Partitioned Indexes

Abstract

If you use partitioned tables as part of your application, it is likely, if not imperative, that you use partitioned indexes to complement the advantages gained by using table partitioning. Usually, having partitioned table and indexes go hand in hand—when there’s one, there’s usually both. This is common, but not essential. It is possible to have partitioned tables without partitioned indexes, and it is possible to have a non-partitioned table with partitioned indexes. There are several factors that affect the design of the database tables and indexes, including:

• Application data loading requirements (DML)

• Is it an OLTP system?

• Is it a data warehouse?

• Client query requirements

• Data volume

• Data purging requirements