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Oracle Database 19c: SQL Tuning Using Plan
Stability Methods SPM and SQL Quarantine
Soumendra Paik
Senior Principal Technical Support Engineer
Oracle Support Services, DB Performance Team, USA

3 Copyright © 2019 Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Agenda

• Brief overview of SQL Plan Management (SPM) and SQL

Quarantine (SQ) features
• What Plan Stability methods are available in 19c EE/SE DBs
• How Plan Stability methods are implemented in 19c
• What to do if SPM is not usable as a plan stability method
• How SQL Quarantine feature compliments SPM

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SQL Plan Management (SPM) in 19c
• Cost-based Optimizer hard parses a SQL statement to generate an execution plan
• Optimizer uses various inputs to come up with a cheapest cost plan
 Object statistics, column statistics and histogram, extended statistics, system
statistics, optimizer related parameter settings, optimizer bug fixes, bind variable
values, etc.
 SQL statement is uniquely identified by a SQL_ID starting Oracle 10g
• For various reasons, including DB Upgrade, the execution plan of a SQL can change
and can lead to a sub-optimal execution plan and slower performance
• When a SQL uses bad performing execution plan, we need a way to control it
 Using a SQL Plan Baseline of SPM feature is one such option

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SQL Plan Management (SPM) in 19c
• SPM feature was introduced in Oracle 11g
• Only a small set of SQLs may regress over time in same release or
when Database is upgraded to a newer version like 19c
• SPM uses a mechanism called SQL Plan Baseline using three steps:
• Plan Capture
• Plan Selection
• Plan Evolution
• SQL Plan Baseline captures one or more execution plans of a SQL_ID
• SPM has been enhanced to store Execution Plans starting 12c for plan
comparison when the baseline plans cannot reproduce any more

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SQL Plan Management (SPM) in 19c

• SPM is not the only method available to provide plan stability for
a SQL statement
• DBA_SQL_PLAN_BASELINES view uses SIGNATURE but not all
views have Signature column in them
 GV$SQL has SIGNATURE while DBA_HIST_SQLTEXT does not have it
 SQL_ID is universally used to uniquely identify a SQL in AWR reports, etc.
 You may have to generate SIGNATURE value from SQL Text in some cases
 Same plan can be used by multiple similar SQLs with bind variables if they
generate the same SIGNATURE

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Plan Stability Methods in 19c Enterprise Edition (EE)

• Plan stability options in Oracle 19c EE:

 SQL Plan Management (SPM) - Preferred SQL plan stability method
 CoE Profile (or Custom SQL Profile)
 Stored Outline
 Add optimizer hints non-invasively using SPM
 Add optimizer hints directly in the SQL (invasive method)
• Avoid adding hints explicitly as much as possible
• SPM and CoE Profile DO NOT WORK for an application
generating dynamic SQLs (which create different SQL_IDs)
for similar SQLs

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Plan Stability Methods in 19c Standard Edition (SE2)

• Use Stored Outline in 18c or 19c Standard Edition and higher

release
• Add Optimizer Hints in the SQL directly
• A single SQL Plan Baseline is allowed in Oracle 18c and 19c
Standard Editions (SE2 or DBCS SE)
• You cannot use SQL Profile or CoE Profile in Oracle Standard
Editions

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Limitations of Stored Outline for Plan Stability in 19c

• Stored Outline is deprecated in 12c and higher version

• Advantage: Provides plan stability in Standard Edition(SE2)/Enterprise Edition (EE)
• Disadvantage: Stored Outlines cannot evolve over time like SQL Plan Baselines
• Migrate it as a single SQL Plan Baseline starting 18c and in 19c
• Only ONE SQL Plan Baseline supported in SE2/DBCS SE databases starting 18c
• Only one Stored Outline can be active at any time
• Multiple outlines can be created for a SQL_ID but only one can be used at a time
• Each stored outline must be stored under a different category
• Category is set using sqltune_category = DEFAULT (by default)

