Planning Your Server Tables

Large tables have implications for file storage, disk space, and performance. When creating large tables, consult with your server administrator so that file storage and disk space for the server domain can be configured appropriately. You will also want to create the tables with an appropriate partition size. A proper partition size is important for optimal striping of data paths. For large tables, a partition size of 1 GB might be appropriate. Ask your administrator what the value of the MINPARTSIZE= server setting is for your server. MINPARTSIZE= specifies the minimum partition size that can be used by your server. If MINPARTSIZE= is much lower than 1 GB, consider specifying a larger partition size for your table with the PARTSIZE = table option or SPDSSIZE macro variable. SAS macro programs are available from SAS Technical Support to help you calculate a proper partition size. The partition size cannot be changed on an existing table.

Index or order your data to optimize subsetting of the data by the server. For more information, see Understanding SPD Server Indexing.

Compress your data. You can enable table compression in your SAS session with COMPRESS= table option or the SPDSCOMP macro variable.

When creating tables with the SQL procedure, set IP=YES in the LIBNAME statement. (In library definitions that are created in SAS Management Console, this option is set in the Advanced tab.) IP=YES invokes SQL implicit pass-through, which optimizes processing between the client and the server.