Support for 15,000 Partitions in SQL Server 2008 SP2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1

SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2

Writers: Pooja Harjani, Susan Price, Jos de Bruijn - Microsoft Corporation

Technical Reviewers: Hardik Bati, Eric Hanson, Hermann Daeubler, Juergen Thomas, Cameron Gardiner - Microsoft Corporation

Published: September 2010          Updated: March 2011

Applies to:      SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 and later
                       SQL Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 and later

Summary: In SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2, the number of partitions on tables and indexes is limited to 1,000. This paper discusses how SQL Server 2008 SP2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 address this limitation by providing an option to increase the limit to 15,000 partitions. It describes how support for 15,000 partitions can be enabled and disabled on a database. It also talks about performance characteristics, certain limitations associated with this support, known issues, and their workarounds. This support is targeted to enterprise customers and ISVs with large-scale decision support or data warehouse requirements.

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