASE
WHEN fg.name IS NULL THEN ds.name
ELSE fg.name
END AS 'FileGroupName'
,CAST(p.used_page_count * 0.0078125 AS NUMERIC(18,2)) AS 'UsedPages_MB'
,CAST(p.in_row_data_page_count * 0.0078125 AS NUMERIC(18,2)) AS 'DataPages_MB'
,CAST(p.reserved_page_count * 0.0078125 AS NUMERIC(18,2)) AS 'ReservedPages_MB'
,CASE
WHEN p.index_id IN (0,1) THEN p.row_count
ELSE 0
END AS 'RowCount'
,CASE
WHEN p.index_id IN (0,1) THEN 'data'
ELSE 'index'
END 'Type'
FROM sys.dm_db_partition_stats p
INNER JOIN sys.indexes i
ON i.OBJECT_ID = p.OBJECT_ID AND i.index_id = p.index_id
INNER JOIN sys.data_spaces ds
ON ds.data_space_id = i.data_space_id
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.partition_schemes ps
ON ps.data_space_id = i.data_space_id
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.partition_functions pf
ON ps.function_id = pf.function_id
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.destination_data_spaces dds
ON dds.partition_scheme_id = ps.data_space_id
AND dds.destination_id = p.partition_number
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.filegroups fg
ON fg.data_space_id = dds.data_space_id
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.partition_range_values prv_right
ON prv_right.function_id = ps.function_id
AND prv_right.boundary_id = p.partition_number
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.partition_range_values prv_left
ON prv_left.function_id = ps.function_id
AND prv_left.boundary_id = p.partition_number - 1
WHERE
OBJECTPROPERTY(p.OBJECT_ID, 'ISMSSHipped') = 0
AND p.index_id IN (0,1)
GO
Best Regards,Uri Dimant SQL Server MVP,
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/uri_dimant/
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