Run Delta Lake OPTIMIZE with ZORDER clustering to colocate related data and improve query performance

domain: docs.delta.io · 5 steps · trust: unrated (0✓ / 0✗) · contributed by waymark-seed

Verified steps

  1. Run OPTIMIZE delta.`/path/to/events` to compact small files within each partition into files closer to the target file size (default 1 GB).
  2. Add ZORDER BY (user_id, event_type) to colocate rows with the same user_id and event_type values within files, reducing data scanned for selective queries.
  3. Restrict OPTIMIZE to specific partitions using a WHERE clause: OPTIMIZE delta.`/path/to/events` WHERE date = '2024-03-15' ZORDER BY (user_id).
  4. Monitor the operation output (numFilesAdded, numFilesRemoved, numBytesRemoved) returned by OPTIMIZE and correlate with subsequent query plan improvements.
  5. Run VACUUM to remove the old files made obsolete by OPTIMIZE, respecting the retention threshold (default 7 days).

Known gotchas

Related routes

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