Tuning Topics [Top]

Redo Log Buffer Latches

Database Buffer Cache Size
Shared Pool Size
Tuning Scripts (Added 7/16/03)

Redo Log Buffer Latches [Back]

When a transaction is ready to write its changes to the redo log, it first has to
grab the Redo Allocation Latch, of which there is only one, to keep others from
writing to the log at the same time. If someone else has that latch, it has to wait
for the latch, resulting in a "miss".

Once it grabs that latch, if the change is larger than log_small_entry_max_size

bytes and if your server has multiple CPU's, it then tries to grab a Redo Copy
Latch, of which there can be up to 2 times the number of CPU's, which would
allow it to release the Redo Allocation Latch for someone else to use. If none of
them are available, resulting in an "immediate miss", it will not wait for a Redo
Copy Latch (thus, the "immediate"), but, instead, hangs on to the Redo Allocation
Latch until the change is written.

Oracle keeps statistics for these latches in v$latch, including the number of gets
and misses for the Redo Allocation Latch and the number of immediate gets and
immediate misses for the Redo Copy Latches, which are cumulative values since
instance startup. If you've got a 100% hit ratio for either of those latch types,
that's a good thing. It just means that all of your transactions were able to grab
and use the latch without retrying. It's when you get below a 99% hit ratio that
you need to start looking out. The following sql figures the current hit ratios for
those latches:

column latch_name format a20

select name latch_name, gets, misses,
round(decode(gets-misses,0,1,gets-misses)/
decode(gets,0,1,gets),3) hit_ratio
from v$latch where name = 'redo allocation';

column latch_name format a20

select name latch_name, immediate_gets, immediate_misses,
round(decode(immediate_gets-immediate_misses,0,1,
immediate_gets-immediate_misses)/
decode(immediate_gets,0,1,immediate_gets),3) hit_ratio
from v$latch where name = 'redo copy';

If your Redo Allocation Latch hit ratio consistently falls below 99%, and if you
have a multi-CPU machine, you can lower the value for
log_small_entry_max_size (see below) in your init.ora file (ours is currently 800
bytes, but, maybe 100 or so bytes may be better - you'll have to try out different
values over time), which says that any change smaller than that will hang onto
the Redo Allocation Latch until Oracle is finished writing that change. Anything
larger than that grabs a Redo Copy Latch, if currently available, and releases the
Redo Allocation Latch for another transaction to use.

If your Redo Copy Latch hit ratio consistently falls below 99%, and if you have a
multi-CPU machine, you can raise the value of log_simultaneous_copies in your
init.ora file up to twice the number of CPU's to provide more Redo Copy Latches
(there is only one Redo Allocation Latch, so it is at a premium). Remember that
you have to shut down your database instance and restart it to reread the new
parameter values in the init.ora file ($ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initSID.ora). The
following sql shows the current values for those associated parameters:

column name format a30

column value format a10
select name,value from v$parameter where name in
('log_small_entry_max_size','log_simultaneous_copies',
'cpu_count');

Database Buffer Cache Size [Back]

The Database Buffer Cache is part of the Shared Global Area (SGA) in memory
for a single database instance (SID) and holds the blocks of data and indexes
that you and everyone else is currently using. It may even contain multiple
copies of the same data block if, for example, more than one transaction is
making changes to it but not yet committed, or, if you are looking at the original
copy (select) and someone else is looking at their modified but uncommitted
copy (insert, update, or delete). The parameters db_block_buffers and
db_block_size in your init.ora file determine the size of the buffer cache.
db_block_size, in bytes, is set at database creation, and cannot be changed
(unless you recreate the database from scratch), so, the only thing that you can
adjust is the number of blocks in db_block_buffers (one buffer holds one block).

The Cache Hit Ratio shows how many blocks were already in memory (logical
reads, which include "db block gets" for blocks you are using and "consistent
gets" of original blocks from rollback segments that others are updating) versus
how many blocks had to be read from disk ("physical reads"). Oracle
recommends that this ratio be at least 80%, but, I like at least 90% myself. The
ratio can be obtained from values in v$sysstat, which are constantly being
updated and show statistics since database startup (it is only accessable from a
DBA user account). You will get a more representative sample if the database
has been running several hours with normal user transactions taking place. The
Cache Hit Ratio is determined as follows:
 select (1-(pr.value/(dbg.value+cg.value)))*100
from v$sysstat pr, v$sysstat dbg, v$sysstat cg
where pr.name = 'physical reads'
and dbg.name = 'db block gets'
and cg.name = 'consistent gets';

If you have a low Cache Hit Ratio, you can test to see what the effect of adding
buffers would be by putting "db_block_lru_extended_statistics = 1000" in the
init.ora file, doing a shutdown and startup of the database, and waiting a few
hours to get a representative sample. Oracle determines how many Additional
Cache Hits (ACH) would occur for each query and transaction for each of the
1000 buffer increments (or whatever other maximum value you might want to try
out), and places them into the x$kcbrbh table, which is only accessable from user
"sys". To measure the new Cache Hit Ratio with, for example, 100 extra buffers,
determine ACH as follows:

select sum(count) "ACH" from x$kcbrbh where indx < 100;

and plug that value into the Cache Hit Ratio formula as follows:

select (1-((pr.value-&ACH)/(dbg.value+cg.value)))*100
from v$sysstat pr, v$sysstat dbg, v$sysstat cg
where pr.name = 'physical reads'
and dbg.name = 'db block gets'
and cg.name = 'consistent gets';

If the ratio originally was lower than 80% and is now higher with ACH, you may
want to increase db_block_buffers by that number of extra buffers, restarting your
database to put the increase into effect. Be sure to try several values for the
number of extra buffers to find an optimum for your work load. Also, remove
db_block_lru_extended_statistics from your init.ora file before restarting your
database to stop gathering statistics, which tends to slow down the transaction
time. (Removing that clears the x$kcbrbh table.) Also, make sure that your
server has enough memory to accomodate the increase!

