As we saw in Chapter 8, Query Performance Tuning, partitioning a measure group simply involves slicing it up into smaller chunks that are both easier to maintain and to query. In that chapter, we introduced and explained the basic concepts of partitioning; now, we are interested in how to manage partitions when the cube is up and running.

Measure groups are usually partitioned by the Time dimension, for example, with one partition holding one month of data. Although, there are rare cases where we might want to partition a measure group based on a different dimension (for example, Geography is sometimes used), the vast majority of projects we have worked on use Time as the slicer. This follows on from the fact that new data usually needs to be loaded into the measure group at regular intervals in time, and this new data needs to be processed and stored alongside the existing data.

Clearly, since partitioning is so closely linked to the concept of time, we need to be able...