Oracle Database Problem Solving and Troubleshooting Handbook

An Expert Guide for Solving Complex Oracle Database Problems   Oracle Database Problem Solving and Troubleshooting Handbook delivers comprehensive, practical, and up-to-date advice for running the Oracle Database reliably and efficiently in complex production environments. Seven leading Oracle experts have brought together an unmatched collection of proven solutions, hands-on examples, and step-by-step tips for Oracle Database 12c, 11g, and other recent versions of Oracle Database. Every solution is crafted to help experienced Oracle DBAs and DMAs understand and fix serious problems as rapidly as possible.   The authors cover LOB segments, UNDO tablespaces, high GC buffer wait events, poor query response times, latch contention, indexing, XA distributed transactions, RMAN backup/recovery, and much more. They also offer in-depth coverage of a wide range of topics, including DDL optimization, VLDB tuning, database forensics, adaptive cursor sharing, data pumps, data migration, SSDs, indexes, and how to go about fixing Oracle RAC problems.   Learn how to Choose the quickest path to solve high-impact problems Use modern best practices to make your day more efficient and predictable Construct your “Call 9-1-1 plan” for future database emergencies Proactively perform maintenance to improve your environment’s stability Save time with industry-standard tools and scripts Register your product at informit.com/register for convenient access to downloads, updates, and corrections as they become available.

Table of Contents:
Preface xix Acknowledgments xxi About the Authors xxv About the Technical Reviewers and Contributors xxix   Chapter 1: Troubleshooting and Tuning LOB Segment Performance 1 Introduction to the LOB Datatype 1 BASICFILE versus SECUREFILE LOBs 8 The Impact of PCTFREE on LOBs 14 Overcoming Poor INSERT Performance 17 Summary 17   Chapter 2:  Overcoming Undo Tablespace Corruption 19 Overview of Undo Management 19 DTP, XA, and Rollback Segments 22 Recovering from Undo Tablespace Corruption 24 Summary 32   Chapter 3: Handling GC Buffer Busy Wait Events 35 Overview of Buffer Busy Wait Events 35 Leveraging the ORAchk Utility 36 Isolating GC Buffer Busy Waits 40 Isolating GC Buffer Busy Wait Event Issues 45 Fixes for GC Buffer Busy Waits 49 Summary 50   Chapter 4: Adaptive Cursor Sharing 51 ACS Working Algorithm 52 ACS in Action 58 ACS Bind-Awareness Monitoring 61 The Bind-Aware Cursor 73 A Practical Case 76 Summary 81   Chapter 5: Stabilizing Query Response Time Using SQL Plan Management 83 Getting Started 83 Creating a SQL Plan Baseline 87 Faking Baselines 92 Oracle Optimizer and SPM Interaction 96 SQL Plan Baseline Reproducibility 108 NLS_SORT and SQL Plan Baseline Reproducibility 114 ALL_ROWS versus FIRST_ROWS 117 Adaptive Cursor Sharing and SPM 122 Summary 131   Chapter 6: DDL Optimization Tips, Techniques, and Tricks 133 DLL Optimization Concept 133 The DDL Optimization Mechanism 136 DDL Optimization for NULL Columns 147 Summary 152   Chapter 7: Managing, Optimizing, and Tuning VLDBs 153 Overview of Very Large Databases 153 Optimal Basic Confi guration 154 VLDB Performance Tuning Principles 162 Gathering Optimizer Statistics 166 Backup and Recovery Best Practices 170 Summary 172   Chapter 8: Best Practices for Backup and Recovery with Recovery Manager 173 A Perfect Backup and Recovery Plan 173 An Overview of RMAN 174 Tips for Database Backup Strategies 175 Validating RMAN Backups 186 Backup Optimization and Tuning 187 Using RMAN for RAC Databases 189 Retaining Data in a Recovery Catalog 191 Having a Robust Recovery Strategy 192 Leveraging the Data Recovery Advisor 193 Summary 194   Chapter 9: Database Forensics and Tuning Using AWR Analysis: Part I 197 What Is AWR? 197 Knowing What to Look For 199 Header Section 199 RAC-Specific Pages 208 Time Model Statistics 211 Operating System Statistics 212 The SQL Sections 217 Instance Activity Statistics 221 Summary 233   Chapter 10: Database Forensics and Tuning Using AWR Analysis: Part II 235 Tablespace I/O Statistics 235 Buffer Pool Statistics 237 PGA Statistics 240 Shared Pool Statistics 244 Other Advisories 245 Buffer Waits Statistics 247 Enqueue Statistics 248 Undo Segment Statistics 250 Latch Statistics 251 Segment Access Areas 255 Library Cache Activity Sections 257 Dynamic Memory Components Sections 260 Process Memory Sections 262 Streams Component Sections 264 Resource Limits Statistics 266 Initialization Parameter Changes 267 Global Enqueue and Other RAC Sections 268 Summary 273   Chapter 11: Troubleshooting Problematic Scenarios in RAC 275 Troubleshooting and Tuning RAC 276 A Well-Oiled RAC Ecosystem 279 Troubleshooting RAC with OEM 12c 282 Utilities and Commands for Troubleshooting 283 Summary 288   Chapter 12: Leveraging SQL Advisors to Analyze and Fix SQL Problems 289 OEM 12c—SQL Advisors Home 290 SQL Tuning Advisor 290 SQL Access Advisor 295 SQL Repair Advisor 300 SQL Performance Analyzer 301 Summary 302   Chapter 13: Extending Data Pump for Data and Object Migration 303 Using Data Pump 303 Working with Private and Public Objects 306 Finding Valid INCLUDE and EXCLUDE Values 309 Exporting Subsets of Data 310 Changing Object Properties 313 Using PL/SQL API with Data Pump 317 Monitoring and Altering Resources 319 Improving Performance 320 Upgrading Databases 321 Summary 322   Chapter 14: Strategies for Migrating Data Quickly between Databases 323 Why Bother Migrating? 