If you are running really tight on memory, and the Cache Hit Ratio is running well
above 80%, you might want to check the effect of lowering the number of buffers,
which would release Oracle memory that could then be used by other processes,
but would also potentially slow down database transactions. To test this, put
"db_block_lru_statistics = true" in your init.ora file and restart your database.
This gathers statistics for Additional Cache Misses (ACM) that would occur for
each query and transaction for each of the buffer decrements up to the current
db_block_buffers value, placing them into the x$kcbcbh table, also only
accessable from user "sys". To measure the new Cache Hit Ratio with, for
example, 100 fewer buffers, determine ACM as follows:
 select sum(count) "ACM" from x$kcbcbh
where indx >= (select max(indx)+1-100 from x$kcbcbh);

and plug that value into the Cache Hit Ratio formula as follows:

select (1-((pr.value+&ACM)/(dbg.value+cg.value)))*100
from v$sysstat pr, v$sysstat dbg, v$sysstat cg
where pr.name = 'physical reads'
and dbg.name = 'db block gets'
and cg.name = 'consistent gets';

If the ratio is still above 80%, you may want to decrease db_block_buffers by that
number of fewer buffers, restarting your database to put the decrease into effect.
Be sure to try several values for the number of fewer buffers to find an optimum
for your work load. Also, remove db_block_lru_statistics from your init.ora file
before restarting your database to stop gathering statistics, which tends to slow
down the transaction time. (Removing that clears the x$kcbcbh table.)

I have three scripts which you can use to figure your instance's optimum number
of db_block_buffers. The cache_hit_ratio.sql script computes the current ratio for
the database buffer cache, and can be run from any DBA account. The
adding_buffers.sql script computes the resulting ratio for an increase in the buffer
cache size of the given number of buffer blocks (figuring ACH itself). It must be
run from user "sys", after a representative sampling time with
db_block_lru_extended_statistics in place. The removing_buffers.sql script
computes the resulting ratio for a decrease in the buffer cache size of the given
number of buffer blocks (figuring ACM itself). It must be run from user "sys", after
a representative sampling time with db_block_lru_statistics in place.

Shared Pool Size [Back]

The Shared Pool is also part of the Shared Global Area (SGA) in memory for a
single database instance (SID) and holds the Library Cache with the most
recently used SQL statements and parse trees along with PL/SQL blocks, and
the Data Dictionary Cache with definitions of tables, views, and other dictionary
objects. Both of those sets of cached objects can be used by one or more
users, and are aged out (Least Recently Used) as other objects need the space.
(You can pin large frequently-used objects in the Shared Pool for performance
and other reasons, but, I won't go into that here.)

There are several ratios that you can check after a representative sample time
that may indicate that you need to enlarge the shared pool, which is set by the
shared_pool_size parameter in your init.ora file and defaults to 3500000 (3.5
Meg). One indicator is the Library Cache Get Hit Ratio, which shows how many
cursors are being shared (SQL statements (gets) which were already found and
parsed (gethits) in the shared pool, with no parsing or re-parsing needed), and is
determined by:

select gethits,gets,gethitratio from v$librarycache

where namespace = 'SQL AREA';

If the gethitratio is less than 90%, you should consider increasing the shared pool
size. Another indicator is the reloads per pin ratio, which shows how many
parsed statements (pins) have been aged out (reloaded) of the shared pool for
lack of space (ideally 0), and is determined by:

select reloads,pins,reloads/pins from v$librarycache

where namespace = 'SQL AREA';

If the reloads/pins ratio is more than 1%, you should consider increasing the
shared pool size. A third indicator, which is not as important as the first two, is
the dictionary object getmisses per get ratio, which shows how many cached
dictionary object definitions in the dictionary cache are encountering too many
misses (aged out?), and is determined by:

select sum(getmisses),sum(gets),sum(getmisses)/sum(gets)
from v$rowcache;

If the getmisses/gets ratio is more than 15%, you should consider increasing the
shared pool size.

If these ratios indicate that your shared pool is too small, you can estimate the
size of the shared pool by doing the following. Set the shared_pool_size to a
very large number, maybe a fourth or more of your system's available memory,
depending on how many other instances and processes that you have running
that are also using memory, then shutdown and startup your database and let it
run for a representative time (like all day or when a large batch job is running that
you want to accomodate), then, figure the memory required for packages and
views, memory required for frequently used SQL statements, and memory
required for users SQL statements executed, as shown below:

select sum(sharable_mem) "Packages/Views" from

v$db_object_cache;
select sum(sharable_mem) "SQL Statements" from v$sqlarea
where executions > 5;
select sum(250 * users_opening) "SQL Users" from v$sqlarea;

Then, add the above three numbers and multiply the results by 2.5. Use this
estimated size as a guideline for the value for shared_pool_size, changing that
parameter to the estimated size or back to the original size and doing another
shutdown/startup to put the value into effect. The shared_pool_size.sql script
can be used to figure these values for you, which uses an example of the Select
From Selects tip:

select sum(a.spspv) "Packages/Views", sum(a.spssql) "SQL

Statements",
sum(a.spsusr) "SQL Users", round((sum(a.spspv) +
sum(a.spssql) +
sum(a.spsusr)) * 2.5,-6) "Estimated shared_pool_size"
from (select sum(sharable_mem) spspv, 0 spssql, 0 spsusr
from v$db_object_cache
union all
select 0, sum(sharable_mem), 0 from v$sqlarea
where executions > 5
union all
select 0, 0, sum(250 * users_opening) from v$sqlarea) a;