Oracle Tips by Burleson

Oracle Server and Disk I/O Tuning

This tutorial focuses on Oracle server and disk I/O tuning.  The tuning of the external environment is very important for the Oracle professional, and the Oracle DBA needs to understand how external constraints such as CPU cycles, RAM memory usage, disk I/O subsystem bottlenecks, and network contention can all adversely affect the performance of their Oracle database system.

This tutorial will introduce the concepts of using the UNIX vmstat utility for monitoring Oracle resource consumption, techniques for monitoring CPU resource consumption, and a discussion of other tools and techniques for monitoring the server environment.

This tutorial will also take an in-depth look at disk I/O, the student will understand the major latency's associated with disk I/O, including seek delay, rotational delay, and data transmission delay.  Furthermore, the students will understanding how they can configure their Oracle database in order to minimize expensive disk I/O.

This tutorial will also take the student to an understanding of the iostat utility, and the student will understand how to use standard UNIX utilities in order to monitor the disk I/O subsystem.

This tutorial will also explore techniques to distribute disk I/O across multiple disk spindles, and numerous techniques to minimize disk I/O in the Oracle environment. 

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this tutorial, you will be able to:

* Explain monitoring the server environment

* Use the vmstat utility

* Monitor RAM consumption

* Monitor CPU consumption

* Understand disk I/O principles

* Use the iostat utility

* Describe techniques to distribute disk I/O

* Describe techniques to minimize disk I/O

* Monitor disk I/O trends

* Burleson, Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Chapter 5: Extending STATSPACK to Collect Server Statistics
Overview of the vmstat Utility
Capturing Server Performance Data Inside STATSPACK
Conclusion

Chapter 6: Tuning the Server Environment
The Relationship Between the Oracle database Administrator and
the System Administrator
Online Server Monitor Tools
Monitoring Server CPU Consumption
Upgrading and Entire Server
Monitoring Server Memory Consumption
Reporting on Server Statistics
Conclusion

Chapter 7: Tuning the Network Environment
Optimizing Oracle Net8 Configuration
Other Oracle Features that Affect Network Behavior
Monitoring Network Performance from Oracle STATSPACK
Tuning the Distributed Network
Conclusion

Chapter 8: Tuning the Disk I/O Subsystem with STATSPACK
Oracle Tuning Factors that Influence I/O
Oracle Internals and Disk I/O
Mapping Oracle Disk Architectures
STATSPACK Reports for Oracle Datafiles
Extending STATSPACK for Disk I/O Data
Viewing I/O Signatures with STATSPACK
Conclusion
 

Remote DBA Services

Burleson Consulting can offer world-class remote Oracle database support at super-affordable prices.

Our remote Oracle DBA service provides 100% of the remote Oracle database administration needs for your company, and includes 24x7 access to our staff of 100% OCP Certified Oracle DBAs. 

We require a 12 month service commitment and include the following services:

• Initial configuration review and problem identification
• Installation of Oracle statistics collection mechanisms and quarterly database growth summaries
• Hourly monitoring of your Oracle database for pending problems
• Periodic performance analysis & identification of tuning activities
• Twenty Four hour Oracle emergency support
• Reporting and resolving all serious Oracle alert log messages
• Free use of the BC TablePack, ServerPack and AuditPack services
• Quick response emergency support for production database outages
• Four hours of free remote DBA support every month. You can use these free hours for any DBA activity, including database analysis, system design, production migrations or personal mentoring.

For more information, please visit www.remote-dba.cc or email info@remote-dba.net.