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Oracle Database Free excessive space usage even when idle!

Roman UmlautOct 8 2025

Hi,

I need help understanding where free space is disappearing to in Oracle Free Database.

First I tried Oracle Always Free Database in Oracle Cloud, it promised free 20GB of storage, but after creation of 1 table with (NUMBER, NUMBER, DATE, VARCHAR2(50), VARCHAR2(250)) and inserting 10 000 rows into it using python script (connect, loop, cursor.callproc, commit)... database allocated space went to 100% and tablespace usage was more than 10GB!
5MB of raw data should not use more than 10GB of space in database, right?

Then I tried running Oracle Free DB in Docker. Pulled image, started container, and without even touching it I can see the used space in sysaux tablespace growing during the day. Kept DB idle for a while, and SYSAUX used space went from original 379.94MB to 442.81MB.

BEFORE:

TABLESPACE_NAME                AUT MAX_SIZE_IN_MB CURR_SIZE_IN_MB USED_SIZE_IN_MB   PCT_FREE
------------------------------ --- -------------- --------------- --------------- ----------
SYSAUX                         YES       33554432             410          379.94          7  <--!
SYSTEM                         YES       33554432             280          276.75          1
UNDOTBS1                       YES       33554432             100           14.88         85
TEMP                           YES       32767.98              20              19          5
USERS                          YES       33554432               7            6.06         13

no user activity for half a day

AFTER:

TABLESPACE_NAME                AUT MAX_SIZE_IN_MB CURR_SIZE_IN_MB USED_SIZE_IN_MB   PCT_FREE
------------------------------ --- -------------- --------------- --------------- ----------
SYSAUX                         YES       33554432             470          443.69          6  <--!
SYSTEM                         YES       33554432             290          287.94          1
UNDOTBS1                       YES       33554432             100           18.38         82
TEMP                           YES       32767.98              20              16         20
USERS                          YES       33554432               7            6.06         13
from docker log:

Resize operation completed for file# 3, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/sysaux01.dbf, old size 624640K, new size 655360K
Resize operation completed for file# 3, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/sysaux01.dbf, old size 655360K, new size 665600K
Resize operation completed for file# 3, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/sysaux01.dbf, old size 665600K, new size 675840K
Resize operation completed for file# 3, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/sysaux01.dbf, old size 675840K, new size 686080K
Resize operation completed for file# 3, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/sysaux01.dbf, old size 686080K, new size 696320K
Resize operation completed for file# 3, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/sysaux01.dbf, old size 696320K, new size 706560K
Resize operation completed for file# 3, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/sysaux01.dbf, old size 706560K, new size 727040K
Resize operation completed for file# 3, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/sysaux01.dbf, old size 727040K, new size 737280K

FREEPDB1(3):Resize operation completed for file# 13, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/FREEPDB1/sysaux01.dbf, old size 409600K, new size 419840K
FREEPDB1(3):Resize operation completed for file# 13, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/FREEPDB1/sysaux01.dbf, old size 419840K, new size 430080K
FREEPDB1(3):Resize operation completed for file# 13, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/FREEPDB1/sysaux01.dbf, old size 430080K, new size 440320K
FREEPDB1(3):Resize operation completed for file# 13, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/FREEPDB1/sysaux01.dbf, old size 440320K, new size 450560K
FREEPDB1(3):Resize operation completed for file# 13, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/FREEPDB1/sysaux01.dbf, old size 450560K, new size 460800K
FREEPDB1(3):Resize operation completed for file# 13, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/FREEPDB1/sysaux01.dbf, old size 460800K, new size 471040K
FREEPDB1(3):Resize operation completed for file# 13, fname /opt/oracle/oradata/FREE/FREEPDB1/sysaux01.dbf, old size 471040K, new size 481280K

If I keep this DB for personal project for a while, this growth will use up all allowed free space and make DB unusable.

Am I missing something?
Should I make some changes immediately after DB creation?
Some regular maintenance to reclaim used space?

Please help.
Thank you.

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Added on Oct 8 2025
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