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SQL Profile as a Plan Stability Method in 19c
- It is not a real plan stability method
• A misunderstood feature by a lot of people
• A row estimate corrector to try to get to a better performing plan
• Generated using SQL Tuning Advisor (STA) Tool
• Becomes ineffective over time because of data changes in related objects
• Each SQL Profile is used for a specific SQL statement (SQL_ID)
• Used at Hard Parse time and affects costing of the SQL
• Should be used for a short term workaround
• Plan on using a long term Plan Stability method (SPM or CoE Profile)
• Do not enable a SQL Profile if using SPM or CoE Profile for plan stability

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SQL Profile – an Example
- Note the OPT_ESTIMATE hints with SCALE_ROWS= values in a SQL Profile

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CoE Profile as a Plan Stability Method in 19c
- Alternative method when SPM is not working

• Developed when Oracle 10g was released by Center of

Expertise (CoE )
• Father of SQL Plan Management (SPM) feature
• Available from Oracle 10g to 19c and higher
• Provides plan stability of a SQL when it is regressing with
multiple execution plans
• Very easy to move CoE Profiles from one database to another
• Uses Stored Outline Hints behind the scene
• Do not enable SQL Profile (costing implication) when using
CoE Profile
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CoE Profile as a Plan Stability Method in 19c

• Step#1 – Create a CoE Profile Script in Source Database:

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CoE Profile as a Plan Stability Method in 19c

• Step#2 – Implement the CoE Profile in Destination Database:

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CoE Profile as a Plan Stability Method in 19c
- Sample Execution plan using a CoE Profile

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CoE Profile as a Plan Stability Method in 19c

• To stop using a CoE Profile, either Disable or Drop it:

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SQL Plan Management (SPM) for Plan Stability in 19c

• SPM allows the Cost-based optimizer to use an optimal execution

plan and to stop performance regression (Set Enabled=YES,
Accepted=YES)
• Set Enabled=YES, Accepted=YES, Fixed=YES to use one of the
baseline plans as the preferred execution plan
• Allows execution plan to evolve over time
• Helps to use a set of baseline plans after verifying that those plans
will not cause performance regression
• If hints in SPM baseline become invalid and the plan is not 100%
reproducible, it will use another baseline (if available) or use the
current best cost plan generated by the optimizer

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SQL Plan Management (SPM) for Plan Stability in 19c

• Methods available to create SQL Plan Baselines (Plan Capture):

1. Set optimizer_capture_sql_plan_baselines = TRUE (default FALSE)
 Preferably at session level to capture repeatable SQLs and their execution plans
2. Capture SQL Plan Baselines from Cursor Cache memory of database SGA
3. Capture baselines from AWR repository
4. Capture it from SQL Tuning Set
5. Pack/Unpack SQL Plan Baselines from one database to another
• Method to use a SQL Plan Baseline for a SQL (Plan Selection):
 Set optimizer_use_sql_plan_baselines = TRUE (by default)
• SPM is not supported for a Distributed SQL as of Oracle 19c

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 Capture baselines from AWR repository – Example

• Use LOAD_PLANS_FROM_AWR to capture it from AWR repository:

• Run the SQL and verify if the Baseline is being used or not:

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 Capture baselines from AWR repository – Example

• Display the Baseline Plan to get more details of the plan:

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SQL Plan Management (SPM) for Plan Stability in 19c

• Example of captured plans for a SQL:

• Enabled and Accepted flags must be set to YES before a baseline can be
considered by the optimizer
• You can have multiple baselines as Accepted for a SQL_ID
• Origin shows how the baseline was captured
• A bit tricky to join DBA_SQL_PLAN_BASELINES with DBA_HIST_SQLTEXT
• Need to generate SIGNATURE from SQL_TEXT

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SQL Plan Management (SPM) for Plan Stability in 19c

• Example of SPM usage for a SQL statement:

