Carlos Sierra's Tools and Tips

Tools and Tips for Oracle Performance and SQL Tuning

Archive for the ‘Adaptive Cursor Sharing’ Category

Scripts to deal with SQL Plan Baselines, SQL Profiles and SQL Patches

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To mitigate SQL performance issues, I do make use of SQL Plan Baselines, SQL Profiles and SQL Patches, on a daily basis. Our environments are single-instance 12.1.0.2 CDBs, with over 2,000 PDBs. Our goal is Execution Plan Stability and consistent performance, over CBO plan flexibility. The CBO does a good job, considering the complexity imposed by current applications design. Nevertheless, some SQL require some help in order to enhance their plan stability.

I have written and shared a set of scripts that simply make the use of a bunch of APIs a lot easier, with better documented actions, and fully consistent within the organization. I have shared with the community these scripts in the past, and I keep them updated as per needs change. All these “CS” scripts are available under the download section on the right column.

Current version of the CS scripts is more like a toolset. You treat them as a whole. All of them call some other script that exists within the cs_internal subdirectory, then I usually navigate to the parent sql directory, and connect into SQL*Plus from there. All these scripts can be easily cloned and/or customized to your specific needs. They are available as “free to use” and “as is”. There is no requirement to keep their heading intact, so you can reverse-engineer them and make them your own if you want. Just keep in mind that I maintain, enhance, and extend this CS toolset every single day; so what you get today is a subset of what you will get tomorrow. If you think an enhancement you need (or a fix) is beneficial to the larger community (and to you), please let me know.

SQL Plan Baselines scripts

With the set of SQL Plan Baselines scripts, you can: 1) create a baseline based on a cursor or a plan stored into AWR; 2) enable and disable baselines; 3) drop baselines; 4) store them into a local staging table; 5) restore them from their local staging table; 6) promote as “fixed” or demote from “fixed”; 7) “zap” them if you have installed “El Zapper” (iod_spm).

Note: “El Zapper” is a PL/SQL package that extends the functionality of SQL Plan Management by automagically creating SQL Plan Baselines based on proven performance of a SQL statement over time, while considering a large number of executions, and a variety of historical plans. Please do not confuse “El Zapper” with auto-evolve of SPM. They are based on two very distinct premises. “El Zapper” also monitors the performance of active SQL Plan Baselines, and during an observation window it may disable a SQL Plan Baseline, if such plan no longer performs as “promised” (according to some thresholds). Most applications do not need “El Zapper”, since the use of SQL Plan Management should be more of an exception than a rule.

SQL Profiles scripts

With the set of SQL Profiles scripts, you can: 1) create a profile based on the outline of a cursor, or from a plan stored into AWR; 2) enable and disable profiles; 3) drop profiles; 4) store them into a local staging table; 5) restore them from their local staging table; 6) transfer them from one location to another (very similar to coe_xfr_sql_profile.sql, but on a more modular way).

Note: Regarding the transfer of a SQL Profile, the concept is simple: 1) on source location generate two plain text scripts, one that contains the SQL text, and a second that includes the Execution Plan (outline); 2) execute these two scripts on a target location, in order to create a SQL Profile there. The beauty of this method is not only that you can easily move Execution Plans between locations, but that you can actually create a SQL Profile getting the SQL Text from SQL_ID “A”, and the Execution Plan from SQL_ID “B”, allowing you to do things like: removing CBO Hints, or using a plan from a similar SQL but not quite the same (e.g. I can tweak a stand-alone cloned version of a SQL statement, and once I get the plan that I need, I associate the SQL Text from the original SQL, with the desired Execution Plan out of the stand-alone customized version of the SQL, after that I create a SQL Plan Baseline and drop the staging SQL Profile).

SQL Patches scripts

With the set of SQL Patches scripts, you can: 1) create a SQL patch based on one or more CBO Hints you provide (e.g.: GATHER_PLAN_STATISTICS MONITOR FIRST_ROWS(1) OPT_PARAM(‘_fix_control’ ‘5922070:OFF’) NO_BIND_AWARE); 2) enable and disable SQL patches; 3) drop SQL patches; 4) store them into a local staging table; 5) restore them from their local staging table.

