Create the fact table that you wish to partition in the normal way. You must create an update procedure but do not need to load any data. The process of creating the update procedure will also build any indexes for the fact table. We will be using a partition exchange table to move data to and from the partitioned fact table. This exchange table must have the same columns, column order and indexes as the fact table. It is therefore well worth getting the fact table into its final form before partitioning it. Add any indexes to avoid extra work later.