Marius.D (1/23/2013)
For some reason, I thought you need the full space of the table only with ONLINE=ON. It didn't use that much on the test system.
Smaller table on the test server? A build or rebuild of an index needs the full size of that index as free space, more if sort in tempDB is not on
Looks like I will have to shrink the mdf if I want to create that clustered index..
Err... so you want to reduce the free space in the database because the index build is running out of space? A little counter-productive perhaps...
That's like saying that 6 litres of water doesn't fit into a 5 litre bucket, so use a 4 litre bucket instead.
If some operation runs out of space, you need to grow the file, increase the free space in the file, not shrink it and remove all the free space.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability