Hello,

In an Oracle 9i environment on Sun Solaris I am looking for options I
can use to manage Oracle tables in the 5 to 300 gb range WITHOUT using
partitions. Please let me describe why.

From a traditional point of view partitions are described as making
tables easier to manage, "divide and conquer" is the common descriptive
phrase I have heard. From another point-of-view it seems to be the
opposite, i.e. divide and be conquered!

Some observations:
* I have seen many instances where production stopped because a DBA
did not extend table partitions (forgot because there were so many to
keep track of usually).
* As time goes on the number of Range partitions obviously grows.
It seems easier just to add 5gig datafiles once a year rather than
creating monthly partitions
* Databases with partitions require a greater Oracle skill set. In
environments that have high natural turnover (i.e. military etc.) this
is not good.
* I have seen new hardware greatly out perform highly partitioned
old hardware.
* Partitioned databases seem harder to clone or duplicate.
* In an environment with multiple layers of complexity
(RAC+LOBs+DataGuard etc.) it seems like one more added component to make
the database harder to support.
* Trying to "re-partition", i.e. rebuild them using a different
range, is not the easiest task one can do.

I KNOW these comments may go against the grain with many established
DBAs. I agree there is a performance gain using partitions. My goal is
always to use great hardware and keep it simple if possible.

Can you please share any methods or tips other than partitioning that I
can use to manage tables with gigabytes of data?

Thanks,

Effie


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