"if it were not for the OFA we can pretty much live with putting all files on one single Unix mount" I'd like to hear a discussion on this point. Since the datafiles are S.A.M.E.d and (unless you work closely with your SA) you have no control over where they're going, does it make sense to put them on different logical mounts? I could see it if I could be sure of getting different physical devices but I don't see the rationale for just different logical devices. Right now I put all my develoment and test databases on one logical mount. I makes it easy to restore the database to a known condition after testers and developers have been messing with it. I haven't had the chance to do it with a production database, yet.