Table Partitioning

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CockroachDB allows you to define table partitions, giving you row-level control of how and where your data is stored. Partitioning enables you to reduce latencies and costs and can assist in meeting regulatory requirements for your data.

Why use table partitioning

Tip:

Most users should not need to use partitioning directly. Instead, they should use CockroachDB's built-in multi-region capabilities, which automatically handle geo-partitioning and other low-level details.

Table partitioning helps you reduce latency and cost:

Geo-partitioning allows you to keep user data close to the user, which reduces the distance that the data needs to travel, thereby reducing latency. To geo-partition a table, define location-based partitions while creating a table, create location-specific zone configurations, and apply the zone configurations to the corresponding partitions.
Archival-partitioning allows you to store infrequently-accessed data on slower and cheaper storage, thereby reducing costs. To archival-partition a table, define frequency-based partitions while creating a table, create frequency-specific zone configurations with appropriate storage devices constraints, and apply the zone configurations to the corresponding partitions.

How it works

Table partitioning involves a combination of CockroachDB features:

Node attributes
Table creation
Replication zones

Node attributes

To store partitions in specific locations (e.g., geo-partitioning), or on machines with specific attributes (e.g., archival-partitioning), the nodes of your cluster must be started with the relevant flags:

Use the --locality flag to assign key-value pairs that describe the location of a node, for example, --locality=region=east,az=us-east-1.
Use the --attrs flag to specify node capability, which might include specialized hardware or number of cores, for example, --attrs=ram:64gb.
Use the attrs field of the --store flag to specify disk type or capability, for example,--store=path=/mnt/ssd01,attrs=ssd.

For more details about these flags, see the cockroach start documentation.

Table creation

You can define partitions and subpartitions over one or more columns of a table. During table creation, you declare which values belong to each partition in one of two ways:

List partitioning: Enumerate all possible values for each partition. List partitioning is a good choice when the number of possible values is small. List partitioning is well-suited for geo-partitioning.
Range partitioning: Specify a contiguous range of values for each partition by specifying lower and upper bounds. Range partitioning is a good choice when the number of possible values is too large to explicitly list out. Range partitioning is well-suited for archival-partitioning.

Partition by list

PARTITION BY LIST lets you map one or more tuples to a partition.

To partition a table by list, use the PARTITION BY LIST syntax while creating the table. While defining a list partition, you can also set the DEFAULT partition that acts as a catch-all if none of the rows match the requirements for the defined partitions.

See Partition by List example below for more details.

Partition by range

PARTITION BY RANGE lets you map ranges of tuples to a partition.

To define a table partition by range, use the PARTITION BY RANGE syntax while creating the table. While defining a range partition, you can use CockroachDB-defined MINVALUE and MAXVALUE parameters to define the lower and upper bounds of the ranges respectively.

Note:

The lower bound of a range partition is inclusive, while the upper bound is exclusive. For range partitions, NULL is considered less than any other data, which is consistent with our key encoding ordering and ORDER BY behavior.

Partition values can be any SQL expression, but it’s only evaluated once. If you create a partition with value < (now() - '1d') on 2017-01-30, it would be contain all values less than 2017-01-29. It would not update the next day, it would continue to contain values less than 2017-01-29.

See Partition by Range example below for more details.

Partition using primary key

The primary key required for partitioning is different from the conventional primary key. To define the primary key for partitioning, prefix the unique identifier(s) in the primary key with all columns you want to partition and subpartition the table on, in the order in which you want to nest your subpartitions.

For instance, consider the database of a global online learning portal that has a table for students of all the courses across the world. If you want to geo-partition the table based on the countries of the students, then the primary key needs to be defined as:

> CREATE TABLE students (
    id INT DEFAULT unique_rowid(),
    name STRING,
    email STRING,
    country STRING,
    expected_graduation_date DATE,
    PRIMARY KEY (country, id));

Primary key considerations

The order in which the columns are defined in the primary key is important. The partitions and subpartitions need to follow that order. In the example of the online learning portal, if you define the primary key as (country, expected_graduation_date, id), the primary partition is by country, and then subpartition is by expected_graduation_date. You cannot skip country and partition by expected_graduation_date.

Partition using a secondary index

The primary key discussed in the preceding section has two drawbacks:

It does not enforce that the identifier column is globally unique.
It does not provide fast lookups on the identifier.