Note: I use SQL Patches a lot, specially to embed CBO Hints that generate some desirable diagnostics details (and not so much to change plans), such as the ones provided by GATHER_PLAN_STATISTICS and MONITOR. In some cases, after I use the pathfinder tool written by Mauro Pagano, I have to disable a CBO patch (funny thing: I use a SQL Patch to disable a CBO Patch!). I also use a SQL Patch if I need to enable Adaptive Cursor Sharing (ACS) for one SQL (we disabled ACS for one major application). Bear in mind that SQL Plan Baselines, SQL Profiles and SQL Patches happily co-exist, so you can use them together, but I do prefer to use SQL Plan Baselines alone, whenever possible.

Written by Carlos Sierra

December 15, 2018 at 5:57 am

Adapting and adopting SQL Plan Management (SPM)

with 10 comments

Introduction

This post is about: “Adapting and adopting SQL Plan Management (SPM) to achieve execution plan stability for sub-second queries on a high-rate OLTP mission-critical application”. In our case, such an application is implemented on top of several Oracle 12c multi tenant databases, where a consistent average execution time is more valuable than flexible execution plans. We successfully achieved plan stability implementing a simple algorithm using PL/SQL calling DBMS_SPM public APIs.

Chart below depicts a typical case where the average performance of a large set of business-critical SQL statements suddenly degraded from sub-millisecond to 15 or 20ms, then beccome more stable around 3ms. Wide spikes are a typical trademark of an Execution Plan for one or more SQL statements flipping for some time. In order to produce a more consistent latency we needed to improve plan stability, and of course the preferred tool to achieve that on an Oracle database is SQL Plan Management.

Algorithm

We tested and ruled out adaptive SQL Plan Management, which is an excellent 12c new feature. But, due to the dynamics of this application, where transactional data shifts so fast, allowing this “adaptive SPM” feature to evaluate auto-captured plans using bind variable values captured a few hours earlier, rendered unfortunately false positives. These false positives “evolved” as execution plans that were numerically optimal for values captured (at the time the candidate plan was captured), but performed poorly when executed on “current” values a few hours later. Nevertheless, this 12c “adaptive SPM” new feature is worth exploring for other applications.

We adapted SPM so it would only generate SQL Plan Baselines on SQL that executes often, and that is critical for the business. The algorithm has some complexity such as candidate evaluation and SQL categorization; and besides SPB creation it also includes plan demotion and plan promotion. We have successfully implemented it in some PDBs and we are currently doing a rollout to entire CDBs. The algorithm is depicted on diagram on the left, and more details are included in corresponding presentation slides listed on the right-hand bar. I plan to talk about this topic on an international Oracle Users Group in 2018.

This algorithm is scripted into a sample PL/SQL package, which you can find on a subdirectory on my shared scripts. If you consider using this sample script for an application of your own, be sure you make it yours before attempting to use it. In other words: fully understand it first, then proceed to customize it accordingly and test it thoroughly.

Results

Chart below shows how average performance of business-critical SQL became more stable after implementing algorithm to adapt and adopt SPM on a pilot PDB. Not all went fine although: we had some outliers that required some tuning to the algorithm. Among challenges we faced: volatile data (creating a SPB when table was almost empty, then using it when table was larger); skewed values (create a SPB for non-popular value, then using it on a popular value); proper use of multiple optimal plans due to Adaptive Cursor Sharing (ACS); rejected candidates due to conservative initial restrictions on algorithm (performance per execution, number of executions, age of cursor, etc.)

Conclusion

If your OLTP application contains business critical SQL that executes at a high-rate, and where a spike on latency risks affecting SLAs, you may want to consider implementing SQL Plan Management. Consider then both: “adaptive SPM” if it satisfies your requirements, else build a PL/SQL library that can implement more complex logic for candidates evaluation and for SPBs maintenance. I do believe SPM works great, specially when you enhance its out-of-the-box functionality to satisfy your specific needs.

 

 

Written by Carlos Sierra

December 20, 2017 at 6:32 pm

Poor’s man script to summarize reasons WHY cursors are not shared

with 13 comments

Having a large number of child cursors can affect parsing performance as hinted by Abel Macias on his blog post about Diagnosis of a High Version Count (HVC). On his post, Abel also refers to a note on MOS which includes a script that dives into the reasons WHY our cursors are not getting shared. Then, for deep-dives in this area, I strongly suggest to read his post and use the referenced script provided at MOS.

