| title | Elastic Database Tools Glossary | |
|---|---|---|
| description | Explanation of terms used for elastic database tools | |
| author | WilliamDAssafMSFT | |
| ms.author | wiassaf | |
| ms.reviewer | bgavrilovic, mathoma | |
| ms.date | 06/13/2025 | |
| ms.service | azure-sql-database | |
| ms.subservice | scale-out | |
| ms.topic | glossary | |
| ms.custom |
|
|
| monikerRange | =azuresql || =azuresql-db |
[!INCLUDEappliesto-sqldb]
The following terms are defined for the Scale out with Azure SQL Database. The tools are used to manage shard maps, and include the client library, the split-merge tool, elastic pools, and queries.
These terms are used in Adding a shard using Elastic Database tools and Using the RecoveryManager class to fix shard map problems.
:::image type="content" source="media/elastic-scale-glossary/glossary.png" alt-text="Diagram of Elastic Scale terms." lightbox="media/elastic-scale-glossary/glossary.png":::
Database: A database in Azure SQL Database.
Data dependent routing: The functionality that enables an application to connect to a shard given a specific sharding key. See Use data-dependent routing to route a query to an appropriate database. Compare to Multi-shard querying using elastic database tools.
Global shard map: The map between sharding keys and their respective shards within a shard set. The global shard map is stored in the shard map manager. Compare to local shard map.
List shard map: A shard map in which sharding keys are mapped individually. Compare to Range Shard Map.
Local shard map: Stored on a shard, the local shard map contains mappings for the shardlets that reside on the shard.
Multi-shard query: The ability to issue a query against multiple shards; results sets are returned using UNION ALL semantics (also known as "fan-out query"). Compare to data dependent routing.
Multi-tenant and Single-tenant: This shows a single-tenant database and a multi-tenant database:
:::image type="content" source="media/elastic-scale-glossary/multi-single-simple.png" alt-text="Diagram that shows a single-tenant database and a multi-tenant database.":::
Here is a representation of sharded single and multi-tenant databases.
:::image type="content" source="media/elastic-scale-glossary/shards-single-multi.png" alt-text="Diagram of Single and multi-tenant databases.":::
Range shard map: A shard map in which the shard distribution strategy is based on multiple ranges of contiguous values.
Reference tables: Tables that are not sharded but are replicated across shards. For example, zip codes can be stored in a reference table.
Shard: A database in Azure SQL Database that stores data from a sharded data set.
Shard elasticity: The ability to perform both horizontal scaling and vertical scaling.
Sharded tables: Tables that are sharded, i.e., whose data is distributed across shards based on their sharding key values.
Sharding key: A column value that determines how data is distributed across shards. The value type can be one of the following: int, bigint, varbinary, or uniqueidentifier.
Shard set: The collection of shards that are attributed to the same shard map in the shard map manager.
Shardlet: All of the data associated with a single value of a sharding key on a shard. A shardlet is the smallest unit of data movement possible when redistributing sharded tables.
Shard map: The set of mappings between sharding keys and their respective shards.
Shard map manager: A management object and data store that contains the shard map(s), shard locations, and mappings for one or more shard sets.
:::image type="content" source="media/elastic-scale-glossary/mappings.png" alt-text="Diagram shows a shard map manager associated with shardmaps_global, shards_global, and shard_mappings_global." lightbox="media/elastic-scale-glossary/mappings.png":::
Horizontal scaling: The act of scaling out (or in) a collection of shards by adding or removing shards to a shard map, as shown below.
:::image type="content" source="media/elastic-scale-glossary/h-versus-vert.png" alt-text="Diagram of horizontal and vertical scaling." lightbox="media/elastic-scale-glossary/h-versus-vert.png":::
Merge: The act of moving shardlets from two shards to one shard and updating the shard map accordingly.
Shardlet move: The act of moving a single shardlet to a different shard.
Shard: The act of horizontally partitioning identically structured data across multiple databases based on a sharding key.
Split: The act of moving several shardlets from one shard to another (typically new) shard. A sharding key is provided by the user as the split point.
Vertical Scaling: The act of scaling up (or down) the compute size of an individual shard. For example, changing a shard from Standard to Premium (which results in more computing resources).
[!INCLUDE elastic-scale-include]