clustered index table updates question - please help


i have a table that has no index on a date column and a regular index
on
a customer_id column. the customer_id will be somewhat volatile, lots
of updates and
and deletes on this table. this is the design i inherited and i need a
little advice.

table (pertinent columns shown here for brevity)
orderqueue (id int identity primary key, customer_id int, queuedate
datetime not null default getdate())

clustered index on queuedate (new index i was going to add)
non clustered index on customer_id

queries being issued

select * from orderqueue where customer_id is null order by queuedate
insert into orderqueue (customer_id) values (null)
update orderqueue set customer_id = @customer_id where customer_id is
null
delete from orderqueue where customer_id = @customer_id

the updates/deletes will be about 2:1 to selects. i didn't want to
cluster on customer_id/queuedate because i was afraid of blocking on
the updates to the cluster index page.

questions

what is the effect on a cluster index when a non-clustered index is
updated?

looking at query plan, if the majority of the time is being spent by an
update
in actual updating of the cluster index data page, is that "good"? one
test
i ran showed about 35% of the time seeking rows and 65% of the time
doing
a "Clustered Index Update/Update".

any help is appreciated

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Clustered Indexes
    ... That is due to the fact that MemberID is the ... Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP ... >> reasonable fill factor to account for some inserts and minor updates. ... >> forgetting about all that a clustered index can actually increase ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.server)
  • Re: Timeouts
    ... > setting on my clustered index and the issue has always been dodged. ... > table is heavy on the inserts and updates, ... queries, just as eliminating page splits helps insert/udpates. ... David Gugick ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.server)
  • Re: Clustered Index Question
    ... It depends on which columns you modify. ... If you modify a column which is part of the clustered index, ... >>is a no brainer per say for SQL Server. ... >>> Updates be any slower since you cant Update an Identity ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.server)
  • clustered index question
    ... I have heard people say that a clustered index is the data. ... for the narrow clustered index I can get many rows on a single data page. ... But then I wonder, since my data is stored twice, could there be some bad ... updates to data, that updates the column that the clustered index is based ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming)