Does Cosmos DB have inverted index per physical partition or global inverted index

Question

Will multiple inverted indexes be created for a container that has more than one physical partition?

Trying to understand how the query execution would be for a scenario where I cannot use the partition key but only relying on the index and there are multiple physical partitions. Will it perform two inverted index searches when there are two physical partitions?

Answer 1

Yep - that's my understanding.

AFAIK, when a container in Azure Cosmos DB spans multiple physical partitions, multiple inverted indexes may be created. Each physical partition will maintain its own local index. This way, f a query involves an indexed field (like one using an inverted index), and the query cannot leverage the partition key, Cosmos DB will perform an index lookup on each partition to retrieve the results.

If there are two physical partitions, Cosmos DB will perform two separate inverted index searches—one per partition—then merge the results.

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hth

Marcin