I have a table named dbo.messages. We are expecting a lot of data in this table. To keep things to a reasonable level we are looking at a weekly partitioning on that table. What I would like to do is take the oldest weekly partition, once a week, and switch it out. I have it set up that a each week will be on its own file/filegroup. This in itself isn't a big deal.
What I'd then like to do is take that switched out table, and switch it into an Archive copy of the table. Do I need a separate partition function and scheme for the archive table? Are there any gotchas with this?
Best Answer
I was able to figure it out on my own. If you switch out from a partitioned table to a file group, you can then switch that table into a partitioned table with another partition scheme.
Here's my proof of concept: