Partitioned databases contain at least one data source (the primary site of the data) and at least one data target (the secondary site of the data). One database can serve as the data source for one partition and the data target for another partition. When defining a partition, you map cells in the data source to their counterparts in the data target.

An Essbase database can contain many partitions, as well as data that is not shared with any other Essbase database. You can define partitions between the following databases:

• Different databases in different applications, as long as each database uses the same language and the same Unicode-related mode.

  The applications can be on the same computer or different computers.

• Different databases in one block storage application.

  This practice is not recommended, because the full benefits of partitioning databases are realized when each database is in a separate application.

One database can serve as the data source or data target for multiple partitions. To share data among many databases, create multiple partitions, each with the same data source and a different data target, as shown in Figure 9-3:

Table 9-4 lists the combinations of block storage and aggregate storage databases as data target and data source that are supported by each partition type: