Performance tips for importing data

Importing large volumes of data can be time consuming. To save time you can:

  • Place data files on a separate physical disk drive from the database. This could avoid excessive disk head movement during the load.

  • Extend the size of the database. The ALTER DBSPACE statement allows a database to be extended in large amounts before the space is required, rather than in smaller amounts when the space is needed. It also improves performance when loading large amounts of data, and keeps the database more contiguous within the file system.

  • Use temporary tables to load data. Local or global temporary tables are useful when you need to load a set of data repeatedly, or when you need to merge tables with different structures.

  • Start the database server without the -b option (bulk operations mode) when using the LOAD TABLE statement.

  • Run Interactive SQL or the client application on the same computer as the database server if you are using the INPUT or OUTPUT statement. Loading data over the network adds extra communication overhead. You may want to load new data at a time when the database server is not busy.

 See also