---
title: move_chunk() | Tiger Data Docs
description: Move a chunk and its indexes to a different tablespace
---

Since [1.3.0](https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/1.3.0)

TimescaleDB allows you to move data and indexes to different tablespaces. This allows you to move data to more cost-effective storage as it ages.

The `move_chunk` function acts like a combination of the [PostgreSQL CLUSTER command](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-cluster.html) and [PostgreSQL ALTER TABLE…SET TABLESPACE](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/13/sql-altertable.html) commands. Unlike these PostgreSQL commands, however, the `move_chunk` function uses lower lock levels so that the chunk and hypertable are able to be read for most of the process. This comes at a cost of slightly higher disk usage during the operation. For a more detailed discussion of this capability, see the documentation on [managing storage with tablespaces](/docs/build/performance-optimization/manage-tablespaces/index.md).

Note

You must be logged in as a super user, such as the `postgres` user, to use the `move_chunk()` call.

## Samples

```
SELECT move_chunk(
  chunk => '_timescaledb_internal._hyper_1_4_chunk',
  destination_tablespace => 'tablespace_2',
  index_destination_tablespace => 'tablespace_3',
  reorder_index => 'conditions_device_id_time_idx',
  verbose => TRUE
);
```

## Arguments

The syntax is:

```
SELECT move_chunk(
    chunk = '<chunk_name>',
    destination_tablespace = '<tablespace_name>',
    index_destination_tablespace = '<tablespace_name>',
    reorder_index = '<index_name>',
    verbose = true | false
);
```

| Name                           | Type     | Default | Required | Description                                                                      |
| ------------------------------ | -------- | ------- | -------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `chunk`                        | REGCLASS | -       | ✔        | Name of chunk to be moved                                                        |
| `destination_tablespace`       | NAME     | -       | ✔        | Target tablespace for chunk being moved                                          |
| `index_destination_tablespace` | NAME     | `NULL`  | ✖        | Target tablespace for index associated with the chunk you are moving             |
| `reorder_index`                | REGCLASS | -       | ✖        | The name of the index (on either the hypertable or chunk) to order by            |
| `verbose`                      | BOOLEAN  | `FALSE` | ✖        | Setting to true displays messages about the progress of the move\_chunk command. |

## Returns

This function returns void.