Besides longer parse times, and potential library cache contention, manifested by some waits (such as on mutex), there is another side effect that may bite us: CBO may produce a different plan when a SQL statement is hard-parsed while creating a new child cursor. This latter side effect can be critical for transactional applications with SLA depending on very short latencies of some queries.

This post is about a poor’s man script, that with no installation whatsoever, it lists an aggregated summary of the reasons why our cursors are not shared, including child cursor counts and distinct SQL_IDs counts for each reason (see sample output below). I had to write such script since in our environments we cannot simply run diagnostics scripts that create objects in the database, such as the one provided by MOS.

   CURSORS    SQL_IDS REASON_NOT_SHARED
---------- ---------- -----------------------------
    226916       7826 ROLL_INVALID_MISMATCH
     29387        105 BIND_EQUIV_FAILURE
     21794       4027 HASH_MATCH_FAILED
     11588       2134 OPTIMIZER_MISMATCH
     11027        413 BIND_LENGTH_UPGRADEABLE
     11008        384 BIND_MISMATCH
     10125       2697 USE_FEEDBACK_STATS
      4540        109 OPTIMIZER_MODE_MISMATCH
      1652         72 PURGED_CURSOR
      1245         81 BIND_UACS_DIFF
      1062        316 LANGUAGE_MISMATCH
       771        103 LOAD_OPTIMIZER_STATS
       500         52 STATS_ROW_MISMATCH
       238         86 MV_QUERY_GEN_MISMATCH
        94          3 MULTI_PX_MISMATCH
        28          4 AUTH_CHECK_MISMATCH
        23          1 INSUFF_PRIVS

Once I get to see some reasons for not sharing, some responsible for a large number of child cursors (and distinct SQL_IDs), then I can search on MOS as Abel suggested. Ideally, if you are interested in plan stability, you may want to reduce the times the CBO is tasked to create a new child cursor (and potentially a new Execution Plan).

In output sample above, top in our list is ROLL_INVALID_MISMATCH, causing 226,916 child cursors in as many as 7,826 SQL statements. This particular reason for not sharing cursors is due to a persistent gathering of schema object statistics with the explicit request to invalidate cursors. Since we want to promote plan stability, we would need to suspend such aggressive gathering of CBO statistics and validate reason ROLL_INVALID_MISMATCH is reduced.

Anyways, free script used is below. Enjoy it!

*** edited *** a new version of the script is now available (below). Thanks to stewashton for his input.

-- sql_shared_cursor.sql
SET HEA OFF LIN 300 NEWP NONE PAGES 0 FEED OFF ECHO OFF VER OFF TRIMS ON TRIM ON TI OFF TIMI OFF SQLBL ON BLO . RECSEP OFF;
SPO all_reasons.sql
SELECT CASE WHEN ROWNUM = 1 THEN '( ' ELSE ', ' END||column_name
  FROM dba_tab_columns
 WHERE table_name = 'V_$SQL_SHARED_CURSOR'
   AND owner = 'SYS'
   AND data_type = 'VARCHAR2'
   AND data_length = 1
/
SPO OFF;
GET all_reasons.sql
I )
I )
I WHERE value = 'Y'
I GROUP BY reason_not_shared
I ORDER BY cursors DESC, sql_ids DESC, reason_not_shared
0 ( value FOR reason_not_shared IN 
0 FROM v$sql_shared_cursor UNPIVOT
0 SELECT COUNT(*) cursors, COUNT(DISTINCT sql_id) sql_ids, reason_not_shared
L
SET HEA ON NEWP 1 PAGES 30
PRO please wait
/
!rm all_reasons.sql

Written by Carlos Sierra

September 1, 2017 at 1:01 pm

Skipping ACS ramp-up using a SQL Patch

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As I prepare for one of my sessions at ODTUG Kscope14 I came across the typical situation of having a SQL for which I wanted to produce multiple optimal execution Plans on an 11g environment. As you may know, with Adaptive Cursor Sharing (ACS) this is possible and automatic, but the problem is that sometimes the ACS ramp-up process causes some suboptimal Execution Plans. If you want to skip this ACS ramp-up process, lets say for a SQL that is part of a business-critical transaction and which is known to have unstable Plans, then you may want to create a SQL Patch with the BIND_AWARE Hint. Maria Colgan explained this method on this blog post. What I present here is a script I use, so I can easily implement SQL Patches for some SQL where I just need to inject one or two CBO Hints, like this BIND_AWARE. I use SQL Profiles or SQL Plan Management when I need to provide CBO Hints that affect access paths or join order, but if I just need something like skipping ACS ramp-up or a Hint to produce a SQL Monitor report, then I’d rather use SQL Patch.

