One of the biggest advances of relational databases is to free end users from the need to understand the physical storage of their information.
Someone who is simply using the data in an Oracle database has no need to understand the way that Oracle stores its data.
This does not mean that the database administrator, can afford to ignore the way Oracle stores information. Even though Oracle will manage its own physical storage, you can shape the way this space management occurs.
To effectively manage an Oracle database, you must understand the way that an Oracle database stores information.

This module gives you a firm foundation for understanding how Oracle manages its storage space. You will learn:

1. The basic concepts of Oracle storage
2. The role of database blocks, extents, and segments
3. How to set storage characteristics for database objects and tablespaces
4. How to learn about storage characteristics from the data dictionary
5. How Oracle manages free space in database objects
6. How to learn about free space from the data dictionary
7. How fragmentation can affect your Oracle database and how to avoid the problems this can cause

Just as the storage of data is the foundation of your Oracle database, understanding and using storage characteristics of database objects and tablespaces are an important part of your work as a database administrator.