Oracle9i has become one of the world’s most complex databases, and this book is for the senior Oracle DBA who needs to automate the complex mechanisms that govern the RAM memory regions of any Oracle database.

The dynamic memory features of Oracle9i make it possible to create a self-tuning database.  This exciting book explores proven techniques for monitoring the behavior of the Oracle System Global Area (SGA) and shows proven techniques that can be used to anticipate upcoming problems and adjust the SGA before a performance problem occurs.

Focusing on proactive tuning and scripting, this books show you how to collect historical data and use it to develop signatures for all memory areas.  Using these metrics, you can develop scripts that will anticipate and correct upcoming SGA performance problems.

Key Features:

• Presents a method for monitoring important SGA metrics over long time periods.

• Lists the commands to modify the Oracle9i SGA areas, including pga_aggregate_target, shared_pool and db_cache_size.

• Describes how to recognize patterns in RAM usage.

• Explores the use of the free STATSPACK utility to monitor and collect SGA information.

• Offers sample scripts for automating SGA tuning.

• Provides access to an online code deport, full of interesting Oracle scripts.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 - Overview of the Oracle9i SGA Regions    

RAM Allocation at Oracle Instance Startup      
Oracle SGA parameters          
RAM and the Oracle Server    
RAM on IBM-AIX UNIX      
RAM in Linux  
RAM on MS-Windows           
RAM used by Oracle Connections       

Chapter 2 - Oracle9i Self-tuning basics

Monitoring the data buffers      
Oracle9i Sorting          
The v$sysstat View      
The v$pgastat View     
The v$process view     
The v$workarea view  

Chapter 3 - Oracle9i Data Buffer Internals       

Tuning the Oracle9i data buffer Pools   
Data Block Caching in the SGA           
Full table Caching in Oracle9i   
The Data Buffer Hit Ratio        
Data Buffer Monitoring
Allocating Oracle9i data buffer caches  
Internals of the Oracle Data Buffers      
Finding Hot Blocks inside the Oracle Data Buffers        
Full Data Caching Techniques  
Data Buffer Monitoring with STATSPACK     
Understand the KEEP and RECYCLE Pools   
STATSPACK Tables and KEEP Pool Data    
Advanced KEEP Pool Candidate Identification
Advanced RECYCLE Pool Tuning      
Large Blocks and Oracle Indexes        
Maximizing Oracle9i block space usage           
Summary of block size rules     
Mapping data blocks to data buffers      

Chapter 4 - Proactive SGA Reconfiguration     

Scheduling SGA reconfiguration           
Trend-based Oracle Reconfiguration    
Plotting the Data Buffer Hit Ratio by Hour of the Day   
Approaches to Self-tuning Oracle9i Databases 

About the Author:
 

Don Burleson		Don Burleson is one of the world’s top Oracle Database experts with more than 20 years of full-time DBA experience.  He specializes in creating database architectures for very large online databases and he has worked with some of the world’s most powerful and complex systems.   A former Adjunct Professor, Don Burleson has written 14 books, published more than 100 articles in National Magazines, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Oracle Internals. Don is a popular lecturer and teacher and is a frequent speaker at Oracle Openworld and other international database conferences.