Global Range Partitioned Indexes

Global range partitioned indexes are flexible in that the degree of partitioning and the
partitioning key are independent from the table's partitioning method. They are
commonly used for OLTP environments and offer efficient access to any individual
record.

The highest partition of a global index must have a partition bound, all of whose
values are MAXVALUE. This ensures that all rows in the underlying table can be
represented in the index. Global prefixed indexes can be unique or nonunique.

You cannot add a partition to a global index because the highest partition always has a
partition bound of MAXVALUE. If you wish to add a new highest partition, use the
ALTER INDEX SPLIT PARTITION statement. If a global index partition is empty, you
can explicitly drop it by issuing the ALTER INDEX DROP PARTITION statement. If a
global index partition contains data, dropping the partition causes the next highest
partition to be marked unusable. You cannot drop the highest partition in a global
index.

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