I too thought that if there is datafile corruption/missing the tablespace would be put into offline mode by oracle. But when I tried simulating it, the status in v$datafile or dba_tablespaces never switched to offline. Database version is 9.2.0.7. Here is an example: SQL> create tablespace test datafile '/opt/apps/oracle/oradata/neo/t.dbf' size 10M autoextend on extent management local segment space management auto; Tablespace created. SQL> !ls -l /opt/apps/oracle/oradata/neo/t.dbf -rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall 10493952 Jul 14 13:35 /opt/apps/oracle/oradata/neo/t.dbf SQL> create table test_table tablespace test as select * from dba_objects; Table created. SQL> select distinct tablespace_name from dba_segments where segment_name='TEST_TABLE'; TABLESPACE_NAME ------------------------------ TEST SQL> !rm /opt/apps/oracle/oradata/neo/t.dbf SQL> SQL> insert into TEST_TABLE select * from dba_objects; insert into TEST_TABLE select * from dba_objects * ERROR at line 1: ORA-01565: error in identifying file '/opt/apps/oracle/oradata/neo/t.dbf' ORA-27037: unable to obtain file status Linux Error: 2: No such file or directory Additional information: 3 SQL> select file_id, SQL> SQL> select distinct status from v$datafile; STATUS ------- ONLINE SYSTEM SQL> select distinct status from dba_data_files; STATUS --------- AVAILABLE SQL> select distinct status from dba_tablespaces; STATUS --------- ONLINE SQL> Thanks. ________________________________ From: Andrew Kerber [mailto:andrew.kerber@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 1:42 AM To: Ankur Godambe Subject: Re: Offline status in dictionary It can happen when the file becomes unusable, for example someone deletes it or it gets corrupted. On 7/13/07, Ankur Godambe <agodambe@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Hi, Apart from explicitly putting datafile or tabespace in offline mode though alter database..... or alter tablespace..... command , under what circumstances would STATUS column in v$datafile and dba_tablespaces change to OFFLINE? Thanks. -- Andrew W. Kerber 'If at first you dont succeed, dont take up skydiving.'