What is a partition?

I have an MacBook Pro 15% w/Retina (whatever that means), bought in April 2014, but I have no idea whether it's Lion, or Maverick (although I think it is), or something else.
I've read a lot here about partitions and, since I am computer illiterate, I always have lots of question.
So...
1. What is a partition?
I think that, whatever they are, partitions limit the amount of storage space each "partition"ed area has available.
2. How does a partition work, and is there any (rational) reason to make them?
The only thing I do a lot of on my computer is...
saving lots of pictures from friends/family; 'writing' manuscripts; and other frivolous stuff.
Otherwise, I use very little of my computer for my employer (maybe...2%, if that).
Other questions may follow.
Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

The Retina part of the name refers to the high resolution screen. Much smaller pixels which produce a noticeably "cleaner" display since the pixels are too small for most people to see. So for example, a photo looks more real when you can't see the tiny squares that make up each pixel.
A partition refers to the logical space, or multiple spaces on a single hard drive. Here's an example:
Note that I have two physical hard drives in my Mac Pro, represented by the two left indented names. Each is broken up into three partitions of various size.
How, or if you break up a drive, rather than using the whole drive as a single partition depends on your idea of organization, and how you prefer to use your computer. My logic here is:
Drive 1:
Mac Pro: Only used for applications and the OS. Other than Outlook, which insists on storing its data in your user account, there's virtually nothing on this drive that ever changes, so I keep this partition small. Just the space needed for all of my apps and a good amount of free space for the OS to use as needed.
Files: Where I toss stuff I've downloaded but haven't yet sorted and moved to an external drive. Otherwise, it's just a big area of free space for apps to use. Like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, etc. In a case such as yours, that's where I would keep my photos and other documents rather than on the drive with my apps and OS. That's just my preference to keep data separate from everything else.
Windows 7: Self explanatory.
Disk 2:
Video: Mucho space set aside for video editing. It's easy to eat up tons of space when capturing raw video and rendering assembled video.
Mavericks: A separate drive I use to test software I may want to use. Contains only the OS and some third party utilities. It's also what I use to do any maintenance on my main drive since you can't run a utility such as DiskWarrior on the same drive you're started up to. Basically, I can load whatever junk I want to on it for testing, then restore it back to its original state from a backup so it's always clean.
Snow: Snow Leopard (10.6.8), which I was using for scanning since the software is PowerPC and won't run in Lion or later. However, I have a Mac Mini to run the scanner from now, so I could really remove this partition and merge it into Mavericks.

Similar Messages

What type of partition should I use? Range or Hash or ..?

Hi,
I am on Oracle 8.1.7.4 .
I have a table with 10 million rows and looks like its a good candidate for partitioning.
There is a varchar2 column and the data is evenly distributed on the string value. If I want to partition the table on that string value what type of partitioning can I use. How can I give the range, if I use range partition, on the string value ?
Can/Should I use hash partitioning?
I know that there is a list partitioning in O9i, but I am on 8i.
Please help.
Regards

<quote>
I have a table with 10 million rows and looks like its a good candidate for partitioning.
</quote>
Table volume, in itself, is not enough to warrant partitioning â¦ hope you have some other reasons.
<quote>
â¦ but would like to partition the table on the mentioned varchar2 column, so that queries would be efficiant.
</quote>
Since you donât mention the actual query or class of queries, maybe it is worth mentioning that partitioning could speed up some queries but also can slow down a lot more other queries.
<quote>
So, how can i re-create the table partitioned on a varchar2 column
</quote>
No different than numbers or dates?
create table tp
( str   varchar2(10) not null
,fill char(20)      not null
partition by range(str)
( partition p1 values less than ('F')
,partition p2 values less than ('L')
,partition p3 values less than ('R')
,partition p4 values less than (maxvalue)
insert into tp
select substr(object_name,1,10), lpad('x',20,'x')
from user_objects
flip@FLOP> select * from tp partition (p2);
STR        FILL
F1         xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
GENERATE_R xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
IPSDEV.US. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxThe link to Tomâs article is fine â¦ it just happens to be one of the few threads heâs not mentioning that partitioning is not the magic fast=true mechanism â¦ look for some other articles on partitioning and youâll quickly discover his views on this subject.
There may be a case for partitioning â¦ but you havenât presented any reasonable justification for it â¦ so, why bother?