324 Determining the Best Strategy 324 Considering What Data to Migrate 326 Data Migration Methods 327 Summary 352   Chapter 15: Diagnosing and Recovering from TEMPFILE I/O Issues 353 Overview of Temporary Tablespaces 353 Correcting TEMPFILE I/O Waits 359 Summary 365   Chapter 16: Dealing with Latch and Mutex Contention 367 Overview of Latch and Mutex Architecture 367 Measuring Latch and Mutex Contention 371 Latch and Mutex Scenarios 375 Intractable Latch Contention 383 Summary 385   Chapter 17: Using SSDs to Solve I/O Bottlenecks 387 Disk Technologies: SSD versus HDD 388 The Oracle Database Flash Cache 395 Comparing SSD Options 402 Storage Tiering 410 Flash and Exadata 414 Summary 418   Chapter 18: Designing and Monitoring Indexes for Optimal Performance 421 Types of Indexes 421 Multiple Indexes on Identical Columns 431 Index Performance Issues 432 Summary 442   Chapter 19: Using SQLT to Boost Query Performance 445 Installing SQLT 446 Using the XTRACT Method 447 Using the XECUTE Method 448 Leveraging Other SQLT Methods 451 A Real-World Example 452 Summary 453   Chapter 20: Dealing with XA Distributed Transaction Issues 455 Repairing Common Distributed Transaction Issues 456 Repairing Ghost Distributed Transactions 457 Monitoring Distributed Transactions 462 Summary 464   Index 465

About the Author :
Tariq Farooq is an Oracle technologist, architect, and problem-solver and has been working with various Oracle Technologies for more than twenty-four years in very complex environments at some of the world’s largest organizations. Having presented at almost every major Oracle conference/event all over the world, Tariq is an award-winning speaker, community leader/organizer, author, forum contributor, and tech blogger. He is the founding president of the IOUG Virtualization & Cloud Computing Special Interest Group and the BrainSurface social network for the various Oracle communities. Tariq founded, organized, and chaired various Oracle conferences, including, among others, the OTN Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Tour, VirtaThon—the largest online-only conference for the various Oracle domains, the CloudaThon & RACaThon series of conferences, and the first-ever Oracle-centric conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2011. He was the founder and anchor/show host of the VirtaThon Internet Radio series program. Tariq is an Oracle RAC Certified Expert and holds a total of 14 professional Oracle certifications. Having authored more than one-hundred articles, whitepapers, and other publications, Tariq is the coauthor of the Expert Oracle RAC 12c (Apress, 2013), Oracle Exadata Expert’s Handbook (Addison-Wesley, 2015), and Building Database Clouds in Oracle 12c (Addison-Wesley, 2016) Oracle books. Tariq has been awarded the Oracle ACE and ACE Director awards. Mike Ault began working with computers in 1980—following a six-year Navy enlistment in the Nuclear Navy riding submarines—programming in Basic and Fortran IV on the PDP-11 architecture in the nuclear industry. During Mike’s nuclear years he worked with PDP, IBM-PC, Osborne, and later VAX-VMS and HP architectures, as well as with the Informix and Ingres databases. Following the downturn in the nuclear industry, Mike began working with Oracle as the only DBA at the Luka, Mississippi–based Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) project for NASA in 1990. Since 1990, Mike has worked with a variety of industries using Oracle both in-house and as a consulting talent. Mike got extensive Flash experience as the Oracle Guru for Texas Memory Systems. Mike transitioned to IBM as the Oracle Guru for the STG Flash group when IBM purchased TMS in 2012. Mike has published over two dozen Oracle-related books, including the 7.0, 8.0, 8i and 9i versions of his Oracle Administration and Management with Wiley, the “Oracle8 Black Book” and “Oracle DBA OCP Exam Cram” series (for versions 8 and 8i) with Coriolis, and multiple titles including Oracle9i RAC and Oracle10g Grid & Real ApplicationClusters with Rampant Technical Press. Mike has written articles for Oracle, Select, DBMS, Oracle Internals, and several other database-related magazines. Mike is also a highly sought-after keynote speaker and expert instructor for local, regional, and international Oracle conferences, such as GOUSERS, SEOUG, RMOUG, NYOUG, NCOUG, IOUG, OOW, ODTUG, UKOUG, and EOUG. Paulo Portugal has more than fifteen years of IT experience as an Oracle DBA. He is an Oracle Certified Master 11g; an Oracle Certified Professional (9i, 10g, 