To ensure uniqueness or fast lookups, create a secondary index on the identifier.

Indexes are not required to be partitioned, but creating a non-partitioned index on a partitioned table may not perform well.

When you create a non-partitioned index on a partitioned table, CockroachDB sends a NOTICE message to the client stating that creating a non-partitioned index on a partitioned table may not perform well.

Partition using foreign key reference

If a partitioned table contains a foreign key reference to a non-partitioned table, the secondary index created automatically for the foreign key reference will not be partitioned. This can impact performance when querying against the partitioned table, as the data may exist in a distant node.

To minimize potential latency issues, configure the non-partitioned table to be a GLOBAL table.

Replication zones

On their own, partitions are inert and simply apply a label to the rows of the table that satisfy the criteria of the defined partitions. Applying functionality to a partition requires creating and applying replication zone to the corresponding partitions.

CockroachDB uses the most granular zone config available. Zone configs that target a partition are considered more granular than those that target a table or index, which in turn are considered more granular than those that target a database.

Query partitions

Similar to indexes, partitions can improve query performance by limiting the numbers of rows that a query must scan. In the case of geo-partitioned data, partitioning can limit a query scan to data in a specific region.

Filter on an indexed column

If you filter the query of a partitioned table on a column in the index directly following the partition prefix, the cost-based optimizer creates a query plan that scans each partition in parallel, rather than performing a costly sequential scan of the entire table.

For example, suppose that the tables in the movr database are geo-partitioned by region, and you want to query the users table for information about a specific user.

Here is the CREATE TABLE statement for the users table:

> SHOW CREATE TABLE users;

  table_name |                                  create_statement
+------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  users      | CREATE TABLE users (
             |     id UUID NOT NULL,
             |     city VARCHAR NOT NULL,
             |     name VARCHAR NULL,
             |     address VARCHAR NULL,
             |     credit_card VARCHAR NULL,
             |     CONSTRAINT "primary" PRIMARY KEY (city ASC, id ASC),
             |     FAMILY "primary" (id, city, name, address, credit_card)
             | ) PARTITION BY LIST (city) (
             |     PARTITION us_west VALUES IN (('seattle'), ('san francisco'), ('los angeles')),
             |     PARTITION us_east VALUES IN (('new york'), ('boston'), ('washington dc')),
             |     PARTITION europe_west VALUES IN (('amsterdam'), ('paris'), ('rome'))
             | );
             | ALTER PARTITION europe_west OF INDEX movr.public.users@primary CONFIGURE ZONE USING
             |     constraints = '[+region=europe-west1]';
             | ALTER PARTITION us_east OF INDEX movr.public.users@primary CONFIGURE ZONE USING
             |     constraints = '[+region=us-east1]';
             | ALTER PARTITION us_west OF INDEX movr.public.users@primary CONFIGURE ZONE USING
             |     constraints = '[+region=us-west1]'
(1 row)

If you know the user's id, you can filter on the id column:

> SELECT * FROM users WHERE id='00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000';

                   id                  |   city   |     name      |       address        | credit_card
+--------------------------------------+----------+---------------+----------------------+-------------+
  00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | new york | Robert Murphy | 99176 Anderson Mills | 8885705228
(1 row)

An EXPLAIN statement shows more detail about the cost-based optimizer's plan:

> EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM users WHERE id='00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000';

  tree |    field    |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       description
+------+-------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
       | distributed | true
       | vectorized  | false
  scan |             |
       | table       | users@primary
       | spans       | -/"amsterdam" /"amsterdam"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"amsterdam"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"amsterdam\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"boston" /"boston"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"boston"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"boston\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"los angeles" /"los angeles"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"los angeles"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"los angeles\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"new york" /"new york"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"new york"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"new york\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"paris" /"paris"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"paris"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"paris\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"rome" /"rome"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"rome"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"rome\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"san francisco" /"san francisco"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"san francisco"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"san francisco\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"seattle" /"seattle"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"seattle"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"seattle\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"washington dc" /"washington dc"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"washington dc"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"washington dc\x00"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-
       | filter      | id = '00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000'
(6 rows)

Because the id column is in the primary index, directly after the partition prefix (city), the optimal query is constrained by the partitioned values. This means the query scans each partition in parallel for the unique id value.

