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Partition Switching - Practice exam question

  • October 3, 2011 at 5:42 am

    #248876

    Hi,

    I am finding myself very frustrated with a practice exam question and was hoping someone with a bit more experience of partition switching could help me out.

    The question is from the practice exam recommended on the MS website but the wording of the question is very confusing and i just don't see how the answer can be correct.

    The question is as follows:

    -----------------------

    There is an sql server 2008 database named DWORKS; there are two tables in the database:

    Bills: Stores bill information for the current year

    BillHistory: Stores bill information for previous years

    There are two partitions in the BillHistory table. Partion 1 is empty while Partition 2 contains all of data.

    Now you intend to move data from Partition 2 to the appropriate partition of the BillHistory table. Partition 2 contains data for the eldest month of the bills table. You are going to develop a process to achieve this.

    You must make sure that at the end of every month the process can be repeated.

    According to the practice test the answer is:

    Alter the partition function of the BillHistory table using the split option. Switch the appropriate partition of the Bills table to the appropriate partition of the BillsHistory table. Alter the BillsHistory tale using the merge option. Alter the Bills table using the merge option.

    --------------------------

    I don't see why you would start with splitting the partition function on the history table when it already contains an empty partition.

    Could someone step through the answer and explain why it is correct because i'm really struggling with it.

    Thanks very much.

  • October 3, 2011 at 6:05 am

    #1389437

    Designing Partitions to Manage Subsets of Data:

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191174(v=SQL.90).aspx

  • October 3, 2011 at 6:51 am

    #1389467

    I agree with your solution but the answer (according to the practice test) states that the first thing you should do is alter the partition function of the BillHistory table using the SPLIT option.

    I suppose this could be a mistake but there is no explanation to accompany the answer so i cannot interrogate it further.

  • October 3, 2011 at 7:44 am

    #1389515

    The solution in the practice exam is correct.

    I am sorry for my previous post (I corrected it). Please go through following MSDN article.

    Designing Partitions to Manage Subsets of Data:

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191174(v=SQL.90).aspx

  • October 3, 2011 at 7:48 am

    #1389519

    Okay thanks for the advice; i'll read through the reccommended artcile.

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