====== Shard ======
[[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:start| Return to Glossary ]]

A **Shard** is a horizontal partition of data in a database or search engine. Each shard is held on a separate database server instance, to spread load.

Some data within a database remains present in all shards, but some appears only in a single shard. Each shard (or server) acts as the single source for this subset of data.

Source: [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shard_(database_architecture)#cite_note-2 ]]


/**=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
/* To add a discussion page to this page, comment out the line that says 
  ~~DISCUSSION:off~~
*/
~~DISCUSSION:on|Outstanding Issues~~
~~DISCUSSION:off~~