What combination of partitioning Method is better?

Hi everybody,
I have the following problem:
I have a big table (more than 1000 000 000 lines).
Create table sales (
Id_dept varchar(1),
sales_day date,
day varchar(2),
Qte number(5)
I would partition this table. I have only 9 departments and I load data day by day. What combination off partitioning is better?
Solution 1) RANGE partitioning by date and LIST sub partitioning by department.
Or
Solution 2) RANGE Partitioning by department (id_detp) and HASH sub partitioning by date.
The first solution gives me administration tasks facility (add and drop partitions will be easy: day by day).
The second solution seems to me better for partition pruning.
95% of requests concern only one department like the following request:
Select * from sales where id_dept= :x
and sales_day in (…), and …
In solution 2 I filter immediately 8 other department partitions.
But as I have only 9 departments, I wonder if the range partitioning is ok for department. In other word is the range partitioning algorithm is goes well to use only one value in place of a range of values?
Partition by RANGE (id_dept)
Subpartition by HASH(sales_day) subpartitions 90
(Partition part1 values less than (2),
Partition part2 values less than (3),
Partition part3 values less than (4),
Partition part9 values less than (9));
Could you give me on advice please
Regards
Azizollah

Solution 2 is out of the question as you've stated it. First, you would typically range partition by a value such as a date and no need for a Hash when you have fields which lend themselves to logical segregation (sales_day and Id_dept). A hash is best for tables in which you don't have fields that provide any sort of logical separation.
If you are partitioning, it is basically to make managing your tables easier (e.g.. partition pruning). Therefore, pruning by date and not by dept makes more sense. Without knowing exactly what you want the partitioning for or how you are using your tables, can't say do this or that. But given your table, I'd take a look at doing a composite of range (date) as the top-level scheme with list (dept) as the sub-partition.
For documentation, refer to:
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14223/parpart.htm#g1020112

Satellite A300-21H - What the hidden partition means?

Hi,
I have a Satellite A300-21H and using MS vista but will be getting dual boot ubuntu soon.
When i look up my disk size i see C drive is 148GB and then there is an E drive also at 147GB.
The E drive is ntfs ( contains a folder called HDD recovery and text file ) - i assumed this was the recovery disk but it seems rather huge!.
Then i looked into the manula to see the recover should only be 1.5GB and there is a hidden 1.5GB drive on the disk also.
My question is what is the E drive, can i merge it with the C drive? and can i wipe it and still use the 1.5 GB to recover things? and The two back up DVD's i made what are they for?
Thanks in advance:
Patrick

Hi buddy
The notebook contains 3 partitions;
One partition contains the Vista OS
The second partition contains the HDD recovery folder. This HDD recovery folder is needed for HDD recovery procedure. You can recover the notebook without using the disk. You can boot from the HDD and can start the HDD recovery process.
But its strongly recommended to create a recovery disk! This could be helpful if something will go wrong with the preinstalled OS and the HDD recovery.
Last partition (the hidden one) contains the Vista backup files called WinRE.
This backup files are needed in order to repair the OS in critical situations
Its no recommended to remove, delete or merge this partition!

What is this Partition type mention in code "Partition by HASH".

Hi Team,
Regularly i am Adding new partions and sub-Partitions to production table, based on Date. For example Every Day Data stored in one partion.
please find below code, what i am using to add new partitions. I think this called RANGE partition.
CREATE TABLE "owner"."TABLE_NAME"
(     "COLUMN01" VARCHAR2(4),
     "ACOLUMN02" VARCHAR2(32) NOT NULL ENABLE,
BUFFER_POOL DEFAULT)
TABLESPACE "Tablespace_name"
PARTITION BY RANGE ("Daily_TIME")
(PARTITION "ABC_2008_08_31" VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE(' 2008-08-31 23:59:59', '
SYYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS', 'NLS_CALENDAR=GREGORIAN'))
PCTFREE 10 PCTUSED 40 INITRANS 1 MAXTRANS 255
STORAGE(INITIAL 1048576 NEXT 1048576 MINEXTENTS 1 MAXEXTENTS 2147483645
Now i have found new type of code from one of the new table created by development team.
Code is.....
CREATE TABLE "owner"."TABLE_NAME"
(     "COLUMN01" VARCHAR2(4),
     "ACOLUMN02" VARCHAR2(32) NOT NULL ENABLE,
BUFFER_POOL DEFAULT)
TABLESPACE "Tablespace_name"
PARTITION BY HASH ("ACCOUNT_NUMBER")
(PARTITION "PART_P01"
TABLESPACE "tABLESPACE01",
PARTITION "pART_P13"
TABLESPACE "Tabelspace01") ENABLE ROW MOVEMENT;
There is no below code in new Table code....
( (PARTITION "ABC_2008_08_31" VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE(' 2008-08-31 23:59:59', '
SYYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS', 'NLS_CALENDAR=GREGORIAN'))
SO, i am unable to alter this table to add new partions monthly wise.
Please suggest me, How to save data date wise in this table. Also suggest me if it is not comes under RANGE Partion or not.
If not possible to add new partition data wise, I will inform to client.
Thanks & Regards,
Venkat

New table use hash partitioning, not range partitioning. You can refer to the Concepts:
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e25789/schemaob.htm#CNCPT88864
The key of new partitioned table is account number, not date, therefore you cannot partition this table date-wise.

What are "Sticky Partitions" in HP My Display

I know the internet is evolving into a place where you can only learn things by trial and error, so it's no great surprise that I come across the term "sticky partitions" in the HP My Display software and find no clue as to what that means.
Anyone have some help here? I found lots of dead ends wasting time searching on-line and the HP Support site is totally useless - unless I get lucky and some kind soul has an answer here for me.

You dont need a hp monitor. Dont tell anyone.
You just have to find an hp install disk with this on it.
I have it on an hp 25" i got at best buy deal of day for $199, awesome monitor except it lacks built in sound. I set it up 2x2 with outlook, peachtree, ms word and filemaker.
What i like is if maximize a window then minimize it , it goes back to original partition.
I also have it working on gateway 21" 2 windows verical.
Once you get accustomed your productivity increases.

What is table partition?

HI,
What is meant for table partition?
-Arun.M.D

Hi Arun ,
You use partitioning to split the total dataset for an InfoProvider into several, smaller, physically independent and redundancy-free units. This separation improves system performance when you analyze data delete data from the InfoProvider.The basic idea behind database partitioning is to split a physical table and its indexes into several smaller physical tables and indexes.
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/33/dc2038aa3bcd23e10000009b38f8cf/content.htm
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/e0/b60b404b2b1e07e10000000a1550b0/content.htm
Regards,
®

What is the Partitioning Option license methods with E-Business Suite

I have an E-business suite instance that have some database objects modified but not the objects that use the partitioning option by application defaults and also we didn't implement or use the partitioning option with any other objects; so I'm wondering if i have to pay the license fees for this option or it included in the restricted-use license as long as we didn't use it in any other objects or even modifying the objects that use it by the apps defaults.
Thanks.
Mohamed El-Saied

I have an E-business suite instance that have some database objects modified but not the objects that use the partitioning option by application defaults and also we didn't implement or use the partitioning option with any other objects; so I'm wondering if i have to pay the license fees for this option or it included in the restricted-use license as long as we didn't use it in any other objects or even modifying the objects that use it by the apps defaults.Review your license/support contract and see if the option is included. By default, partitioning in not included in EBS license and it requires a separate license -- http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/using_database_partitioning_wi
Thanks,
Hussein

What's the best way to partition my disk with Vista, Arch, and data?

