Did you know that Toad® for Oracle can allow you to track Tablespace Usage historically and even forecast how much space you’ll need going forward? Knowing this information is critical for planning purposes, identifying anomalies and much more.

View current space usage and add more

Most of us know that Toad for Oracle allows us to view current space usage and administer all our tablespaces. You are probably using this today. You simply access your tablespaces tab within either the Schema Browser or Database Browser.

 

JS_DB Browser Tablespace Usage

 

This is a very useful feature allowing you to see how much space is currently being used. If you need to add more space,  you can simply double-click on any tablespace and an Alter Tablespace dialog will open.

 

Now comes the fun part!!

 

There is another Tablespaces window you can open by simply selecting Database>Administer>Tablespaces from the pull-down menu.

 

JS_tablespace pulldown

 

Alternatively, you can type “Tablespaces” in our Jump Search Bar located on the upper right corner of your Toad for Oracle desktop. If you're not sure where your Jump Search is, Ctrl-J will place your cursor directly there.

 

JS_tablespaces jump search

 

By using either method, you’ll open the Tablespaces Window where you’ll see the Space (default tab), Files, Objects, Space History and IO History tabs.

 

JS_tablespaces1

View and alter tablespaces and Datafiles

The Space and File tabs not only allow you to view the space usage of all your tablespaces and Datafiles respectively but, you can also alter them too by double-clicking.

 

Forecast our tablespace usage

Now let’s see how we can view our historical space usage and forecast our tablespace usage.

 

Before you can see information in the Space and IO History tabs, you’ll need to first set it up. If you haven’t created the Toad Space Manager tables, you can create them by clicking on the Create/Recreate Toad Space Manager Tables icon with the Space History tab. It is highlighted in Yellow.

 

JS_setup1

 

Edit the time and frequency

Once done, you can edit the time and frequency of when the DBMS_JOB runs as well as the history retention.

 

JS_setup2

 

Once you’ve started collecting metrics, you can tailor your view based upon which tablespaces you want to see with “All” being a choice. For full transparency, you can even see the actual SQL statement being run to collect these metrics (Show SQL). Knowing where this information is stored allows you access to the data for exporting, customizing reports or whatever you can imagine.

 

JS_graph1

Zoom in on the graph

You can even zoom in on the graph using your mouse. Simply drag a rectangle from left to right on the area you to zoom in on to view a specific time range.

 

Forecast your tablespace usage

In order to forecast your tablespace usage, you can click on the Forecast button.

 

JS_forecastgraph

 

On this screen, you can specify how many days in the future you want to project space usage for. There is an option to print out this graph.

It is as simple as that!

 

If you are licensed for using the AWR Browser, there is even a button to explore specific object growth.

 

This is just one of the many simple, yet powerful features in Toad for Oracle that I hope you take can take advantage of.

 

Note: This feature requires the DB Admin Module and DBA privileges.

 

Have you heard about the new Toad utPLSQL unit test creation module?

Most developers and DBAs use Toad for Oracle to reduce time and effort to develop and manage Oracle databases. But did you know that the newly released Toad for Oracle 13.2 includes a new utPLSQL unit test creation module—and it’s available in all Toad editions.

With this new utPLSQL feature, developers can create unit tests easily using an industry standard approach without leaving their database development tool of choice. Read more about utPLSQL in the two blogs below:

Blog: 13 new features in Toad® for Oracle 13.2

Blog: Toad® for Oracle 13.2 new release: Unit test options

Try Toad for free for 30 days:

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Other useful resources:

Product page: Toad for Oracle general information.

Blog:Coffee with Toad® [Toad World® blog monthly recap]

Technical brief: Top Five Reasons to Choose Toad Over SQL Developer

Case study: Opening doors and creating opportunities with data insights

 

Questions?

Have questions, comments, or an idea for a new feature? Interact with experts on theToad for Oracle forum on Toad World®.

 

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About the Author

Jeff Surretsky

Jeffrey Surretsky has been working at Quest since 2000 as a Sales Engineer focusing on a wide variety of solutions including Foglight, SharePlex and the TOAD Family of Products. Before working at Quest, he was a DBA for various organizations spanning a diverse range of industries including but not limited to Insurance and Telephony . With almost 35 years of experience in the Information Technology industry, Jeffrey has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Management of Information Systems.

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