Filegroups Question (SQL Server)

Hopefully there is someone out there than can answer this for me...

Can someone explain why you would ever want to use more than one user-defined filegroup? I understand that primary data files are used to hold user data, startup info, and points to other database files, and how secondary data files hold objects and can/should be placed on separate physical drives for a boost in performance.

With that said, why not just place all secondary data files within a single filegroup? I just don't understand how using multiple filegroups to hold secondary data files would be of any real use, especially since data files within the same filegroup can be on different physical drives.

This is just one of those topics that I can't wrap my head around.

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BeaverC32

*Bump*

I understand that SQL is an area that is less popular than other sections of the forum. Anybody here work as a DBA or have similar experience with SQL? Anybody else studying for 70-431?

sinistamunkey

If it makes you feel any better... I am confused on that as well

The only possible thing I can think of for more file groups is either for partitioning purposes or maybe if you have a set of tables that get an extra-ordinary amount of use.

These are just newbie guesses though as I'm only up to the XML part

BeaverC32

Thanks for the reply...

One thing I learned is that multiple filegroups are especially useful in very large databases. By having multiple filegroups, you can backup the filegroups on separate days rather than needing to complete the entire backup throughout a single maintenance window.