Large delete

Hi guys! We're using IDS 7.31.FD3 on Sparc Solaris 8 (32-bit). Database design has no foreign keys. All tables are nonfragmented, with dbspace scattered over multiple disks. Indexes are in separate dbspace. Note that upgrade is not an option here. My task is to delete old invoices and related tables. In order to accomplish this job, I was given identical server with up-to-date restore of production database to test various strategies. The problem is: invoice table has 22,500,000 records; invoice lines are in two separate tables first having 95,500,000 records and second having 31,750,000 records; both invoice lines tables are connected (in application) to general ledger through a separate table having 177,000,000 records. I have managed to delete invoices using fragmentation and detaching appropriate fragment. Other tables are giving me a headache. Our system is *not* 24/7 but rather 24/5 (I have two days over weekend to do the job). Invoice lines tables are too big to do an unload (resulting file exceeds 2 GB limit). I interrupted DELETE statement on invoice lines table after running it for more than 40 hours. I haven't tested the following scenario: establish foreign keys relationships with on delete cascade option between invoice and all other tables, fragment invoice table to contain to-be-deleted records in separate fragment and detach that fragment. ========= QUESTION: ========= Does anybody knows, what will happen to subordinate tables having foreign key constraints when fragment on invoice table will be detached? Any other ideas are greatly appreciated! Gorazd

> ========= > QUESTION: > ========= > Does anybody knows, what will happen to subordinate tables having foreign > key constraints when fragment on invoice table will be detached? Found the answer: Error -784 is given: -784 Cannot detach because of the existing referential constraints. Existing referential constraints do not allow you to perform a detach. You must drop the referential constraints before you perform the detach on the dbspace or table. :(