This article applies to:

• Trustwave MailMarshal (SEG) 6.9 and above

Question:

• What are the advantages and limitation of database partitioning?

Information:

Trustwave SEG 8.2 and above can use Index Partitioning when the database is hosted on Azure SQL Server.

SEG/MailMarshal SMTP 6.9 and above can use Index Partitioning when the database is hosted on SQL Server Enterprise Edition.

When the SEG Database is created on a supported platform, you will be asked if you wish to use partitioning.

A new partition is used every two days. SEG creates partitions in advance to ensure that they are available when required.

Advantages of Partitioning:

Partitioned indexes deliver significant performance improvements (up to an order of magnitude) in large SEG installations.

One specific symptom that will be fixed by partitioning is the issue of slow purging of records.

Trustwave recommends you use partitioning if any of these conditions apply:

• SEG is processing email for more than 20000 users
• Server memory is constrained
• Other large databases are hosted on the same server

Disadvantages of Partitioning:

• When partitioning is enabled, the maximum data retention is limited to 5 years (for both message history and archive/quarantine folders). This limitation is due to the number of available index partitions.
  • Caution: This limit is not enforced in the Configurator or Management Console when you set the retention period for reporting data.
  • If the retention limit is exceeded, the expected behavior is that the database will gracefully revert to non-partitioned indexes. However, Trustwave has not tested all possible scenarios and cannot guarantee this behavior in customer installations.
• Once index partitioning is enabled, you must host the database on a supported platform. You cannot restore a backup to a SQL Standard installation.

Notes:

See also Trustwave Knowledgebase article Q13999, Database partitioning delayed