Create Multi-Store Tables

Multi-store tables are a type of SAP HANA column tables which can have partitions in the in-memory DEFAULT COLUMN STORAGE as well as other partitions in dynamic tiering EXTENDED STORAGE.

Multi-store data management allows for administration tasks to be carried out more freely including:

• Moving data between EXTENDED or DEFAULT STORAGE
• Creating or dropping partitions directly in either EXTENDED or DEFAULT STORAGE
• Repartitioning a table, if new partitioning does not move data between DEFAULT and EXTENDED STORAGE

One function of multi-store tables is data aging which allows you to “age out” older data using dynamic tiering. Every multi-store table contains at least two partitions: one of which is in the in-memory DEFAULT STORAGE and the other is in disk based EXTENDED STORAGE. This allows you to still access and update older data without managing two separate systems for current or older data and is cost effective as well. There may be some older data that isn’t frequently used and so the “cold” data is moved into extended storage and the “hot” new and frequently used data remains in-memory.

The types of partitioning include: range partitioning, hash-range and range-range partitioning, and time-selection partitioning.

In this module we will create a multi-store table that uses single level Range partitioning. With single level range partitioning, at least one range partition must be in the DEFAULT STORAGE and one range partition in extended storage. Only range partitions are supported when it comes to single-level partitioning. The diagram below shows the ranges that will be defined.

We will store ranges 1 to 4 in EXTENDED STORAGE and range 5 and “OTHERS” in the in-memory DEFAULT STORAGE. The “OTHERS” range is optional but if it is created, it is always in DEFAULT STORAGE.

Since multi-store tables have been implemented on top of existing HANA and dynamic tiering capabilities, existing limitations of HANA and dynamic tiering are also inherited by multi-store tables. The following are unsupported data types:

• TIMESTAMP
• SHORTTEXT
• TEXT
• ARRAY

The following are limitations set on table and index definitions:

• No full text or geocode indexes
• Several clauses specific to in-memory tables are not supported, other clauses will only apply to either the in-memory partition or the EXTENDED STORAGE partitions
• No triggers on partitions in EXTENDED STORAGE

To create the single level range partitioned multi-store table, copy the following into the SQL console and execute it.

CREATE COLUMN TABLE "TPCH"."LINEITEM_MS" (
    L_ORDERKEY           integer                        not null,
    L_PARTKEY            integer                        not null,
    L_SUPPKEY            integer                        not null,
    L_LINENUMBER         integer                        not null,
    L_QUANTITY           decimal(15,2)                  not null,
    L_EXTENDEDPRICE      decimal(15,2)                  not null,
    L_DISCOUNT           decimal(15,2)                  not null,
    L_TAX                decimal(15,2)                  not null,
    L_RETURNFLAG         char                           not null,
    L_LINESTATUS         char                           not null,
    L_SHIPDATE           date                           not null,
    L_COMMITDATE         date                           not null,
    L_RECEIPTDATE        date                           not null,
    L_SHIPINSTRUCT       char(25)                       not null,
    L_SHIPMODE           char(10)                       not null,
    L_COMMENT            varchar(44)                    not null,
    primary key (L_ORDERKEY, L_LINENUMBER)
)
PARTITION BY RANGE ("L_ORDERKEY")
(
	USING DEFAULT STORAGE
	(		PARTITION OTHERS,
      PARTITION 2000000 <= VALUES < 5000000
	)
	USING EXTENDED STORAGE
	(		PARTITION 0 <= VALUES < 50000,
			PARTITION 50000 <= VALUES < 200000,
			PARTITION 200000 <= VALUES < 500000,
			PARTITION 500000 <= VALUES < 2000000
	)
);

The above script will create a table called “LINEITEM_MS”. The partitions defined for DEFAULT STORAGE will hold any records with L_ORDERKEY values between 2,000,000 and 4,999,999, or L_ORDERKEY values that do not fall under any other specified range. The partitions defined for EXTENDED STORAGE will hold any records with L_ORDERKEY values between 0 and 49,999; 50,000 and 199,999; 200,000 and 499,999; or 500,000 and 1,999,999.

After executing the “CREATE TABLE” statement, navigate to Catalog > TPCH > Right-click Tables > Show Tables.
Make sure you see newly created “LINEITEM_MS” table as seen below.

Multi-store tables are not classified as type EXTENDED.

To import data into the newly created table, execute the following in the SQL Console. Verify it gets executed successfully.

IMPORT FROM CSV FILE '/hana/shared/{SID}/HDB00/work/TPCH_Data/LineItem.csv' INTO "TPCH"."LINEITEM_MS";

Confirm the table has been filled with data after executing by right clicking on the table and selecting “Open Data”.

The “IMPORT” statement cannot use the “THREADS” clause since it will be loading into dynamic tiering.

There are several database administration views available to provide information for partitioned tables, including multi-store tables. Some of the information available includes:

• What partitions exist for a given table
• Memory utilization for in-memory partitions in DEFAULT STORAGE
• Disk utilization for partitioned data stored in EXTENDED STORAGE

Execute the following in a SQL Console to view the ranges created in your range partition.

select * from TABLE_PARTITIONS where TABLE_NAME = 'LINEITEM_MS'

You should see the following once you execute the statement above. Notice how “LEVEL_1_RANGE_MIN_VALUE” and “LEVEL_1_RANGE_MAX_VALUE” for row 6 is empty. The reason for it being empty is because it represents “OTHERS”. Remember that “OTHERS” does not have a set minimum value nor a maximum value, it simply collects anything that does not fall under any of the other partitions.

If you scroll right, you will see a column labeled “STORAGE_TYPE” which shows you what the storage type for each partition is:

To verify that data has actually gone into the partitions, we can individually check the DEFAULT STORAGE and EXTENDED STORAGE.

To check that data has gone into DEFAULT STORAGE, execute the following in a SQL Console:

SELECT * FROM M_CS_TABLES where TABLE_NAME = 'LINEITEM_MS' AND SCHEMA_NAME = 'TPCH'

Remember that PART_ID 1 and 6 represent partitions in DEFAULT STORAGE and the “MEMORY_SIZE_IN_TOTAL” column shows data has indeed been put into those partitions.

To check that data has gone into EXTENDED STORAGE, execute the following in a SQL Console:

SELECT * FROM M_ES_TABLES where TABLE_NAME = 'LINEITEM_MS' AND SCHEMA_NAME = 'TPCH'

Notice that only 1 partition is shown in EXTENDED STORAGE and that it has a PART_ID of -1. The PART_ID is -1 because although logically, the dynamic tiering portion has multiple partitions within it, physically the dynamic tiering portion is stored as a single partition. Since the data for the “LINEITEM_MS” partitions in EXTENDED STORAGE are in a single physical partition, we can’t tell how much data is in each logical partition. However, we can see from the “TABLE_SIZE” column that data has been stored in EXTENDED STORAGE for the “LINEITEM_MS” table.