More Examples of

Interpreting Wait Events To

Boost System Performance
Roger Schrag and Terry
Sutton
Database Specialists, Inc.
www.dbspecialists.com

Session Objectives
Briefly introduce wait events:
Define wait events
Discuss how to use the wait event interface

Walk through five examples of how wait

event information was used to troubleshoot
production problems

Wait Event Defined

We say an Oracle process is busy when it wants
CPU time.
When an Oracle process is not busy, it is waiting
for something to happen.
There are only so many things an Oracle process
could be waiting for, and the kernel developers at
Oracle have attached names to them all.
These are wait events.
3

Wait Event Examples

An Oracle process waiting for the client
application to submit a SQL statement waits
on a SQL*Net message from client event.
An Oracle process waiting on another
session to release a row-level lock waits on
an enqueue event.

Wait Event Interface

Each Oracle process identifies the event it
is waiting for each time a wait begins.
The instance collects cumulative statistics
about events waited upon since instance
startup.
You can access this information through v$
views and a wait event tracing facility.
These make up the wait event interface.
5

Viewing Wait Events

http://dbrx.dbspecialists.com/pls/dbrx/vie
w_report

Why Wait Event

Information Is Useful
Wait events touch all areas of Oraclefrom
I/O to latches to parallelism to network
traffic.
Wait event data can be remarkably detailed.
Waited 0.02 seconds to read 8 blocks from
file 42 starting at block 18042.
Analyzing wait event data will yield a path
toward a solution for almost any problem.
7

Important Wait Events

There were 158 wait events in Oracle 8.0.
There are 363 wait events in Oracle 9i Release 2
(9.2.0).
Most come up infrequently or are rarely significant
for troubleshooting performance.
Different wait events are significant in different
environments, depending on which Oracle
features have been deployed.
8

A Few Common Events

buffer busy waits
library cache load lock
control file parallel write
library cache pin
control file sequential read
log buffer space
db file parallel read / write
log file parallel
write
db file scattered read
log file sequential
read
db file sequential read
log file switch
completion
direct path read / write
log file sync
enqueue
undo segment
extension
9
free buffer waits
write complete

Idle Events
Sometimes an Oracle process is not busy
simply because it has nothing to do.
In this case the process will be waiting on
an event that we call an idle event.
Idle events are usually not interesting from
the tuning and troubleshooting perspective.

10

Common Idle Events

client message
PX Deq: Execute
Reply
dispatcher timer
PX Deq: Execution
Msg
gcs for action
PX Deq: Signal ACK
gcs remote message
PX Deq: Table Q Normal
ges remote message
PX Deque wait
i/o slave wait
PX Idle Wait
jobq slave wait
queue messages
lock manager wait for remote message
rdbms ipc message
null event
slave wait
parallel query dequeue
smon timer
pipe get
SQL*Net message
from client
PL/SQL lock timer
SQL*Net message to client
pmon timer
SQL*Net more data from
client
11
PX Deq Credit: need buffer
virtual circuit status

Accounted for by the

Wait Event Interface
Time spent waiting for something to do (idle
events)
Time spent waiting for something to happen
so that work may continue (non-idle events)

12

Not Accounted for by the

Wait Event Interface
Time spent using a CPU
Time spent waiting for a CPU
Time spent waiting for virtual memory to be
swapped back into physical memory
Time spent on CPU-intensive activities:
Logical reads
Spinning while waiting for latches
Statement parsing
13

Timed Statistics
The wait event interface will not collect timing
information unless timed statistics are enabled.
Enable timed statistics dynamically at the instance
or session level:
ALTER SYSTEM SET timed_statistics = TRUE;
ALTER SESSION SET timed_statistics = TRUE;

Enable timed statistics at instance startup by

setting the instance parameter:
timed_statistics = true
14

The Wait Event Interface

Dynamic performance views
v$system_event
v$session_event
v$event_name
v$session_wait