Script below asks for SQL_ID and for a short list of CBO Hints to include. By default it includes these 3: “GATHER_PLAN_STATISTICS MONITOR BIND_AWARE”. Execute this script connecting as SYS.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
-- File name:   sqlpch.sql
--
-- Purpose:     Create Diagnostics SQL Patch for one SQL_ID
--
-- Author:      Carlos Sierra
--
-- Version:     2013/12/28
--
-- Usage:       This script inputs two parameters. Parameter 1 the SQL_ID and Parameter 2
--              the set of Hints for the SQL Patch (default to GATHER_PLAN_STATISTICS 
--              MONITOR BIND_AWARE).
--
-- Example:     @sqlpch.sql f995z9antmhxn BIND_AWARE
--
--  Notes:      Developed and tested on 11.2.0.3 and 12.0.1.0
--             
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPO sqlpch.txt;
DEF def_hint_text = 'GATHER_PLAN_STATISTICS MONITOR BIND_AWARE';
SET DEF ON TERM OFF ECHO ON FEED OFF VER OFF HEA ON LIN 2000 PAGES 100 LONG 8000000 LONGC 800000 TRIMS ON TI OFF TIMI OFF SERVEROUT ON SIZE 1000000 NUMF "" SQLP SQL>;
SET SERVEROUT ON SIZE UNL;
COL hint_text NEW_V hint_text FOR A300;
SET TERM ON ECHO OFF;
PRO
PRO Parameter 1:
PRO SQL_ID (required)
PRO
DEF sql_id_1 = '&1';
PRO
PRO Parameter 2:
PRO HINT_TEXT (default: &&def_hint_text.)
PRO
DEF hint_text_2 = '&2';
PRO
PRO Values passed:
PRO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PRO SQL_ID   : "&&sql_id_1."
PRO HINT_TEXT: "&&hint_text_2." (default: "&&def_hint_text.")
PRO
SET TERM OFF ECHO ON;
SELECT TRIM(NVL(REPLACE('&&hint_text_2.', '"', ''''''), '&&def_hint_text.')) hint_text FROM dual;
WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE;

-- trim sql_id parameter
COL sql_id NEW_V sql_id FOR A30;
SELECT TRIM('&&sql_id_1.') sql_id FROM DUAL;

VAR sql_text CLOB;
VAR sql_text2 CLOB;
EXEC :sql_text := NULL;
EXEC :sql_text2 := NULL;

-- get sql_text from memory
DECLARE
  l_sql_text VARCHAR2(32767);
BEGIN -- 10g see bug 5017909
  FOR i IN (SELECT DISTINCT piece, sql_text
              FROM gv$sqltext_with_newlines
             WHERE sql_id = TRIM('&&sql_id.')
             ORDER BY 1, 2)
  LOOP
    IF :sql_text IS NULL THEN
      DBMS_LOB.CREATETEMPORARY(:sql_text, TRUE);
      DBMS_LOB.OPEN(:sql_text, DBMS_LOB.LOB_READWRITE);
    END IF;
    l_sql_text := REPLACE(i.sql_text, CHR(00), ' '); -- removes NUL characters
    DBMS_LOB.WRITEAPPEND(:sql_text, LENGTH(l_sql_text), l_sql_text); 
  END LOOP;
  -- if found in memory then sql_text is not null
  IF :sql_text IS NOT NULL THEN
    DBMS_LOB.CLOSE(:sql_text);
  END IF;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('getting sql_text from memory: '||SQLERRM);
    :sql_text := NULL;
END;
/

SELECT :sql_text FROM DUAL;

