> I'm setting up my test environement w/ 10gR2, three node Opteron RAC running 64-bit RHEL4, w/ ASM. With ASM, it makes a lot of sense to have one datafile per tablespace, that autoextends, and use bigfiles. That way, you never have to add a datafile. You just monitor the free space in the disk group, and add space at the diskgroup level, when necessary. But, bigfiles require ASSM....though I'm not sure why...it doesn't strike me that those two features would be related....but apparently, they are. ...please explain why BIGFILE tablespace makes more sense with ASM than, say NAS of CFS? I can create a filesystem on a volume that I can grow without interruption to 16TB today, much much larger in an upcoming release. With Bigfile in NAS/CFS, you don't have to add anything at the Oracle level (as is the case with ASM). You simply get another LUN from the storage group, slap in into the volume, and grow the filesystem...the BIGFILE just keeps on extending. Oh, that that, would not, btw, force a redistribution of all the data in the old portion of the BIGFILE--which ASM forces on you as you add disks to the diskgroup. ODDR should (must really) be a per file option. Makes no sense redistributing old stale data just because you add space. As always, I'm looking for a problem that ASM solves that is actually a problem on NAS/CFS, but this doesn't look like it. Mark ? -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l