Kbase P91321: What is the best way to delete a field from a large table in 8.x
| Autor |
Progress Software Corporation - Progress |
| Acesso |
Público |
| Publicação |
9/23/2004 |
|
Status: Unverified
GOAL:
What is the best way to delete a field from a large table in 8.3x
FIX:
If the table is large and the data contained within the field is large it will be best to spread the work into multiple steps.
1) Shutdown the database if it is being served.
2) Backup the database to a new backup file/device
3) Truncate the BI file
4) Connect to the database in single user mode with the -i startup parameter.
NOTE: If the database crashes for any reason after this point you must
restore from backup since we will be using the -i parameter to reduce the
number of notes to the BI file.
5) If the field is a text field then programmatically assign the smallest value possible to the field, i.e. "", in reasonable batches of records.
Do not process the entire table as one transaction or the size of the BI may exceed the version 8.x limit of 2 Gig for the BI file.
6) Backup the database to a new backup file/device
7) Connect in single user mode with the -i startup parameter (to reduce the number of bi notes).
8) Use the Data Dictionary to remove the field which has been emptied in the above mentioned manner.
9) If there are no problems with the removal of the field at this point backup the database and if necessary restart the client or server WITHOUT the -i startup parameter.