-- get sql_text from awr
DECLARE
  l_sql_text VARCHAR2(32767);
  l_clob_size NUMBER;
  l_offset NUMBER;
BEGIN
  IF :sql_text IS NULL OR NVL(DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(:sql_text), 0) = 0 THEN
    SELECT sql_text
      INTO :sql_text2
      FROM dba_hist_sqltext
     WHERE sql_id = TRIM('&&sql_id.')
       AND sql_text IS NOT NULL
       AND ROWNUM = 1;
  END IF;
  -- if found in awr then sql_text2 is not null
  IF :sql_text2 IS NOT NULL THEN
    l_clob_size := NVL(DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(:sql_text2), 0);
    l_offset := 1;
    DBMS_LOB.CREATETEMPORARY(:sql_text, TRUE);
    DBMS_LOB.OPEN(:sql_text, DBMS_LOB.LOB_READWRITE);
    -- store in clob as 64 character pieces 
    WHILE l_offset < l_clob_size
    LOOP
      IF l_clob_size - l_offset > 64 THEN
        l_sql_text := REPLACE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(:sql_text2, 64, l_offset), CHR(00), ' ');
      ELSE -- last piece
        l_sql_text := REPLACE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(:sql_text2, l_clob_size - l_offset + 1, l_offset), CHR(00), ' ');
      END IF;
      DBMS_LOB.WRITEAPPEND(:sql_text, LENGTH(l_sql_text), l_sql_text);
      l_offset := l_offset + 64;
    END LOOP;
    DBMS_LOB.CLOSE(:sql_text);
  END IF;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('getting sql_text from awr: '||SQLERRM);
    :sql_text := NULL;
END;
/

SELECT :sql_text2 FROM DUAL;
SELECT :sql_text FROM DUAL;

-- validate sql_text
BEGIN
  IF :sql_text IS NULL THEN
    RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20100, 'SQL_TEXT for SQL_ID &&sql_id. was not found in memory (gv$sqltext_with_newlines) or AWR (dba_hist_sqltext).');
  END IF;
END;
/

PRO generate SQL Patch for SQL "&&sql_id." with CBO Hints "&&hint_text."
SELECT loaded_versions, invalidations, address, hash_value
FROM v$sqlarea WHERE sql_id = '&&sql_id.' ORDER BY 1;
SELECT child_number, plan_hash_value, executions, is_shareable
FROM v$sql WHERE sql_id = '&&sql_id.' ORDER BY 1, 2;

-- drop prior SQL Patch
WHENEVER SQLERROR CONTINUE;
PRO ignore errors
EXEC DBMS_SQLDIAG.DROP_SQL_PATCH(name => 'sqlpch_&&sql_id.');
WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE;

-- create SQL Patch
PRO you have to connect as SYS
BEGIN
  SYS.DBMS_SQLDIAG_INTERNAL.I_CREATE_PATCH (
    sql_text    => :sql_text,
    hint_text   => '&&hint_text.',
    name        => 'sqlpch_&&sql_id.',
    category    => 'DEFAULT',
    description => '/*+ &&hint_text. */'
  );
END;
/

-- flush cursor from shared_pool
PRO *** before flush ***
SELECT inst_id, loaded_versions, invalidations, address, hash_value
FROM gv$sqlarea WHERE sql_id = '&&sql_id.' ORDER BY 1;
SELECT inst_id, child_number, plan_hash_value, executions, is_shareable
FROM gv$sql WHERE sql_id = '&&sql_id.' ORDER BY 1, 2;
PRO *** flushing &&sql_id. ***
BEGIN
  FOR i IN (SELECT address, hash_value
              FROM gv$sqlarea WHERE sql_id = '&&sql_id.')
  LOOP
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(i.address||','||i.hash_value);
    BEGIN
      SYS.DBMS_SHARED_POOL.PURGE (
        name => i.address||','||i.hash_value,
        flag => 'C'
      );
    EXCEPTION
      WHEN OTHERS THEN
        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(SQLERRM);
    END;
  END LOOP;
END;
/
PRO *** after flush ***
SELECT inst_id, loaded_versions, invalidations, address, hash_value
FROM gv$sqlarea WHERE sql_id = '&&sql_id.' ORDER BY 1;
SELECT inst_id, child_number, plan_hash_value, executions, is_shareable
FROM gv$sql WHERE sql_id = '&&sql_id.' ORDER BY 1, 2;