Hey everybody, I'm in a bit of a quandary here and I'd love a bit of help.
I have a 320 GB hdd on my new laptop. I want to dual boot Windows Vista and Arch, with a shared partition for data in between. I have Windows Vista installed with 110 GB of unallocated space. (Windows, being a piece of crap, has gone and locked some stupid system files at the end of its partition, completely preventing me from shrinking it any further.)
Vista has hogged two partitions for itself. One is C:, and I know what that's for; the other is D:, and I have no idea what lives on it. (In the off chance that anyone here knows, I'd actually like to find out what D: is doing there. It takes up 77 MB, 65 MB of which is empty, and is always "in use," and yet Vista's file manager says there's nothing in it.)
ANYWAY: Vista's taken up two partitions, and I need at least two for Arch: / and swap. Ideally, I'd like to have one for /home as well, but i don't know if that possible. I also really, really want to have a shared partition for music and documents and such for both OSes.
I thought at first I could stick all of Arch into an extended partition, but I read here that they can't be booted from. It doesn't make any sense to put my data partition into an extended partition, and Windows won't work either. What should my partition scheme be, since I apparently am going to need to put 5 primary partitions on one disk?
If you've gone this far, thanks for reading my wall of text. Any advice you can give would be deeply appreciated.
UPDATE: Okay, after doing a bit more research, I've read in a couple of places that Linux can be installed to a logical partition as long as I make sure GRUB (installed, I assume, on /dev/sda) points to it. Can anyone confirm this?
Last edited by wirenik (2008-11-29 07:27:46)

wirenik,
You can't have 5 primary partitions. 4 max, or 3 primary partitions, and a bunch of logical partitions grouped inside an extended partition. Arch will gladly install into a logical partition. (Yes, it will boot just fine too )
If you currently have 2 partitions, you could create one more primary, then use the rest of the disk as an extended partition. You will then be able to create as many logical partitions as you want (well, a bunch anyway).
Something like this:
/dev/sda1 (primary, Windows C)
/dev/sda2 (primary, Windows D)
/dev/sda3 (primary, Arch root)
--- Extended partition ---
/dev/sda5 (logical, Arch /home)
/dev/sda6 (logical, swap)
/dev/sda7 (logical, shared data)
Last edited by peart (2008-11-29 07:26:07)

Other partition... What is it and what does it contain?

Hi there, i have always been dubbing what the other partition contains?
I do know apps use this data, so dont come with the obvious
Also i know it contains:
Safari Cookies, History & Cache files
System log files
System cache files
System temporary files
OTA Software Update files
And other Cache and Temp. Files
But that isn't evrything i know by now
So, my question is: where is the rest of my data gone to?
That's what i want to find out with the help of this forum/Apple support
Also as self reflect i can find myself also as expert on ios, all possibilitys, the up and down sides, the dark sides, you'll know what i'm talking about.

You don't need to create/edit zones unless the network you're on is based on AppleTalk. AppleTalk can pretty much automatically configure itself. It's only when it was part of a much bigger network that zones made it easier to deal with only Macs and devices local to you and not have to sift through every single thing on the network all over a business or school network.
What printer is this? Is the printer on a network? Does it have an Ethernet interface? An issue with older AppleTalk-compatible devices is that they only use the classic AppleTalk. Some routers will not forward AppleTalk packets. Newer Macs make use of AppleTalk over IP to run on modern networks not based on AppleTalk.

Tecra S11 - What are the two primary partitions for?

Hello everybody
I just got myself a new Tecra S11 with Win7 64 and there's one thing that wonders me a littlebit.
There are four partitions in total, for sure there's the Recovery one (1.46 GB) and the System one (256.38 GB), but then there are also two primary partitions (8.86 and 31.38 GB) without any displayed use or file system. There's no non-allocated space.
Can somebody tell me what these two partitions are for ? Because I want to split the system partition up to store my data on a separated one, if possible I also want to use that "unknown" space then ;)
Besides that: Don't worry, I already made recovery DVDs.
Greetings
Nico

This is funny: I just recreated the entire Harddrive using the recovery DVDs, now the two primary partitions are gone and the space is integrated into the system one, lovely :)
Is this maybe a faulty pre installation ?

