I am using Oracle Database 21c XE to run several non-commercial, non-production APEX applications. This instance was installed in 2022 and has been maintained regularly since then.
Yesterday, I encountered issues with APEX translations, which were caused by storage limitations. After reviewing the database and performing a significant cleanup, I was able to successfully resolve the original issue.
However, during this process I noticed that the unified audit trail is consuming almost 5 GB of the available 12 GB total storage. Although the audit trail segment is currently empty after maintenance—and I understand it should not grow again—I found that the space is still allocated.
Using the following query:
SELECT owner, SUM(bytes)/1024/1024 AS size_in_mb
FROM dba_segments
GROUP BY owner;
I determined that the database engine itself uses approximately 8.8 GB, including the audit trail and all required system components. In comparison, APEX and ORDS together use about 595 MB, leaving only around 2.6 GB available for application data.
Reinstalling the database from scratch is an option; however, based on these numbers, the instance would eventually become space-constrained again after a few years of use, making this only a temporary solution.
Given that more than half of the database engine space (about 5 GB) is allocated to the audit trail, and considering that this is not a production environment, I would like to know whether it is possible to disable auditing and reclaim that space.
Thank you.