When Should Indexes Be Dropped ?

• An index that is no longer needed by applications can be removed
• An index may be dropped prior to performing bulk loads. Dropping an index prior to large data loads and re-creating them after the load
• Indexes that are used only periodically do not need to be maintained unnecessarily, especially if they are based on volatile tables
• An index may be marked INVALID when there is an instance failure during certain types of operations such as loading. In this case, the index needs to be dropped and re-created
• The index is corrupt