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Configuring SQL Plan Management (SPM) in 19c

• Use DBMS_SPM.CONFIGURE to change default configurations for SPM

baseline captures
• Add filters about which SQLs to capture as baselines, for example
• Use other DBMS_SPM APIs to manage different aspects of SQL Plan Baselines
• Automatic SQL Plan Management is a new Feature in 19c
• ALTERNATE_PLAN_SOURCE= AUTO
• ALTERNATE_PLAN_BASELINE= AUTO (default EXISTING in 19.4)
• Adjust task parameters using DBMS_SPM.SET_EVOLVE_TASK_PARAMETER()
• Auto task SYS_AUTO_SPM_EVOLVE_TASK helps to capture the baseline plans

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SPM Evolve Task Parameters in different DB Versions
- Note the values for ALTERNATE_* parameters in 19c versus 18c

• SPM Evolve Task Parameter value differences by database versions:

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Reasons why SPM is not used by a SQL

• Change in table definition

• Change in index definition (adding more columns to an existing index, for
example)
• Unusable indexes
• Making an index INVISIBLE
• Inadvertent dropping of indexes (based on non-usage of indexes, for
example)
• A known bug
• Potential bug (will need reproducible testcase and further debugging to
determine it)

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SQL Quarantine feature in Oracle 19c

• It is a new feature in Oracle 19c

• Helps application SQLs avoid using same bad plan over and over again
• Prevents causing overall performance problem in the system
• Compliments SPM to help with further plan stability of a SQL statement
• DBMS_SQLQ package is used to manage quarantined plans for SQLs
• Automatically adds a bad execution plan to be quarantined for a SQL_ID
when Resource Manager limits are exceeded
• Manually add an execution plan for a SQL_ID to be quarantined, as needed
• Drop quarantined plan (Quarantine_Name) when it not needed any more

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SQL Quarantine feature in 19c

• Move quarantined plans from one database to another using DBMS_SQLQ package
• Add a SQL by SQL_ID or by SQL Text to quarantine a bad plan
• Add a PLAN_HASH_VALUE of a SQL_ID to quarantine
• Use DBMS_SQLQ.ALTER_QUARANTINE to adjust quarantine thresholds for an
execution

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SQL Quarantine feature in 19c

• To verify the plan_hash_value added in DBA_SQL_QUARANTINE view:

• To drop and verify dropping of the quarantined execution plan:

• Disable a plan hash value instead of dropping it right away using

ALTER_QUARANTINE of DBMS_SQLQ package

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SQL Quarantine feature in 19c – Final comments

• “ORA-56955: quarantined plan used” error if a SQL tries to use a

quarantined plan
• Hint /*+ QUARANTINE(ELAPSED_TIME=4294967295) */ always
quarantines a SQL and its plan even if related plan or SQL text not in
DBA_SQL_QUARANTINE view
• Restriction: SQL Quarantine feature in 19c works only in on-premise
Oracle Engineered Systems and Exadata Cloud Services (ExaCS) at this
time
• There is an undocumented way to test the feature in Oracle 19c EE
version
• Set "_exadata_feature_on"= TRUE and restart the database
• This feature is similar to how a SQL_ID and its plan can be quarantined
in Exadata Cell Servers
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Reference Documents

• Oracle 19c Database Licensing Information User Manual

• Bug 28945421 - Auto SPM Enhancements (Doc ID 28945421.8)
• Bug 29353271 - Auto Index SPM Evolve Task should not pass Irrelevant
Plans to Advisor Framework Iterator (Doc ID 29353271.8)
• How to Use SQL Plan Management (SPM) - Plan Stability Worked
Example (Doc ID 456518.1)
• Loading Hinted Execution Plans into SQL Plan Baseline. (Doc ID
787692.1)

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Q&A

Copyright © 2019 Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Thank You

Soumendra Paik

Senior Principal Technical Support Engineer

Oracle Support Services, DB Performance Team, USA