Local index vs global index in partitioned tables

Hi,
I want to know the differences between a global and a local index.
I'm working with partitioned tables about 10 millons rows and 40 partitions.
I know that when your table is partitioned and your index non-partitioned is possible that
some database operations make your index unusable and you have tu rebuid it, for example
when yo truncate a partition your global index results unusable, is there any other operation
that make the global index unusable??
I think that the advantage of a global index is that takes less space than a local and is easier to rebuild,
and the advantage of a local index is that is more effective resolving a query isn't it???
Any advice and help about local vs global index in partitioned tables will be greatly apreciatted.
Thanks in advance

here is the documentation -> http://download-uk.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14220/partconc.htm#sthref2570
In general, you should use global indexes for OLTP applications and local indexes for data warehousing or DSS applications. Also, whenever possible, you should try to use local indexes because they are easier to manage. When deciding what kind of partitioned index to use, you should consider the following guidelines in order:
1. If the table partitioning column is a subset of the index keys, use a local index. If this is the case, you are finished. If this is not the case, continue to guideline 2.
2. If the index is unique, use a global index. If this is the case, you are finished. If this is not the case, continue to guideline 3.
3. If your priority is manageability, use a local index. If this is the case, you are finished. If this is not the case, continue to guideline 4.
4. If the application is an OLTP one and users need quick response times, use a global index. If the application is a DSS one and users are more interested in throughput, use a local index.
Kind regards,
Tonguç

Spotlight and indexing of other disk partitions

Hi,
I have the internal drive of my 12" PowerBook formatted into two partitions, a small maintenance partition that's running 10.4.8, and a main partition, that's running 10.5.2. While I don't have a problem with upgrading the maintenance partition to Leopard, after seeing this report, I'm wondering if it's not a good idea to have Tiger and Leopard installed on separate partitions of the same internal drive. This leads to my questions:
Question 1:
Is it true that booting into a Tiger installation will cause Spotlight to overwrite the index files that Leopard created on either (or both) partitions? If this is true, then it would seem that I should really upgrade the maintenance partition to Leopard to prevent complete reindexing whenever I switch startup drives from one partition to the other.
Question 2:
Is there any way that I can tell Spotlight on the maintenance partition to not index the main partition? I only boot into the maintenance partition to run tools to maintain the main partition, so I have no need for Spotlight when booted into the maintenance partition.
Question 3:
Even if I upgrade the maintenance partition to Leopard, is there any way that I can prevent each partition's installation from indexing the other?
Thanks,
Ken

I want to make sure that I have each partition's installation set up so Spotlight won't corrupt or redo what the other partition's Spotlight has already done.
You can't do that, which is why I ended up with the less than satisfactory solution I have. When you boot up Spotlight begins to run as part of the system activities. It then looks at every mounted drive. Each and every drive has an invisible Spotlight folder. In that folder are the instructions to Spotlight about whether the drive or any directories on the drive have been excluded from Spotlight, and also, if the drive is supposed to be indexed, then the indexes themselves are in that folder. Thus the command line instruction to turn Spotlight status on or off specifies the path to the particular drive. There is no way to "quarantine" the Tiger or Leopard Spotlight. Whichever version is running looks to see if any given drive is supposed to be indexed, and, if it is, indexes it. The two versions can read each others general instruction about whether or not something is supposed to BE indexed, but can't read each others actual indexes. So if the instruction is for indexing to be on, then the version of Spotlight running looks at the index, can't read the index from the other version, and so proceeds to create a new index.
You can either have Spotlight on or off for a particular drive, that information will be read by both versions of Spotlight and acted on accordingly. Thus I booted in Leopard, ran the command line to turn the status off on my Tiger drive, preventing the drive from being indexed in Leopard, and edited the /etc/hostconfig file for Tiger to disable the Tiger Spotlight. When I booted in Tiger Spotlight didn't run AT ALL, so it didn't re-do the indexing for either the Tiger or Leopard drive. As far as I've been able to figure out this is the best solution, since I am generally booted in Leopard.
If all I had done was to add the Tiger drive to the Leopard Privacy pane, when I booted in Tiger its Spotlight would run, consult the preference for its drive, see it wasn't supposed to index its own startup drive, look at the information on the Leopard drive, see that that drive was supposed to be indexed, be unable to read the index and create a new one. When I next booted into Leopard it would have to re-index its own drive because its index would have been over-written.
Hope that makes a nasty situation clearer. I pondered the conundrum for some time before coming up with a solution. When I am booted in Tiger (which is rarely) I have to remember to use EasyFind when I want to find something, and when I am in Leopard a search of the Tiger drive is "brute force" only, but it can be searched.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Partitioning Tips for Most Effective Usage

