load database clearing pages message

[neal_stack2]

Hello,

I have two questions about the "clearing pages" message that shows up sometimes when issuing the "load database" command:

All dumped pages have been loaded. ASE is now clearing pages above page 98568704, which were not present in the database just loaded.

Processed 46204 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 166578176). 10% completed.

Processed 92408 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 116306944). 20% completed.

Processed 138612 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 121240832). 30% completed.

Processed 184816 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 181361664). 40% completed.

Processed 231019 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 133073408). 50% completed.

Processed 277223 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 138990336). 60% completed.

Processed 323427 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 199093760). 70% completed.

Processed 369631 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 150833152). 80% completed.

Processed 415835 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 210908160). 90% completed.

Processed 462038 allocation unit(s) out of 462038 units (allocation page 216850176). 100% completed.

ASE has finished clearing database pages.

1) What triggers this action?  I'm trying to reproduce this behavior and can't seem to find the combination that triggers it.

2) What is actually happening when ASE is "clearing pages"?  Is it writing zeros?

Thanks,

Neal

[former_member188958 · Accepted solution]

Hi Neal,

1) I believe you get this when you are loading a dump into a destination database that is larger than the source database was when it was dumped.

2) writing out page headers and zeroing the body of the pages.

[neal_stack2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Bret,

Quick question on this. Is there a trace flag that would allow ASE to skip this "clearing pages" step?

Thanks again!

[jayrijnbergen · Accepted solution]

you can't skip clearing the pages

though it would be interesting if there would be a way to do the clearing asynchronously like the way it's possible for create / alter database (option async_init)