13.6. Best practice considerations: index design and maintenance
Poor index design and maintenance strategies are a significant contributor to reduced database performance. Classic index-related problems include too many indexes, high fragmentation levels, and missing indexes. Fortunately, SQL Server includes a number of tools and processes for improving index design and maintenance.
With the possible exception of small temporary tables, or those used for insert activity only, all tables should be created with a physical order, achieved through the use of a clustered index. Clustered tables enable fragmentation to be controlled without user outage and enable fast lookups when querying on the clustered key(s).
Given that the clustered index key ...
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