Hi guys,
I'm running on Snow Leopard with 4GB DDR3. I'm hoping I'll be able to get some advice here on how i should fully utilise my MBP's hard drive.
I recently bought a new 500GB Samsung HDD but I've yet to install it cos I'm still pondering on what type of partitioning scheme i should stick to. I use my MBP as a workhorse. I do photography, design with photoshop, video editing, recording and gaming (with windows). From time to time i work with large transfers of files in and out, like we're talking GB here.. There are also 2 other people in my family who use this com, but just from time to time, transfer pictures and sync their iphones etc. I'm aware that too many partitions can also slow down the system, but this time round, im really certain i'd wanna partition my mac after a tragic crash of my os x partition hdd. It wasn't the HD's fault tho as my bootcamp partition survived.
Anyway, how many partitions is too much and how should i partition my new drive to effectively use it? I've been reading quite a bit around the internet and so far from what i've gathered, im thinking of the following scheme:
1) Primary Boot ROM - System and Applications (150GB)
From my experience some apps like Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio 9 can take up as much as 56 GB each, Adobe CS5 takes up quite a bit too.
2) Emergency Boot - For emergencies (15GB)
System files and essentials like Alsoft Disk Warrior 4 and Data Recovery 3 in the event of nasty crashes for damage control/rescue
3) Windows Partition - For Windows 7 and Games (100GB)
Games like Modern Warfare 2 and Fallout 3 can take up to 15GB etc,
4) Data Files (Remaining).
What do ya'll think?
More Questions I'd like to raise are:
1) Would you think it would be better to create a partition, just for installing hugeass apps (ala logic and fc) and does anyone know if they can be installed on the non boot roms? eg if im using my primary startup partition, can i install logic on another partition which doesn't have Mac OS X on it?
2) Should my Video, Audio and photography workfiles be in separate partitions or would it be more advisable to just keep them together?
3) Should there be a partition just for temporary file storage like if im moving 50gb of data?
4) How about video capturing? Recording sessions and post production project files? Should they be in a partitions of their own?
5) I've read about scratch/swap partitions, what are they and are they advisable to have? Especially cos the stuff i do are pretty resource intensive.
6) Should the different users be on different partitions?
I guess that's about all the questions on my mind for now..
Would greatly appreciate your help before i plan out and partition
Thanks in advance!

