A database system stores data as hyper-tables that represent partitioned database tables. Each hyper-table comprises chunks of data that may be distributed across multiple locations, each location comprising at least a storage device. The database system provides an interface that allows database queries seamlessly to hyper-tables as well as standard tables. The database system dynamically createschunks as records are added to a hyper-table. The database system defines a new partitioning strategy if the storage configuration of the database system is changed by adding new locations or removing existing locations. The records added to the hyper-table before the storage configuration was changed continue to be stored as chunks distributed according to the previous partitioning policy.