If you know the set of all possible partitioned values, adding a check constraint to the table's create statement can also improve performance. For example:

> ALTER TABLE users ADD CONSTRAINT check_city CHECK (city IN ('amsterdam','boston','los angeles','new york','paris','rome','san francisco','seattle','washington dc'));

> EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM users WHERE id='00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000';

  tree |    field    |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    description
+------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
       | distributed | false
       | vectorized  | false
  scan |             |
       | table       | users@primary
       | spans       | /"amsterdam"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"amsterdam"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"boston"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"boston"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"los angeles"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"los angeles"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"new york"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"new york"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"paris"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"paris"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"rome"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"rome"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"san francisco"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"san francisco"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"seattle"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"seattle"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/# /"washington dc"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"-/"washington dc"/"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"/#
       | parallel    |
(6 rows)

To see the performance improvement over a query that performs a full table scan, compare these queries to a query with a filter on a column that is not in the index.

Filter on a non-indexed column

Suppose that you want to query the users table for information about a specific user, but you only know the user's name.

> SELECT * FROM users WHERE name='Robert Murphy';

                   id                  |   city   |     name      |       address        | credit_card
+--------------------------------------+----------+---------------+----------------------+-------------+
  00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | new york | Robert Murphy | 99176 Anderson Mills | 8885705228
(1 row)

> EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM users WHERE name='Robert Murphy';

  tree |    field    |      description
+------+-------------+------------------------+
       | distributed | true
       | vectorized  | false
  scan |             |
       | table       | users@primary
       | spans       | ALL
       | filter      | name = 'Robert Murphy'
(6 rows)

The query returns the same result, but because name is not an indexed column, the query performs a full table scan that spans across all partition values.

Filter on a partitioned column

If you know which partition contains the data that you are querying, using a filter (e.g., a WHERE clause) on the column that is used for the partition can further improve performance by limiting the scan to the specific partition(s) that contain the data that you are querying.

Now suppose that you know the user's name and location. You can query the table with a filter on the user's name and city:

> EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM users WHERE name='Robert Murphy' AND city='new york';

  tree |    field    |            description
+------+-------------+-----------------------------------+
       | distributed | true
       | vectorized  | false
  scan |             |
       | table       | users@primary
       | spans       | /"new york"-/"new york"/PrefixEnd
       | filter      | name = 'Robert Murphy'
(6 rows)

The table returns the same results as before, but at a much lower cost, as the query scan now spans just the new york partition value.

Examples

Define table partitions by list

Consider a global online learning portal, RoachLearn, that has a database containing a table of students across the world. Suppose we have three availability zone: one in the United States, one in Germany, and another in Australia. To reduce latency, we want to keep the students' data closer to their locations:

We want to keep the data of the students located in the United States and Canada in the United States availability zone.
We want to keep the data of students located in Germany and Switzerland in the German availability zone.
We want to keep the data of students located in Australia and New Zealand in the Australian availability zone.

Step 1. Identify the partitioning method

We want to geo-partition the table to keep the students' data closer to their locations. We can achieve this by partitioning on country and using the PARTITION BY LIST syntax.

Step 2. Start each node with its availability zone location specified in the `--locality` flag

In separate terminal windows, start three nodes in the US availability zone:

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=us \
--listen-addr=localhost:26257 \
--http-addr=localhost:8080 \
--store=node1 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=us \
--listen-addr=localhost:26258 \
--http-addr=localhost:8081 \
--store=node2 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=us \
--listen-addr=localhost:26259 \
--http-addr=localhost:8082 \
--store=node3 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

In a new terminal window, initialize the cluster:
```
$ cockroach init \
--insecure \
--host=localhost:26257
```

In new terminal windows, start three more nodes in the German availability zone:

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=de \
--listen-addr=localhost:26260 \
--http-addr=localhost:8083 \
--store=node4 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=de \
--listen-addr=localhost:26261 \
--http-addr=localhost:8084 \
--store=node5 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=de \
--listen-addr=localhost:26262 \
--http-addr=localhost:8085 \
--store=node6 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

In separate terminal windows, start three nodes in the Australian availability zone:

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=aus \
--listen-addr=localhost:26263 \
--http-addr=localhost:8086 \
--store=node7 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=aus \
--listen-addr=localhost:26264 \
--http-addr=localhost:8087 \
--store=node8 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--listen-addr=localhost \
--locality=region=aus \
--listen-addr=localhost:26265 \
--http-addr=localhost:8088 \
--store=node9 \
--join=localhost:26257,localhost:26258,localhost:26259

Step 3. Request and set a trial Enterprise license

See Set the Trial or Enterprise License Key.

