TeraTeam UK Teradata DBA Definition
term: Teradata Spool Space
Spool Space
Teradata Spool Space is unused Perm Space that it used for running queries.
Teradata recommend 20% of the available perm space is allocated for Spool space. In practice Terateam UK have found this to be unnecessarily large, though this may not be the case in all applications.
If the majority of cases, well written SQL queries should not use huge amounts of spool space. A poor choice of join column or product join (usually a result of poor coding or lack of statistics) is the usual culprit of excessive spool space consumption. Proper SQL Tuning training can help. Terateam UK can provide this service.
Each user can be set a spool space limit. In later versions of Teradata, this is often set in the users profile.
Running out of Spool Space will give the user an error code 2646.
If you would like to receive Terateam's Advice on common (and not so common) causes of Spool space errors, please use the contact form.
