Category: Columnstore

Monica Rathbun shows a scenario where creating a clustered columnstore index can make data retrieval much faster:

Using AdventureworksDW2016CTP3 we will work with the FactResellerSalesXL table which has 11.6 million rows in it. The simple query we will use as a demo just selects the ProductKey and returns some aggregations grouping them by the different product keys.

First, we will run the query with no existing columnstore index and only using the current clustered rowstore (normal) index. Note that I turned on SET STATISTICS IO and TIME on. These two SET statements will help us better illustrate the improvements provided by the columnstore index. SET STATISTICS IO displays statistics on the amount of page activity generated by the query. It gives you important details such as page logical reads, physical reads, scans, and lob reads both physical and logical. SET STATISTICS TIME displays the amount of time needed to parse, compile, and execute each statement in the query. The output shows the time in milliseconds for each operation to complete. This allows you to really see, in numbers, the differences.

Click through for the example.

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Monica Rathbun takes us through concepts behind columnstore indexes:

Now, I admit when these first were introduced in SQL Server 2012 I found them very intimidating (additionally, you couldn’t update them directly). For me, anytime you say columnstore, my mind tends to set off alarms saying wait stay away, this is too complicated. So, in this post I am going to try and simplify the feature for you.

To do that first you need to understand some terminology and the difference between a columnstore index and a row store index (the normal kind we all use). Let’s start with the terminology.

There are some interesting complications around columnstore indexes but for analytical or warehousing queries, they’re excellent.

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Joe Obbish takes a deep look at a clustered columnstore index insertion scenario:

Why should we care about memory grant timeouts for CCI insert queries? Simply put, lots of bad things can happen when those queries can time out, both for serial and for parallel inserts. For serial insert queries, I’ve observed deadlocks, extremely poor performance along with long SLEEP_TASK waits, and extremely long rollbacks. For parallel insert queries, I’ve observed queries that run seemingly forever, poor performance of the SELECT part, and error 8645. You probably don’t want any of that occurring in production. It would be very helpful if it was possible to extend the 25 second time-out for queries that insert into columnstore tables.

Read through as Joe learns the true meaning of Christmas a KB article.

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Joe Obbish shows how you can recreate the error described in KB 4462481:

Consider a query execution that meets all of the following criteria:

1. A parallel INSERT INTO… SELECT into a columnstore table is performed

2. The SELECT part of the query contains a batch mode hash join

3. The query can’t immediate get a memory grant, hits the 25 second memory grant timeout and executes with required memory

The query may appear to get stuck. 

Click through for Joe’s demo. The fix? Update to SQL Server 2017 CU11.

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Kevin Chant has a post covering issues in his experience with the creation of columnstore indexes:

Error due to online statement

It’s a very common error caused usually by somebody copying a rowstore “Create Index” command. The “online=on” option you use with rowstore indexes does not work with creating columnstore indexes yet. For the record the online option will work in SQL Server 2019.

This one I’ve run into, as I like clustered columnstore indexes a lot but occasionally need single-row results from them.  If the table is empty, creating an index offline is no problem.  But once you get a billion or so rows in it, that’s a non-starter in a 24×7 uptime shop.  Read the whole thing.

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