Data Partitioning (SQL Server 2005)

Hi,
Assuming that I have partitioned my Orders table based on OrderDate column
on 4 disks (each quarter on separate disk), do I need 4 processors for real
parallelism?
I mean if a query needs the orders of 3 quarters, will 3 disks prepare the
resultset in parallel by having one CPU, or necessarily I must have one a
separate CPU for each disk?
Thanks in advance,
Leila"Leila" <Leilas@.hotpop.com> wrote in message
news:#kFBVxrVHHA.1200@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> Assuming that I have partitioned my Orders table based on OrderDate column
> on 4 disks (each quarter on separate disk), do I need 4 processors for
> real parallelism?
> I mean if a query needs the orders of 3 quarters, will 3 disks prepare the
> resultset in parallel by having one CPU, or necessarily I must have one a
> separate CPU for each disk?
Only computers that have more than one CPU can use parallel queries.
Degree of Parallelism
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188611.aspx
However there's no rule that you have to put each partition on its own disk.
Instead you could store all or some of your partitions on a filegroup that
spans all the disks. Then every query will use all the disks evenly.
David