In this chapter, we've taken an in-depth look at space management in Oracle. We've examined blocks, extents, segments, and datafiles and seen how each is involved in managing data within the database. We've created and managed tablespaces and their respective datafiles. We've also examined some more advanced space management features of the Oracle RDBMS. We've seen how non-standard block size tablespaces can be used to more efficiently manage space. We explored locally managed tablespaces and automatic segment space management and saw the ways in which they can ease the burden of space administration. Finally, we've examined Oracle Managed Files and learned how OMF can simplify the creation of tablespaces.
In our next chapter, we will begin our examination of the various aspects of database administration—the types of activities that a DBA does on a day-to-day basis. We begin by examining startup and shutdown procedures, as well as exploring the data dictionary.