Originally posted by reydp
My resolution when adding a column in a huge table (records/structure wise)is to split it into two process. 1st ALTER the table to add the column and then 2nd, UPDATE the table to populate the default value. And let the developer to write a TRIGGER to include the default value everytime there is a new record inserted. But that just me
The reason why I do this is that, as far as I can remember there was an error generated even after long hours of waiting. And I believe it was rollback segments related problem. I experimented with trying to issue first the SET TRANSACTION USE ROLLBACK SEG... before the ALTER TABLE ADD column with default value. But to my surprise, the same error was generated.
So that's why I decided to split it into 2 process and inserted the SET TRANSACTION ... before the 2nd process was made and it works.