Step 4. Create the `roachlearn` database and `students` table

Open the CockroachDB SQL shell:
```
$ cockroach sql --insecure --host=localhost:26257
```
Create the database and set it as current:
```
> CREATE DATABASE roachlearn;
```
```
> SET DATABASE = roachlearn;
```

Create the table with the appropriate partitions:

> CREATE TABLE students (
    id INT DEFAULT unique_rowid(),
    name STRING,
    email STRING,
    country STRING,
    expected_graduation_date DATE,
    PRIMARY KEY (country, id))
    PARTITION BY LIST (country) (
      PARTITION north_america VALUES IN ('CA','US'),
      PARTITION europe VALUES IN ('DE', 'CH'),
      PARTITION australia VALUES IN ('AU','NZ'),
      PARTITION DEFAULT VALUES IN (default)
    );

Alternatively, you can create and partition the table as separate steps:

> CREATE TABLE students (
    id INT DEFAULT unique_rowid(),
    name STRING,
    email STRING,
    country STRING,
    expected_graduation_date DATE,
    PRIMARY KEY (country, id));

> ALTER TABLE students
  PARTITION BY LIST (country) (
    PARTITION north_america VALUES IN ('CA','US'),
    PARTITION europe VALUES IN ('DE', 'CH'),
    PARTITION australia VALUES IN ('AU','NZ'),
    PARTITION DEFAULT VALUES IN (default)
  );

Step 5. Create and apply corresponding replication zones

To create replication zone and apply them to corresponding partitions, use the ALTER PARTITION ... CONFIGURE ZONE statement:

Create a replication zone for the north_america partition and constrain its data to the US availability zone:
```
> ALTER PARTITION north_america OF TABLE students
    CONFIGURE ZONE USING constraints='[+region=us]';
```
Create a replication zone for the europe partition and constrain its data to the German availability zone:
```
> ALTER PARTITION europe OF TABLE students
    CONFIGURE ZONE USING constraints='[+region=de]';
```
Create a replication zone for the australia partition and constrain its data to the Australian availability zone:
```
> ALTER PARTITION australia OF TABLE students
    CONFIGURE ZONE USING constraints='[+region=aus]';
```

After creating these replication zones, you can view them using the SHOW ZONE CONFIGURATION statement:

> SHOW ZONE CONFIGURATION FROM PARTITION north_america OF TABLE students;

               target                   |                            raw_config_sql
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
PARTITION north_america OF TABLE students | ALTER PARTITION north_america OF TABLE students CONFIGURE ZONE USING
                                        |     range_min_bytes = 134217728,
                                        |     range_max_bytes = 536870912,
                                        |     gc.ttlseconds = 90000,
                                        |     num_replicas = 3,
                                        |     constraints = '[+region=us]',
                                        |     lease_preferences = '[]'
(1 row)

Step 6. Check replica distribution

> WITH x AS (SHOW RANGES FROM TABLE roachlearn.students) SELECT * FROM x WHERE "start_key" IS NOT NULL AND "start_key" NOT LIKE '%Prefix%';

You should see the following output:

  start_key |     end_key     | range_id | replicas | lease_holder
+-----------+-----------------+----------+----------+--------------+
  /"AU"     | /"AU"/PrefixEnd |       35 | {7,8,9}  |            8
  /"CA"     | /"CA"/PrefixEnd |       31 | {1,2,3}  |            1
  /"CH"     | /"CH"/PrefixEnd |       51 | {4,5,6}  |            5
  /"DE"     | /"DE"/PrefixEnd |       53 | {4,5,6}  |            5
  /"NZ"     | /"NZ"/PrefixEnd |       55 | {7,8,9}  |            8
  /"US"     | /"US"/PrefixEnd |       33 | {1,2,3}  |            1
(6 rows)

For reference, here's how the nodes map to zones:

Node IDs	Zone
1-3	`north_america`
4-6	`europe`
7-9	`australia`

We can see that, after partitioning, the replicas for US and CA-based students are located on nodes 1-3 in north_america, the replicas for DE and CH-based students are located on nodes 4-6 in europe, and the replicas for AU and NZ-based students are located on nodes 7-9 in australia.

