I get a lot of requests for explanations about the different concepts and the easiest way to demo partitioning in SQL Server 2008. So in the spirit of education I have adapted the demo from the new features white paper from Microsoft, added explanations and guidance as to how to use it, and posted it here. I have also modified the example to show additional functionality if you choose (for you perpetual partitioning practitioners).
Alliteration aside, this functionality is one of the few that is widely needed and almost as widely used in the relational world as it is in the dimensional or warehousing world. New features, such as the capability to swap partitions in and out to aid in data scrubbing and archiving are awesome and so easy to implement. You will do one of these in the demo.
You can also set up extra partitions in expectation of using them later and they will automatically go into use. There are also new features for indexing that you will see in the demo. This can be a complicated topic so the demo will aid most of you but I ‘m sure some will have questions. Please email me or post comments to the blog so everyone can be helped by our discussion.
Happy Partitioning !! - Adam
