The AWR tables contain super-useful information about the time-series

execution plans for SQL statements and this repository can be used to
display details about the frequency of usage for table and indexes. This
article will expore these AWR tables and expose their secrets.

The AWR tables contain super-useful information about the time-series

execution plans for SQL statements and this repository can be used to
display details about the frequency of usage for table and indexes. This
article will expore these AWR tables and expose their secrets.

We have the following AWR tables for SQL tuning (Figure 1).

o dba_hist_sqlstat
o dba_hist_sql_summary
o dba_hist_sql_workarea
o dba_hist_sql_plan
o dba_hist_sql_workarea_histogram

These simple tables represent a revolution in Oracle SQL tuning and we

can now employ time-series techniques to optimizer SQL with better
results than ever before. Let's take a closer look at these views.

dba_hist_sqlstat

This view is very similar to the v$sql view but it contains important
SQL metrics for each snapshot. These include important delta (change)
information on disk reads and buffer gets, as well as time-series delta
information on application, I/O and concurrency wait times.

col c1 heading 'Begin|Interval|time' format a20

col c2 heading 'SQL|ID' format a13
col c3 heading 'Executions|Delta' format 9,999
col c4 heading 'Buffer|Gets|Delta' format 9,999

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col c5 heading 'Disk|Reads|Delta' format 9,999
col c6 heading 'IO Wait|Delta' format 9,999
col c7 heading 'Application|Wait|Delta' format 9,999
col c8 heading 'Concurrency|Wait|Delta' format 9,999
break on c1 skip 2
break on c2 skip 2
select begin_interval_time c1, sql_id c2, executions_delta c3,
buffer_gets_delta c4, disk_reads_delta c5, iowait_delta c6,
apwait_delta c7, ccwait_delta c8 from dba_hist_sqlstat natural join
dba_hist_snapshot order by c1, c2;

dba_hist_sql_plan

The dba_hist_sql_plan table contains time-series data about each object

(table, index, view) involved in the query. The important columns
include the cardinality, cpu_cost, io_cost and temp_space required for
the object.

The query below will show the main predicates involved for each object
component in a SQL execution plan:

col c1 heading 'Begin|Interval|time' format a20

col c2 heading 'SQL|ID' format a13
col c3 heading 'Object|Name' format a20
col c4 heading 'Search Columns' format 99
col c5 heading 'Cardinality' format 99
col c6 heading 'Access|Predicates' format a80
col c6 heading 'Filter|Predicates' format a80
break on c1 skip 2
break on c2 skip 2
select begin_interval_time c1, sql_id c2, object_name c3,
search_columns c4, cardinality c5, access_predicates c6,
filter_predicates c7 from dba_hist_sql_plan natural join
dba_hist_snapshot order by c1, c2;

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But there is lots more information in dba_hist_sql_plan that is useful.
The query below will extract importing costing information for all
objects involved in each query.

col c1 heading 'Begin|Interval|time' format a20

col c2 heading 'SQL|ID' format a13
col c3 heading 'Object|Name' format a20
col c4 heading 'Search Columns' format 9,999
col c5 heading 'Cardinality' format 9,999
col c6 heading 'Disk|Reads|Delta' format 9,999
col c7 heading 'Rows|Processed' format 9,999
break on c1 skip 2
break on c2 skip 2
select begin_interval_time c1, sql_id c2, object_name c3, bytes c4,
cpu_cost c5, io_cost c6, temp_space c7 from dba_hist_sql_plan
order by c1, c2;

Now that we see the important table structures lets examine how we can
get spectacular reports from this AWR data.

Viewing table and index access with AWR

One of the problems in Oracle9i was the single bit-flag that was used to
monitor index usage. You could set the flag with the "alter index xxx
monitoring usage" command, and see if the index was accessed by querying
the v$object_usage view.

The goal of any index access is to use the most selective index for a
query, the one that produces the smallest number of rows. The Oracle
data dictionary is usually quite good at this, but it is up to you to
define the index. Missing function-based indexes are a common source of
sub-optimal SQL execution because Oracle will not use an indexed column
unless the WHERE clause matches the index column exactly.

col c1 heading 'Begin|Interval|time' format a20

col c2 heading 'SQL|ID' format a13
col c3 heading 'Object|Name' format a20
col c4 heading 'Search Columns' format 999,999
col c5 heading 'Cardinality' format 999,999
col c6 heading 'Disk|Reads|Delta' format 999,999

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col c7 heading 'Rows|Processed' format 999,999
break on c1 skip 2
break on c2 skip 2
select begin_interval_time c1, sql_id c2, object_name c3,
search_columns c4, cardinality c5, disk_reads_delta c6,
rows_processed_delta c7 from dba_hist_sql_plan natural join
dba_hist_snapshot natural join dba_hist_sqlstat;

You can also use the dba_hist_sql_plan table to gather counts about the
frequency of participation of objects inside queries.

col c1 heading 'Begin|Interval|time' format a20

col c2 heading 'SQL|ID' format a13
col c3 heading 'Object|Name' format a20
col c4 heading 'Object|Count' format 999,999
break on c1 skip 2
break on c2 skip 2
select to_char(begin_interval_time,'yyyy-mm-dd HH24') c1, sql_id
c2, object_name c3, count(*) c4 from dba_hist_sql_plan natural join
dba_hist_snapshot group by to_char(begin_interval_time,'yyyy-mm-dd
HH24'), sql_id, object_name;

Here we can see the average SQL invocations for every database object,
averaged by hour-of-the day or day-of-the-week. Understanding the SQL
signature can be extremely useful for determining what objects to place
in your KEEP pool, and to determining the most active tables and indexes
in your database.

col c1 heading 'Begin|Interval|time' format a20

col c2 heading 'Object|Name' format a20
col c3 heading 'Search Columns' format 999,999
col c4 heading 'Disk|Reads|Delta' format 999,999
col c5 heading 'Rows|Processed' format 999,999
col c6 heading 'Access|Predicates' format a200
col c7 heading 'Filter|Predicates' format a200

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break on c1 skip 2
select begin_interval_time c1, object_name c2, search_columns c3,
disk_reads_delta c4, rows_processed_delta c5, access_predicates c6,
filter_predicates c7 from dba_hist_sql_plan natural join
dba_hist_snapshot natural join dba_hist_sqlstat;

The new access_predicates and filter_predicates columns are very useful

because we no longer need to parse-out the WHERE clause of each SQL
statement to see the access and filtering criteria for the SQL
statements.

Counting object usage inside SQL

In Oracle10g we can easily see what indexes are used, when they are used
and the context where they are used. Here is a simple AWR query to plot
index usage:

col c1 heading 'Begin|Interval|time' format a20

col c2 heading 'Search Columns' format 999,999
col c2 heading 'Invocation|Count' format a20
break on c1 skip 2
select begin_interval_time c1, count(*) c3 from dba_hist_sqltext
natural join dba_hist_snapshot where tolower(sql_text) like
tolower('%cust_name_idx%');

index_usage_hr.sql
This will produce an output like this, showing a summary count of all
indexes used during the snapshot interval.

Conclusion

Oracle SQL tuning is constantly different. As the data changes, Oracle

must be able to accommodate the changes with new execution plans. AWR
now provides complete time-series SQL execution data and further
research is sure to find exciting new ways to tune SQL as the data
changes over time.

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