sql-lover (10/2/2012)
ScottPletcher (10/2/2012)
Maybe I'm missing something.Why not just ALTER the column to be a bigint instead of an int?
NO way! Because downtime! Why do you think that I am taking all those extra measures or steps? The table has over 1 billion records? 😎
I did not design this table / database, I am the new DBA. It is my responsibility to take care of the system though, that's what I am doing.
I pretty much know what I need to do. I was just asking to validate the overall steps.
The database is a MC one. I can't touch it! Plus is a very old hardware with serious IO bottleneck. Any activity on that table will make the table useless and trigger a downtime.
Yes, I read the 1B rows.
Do you really think that with adequate freespace in each block to begin with, it will be faster to insert the rows twice than to change the length of one column?? I don't see how that's even remotely possible.
SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) A socialist is someone who will give you the shirt off *someone else's* back.