Wait event tracing

15

The v$system_event View

Shows one row for each wait event name, along with
cumulative statistics since instance startup. Wait events
that have not occurred at least once since instance
startup do not appear in this view.
Column Name
-------------------------EVENT
TOTAL_WAITS
TOTAL_TIMEOUTS
TIME_WAITED
AVERAGE_WAIT
TIME_WAITED_MICRO

Data Type
-----------VARCHAR2(64)
NUMBER
NUMBER
NUMBER
NUMBER
NUMBER
16

Columns In v$system_event
EVENT: The name of a wait event
TOTAL_WAITS: Total number of times a process has
waited for this event since instance startup
TOTAL_TIMEOUTS: Total number of timeouts while
waiting for this event since instance startup
TIME_WAITED: Total time waited for this wait event by all
processes since startup (in centiseconds)
AVERAGE_WAIT: The average length of a wait for this
event since instance startup (in centiseconds)
TIME_WAITED_MICRO: Same as TIME_WAITED but in
microseconds (Oracle 9i)
17

Sample v$system_event
Query
SQL> SELECT event, time_waited
2
3
4
5
6

FROM
WHERE

v$system_event
event IN ('smon timer',
'SQL*Net message from client',
'db file sequential read',
'log file parallel write');

EVENT
TIME_WAITED
--------------------------------- ----------log file parallel write
159692
db file sequential read
28657
smon timer
130673837
SQL*Net message from client
16528989
18

The v$session_event View

Shows one row for each wait event name within each
session, along with cumulative statistics since session
start.
Column Name
-------------------------SID
EVENT
TOTAL_WAITS
TOTAL_TIMEOUTS
TIME_WAITED
AVERAGE_WAIT
MAX_WAIT
TIME_WAITED_MICRO

Data Type
-----------NUMBER
VARCHAR2(64)
NUMBER
NUMBER
NUMBER
NUMBER
NUMBER
NUMBER
19

Columns In v$session_event
SID: The ID of a session (from v$session)
EVENT: The name of a wait event
TOTAL_WAITS: Total number of times this session has waited for
this event
TOTAL_TIMEOUTS: Total number of timeouts while this session
has waited for this event
TIME_WAITED: Total time waited for this event by this session (in
centiseconds)
AVERAGE_WAIT: The average length of a wait for this event in
this session (in centiseconds)
MAX_WAIT: The maximum amount of time the session had to
wait for this event (in centiseconds)
20

Sample v$session_event
Query
SQL> SELECT event, total_waits, time_waited_micro
2 FROM
v$session_event
3 WHERE SID =
4
(SELECT sid FROM v$session
5
WHERE audsid =
6
USERENV ('sessionid') );
EVENT
WAITS TIME_WAITED_MICRO
--------------------------- ----- ----------------db file sequential read
552
2409173
db file scattered read
41
315928
SQL*Net message to client
73
347
SQL*Net message from client
72
3397382712
21

Oracle 9i Bug #2429929

SQL> SELECT event, total_waits, time_waited_micro
2 FROM
v$session_event
3 WHERE SID + 1 =
4
(SELECT sid FROM v$session
5
WHERE audsid =
6
USERENV ('sessionid') );
EVENT
WAITS TIME_WAITED_MICRO
--------------------------- ----- ----------------db file sequential read
552
2409173
db file scattered read
41
315928
SQL*Net message to client
73
347
SQL*Net message from client
72
3397382712
22

The v$event_name View

Shows one row for each wait event name known
to the Oracle kernel, along with names of up to
three parameters associated with the wait event.
Column Name
-------------------------EVENT#
NAME
PARAMETER1
PARAMETER2
PARAMETER3

Data Type
-----------NUMBER
VARCHAR2(64)
VARCHAR2(64)
VARCHAR2(64)
VARCHAR2(64)
23

Columns In v$event_name
EVENT#: An internal ID
NAME: The name of a wait event
PARAMETERn: The name of a parameter
associated with the wait event

