Oracle Database 11g DBA Handbook

CHAPTER 4 Physical Database Layouts and Storage Management

In Chapter 3, we talked about the logical components of the database, tablespaces, and how to not only create the right number and types of tablespaces but also to place table and index segments in the appropriate tablespace, based on their usage patterns and function. In this chapter, I'll focus more on the physical aspects of a database, the datafiles, and where to store them to maximize I/O throughput and overall database performance.

The assumption throughout this chapter is that you are using locally managed tablespaces with automatic segment space management. In addition to reducing the load on the SYSTEM tablespace by using bitmaps stored in the tablespace itself instead of freelists ...