Problems with Maximum Number of Extents (Oracle) 

You should check on a regular basis whether there are tables or indexes that are close to reaching their maximum number of extents (MAXEXTENTS parameter). This applies in particular when you are transferring mass data to the SAP system.

To display extents:

  1. From the R/3 main screen, choose Tools ® Administration ® Computing Center ® Management System ® Control ® Performance Menu ® Database ® Tables / Indexes.

    2. Alternatively, use transaction code DB02.

  2. Choose Checks on the Database Performance: Tables and Indexes screen.
  3. In the Check for reorganizations section, choose Extents of tables and indexes. All database objects with more than 10 extents are displayed.
  4. Sort the tables and indexes on the display screen by the Extents column.

This quickly provides you with an overview of objects with a large number of extents. As the MAXEXTENTS parameter is also displayed, you can very quickly find out which objects are close to reaching the limit.

See also: Extent Analysis (Oracle).

The MAXEXTENTS value for SAP objects is usually set to 100. This is a soft limit, which is sufficiently below the maximum value allowed by Oracle for MAXEXTENTS (usually 505 for a block size of 8 KB).Every table or index whose number of extents comes close to this limit may actually reach it during further database operation, resulting in a terminated transaction.

From Oracle release 7.3 there is no longer a hard limit for the number of events of a database object. For performance reasons, SAP recommends that you do not allow the number of extents to become too high.

If you find objects with a high number of extents, you can increase the MAXEXTENTS value for the table or index. You should also adjust the storage parameters for the size of the next extent (NEXT). If an object is close to reaching the maximum value allowed by Oracle for MAXEXTENTS, you must reorganize this object. For these operations, use the SAP utility program SAPDBA.

You should check the number of extents filled by tables and indexes particularly when you have completed a data transfer to the R/3 System. If it is not possible to use the Database Monitor to do this (for example, the R/3 System is not available after a new installation), you can use the analysis options provided by SAPDBA ( Reference, Reference).

See also:

Checking for Full Tablespaces (Oracle)

Checking for Freespace Problems (Oracle)

Checking Storage Parameters (Oracle)

Storage Management Errors (Oracle)

Extent Analysis (Oracle)