@Kappy,
I'm sorry! Nono don't get me wrong.. I'm not shutting out your advises. I'm just in a dilemma as there seems to be 2 opposing camps: people who swear by partitioning and those against it. I read that a lotta people in the media industry, ie sound engineers who do recording on the go/designers who do huge projects highly recommend the practice of partitioning as huge amoutns of time are spent on each project, so they'd rather be safe than sorry.
On the otherhand, people here are saying there's no need to do so/it sounds illogical.. I'm just wondering why.. I mean, i understand its gonna be a hassel and all, but is it not advantageous to to do so especially in times of adversity?
About rEFIt, understand that the point of the article was aimed at being a tutorial at creating a multiple booting computer. However one of the steps pointed out was that we could create multiple partitions before installing Windows in just one partition. If that can be done, wouldn't it mean that instead of creating multiple boot partitions , i can create storage partitions as well, by selecting the appropriate kind of disk formats, which technically bypasses the limit of Bootcamp's 2 partition only policy.. Do you think that would be possible? PS: im not looking to install Windows on an external drive..
About the emergency disk,
I fully agree with you that ideal is to have it on an external drive, which i definitely have been practicing. However cos of my recent crashing, i figured that data recovery from my external usb harddrive indeed help, but was quite a slow process (yea.. i know firewire's the fastest option! heh), but im just wondering, any idea if booting from a good partition would be faster than one from an external hd/usb stick?
OS X is structured to expect data/documents to be stored in their appropriate folders on the startup volume. This i do agree, do you think there are ways to re route them?
Video, Audio and photography workfiles might best be kept on another hard drive, preferably FW800 for speed.Yea this i definitely agree that it would be the ideal, however i bring my mac out for live recordings sometimes using a firewire interface. My mbp has only 1 firewire interface tho, so an ext firewire HD wouldnt be an option.. and if i can avoid bringing along an external drive, that would too be great.
Your tip on backing-up with a dedicated large external HD that i do agree fully and couldn't disagree less! In fact that's what i'm practicing. The RAID box is a wonderful idea actually! So thanks! (:
@Michael Black
Thanks for your answers to #5 and #6.. !
Everyone, thanks for your responses so far! (:

Logical vs. Physical Partitioning

Hi,
In a discussion of logical partition the author pointed out that
if a query that needs data from all 5 years would then automatically (you can control this) be split into 5 separate queries, one against each cube, running at the same time. The system automatically merges the results from the 5 queries into a single result set.
1. Can you direct me on how to control this as the author indicated?
2. Also, the author noted that
Physical Partitioning - I believe only Oracle and Informix currently support Range partitioning.
a) Does it mean that BW does not use physical partitioning?
b) Where do we indicate physical or logical partitioning as an option in BW?
c) Or, when we talk about dimension table, etc. is there always an underlining database such as Oravle, Infomix, etc in BW? If so, what does BW use?
3. For physical partitions, I read that the cube needs to be empty before it can be partitioned. What about logical partition?
4. Finally, what are the underlying criteria to decide on logical or physical partitioning or both
Thanks

. Can you direct me on how to control this as the author indicated?
You make this setting RSRT.
2. Also, the author noted that
Physical Partitioning - I believe only Oracle and Informix currently support Range partitioning.
DB2 also support partiioning. Also the current relese of SQL server support partitioning.
b) Where do we indicate physical or logical partitioning as an option in BW?
Physical parittions are set up in the cube change option. When you are in the cube change mode, on the themenu, chose extras - performance / DB parameters - parttitios.
Now a screen will pop giving the time characteristics in the cube and choose the characteristic (s) that you wish to chose and confirm the entries - then you will get another small pop up where you set the no of parittions.
Also, pl note that you can partition only on fiscalyear and fiscal period and not on other time characteritsitcs.
Logical partitions: Logical paritions are nothinb but spilting the cube into numerous cubes of smaller sizes. You combine all these cubes by means of multi provider. For example, if you have 1000 cost centers , you may want to split into cubes based on the cost cenree numbers and combine them into a multi provider.
No more setting is required.
c) Or, when we talk about dimension table, etc. is there always an underlining database such as Oravle, Infomix, etc in BW? If so, what does BW use?
Dimension tables / fact tables/ ODS tables /master data tables are all database tables. Which ever database you use and when yu activate these objects, the tables are created in the underlying database.
3. For physical partitions, I read that the cube needs to be empty before it can be partitioned. What about logical partition?
Logical partiton can be done any time.
4. Finally, what are the underlying criteria to decide on logical or physical partitioning or both
The underlying criteria is facotrs such as :
(a) the no of years of history tou wish to view in reports.
(b) te no ofyears you will hold the data in BW before archiving.
(c) othe performance matters related tro sizing.
Ravi Thothadri

What is a partition?

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