Add Unique Constraint - Unable to extend temp segment

Question

I'm getting the error "ORA-01652: unable to extend temp segment by 1024 in tablespace ...". I'm a developer, and our DBA is on vacation. I'm trying to understand what's happening, so I monitor V$SORT_SEGMENT while the constraint is being created. Here is what that view looks like immediately before and after the exception is thrown:
10:43:07 < ... > select * from v$sort_segment;
TABLESPACE_NAME                 SEGMENT_FILE SEGMENT_BLOCK EXTENT_SIZE CURRENT_USERS TOTAL_EXTENTS TOTAL_BLOCKS USED_EXTENTS USED_BLOCKS FREE_EXTENTS FREE_BLOCKS ADDED_EXTENTS EXTENT_HITS FREED_EXTENTS
FREE_REQUESTS   MAX_SIZE MAX_BLOCKS MAX_USED_SIZE MAX_USED_BLOCKS MAX_SORT_SIZE MAX_SORT_BLOCKS RELATIVE_FNO
TEMP                                       0             0         128             1           460     58880     460       58880            0           0           460         505          2809
            1       2809     359552           460           58880           460           58880            0
Elapsed: 00:00:00.04
10:43:13 < ... > select * from v$sort_segment;
TABLESPACE_NAME                 SEGMENT_FILE SEGMENT_BLOCK EXTENT_SIZE CURRENT_USERS TOTAL_EXTENTS TOTAL_BLOCKS USED_EXTENTS USED_BLOCKS FREE_EXTENTS FREE_BLOCKS ADDED_EXTENTS EXTENT_HITS FREED_EXTENTS
FREE_REQUESTS   MAX_SIZE MAX_BLOCKS MAX_USED_SIZE MAX_USED_BLOCKS MAX_SORT_SIZE MAX_SORT_BLOCKS RELATIVE_FNO
TEMP                                       0             0         128             0           460     58880       0           0          460       58880           460         505          2809
            1       2809     359552           460           58880           460           58880            0
Elapsed: 00:00:00.02My DBA had previously instructed me to issue this command to try to avoid this error:
alter database tempfile '...' resize 12g;I do that, but I still only show 460 free segments. Can someone point me to some documentation on how to make the Free Extents be larger than 460?
Here's my client info:
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.3.0 Production on Tue Nov 6 10:40:39 2012
Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.Here's my server info:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.7.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

Answer 1

Given that you appear to be able to add/increase temp files, you are also likely to be able to see the dba_* views. As a first shot, try:
select sum(bytes) from dba_free_space
where tablespace_name = <name from the error message>If there appears to be sufficient space (no idea what that would be since I do not know how big your objects are) then try something like:
select file_id, block_id, bytes from dba_free_space
where tablespace_name = <name from the error message>
order by bytes descIf you have large amounts of contiginous free space (i.e. the first few rows have a large value for the bytes column) then ther may be something else going on.
If both queries show relativel small values for the amount of free space, you will need to add another datafile to the tablespace, or increase the size of one of the existing datafile.
To see the datafiles in the tablespace use:
select file_name, bytes from dba_data_files
where tablespace_name = <name from the error message>You can increase the size of a datafile using something similar to the alter database command you have for the tempfiles like:
alter database datafile <a quoted full name from dba_data_files> resize some bigger numberJust make sure that the file system has enough free space for the new size.
John