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Rebuild Index Task (Maintenance Plan)

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server

Use the Rebuild Index Task dialog to re-create the indexes on the tables in the database with a new fill factor. The fill factor determines the amount of empty space on each page in the index, to accommodate future expansion. As data is added to the table, the free space fills because the fill factor isn't maintained. Reorganizing data and index pages can re-establish the free space.

The Rebuild Index Task uses the ALTER INDEX statement. For more info about the options described on this page, see ALTER INDEX (Transact-SQL).

Options

  • Connection

    Select the server connection to use when performing this task.

  • New

    Create a new server connection to use when performing this task. The New Connection dialog box is described below.

  • Databases

    Specify the databases affected by this task.

    • All databases

      Generate a maintenance plan that runs maintenance tasks against all SQL Server databases except tempdb.

    • All system databases

      Generate a maintenance plan that runs maintenance tasks against each of the SQL Server system databases except tempdb. No maintenance tasks are run against user-created databases.

    • All user databases

      Generate a maintenance plan that runs maintenance tasks against all user-created databases. No maintenance tasks are run against the SQL Server system databases.

    • These specific databases

      Generate a maintenance plan that runs maintenance tasks against only those databases that are selected. At least one database in the list must be selected if this option is chosen.

      Note

      Maintenance plans only run against databases set to compatibility level 80 or higher. Databases set to compatibility level 70 or lower are not displayed.

  • Object

    Limit the Selection grid to display tables, views, or both.

  • Selection

    Specify the tables or indexes affected by this task. Not available when Tables and Views is selected in the Object box.

  • Default free space per page

    Drop the indexes on the tables in the database and re-create them with the fill factor that was specified when the indexes were created.

  • Change free space per page to

    Drop the indexes on the tables in the database and re-create them with a new, automatically calculated fill factor, thereby reserving the specified amount of free space on the index pages. The higher the percentage, the more free space is reserved on the index pages, and the larger the index grows. Valid values are from 0 through 100.

  • Sort results in tempdb

    Use the SORT_IN_TEMPDB option, which determines where the intermediate sort results, generated during index creation, are temporarily stored. If a sort operation isn't required, or if the sort can be performed in memory, the SORT_IN_TEMPDBoption is ignored.

  • Pad index

    Specify index padding

  • Keep index online

    Use the ONLINE option, which allows users to access the underlying table or clustered index data and any associated nonclustered indexes during index operations.

    Note

    Online index operations are not available in every edition of Microsoft SQL Server. For a list of features that are supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022.

  • Do not rebuild indexes | Rebuild indexes offline

    Specify what to do for index types that can't be rebuilt while they are online.

  • MAXDOP

    Specify a value to limit the number of processors used in a parallel plan execution.

  • Low Priority Used

    Select this option to wait for low priority locks.

  • Abort after Wait

    Specify what to do after the time specified by Max Duration has elapsed.

  • Max Duration

    Specify how long to wait for low priority locks.

  • View T-SQL

    View the Transact-SQL statements performed against the server for this task, based on the selected options.

    Note

    When the number of objects affected is large, this display can take a considerable amount of time.

Index stats options

In earlier versions of Microsoft SQL Server it could cause system slowdown to reorganize or rebuild a large index. SQL Server 2016 (13.x) implemented major performance improvements for these index operations.

Also, in earlier versions the granularity of control was less refined. This caused the system to reorganize or rebuild some indexes even when the indexes weren't much fragmented, which was wasteful. Newer controls on the Maintenance Plan user interface (UI) enable you to exclude indexes that don't need to be refreshed, based on index statistics criteria. For this, the following dynamic management views (DMVs) of Transact-SQL are used internally:

Scan type

The system must consume resources to gather index statistics. You can choose between consuming relatively less or more resources depending on how much precision you feel is needed for index statistics. The UI offers the following list of precision levels from which you must choose one:

  • Fast
  • Sampled
  • Detailed

Optimize index only if

The UI offers the following tuneable filters that you can use to avoid refreshing indexes that don't yet strongly need refreshing:

  • Fragmentation > (%)
  • Page Count >
  • Used in last (days)

New Connection dialog box

  • Connection name

    Enter a name for the new connection.

  • Select or enter a server name

    Select a server to connect to when performing this task.

  • Refresh

    Refresh the list of available servers.

  • Enter information to log on to the server

    Specify how to authenticate against the server.

  • Use Windows integrated security

    Connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine with Microsoft Windows Authentication.

  • Use a specific user name and password

    Connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine using SQL Server Authentication. This option isn't available.

  • User name

    Provide a SQL Server login to use when authenticating. This option isn't available.

  • Password

    Provide a password to use when authenticating. This option isn't available.

See also