WHENEVER SQLERROR CONTINUE;
SET DEF ON TERM ON ECHO OFF FEED 6 VER ON HEA ON LIN 80 PAGES 14 LONG 80 LONGC 80 TRIMS OFF TI OFF TIMI OFF SERVEROUT OFF NUMF "" SQLP SQL>;
SET SERVEROUT OFF;
PRO
PRO SQL Patch "sqlpch_&&sql_id." will be used on next parse.
PRO To drop SQL Patch on this SQL:
PRO EXEC DBMS_SQLDIAG.DROP_SQL_PATCH(name => 'sqlpch_&&sql_id.');
PRO
UNDEFINE 1 2 sql_id_1 sql_id hint_text_2 hint_text
CL COL
PRO
PRO sqlpch completed.
SPO OFF;

 

 

Written by Carlos Sierra

June 19, 2014 at 5:14 pm

SQL using Literals instead of Binds. Are all Literals evil?

with 7 comments

Every so often I see systems where there is a good amount of SQL that uses Literals instead of Binds, and executes enough times to create a large number of Cursors. Is this a red flag? As many questions regarding performance, I would say the right answer is: it all depends.

Of course we want to use Binds instead of Literals in order to reduce the frequency of Hard Parses, and in turn reduce CPU consumption and space utilization in the Shared Pool. Does it mean we want to replace all Literals with Binds? Do we declare war on Literals? In my opinion, the answer is simply: NO.

If a SQL has a Predicate on a date column, or a key column, then I would expect the Number of Distinct Values (NDV) for such column to be high, and in some cases as high as the number of rows in the Table (unique values for example). In the other hand, if the Predicate is in one of those columns that denotes a code, like Process Type or Status, and the NDV is small, then I’d rather keep the Literal in place. Specially if the data in such column is skewed and I have (or plan to have) Histograms on it.

What do I propose?

  1. If the SQL is executed sporadically, then it does not matter (Literals or Binds).
  2. If the SQL executes frequently, and the Predicate in question is on a Column where the Number of Distinct Values (NDV) is high, then use a Bind instead of a Literal (for this Predicate).
  3. If the SQL executes frequently, and the Predicate in question is on a Column where the NDV is low, then use a Literal (for this Predicate). This assumes the NDV for these Literals is also small.
  4. Regardless if using a Literal or a Bind for a particular Predicate: If the data in a Column referenced by a Predicate is heavily skewed, gather Statistics with Histograms on this Column.

Follow-up question: When the NDV is high or low? The answer is also: it all depends. I personally prefer to see Literals if the NDV for this Column (and this Literal) is less than 10 (or so).

Why having Binds and Literals on same SQL is better than having all Binds?

If we have good set of CBO Statistics, and we have Histograms on skewed data, and we are using bind peeking, and we are on 11g, and Adaptive Cursor Sharing (ACS) is enabled, and we plan  using SQL Plan Management (SPM), then we are for a treat:

With all the “ands” above, by using Binds on predicates with high NDV and Literals in those with low NDV, then we will end up having a small number of different SQL_IDs for what we consider “the same SQL”. Each incarnation of this SQL could potentially have its own set of optimal Execution Plans created by ACS  and the CBO (by making use of Histograms on the data and Selectivity Profiles on ACS). Then, with the aid of SPM we could provide stability to those multiple optimal Execution Plans for each version of the SQL. That means that SQL Q1 with Literal L1 could have a different set of optimal plans than Q1 with Literals L2.

Conclusion

Replacing some Literals with Binds but not all Literals sounds like a lot of work, but actually the extra work may be worth the effort. In my opinion, the end result is  better if we replace most, but not all (as per proposal above). WHY? Even when ACS does a good job at finding multiple optimal plans for a SQL by using the selectivity of the predicates; by allowing a small number of cursors for the same SQL given the use of Literals in columns with low NDV, we are basically reducing the times we would have to execute a SQL with a sub-optimal plan due to current ACS ramp-up process. This extra granularity provided by a small number of incarnations of the “otherwise same SQL” could be crucial for tuning complex SQL or corner cases.

Written by Carlos Sierra

February 4, 2014 at 5:02 pm

Exadata Optimizations and SQLTXPLAIN Courses

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I will be delivering a couple of courses soon. One in January and the second in February. I will keep posting upcoming Training and Conferences on a new link at the right margin of this blog.

Exadata Optimizations Jan 13-14

This 2-days “Exadata Optimizations” course is for Developers and DBAs new to Exadata and in need to ramp-up quickly. As the name implies, its focus is on Exadata Optimizations. We talk about Smart Scans, Storage Indexes, Smart Flash Cache, Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC) and Parallel Execution (PX). This course is hands-on, with a fair amount of demos and labs.