11g, and 12c); an Oracle RAC 10g and 11g Certified Specialist; an Oracle DBA 10g Certified Linux Administrator; Oracle Exadata Implementation Certified; IBM DB2 Certified (8 and 9 “Viper”); an Oracle GoldenGate 10 Certified Implementation Specialist; an Oracle Enterprise Manager Certified Implementation Specialist; and an Oracle 11i Applications Database Administrator Certified Professional. Paulo is the author of the Rampant “Advanced DBMS Packages” and many articles in blogs and some magazines and websites. Paulo has maintained a regular presence on the Oracle conference and speaking circuit: Oracle Open World—San Francisco (2005, 2006, 2011, and 2013); IBM Information on Demand—Los Angeles (2006); Burleson Oracle RAC Cruise (2009); and Oracle Training in Reading—United Kingdom (2011). Currently, Paulo works as an Oracle sales consultant for Oracle Brazil. Paulo has participated in the Oracle Beta Test 11i project using Data Guard and is a specialist in high Availability tools such as Oracle Data Guard, Oracle Streams, Oracle GoldenGate, and Oracle RAC. Mohamed Houri has a Ph.D. in fluid mechanics (scientific computing) from the University of Aix–Marseille II, preceded by an engineer diploma in aeronautics. He has been working around the Oracle database for more than fourteen years for different European customers as an independent Oracle consultant specializing in tuning and troubleshooting Oracle performance problems. Mohamed has also worked with the Naval Architect Society of Japan on the analysis of tsunamis and breaking waves using a powerful signal analysis called Wavelet Transform. He maintains an Oracle blog and is active in the Oracle Worldwide forum and in the French equivalent. He tweets about Oracle topics at @MohamedHouri. Syed Jaffar Hussain is an Oracle Database expert with more than twenty years of IT experience. For more than a year, he has been involved with several local and large-scale international banks where he implements and manages highly complex cluster and Exadata environments with hundreds of business-critical databases. Oracle awarded him the prestigious Best DBA of the Year and Oracle ACE Director status in 2011. He also acquired industry-best Oracle credentials, Oracle Certified Master (OCM), Oracle RAC Expert, OCP DBA 8i, 9i, 10g, and 11g, in addition to ITIL expertise. Syed is an active Oracle speaker who regularly presents technical sessions and webinars at many Oracle events. You can visit his technical blog at http://jaffardba.blogspot.com. In addition to being part of the core technical review committee for Oracle technology–oriented books, he coauthored Oracle 11g R1/R2 Real Application Clusters Essentials (Packt Publishing, 2011), Expert Oracle RAC 12c (Apress, 2013), and Oracle Exadata Expert’s Handbook (Addison-Wesley, 2015). Jim Czuprynski is an Oracle ACE Director with more than thirty-five years of experience in information technology, serving diverse roles at several Fortune 1000 companies in those three-plus decades—mainframe programmer, applications developer, business analyst, and project manager—before becoming an Oracle DBA in 2001.      In his current role as a strategic solutions consultant for OnX Enterprise Solutions, he focuses on providing his expertise to help customers understand how to best leverage Oracle technology to solve their most difficult IT challenges. As a senior Oracle University instructor, Jim has taught Oracle core technologies, Exadata, and GoldenGate to more than two-thousand Oracle DBAs since 2005. He was selected as Oracle Education Partner Instructor of the Year in 2009.      Jim’s most recent book, Oracle Database Upgrade, Migration & Transformation Tips & Techniques (McGraw-Hill Education, 2015), takes a nitty-gritty approach to tackling the best ways to migrate, transform, and upgrade Oracle databases to 12c, Exadata, and beyond. Jim continues to write a steady stream of articles that focus on the myriad facets of Oracle database administration, with more than one-hundred articles to his credit since 2003 at databasejournal.com and ioug.org. Jim’s blog, Generally . . . It Depends, contains his regular observations on all things Oracle. Jim is also a sought-after public speaker on Oracle Database technology features. Since 2008, he has presented topics at Oracle OpenWorld, IOUG’s COLLABORATE, Hotsos Symposium, Oracle Technology Network ACE Tours, and Oracle User Group conferences around the world. Guy Harrison is an executive director of research and development at Dell Software, where he oversees the development of database tools such as Toad and Shareplex. Guy is the author of six books on database technology, including Next Generation Databases (Apress, 2015), O racle Performance Survival Guide (Prentice Hall, 2010), and MySQL Stored Procedure Programming (O’Reilly, 2006). He also writes the “Big Data notes” column for Database Trends and Applications (dbta.com). Guy can be found on the Internet at www.guyharrison.net, and at @guyharrison on Twitter.