Join us as fellow Charlotte SQL Server Users Group member and Microsoft Certified – Developer and DBA, Jana Sattainathan presents "Partitioning in SQL Server 2005/2008."

Abstract: Starting with SQL Server 2005, Microsoft has made a significant effort to truly streamline partitioning data to be on par with industry leading databases like Oracle.  The potential was not fully harnessed by the SQL Server community primarily due to the lack of any user interface associated with partitioning and due to lack of cohesive documentation. For many, Kimberly Tripp’s white paper on “Partitioned Tables and Indexes in SQL Server 2005” is generally regarded as a primary guiding source that bridges the void in MS documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345146(SQL.90).aspx. I would urge people attending the session to at least glance through the paper.
 
SQL Server 2008 introduced some UI associated with partitioning but for a truly large corporation dealing with huge volumes of data, using the UI to manage partitions is not really a feasible solution. For scalability, partitioning should be controlled from code. In this presentation, we will discuss the following topics:
 
• What is partitioning?
• Why and when to partition your data?
• History of Partitioning in SQL Server
• How does partitioning in SQL Server compare to partitioning in Oracle?
• Understanding partitioning in SQL Server and types of partitioning
• Benefits of partitioning
• Organizing partitions: File groups, files, partitions, indexes and constraints
• Partition operations - merge/split partitions, exchange partitions to tables and vice versa (switch in and switch out)
• Demo
• Partitioning and archiving
• Demo
• System tables related to partitioning
• How to build a generic framework to manage partitioning?
• Demo
• How to convert non-partitioned tables into partitioned tables and vice versa?
• Best practices for partitioning
• Differences between SQL Server 2005 and 2008
• Downloads, links and references
• Questions?

Speaker's Bio:

Jana Sattainathan is a CSSUG member and works on the Data Team at Transamerica Reinsurance. He is a Microsoft Certified IT Professional – Developer and Database Administrator. Plus Jana is also Oracle Certified Database Professional – Administrator

Agenda:

5:30 PM Networking and Pizza

6:15 PM Presentation

8:00 PM Meeting end

The meeting is being held in a different room at the Microsoft Offices. Click for directions. Left building, far entrance, MPR room. The entrance and the room is marked on the linked map above. Thanks to Bing maps!