SQLTXPLAIN (SQLT) Feb 20-21

This “SQL Tuning with SQLTXPLAIN” 2-days course shows how to use SQLT to actually do SQL Tuning. We go over the ying-yang of the CBO, meaning: Plan Flexibility versus Plan Stability. We use SQLT for labs and we also go over some real-life SQL Tuning cases. If you are currently using SQLT, you are welcome to bring a SQLT Report to class and we could review it there.

Conclusion

New year, new resolutions. I will be investing part of my time sharing knowledge through formal courses and conferences. These days it is hard to find the time and budget to keep our knowledge on the edge, but again and again I see that many of our daily struggles could be mitigated by some concise technical training. So I encourage you to add some training to your list of resolutions for this new year; or at the very least, to get and read some fresh books.

Happy New Year 2014!

Written by Carlos Sierra

December 27, 2013 at 1:24 pm

Speaking about SQLT XPLORE – The SQLT hidden child

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Next week I will be participating at the East Coast Oracle Users Group ECO. If you are not familiar with this Oracle Users Group you may want to check it out. It gathers close to 300 Oracle users, and every year it gets bigger and better. The environment is friendly, and I would say even cozy. There are 6 simultaneous tracks packed into 2 full days. Sometimes it is hard to decide which session to attend, but fortunately the diversity of topics usually reduces the choice to one or two (unless you are like me, and want to learn, and learn, and learn…)

Anyways, the schedule is here so you can check what is all about. If you decide to attend this year (next week), you can still register today and get a small discount using code SPEAKERVIP.

I will be speaking about two topics. One is about Adaptive Cursor Sharing, while the second is about SQLT XPLORE, which I call “the SQLT hidden child“. SQLT XPLORE is a stand-alone module inside SQLTXPLAIN (SQLT), but it does not require SQLT to be installed. This SQLT XPLORE uses brute force analysis in order to “discover” Execution Plans that may be elusive. Typical case is when you upgrade your database and your Execution Plan changed.

Stelios Charalambides writes about SQLT XPLORE in his book “Oracle SQL Tuning with Oracle SQLTXPLAIN“. In my session at ECO I will show some XPLORE samples, and will explain how to read its output. I am planing to do a live demo about executing this tool. And of course, all questions are welcomed!

I hope to see some familiar faces next week at ECO, and also to meet some new Oracle users and other speakers. Looking forward to speak at ECO next week!

Written by Carlos Sierra

October 31, 2013 at 7:50 am

Speaking at Oaktable World

with 6 comments

Some of you may not know what is the Oaktable.  I quote here a very precise description right from the Oaktable’s main page: <<< The OakTable network is a network for the Oracle scientist, who believes in better ways of administering and developing Oracle based systems. The network is an informal organisation, which will get together at various Oracle events. >>> To me, it is a lot more, since its members are a very collaborative bunch of smart and dedicated folks. A common denominator I have perceived so far is the honest desire to apply scientific methods to complex issues we encounter in the Oracle world. If you are serious about learning Oracle and its intricacies, you may want to do as I do:  “feast from the crumbles of the Oaktable“.

The Oaktable World is a conference that happens to coincide with OOW.  This year I have the honor to speak at Oaktable World. According to the agenda, I will speak on Tuesday, September 24 at 10am. My session is at the same time than Jonathan Lewis, thus I am prepared to speak to myself (unless lucky me you happen to not know who is JL). Anyways, I will be speaking about Adaptive Cursor Sharing (ACS) and how it actually works. I will do some live demos and my goal is that all participants (if any) can actually fully understand how and when ACS produces multiple optimal execution plans for a given SQL.

If you plan to attend any of the Oaktable World sessions, please be sure you register. Space is very limited.

I will be attending myself as many of the other Oaktable World sessions as I can, else I will be there at the Enkitec booth #501 in Moscone South in case you want to stop-by and say hello.

Written by Carlos Sierra

September 16, 2013 at 5:13 pm

SQL Tuning with SQLTXPLAIN 2-days Workshop

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SQLTXPLAIN is a SQL Tuning tool widely used by the Oracle community. Available through My Oracle Support (MOS) under document 215187.1, this free tool is available for download and use to anyone with MOS access. It has helped thousands of times to expedite the resolution of SQL Tuning issues, and many Oracle DBAs and Developers benefit of its use on a daily basis.

