What are the features of BIGFILE Tablespace in Oracle Database?

Bigfile tablespaces can reduce the number of datafiles needed for a database. 
An additional benefit is that the DB_FILES initialization parameter and MAXDATAFILES parameter of the CREATE DATABASE and CREATE CONTROLFILE statements can be adjusted to reduce the amount of SGA space required for datafile information and the size of the control file.


Bigfile tablespaces simplify database management by providing datafile transparency. 
SQL syntax for the ALTER TABLESPACE statement lets you perform operations on tablespaces, 
rather than the underlying individual datafiles.


Bigfile tablespaces are intended to be used with Automatic Storage Management (ASM) or other logical volume managers that supports striping or RAID, and dynamically extensible logical volumes.


Avoid creating bigfile tablespaces on a system that does not support striping because of negative implications for parallel query execution and RMAN backup parallelization.




Creating a Bigfile Tablespace




To create a bigfile tablespace, specify the BIGFILE keyword of the CREATE TABLESPACE statement (CREATE BIGFILE TABLESPACE …)


CREATE BIGFILE TABLESPACE bigtbs 
    DATAFILE ‘/u02/oracle/data/bigtbs01.dbf’ SIZE 50G
…




Identifying a Bigfile Tablespace


The following views contain a BIGFILE column that identifies a tablespace as a bigfile tablespace:


DBA_TABLESPACES


USER_TABLESPACES


V$TABLESPACE