Partitioning a Wide Table on RAID5--Need Advice

Question

We will soon have to add a new table to our database that is 2 Gig in size and growing, so we are considering partitioning it for speed. I've a lot of Oracle experience, but haven't used partitioning before.
NOTE:
-- The database is on RAID5 disks
-- The table is 70 fields wide so I'm only showing relevent fields
-- We are still at Oracle 9i, unfortunately
-- The data is re-loaded once per month; we never change it--SELECTS only
Create table TRANSL1 (
COMPANY_CD varchar2(5),
POL_NO varchar2(10),
COMMUNITY varchar2(6),
ADDRESSKEY varchar2(25),
STATE varchar2(2),
FLOOD_ZONE varchar2(9),
POST_FIRM varchar2(1) )
The primary key will be company_cd + pol_no.
I'm told the users usually pull up the data on one of the following:
-- company_cd + pol_no
-- state
-- flood_zone
-- addresskey
-- post_firm
-- company_cd by itself
-- the first 2 characters of community
-- they can also pull up on any other combination of fields they need
After doing tons of reading on it, here's what I was thinking of doing.
1. hash partition the table on company_cd
2. local partition index on company_cd
3. local partition index on pol_no
4. regular index on state
5. regular index on flood_zone
6. regular index addresskey
7. regular index on post_firm
8. function index on community
9. Create a normal primary key on company_cd + pol_no
Does this look OK? Should the regular indexes be global partitioned instead? Should we even be using partitioning which so many indexes?

Answer 1

It is true that partitioning your tables can help with 'speed'. That means different things to different folks. It can also impede things seriously if not properly administered. Partitioning is just another tool. If used incorrectly, the tool can cause the job to take longer.
Just a note... you mention using RAID5. Oracle partitioning has more to do with logically partitioning your tables (although different partitions may or may not reside in the same tablespaces which in turn may or may not reside in the same location(s)) for ease of administration and improved performance but the use of RAID5 here is secondary. I mention this because I've seen a few associate Oracle Partitioning with disk partitioning.
Anyways, look over the following doc:
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14223/parpart.htm#g1020112
And a book that will throw much light on partitioning is Tom Kyte's book Expert Oracle Database Architecture.
Hope this helps.