You can create a partitioned table or index in SQL Server 2016 by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL. The data in partitioned tables and indexes is horizontally divided into units that can be spread across more than one filegroup in a database.
Partitioning can make large tables and indexes more manageable and scalable.
Creating a partitioned table or index typically happens in four parts:
- Create a filegroup or filegroups and corresponding files that will hold the partitions specified by the partition scheme.
- Create a partition function that maps the rows of a table or index into partitions based on the values of a specified column.
- Create a partition scheme that maps the partitions of a partitioned table or index to the new filegroups.
- Create or modify a table or index and specify the partition scheme as the storage location