Stelios Charalambides has done an excellent job writing a book on this topic. In his book Stelios covers many aspects about SQLTXPLAIN and some related topics. I highly recommend to get a copy of this book if you want to learn more about SQLTXPLAIN. It is available at Amazon and many other retailers.

The new 2-days SQLTXPLAIN Workshop offered by Enkitec (an Oracle Platinum business partner and my employer) is a completely new course that interleaves “how to use effectively SQLTXPLAIN” with important and related SQL Tuning Topics such as Plan Flexibility and Plan Stability. This hands-on workshop offers participants the unique opportunity to fully understand the contents of SQLTXPLAIN and its vast output through an interactive session. About half the time is dedicated to short guided labs, while the other half uses presentations and demos. This workshop is packed with lots of content. It was a real challenge packaging so much info in only two days, but I am very pleased with the result. It became a 2-days intensive knowledge transfer hands-on workshop on SQLTXPLAIN and SQL Tuning!

The first session of this workshop is scheduled for November 7-8 in Dallas, Texas. I expect this pilot session to fill out fast. Other sessions and onsite ones will be offered during 2014. I hope to meet many of you face to face on November 7!

Oracle Queries are taking different Plans

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I recently saw a post with this title “Oracle Queries are taking different Plans” and since there was a lot of guessing I suggested to use SQLTXPLAIN and find there the root cause. For some reason or another the thread is still open after 20 days, and the guessing continues. Since the problem of “finding the root cause of a change on an execution plan” is old and still common, I decided to talk about it here.

In Oracle, execution plans do change for one SQL over time, that is a fundamental function of the Cost-based Optimizer (CBO). Not only is normal, but expected and desired in most circumstances. What is not desired, is when a SQL that had a good performing plan suddenly changes its plan to one that we consider sub-optimal in terms of performance. This should be the concern and focus. So WHY the CBO suddenly generates such a plan? The possible reasons are many but I enlist here the most common ones I can think of:

  • Schema object statistics changes
  • Small sample sizes when gathering CBO schema statistics (mostly on 10g)
  • Lack of statistics in some columns referenced by predicates
  • Inconsistent values of bind variables referenced by SQL
  • System wide changes like CBO parameters or system statistics
  • Index modifications including new and dropped indexes
  • Invalid or invisible indexes
  • Large SQL text with many predicates where several plans with similar cost are possible
  • Inconsistent ramp-up process of Adaptive Cursor Sharing (ACS)
  • SQL Profiles generated by the SQL Tuning Advisor (STA)
  • An index changing its blevel (for example from blevel 2 to 3)
  • Volatile values in some columns (for example value “Pending” exists in table column for a short time)
  • Asynchronous gathering of stats on volatile data instead of gathering right between load and consumption

The list above is not comprehensive. It only includes what came to my mind while writing it, so I may have forgotten several cases. And of course there are always some corner cases like special conditions activating uncommon heuristics, or simply hitting a CBO bug.

Guessing WHY a plan has changed is very time consuming and requires multiple queries to the metadata on the database. Since most of the metadata we are interested on is dynamic by nature, we base our guess work on an ever changing environment. Of course the root cause become elusive and we may give up for some time, or jump to false conclusions.

This is where SQLTXPLAIN (MOS 215187.1) or its younger and lighter sister SQLHC (MOS 1366133.1) come to the rescue. These free tools, specially SQLTXPLAIN (SQLT), capture the static and dynamic environment around the one SQL we want to analyze.

By having a consistent view of all elements affecting the execution plan, it becomes much easier to find the root cause of a plan change. And since SQLT also includes current and past details about parameters, statistics and bind variable values, we can even correlate those values to prior execution plans. So I encourage you to try SQLTXPLAIN on a SQL next time you are confronted by the old question: “WHY Oracle Queries are taking different Plans?”.

I am aware SQLTXPLAIN is intimidating. Its output is exuberant, but the point is that it includes what we need to find the root cause of most if not all SQL Tuning cases where a plan has changed.

I have presented this SQLT tool in several conferences during the past year or so. I think it is appropriate now to put together a 3 days workshop to master this tool… Just an idea at this time.