Big File Tablespace

Bigfile Tablespace

Bigfile Tablespace 

• An Oracle database can contain both bigfile and smallfile tablespaces. 

• System default is to create the traditional smallfile tablespace. 

• The SYSTEM and SYSAUX tablespaces are always created using the system default type.

• Bigfile tablespaces are supported only for locally managed tablespaces with automatic segment-space management.

• Locally managed undo tablespace and Temporary tablespace

Bigfile Tablespace Benefits :

• The bigfile tablespace simplifies large database tablespace management by reducing the number of datafiles needed. 

• The bigfile tablespace simplifies datafile management with Oracle-managed files and Automated Storage Management (ASM) by eliminating the need for adding new datafiles and dealing with multiple files. 

• The bigfile tablespace allows you to create a bigfile tablespace of up to eight exabytes (eight million terabytes) in size, and significantly increase the storage capacity of an Oracle database. 

• The bigfile tablespace follows the concept that a tablespace and a datafile are logically equivalent.

A bigfile tablespace (BFT) is a tablespace containing a single file that can have a very large size. The traditional tablespace is referred to as a smallfile tablespace (SFT). A smallfile tablespace contains multiple, relatively small files. The bigfile tablespace has the following characteristics:

There are two exceptions when bigfile tablespace segments are manually managed: They are 

Bigfile tablespaces are intended to be used with Automated Storage Management (ASM) (see Chapter 1) or other logical volume managers that support RAID.

However, you can also use The bigfile tablespace without ASM.

Bigfile tablespace has the following benefits:

SQL> create bigfile tablespace bigts datafile '/u03/oravis/VIS/data/bigts01.dbf' size 500m;
Tablespace created.

We can't add another data file to this tablespace. We can create another bigfile tablespace but only one bigfile tablespace can be set as default bigfile tablespace.