26performancetuningquestionsandsolutions,#110

Ihave11/2yearsexperienceasaDBAandIhaveaninterviewnextweek.Whatarethetopperformance
questions...

tobeawareof?

Thefollowinglistincludesquestions1through10.Clickfor11through19or20through26.
IhaveanoldlistoftuningquestionsthatIfoundontheWeb,perhapssomemaybehelpful.Eachquestionis
followedbythelevel(low,intermediate,high)ofdifficultyandexpectedanswer.

MoreonOracleperformancetuning

ImproveyouOraclehardwareperformancewiththisehandbook

CheckoutthisarticleonquerytuningforbeginnerDBAs

FindoutwhatOracledatabasequeriestotuneandwhentoindex

1.Atablespacehasatablewith30extentsinit.Isthisbad?Whyorwhynot?
Level:Intermediate
Expectedanswer:Multipleextentsinandofthemselvesaren'tbad.Howeverifyoualsohavechainedrowsthis
canhurtperformance.

2.HowdoyousetuptablespacesduringanOracleinstallation?
Level:Low
Expectedanswer:YoushouldalwaysattempttousetheOracleFlexibleArchitecturestandardoranother
partitioningschemetoensureproperseparationofSYSTEM,ROLLBACK,REDOLOG,DATA,TEMPORARY
andINDEXsegments.

3.YouseemultiplefragmentsintheSYSTEMtablespace,whatshouldyoucheckfirst?
Level:Low
Expectedanswer:Ensurethatusersdon'thavetheSYSTEMtablespaceastheirTEMPORARYorDEFAULT
tablespaceassignmentbycheckingtheDBA_USERSview.

4.WhataresomeindicationsthatyouneedtoincreasetheSHARED_POOL_SIZEparameter?
Level:Intermediate
Expectedanswer:Poordatadictionaryorlibrarycachehitratios,gettingerrorORA04031.Anotherindicationis
steadilydecreasingperformancewithallothertuningparametersthesame.

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Content
5.Whatisthegeneralguidelineforsizingdb_block_sizeanddb_multi_block_readforanapplicationthatdoes
manyfulltablescans?
Level:High
Expectedanswer:Oraclealmostalwaysreadsin64kchunks.Thetwoshouldhaveaproductequalto64ora
multipleof64.

6.Whatisthefastestquerymethodforatable?
Level:Intermediate
Expectedanswer:Fetchbyrowid

7.ExplaintheuseofTKPROF?WhatinitializationparametershouldbeturnedontogetfullTKPROFoutput?
Level:High
Expectedanswer:ThetkproftoolisatuningtoolusedtodeterminecpuandexecutiontimesforSQL
statements.Youuseitbyfirstsettingtimed_statisticstotrueintheinitializationfileandthenturningontracing
foreithertheentiredatabaseviathesql_traceparameterorforthesessionusingtheALTERSESSION
command.Oncethetracefileisgeneratedyourunthetkproftoolagainstthetracefileandthenlookatthe
outputfromthetkproftool.Thiscanalsobeusedtogenerateexplainplanoutput.

8.Whenlookingatv$sysstatyouseethatsorts(disk)ishigh.Isthisbadorgood?Ifbad,howdoyoucorrectit?
Level:Intermediate
Expectedanswer:Ifyougetexcessivedisksortsthisisbad.Thisindicatesyouneedtotunethesortarea
parametersintheinitializationfiles.ThemajorsortareparameteristheSORT_AREA_SIZeparameter.

9.Whenshouldyouincreasecopylatches?Whatparameterscontrolcopylatches?
Level:high
Expectedanswer:Whenyougetexcessivecontentionforthecopylatchesasshownbythe"redocopy"latchhit
ratio.YoucanincreasecopylatchesviatheinitializationparameterLOG_SIMULTANEOUS_COPIEStotwicethe
numberofCPUsonyoursystem.

10.Wherecanyougetalistofallinitializationparametersforyourinstance?Howaboutanindicationiftheyare
defaultsettingsorhavebeenchanged?
Level:Low
Expectedanswer:Youcanlookintheinit.orafileforanindicationofmanuallysetparameters.Forall
parameters,theirvalueandwhetherornotthecurrentvalueisthedefaultvalue,lookinthev$parameterview.