Data durability concerns

Now that we have a better understanding of how data moves inside a memory-optimized table, we need to also dive a little deeper into the durability of memory-optimized tables. Earlier in the chapter, we saw that we can choose between SCHEMA_AND_DATA or SCHEMA_ONLY for durability of these objects. The succinct description for SCHEMA_ONLY durability is that any data (or changes) inside a memory-optimized table that has SCHEMA_ONLY durability, will be lost when the server restarts. The reason for the server restart is irrelevant; when the server is brought back online, the table (and any associated indexes) is recreated and will be empty.

The SCHEMA_AND_DATA option informs SQL Server that you wish the data inside the memory-optimized table to be permanently stored on non-volatile storage. This will ensure that the data is available even after a server restart. This initially sounds like it would be a problem for a high-performance data processing system, especially when...