Show partitions and zone constraints

To retrieve table partitions, you can use the SHOW PARTITIONS statement:

> SHOW PARTITIONS FROM TABLE students;

  database_name | table_name | partition_name | parent_partition | column_names |    index_name    | partition_value | zone_constraints
+---------------+------------+----------------+------------------+--------------+------------------+-----------------+------------------+
  roachlearn    | students   | north_america  | NULL             | country      | students@primary | ('CA'), ('US')  | [+region=us]
  roachlearn    | students   | europe         | NULL             | country      | students@primary | ('DE'), ('CH')  | [+region=de]
  roachlearn    | students   | australia      | NULL             | country      | students@primary | ('AU'), ('NZ')  | [+region=aus]
  roachlearn    | students   | default        | NULL             | country      | students@primary | (DEFAULT)       | NULL
(4 rows)

You can also view partitions by database and index.

Tip:

In testing, scripting, and other programmatic environments, we recommend querying the crdb_internal.partitions internal table for partition information instead of using the SHOW PARTITIONS statement. For more information, see Querying partitions programmatically.

Define table partitions by range

Suppose we want to store the data of current students on fast and expensive storage devices (e.g., SSD) and store the data of the graduated students on slower, cheaper storage devices (e.g., HDD).

Step 1. Identify the partitioning method

We want to archival-partition the table to keep newer data on faster devices and older data on slower devices. We can achieve this by partitioning the table by date and using the PARTITION BY RANGE syntax.

Step 2. Set the Enterprise license

To set the Enterprise license, see Set the Trial or Enterprise License Key.

Step 3. Start each node with the appropriate storage device specified in the `--store` flag

Start the first node:

$ cockroach start --insecure \
--store=path=/mnt/1,attrs=ssd \
--advertise-addr=<node1 hostname> \
--join=<node1 hostname>,<node2 hostname>

Start the second node:

$ cockroach start --insecure \
--store=path=/mnt/2,attrs=hdd \
--advertise-addr=<node2 hostname> \
--join=<node1 hostname>,<node2 hostname>

Initialize the cluster:
```
$ cockroach init \
--insecure \
--host=<address of any node>
```

Step 4. Create a table with the appropriate partitions

> CREATE TABLE students_by_range (
   id INT DEFAULT unique_rowid(),
   name STRING,
   email STRING,
   country STRING,
   expected_graduation_date DATE,
   PRIMARY KEY (expected_graduation_date, id))
   PARTITION BY RANGE (expected_graduation_date)
      (PARTITION graduated VALUES FROM (MINVALUE) TO ('2017-08-15'),
      PARTITION current VALUES FROM ('2017-08-15') TO (MAXVALUE));

Step 5. Create and apply corresponding zone configurations

To create zone configurations and apply them to corresponding partitions, use the ALTER PARTITION ... CONFIGURE ZONE statement:

> ALTER PARTITION current OF TABLE students_by_range
    CONFIGURE ZONE USING constraints='[+ssd]';

> ALTER PARTITION graduated OF TABLE students_by_range
    CONFIGURE ZONE USING constraints='[+hdd]';

Step 6. Check replica distribution

> SHOW RANGES FROM TABLE students_by_range;

You should see the following output:

  start_key | end_key | range_id | replicas | lease_holder | locality
+-----------+---------+----------+----------+--------------+-----------+
  NULL      | /17393  |       52 | {2,5,8}  |            5 | region=de
  /17393    | NULL    |       53 | {6,7,10} |            6 | region=de
(2 rows)

Define subpartitions on a table

A list partition can itself be partitioned, forming a subpartition. There is no limit on the number of levels of subpartitioning; that is, list partitions can be infinitely nested.

Note:

Range partitions cannot be subpartitioned.

Going back to RoachLearn's scenario, suppose we want to do all of the following:

Keep the students' data close to their location.
Store the current students' data on faster storage devices.
Store the graduated students' data on slower, cheaper storage devices (example: HDD).

Step 1. Identify the Partitioning method

We want to geo-partition as well as archival-partition the table. We can achieve this by partitioning the table first by location and then by date.

