All, on 11.2.0.2 I only run this to gather statistics DBMS_STATS.GATHER_DATABASE_STATS(estimate_percent=>dbms_stats.auto_sample_size); But I see that dbms_stats.auto_sample_size is touching all the tables in the db instead of only the tables those were changed . is this normal? and I see few of the user table and SYS tables stats getting locked ORA-20005: object statistics are locked (stattype = ALL) what will be a recommended approach to gather stats in 11gR2. appreciate any suggestions TIA Kart