SQL SERVER 2012 ColumnStore Index

Question

When we create a columnstore index on a huge table,does it use a separate physical storage on disk to store the coulmn store index or it changes the storage structure of the base table from row-stoarge to column store.

Here my question is, when we create normal index on any table, it store sthe indexed column data into a b-tree using separate storage without affecting base table,the same way columnstore index does?

Answer 1

Only nonclusterd columnstore indexes are supported in SQL Server 2012 so the table itself will not be reorganized.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg492153.aspx

NONCLUSTERED

Creates a columnstore index that specifies the logical ordering of a table. Clustered columnstore indexes are not supported.

Answer 2

Indexes (with the exception of the clustered index which is the table its self) are stored in separate locations, they can have their own packing (space allowed for futher inserts without the tree becoming too unbalanced) and even be stored on separate drives: CREATE INDEX ....ON PRIMARY, SECONDARY etc. You have to create the SECONDARY and further files before creating the index and allocating to the File. Indexes are allocated to the logical file name. You can reduce costs and increase speed by having these as single rather than RAID drives, as in case of failure the index can be rebuilt without data loss. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188783.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg492088.aspx