Step 2. Start each node with the appropriate storage device specified in the `--store` flag

Start a node in the US availability zone:

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--advertise-addr=<node1 hostname> \
--locality=az=us1 \
--store=path=/mnt/1,attrs=ssd \
--store=path=/mnt/2,attrs=hdd \
--join=<node1 hostname>,<node2 hostname>

Start a node in the AUS availability zone:

$ cockroach start \
--insecure \
--advertise-addr=<node2 hostname> \
--locality=az=aus1 \
--store=path=/mnt/3,attrs=ssd \
--store=path=/mnt/4,attrs=hdd \
--join=<node1 hostname>,<node2 hostname>

Initialize the cluster:

$ cockroach init --insecure --host=<address of any node>

Step 3. Set the Enterprise license

To set the Enterprise license, see Set the Trial or Enterprise License Key.

Step 4. Create a table with the appropriate partitions

> CREATE TABLE students (
    id INT DEFAULT unique_rowid(),
    name STRING,
    email STRING,
    country STRING,
    expected_graduation_date DATE,
    PRIMARY KEY (country, expected_graduation_date, id))
    PARTITION BY LIST (country)(
        PARTITION australia VALUES IN ('AU','NZ') PARTITION BY RANGE (expected_graduation_date)(PARTITION graduated_au VALUES FROM (MINVALUE) TO ('2017-08-15'), PARTITION current_au VALUES FROM ('2017-08-15') TO (MAXVALUE)),
        PARTITION north_america VALUES IN ('US','CA') PARTITION BY RANGE (expected_graduation_date)(PARTITION graduated_us VALUES FROM (MINVALUE) TO ('2017-08-15'), PARTITION current_us VALUES FROM ('2017-08-15') TO (MAXVALUE))
    );

Subpartition names must be unique within a table. In our example, even though graduated and current are sub-partitions of distinct partitions, they still need to be uniquely named. Hence the names graduated_au, graduated_us, and current_au and current_us.

Step 5. Create and apply corresponding zone configurations

To create zone configurations and apply them to corresponding partitions, use the ALTER PARTITION ... CONFIGURE ZONE statement:

> ALTER PARTITION current_us OF TABLE students
    CONFIGURE ZONE USING constraints='[+ssd,+az=us1]';

> ALTER PARTITION graduated_us OF TABLE students CONFIGURE ZONE
    USING constraints='[+hdd,+az=us1]';

> ALTER PARTITION current_au OF TABLE students
    CONFIGURE ZONE USING constraints='[+ssd,+az=aus1]';

> ALTER PARTITION graduated_au OF TABLE students CONFIGURE ZONE
    USING constraints='[+hdd,+az=aus1]';

Step 6. Verify table partitions

> SHOW RANGES FROM TABLE students;

You should see the following output:

+-----------------+-----------------+----------+----------+--------------+
| start_key       | end_key         | range_id | replicas | lease_holder |
+-----------------+-----------------+----------+----------+--------------+
| NULL            | /"AU"           |      260 | {1,2,3}  |            1 |
| /"AU"           | /"AU"/17393     |      268 | {1,2,3}  |            1 |
| /"AU"/17393     | /"AU"/PrefixEnd |      266 | {1,2,3}  |            1 |
| /"AU"/PrefixEnd | /"CA"           |      267 | {1,2,3}  |            1 |
| /"CA"           | /"CA"/17393     |      265 | {1,2,3}  |            1 |
| /"CA"/17393     | /"CA"/PrefixEnd |      261 | {1,2,3}  |            1 |
| /"CA"/PrefixEnd | /"NZ"           |      262 | {1,2,3}  |            3 |
| /"NZ"           | /"NZ"/17393     |      284 | {1,2,3}  |            3 |
| /"NZ"/17393     | /"NZ"/PrefixEnd |      282 | {1,2,3}  |            3 |
| /"NZ"/PrefixEnd | /"US"           |      283 | {1,2,3}  |            3 |
| /"US"           | /"US"/17393     |      281 | {1,2,3}  |            3 |
| /"US"/17393     | /"US"/PrefixEnd |      263 | {1,2,3}  |            1 |
| /"US"/PrefixEnd | NULL            |      264 | {1,2,3}  |            1 |
+-----------------+-----------------+----------+----------+--------------+
(13 rows)

Time: 11.586626ms

Repartition a table

Consider the partitioned table of students of RoachLearn. Suppose the table has been partitioned on range to store the current students on fast and expensive storage devices (example: SSD) and store the data of the graduated students on slower, cheaper storage devices(example: HDD). Now suppose we want to change the date after which the students will be considered current to 2018-08-15. We can achieve this by using the PARTITION BY subcommand of the ALTER TABLE command.

> ALTER TABLE students_by_range PARTITION BY RANGE (expected_graduation_date) (
    PARTITION graduated VALUES FROM (MINVALUE) TO ('2018-08-15'),
    PARTITION current VALUES FROM ('2018-08-15') TO (MAXVALUE));

Unpartition a table

You can remove the partitions on a table by using the PARTITION BY NOTHING syntax:

> ALTER TABLE students PARTITION BY NOTHING;

Show the replication zone for a partition

To view the replication zone for a partition, use the SHOW ZONE CONFIGURATION statement.

Locality–resilience tradeoff

There is a tradeoff between making reads/writes fast and surviving failures. Consider a partition with three replicas of roachlearn.students for Australian students.

If only one replica is pinned to an Australian availability zone, then reads may be fast (via leases follow the workload) but writes will be slow.
If two replicas are pinned to an Australian availability zone, then reads and writes will be fast (as long as the cross-ocean link has enough bandwidth that the third replica doesn’t fall behind). If those two replicas are in the same availability zone, then the loss of one availability zone can lead to data unavailability, so some deployments may want two separate Australian availability zones.
If all three replicas are in Australian availability zones, then three Australian availability zones are needed to be resilient to an availability zone loss.

How CockroachDB's partitioning differs from other databases

Other databases use partitioning for three additional use cases: secondary indexes, sharding, and bulk loading/deleting. CockroachDB addresses these use-cases not by using partitioning, but in the following ways:

Changes to secondary indexes: CockroachDB solves these changes through online schema changes. Online schema changes are a superior feature to partitioning because they require zero-downtime and eliminate the potential for consistency problems.
Sharding: CockroachDB automatically shards data as a part of its distributed database architecture.
Bulk Loading & Deleting: CockroachDB does not have a feature that supports this use case as of now.
Logical structure of partitions: CockroachDB uses the partitioning concept to allow users to logically subdivide a single physical table to enable independent configuration of those partitions using zone configurations. Other databases sometimes implement partitioning as the logical union of physically separate tables. This difference means that CockroachDB is able to permit inexpensive repartitioning in contrast to other databases. Consequently, CockroachDB is unable to provide the same bulk data deletion operations over table partitions that other databases achieve by physically dropping the underlying table represented by the partition.

Known limitations

When defining a table partition, either during table creation or table alteration, it is not possible to use placeholders in the PARTITION BY clause.
CockroachDB does not currently support dropping a single partition from a table. In order to remove partitions, you can repartition the table.

Table Partitioning

Why use table partitioning

How it works

Node attributes

Table creation

Partition by list

Partition by range

Partition using primary key

Primary key considerations

Partition using a secondary index

Partition using foreign key reference

Replication zones

Query partitions

Filter on an indexed column

Filter on a non-indexed column

Filter on a partitioned column

Examples

Define table partitions by list

Step 1. Identify the partitioning method

Step 2. Start each node with its availability zone location specified in the --locality flag

Step 3. Request and set a trial Enterprise license

Step 4. Create the roachlearn database and students table

Step 5. Create and apply corresponding replication zones

Step 6. Check replica distribution

Show partitions and zone constraints

Define table partitions by range

Step 1. Identify the partitioning method

Step 2. Set the Enterprise license

Step 3. Start each node with the appropriate storage device specified in the --store flag

Step 4. Create a table with the appropriate partitions

Step 5. Create and apply corresponding zone configurations

Step 6. Check replica distribution

Define subpartitions on a table

Step 1. Identify the Partitioning method

Step 2. Start each node with the appropriate storage device specified in the --store flag

Step 3. Set the Enterprise license

Step 4. Create a table with the appropriate partitions

Step 5. Create and apply corresponding zone configurations

Step 6. Verify table partitions

Repartition a table

Unpartition a table

Show the replication zone for a partition

Locality–resilience tradeoff

How CockroachDB's partitioning differs from other databases

Known limitations

See also

Step 2. Start each node with its availability zone location specified in the `--locality` flag

Step 4. Create the `roachlearn` database and `students` table

Step 3. Start each node with the appropriate storage device specified in the `--store` flag

Step 2. Start each node with the appropriate storage device specified in the `--store` flag