Number and size of storage areas

An OpenEdge database supports a maximum of 32,000 storage areas, including 31,994 application data storage areas. Storage areas are identified by their names. The table below describes the area types.

CAUTION: The schema area can only be a Type I storage area, and is not recommended for data storage.
Table 1. Storage area types
Reserved area name Contents File extension
Control Physical Database Structure .db
Primary Recovery Recovery Log Data .bn
Transaction Log Two-phase Commit Transaction Log .tn
After Image After-image Log Data .an
Schema Schema Data .dn
– Application Data .dn

The maximum size of a Type II storage area is fixed at approximately one petabyte when large files are enabled. A maximum of 1024 extents per area and a maximum size of one terabyte per extent, yield the maximum area size calculated as:

Maximum area size = maximum-number-of-extents-per-area * maximum-extent-size
                  =               1024              *       1TB
                  =               210                *       240
                  = 250 bytes
                  = 1PB

The maximum number of records per area is calculated with the following equation:

Maximum records per area = Maximum area size * records-per-block / block size

The table below lists the approximate theoretical maximum number of rows per Type II storage area, based on this calculation.

Note: The number of records per area is governed by the maximum area size rather than the addressable rows. Also take note of the reserved area recovery sizes detailed in Table 1.
Table 2. Maximum rows per Type II storage area (approximate)
Database block size Records per block Records per area Approximate maximum records per area (in M)1
8192 bytes(8K) 1 237 137,439 M
2 238 274,878 M
4 239 549,756 M
8 240 1,099,512 M
16 241 2,199,024 M
32 242 4,398,048 M
64 (default) 243 8,796,096 M
128 244 17,592,192 M
256 245 35,184,384 M
4096 bytes (4K) 1 238 274,878 M
2 239 549,756 M
4 240 1,099,512 M
8 241 2,199,024 M
16 242 4,398,048 M
32 (default) 243 8,796,096 M
64 244 17,592,192 M
128 245 35,184,384 M
256 246 70,368,768 M
2048 bytes (2K) 1 239 549,756 M
2 240 1,099,512 M
4 241 2,199,024 M
8 242 4,398,048 M
16 243 8,796,096 M
32 (default) 244 17,592,192 M
64 245 35,184,384 M
128 246 70,368,768 M
256 247 140,737,536 M
1024 bytes (1K) 1 240 1,099,512 M
2 241 2,199,024 M
4 242 4,398,048 M
8 243 8,796,096 M
16 244 17,592,192 M
32 (default) 245 35,184,384 M
64 246 70,368,768 M
128 247 140,737,536 M
256 248 281,475,072 M

The table below lists the maximum blocks per area and area size for Type I areas when large files are enabled.

Note: Unlike Type II storage areas that are governed by a fixed maximum area size, Type I storage area are governed by addressability of 32-bit database keys. Also take note of the reserved area recovery sizes detailed in Table 1.
Table 3. Type I storage area maximums
Block size Records per block Maximum blocks per area Maximum area size
8192 bytes(8K) 1 2,147,483,647 16TB
2 1,073,741,823 8TB
4 536,870,911 4TB
8 268,435,455 2TB
16 134,217,727 1TB
32 67,108,863 512GB
64 (default) 33,554,431 256GB
128 16,777,215 128GB
256 8,388,607 64GB
4096 bytes(4K) 1 2,147,483,647 8TB
2 1,073,741,823 4TB
4 536,870,911 2TB
8 268,435,455 1TB
16 134,217,727 512GB
32 (default) 67,108,863 256GB
64 33,554,431 128GB
128 16,777,215 64GB
256 8,388,607 32GB
2048 bytes(2K) 1 2,147,483,647 4TB
2 1,073,741,823 2TB
4 53,687,0911 1TB
8 268,435,455 512GB
16 134,217,727 256GB
32 (default) 67,108,863 128GB
64 33,554,431 64GB
128 16,777,215 32GB
256 8,388,607 16GB
1024 bytes(1K) 1 2,147,483,647 2TB
2 1,073,741,823 1TB
4 536,870,911 512GB
8 268,435,455 256GB
16 134,217,727 128GB
32 (default) 67,108,863 64GB
64 33,554,431 32GB
128 16,777,215 16GB
256 8,388,607 8GB
1 1 M = 1 million or 1,000,000