24

Sample v$event_name
Query
SQL> SELECT *
2 FROM
v$event_name
3 WHERE name = 'db file scattered read';
EVENT# NAME
---------- -----------------------------PARAMETER1
PARAMETER2
PARAMETER3
------------- ------------- ------------95 db file scattered read
file#
block#
blocks

25

The v$session_wait View

Shows one row for each session, providing detailed information
about the current or most recent wait event .
Column Name
-------------------------SID
SEQ#
EVENT
P1TEXT
P1
P1RAW
P2TEXT
P2
P2RAW
P3TEXT
P3
P3RAW
WAIT_TIME
SECONDS_IN_WAIT
STATE

Data Type
-----------NUMBER
NUMBER
VARCHAR2(64)
VARCHAR2(64)
NUMBER
RAW(4)
VARCHAR2(64)
NUMBER
RAW(4)
VARCHAR2(64)
NUMBER
RAW(4)
NUMBER
NUMBER
VARCHAR2(19)

26

Columns In v$session_wait
SID: The ID of a session
SEQ#: A number that increments by one on each
new wait
STATE: An indicator of the session status:
WAITING: The session is currently waiting, and details of
the wait event are provided.
WAITED KNOWN TIME: The session is not waiting, but
information about the most recent wait is provided.
WAITED SHORT TIME or WAITED UNKNOWN TIME: The
session is not waiting, but partial information about the
most recent wait is provided.
27

Columns In v$session_wait
(cont.)
EVENT: The name of a wait event
PnTEXT: The name of a parameter associated with the
wait event
Pn: The value of the parameter in decimal form
PnRAW: The value of the parameter in raw form
WAIT_TIME: Length of most recent wait (in
centiseconds) if STATE = WAITED KNOWN TIME
SECONDS_IN_WAIT: How long current wait has been
so far if STATE = WAITING
28

Sample v$session_wait
Query

SQL> SELECT * FROM v$session_wait WHERE sid = 16;

SID SEQ# EVENT
---- ----- -----------------------------P1TEXT
P1 P1RAW
P2TEXT
P2 P2RAW
------ ---- -------- ------ ---- -------P3TEXT
P3 P3RAW
WAIT_TIME SECONDS_IN_WAIT
------ ---- -------- --------- --------------STATE
------------------16
303 db file scattered read
file#
17 00000011 block# 2721 00000AA1
blocks
8 00000008
-1
0
WAITED SHORT TIME

29

Tracing Wait Event Activity

Using the dbms_support package or setting
debug event 10046 enables SQL trace, and
can optionally include wait event information
and bind variable data in trace files as well.
Methods for setting debug events:
ALTER SESSION SET events

oradebug
dbms_system.set_ev
30

Activating Wait Event

Tracing
dbms_support is missing from many releases of
Oracle 8i, but is available as a patch.
dbms_support is not installed by default; run
dbmssupp.sql in ?/rdbms/admin to install it.
dbms_system.set_ev is not supported by Oracle
Corporation because it lets you set any debug event
and some can put your database at risk.
Tracing imposes serious system overhead, so trace
only what you need.
31

Debug Event 10046

Settings
ALTER SESSION SET events
'10046 trace name context forever, level N';

Value of N

Effect

Enables ordinary SQL trace

Enables SQL trace with bind variable values

included in trace file

Enables SQL trace with wait event information

included in trace file

12

Equivalent of level 4 and level 8 together

32

Sample Oracle 8i Trace

Output

=====================
PARSING IN CURSOR #1 len=80 dep=0 uid=502 oct=3 lid=502
tim=2293771931 hv=2293373707 ad='511dca20'
SELECT /*+ FULL */ SUM (LENGTH(notes))
FROM
customer_calls
WHERE status = :x
END OF STMT
PARSE #1:c=0,e=0,p=0,cr=0,cu=0,mis=1,r=0,dep=0,og=0,tim=2293771931
BINDS #1:
bind 0: dty=2 mxl=22(22) mal=00 scl=00 pre=00 oacflg=03 oacfl2=0
size=24 offset=0
bfp=09717724 bln=22 avl=02 flg=05
value=43
EXEC #1:c=0,e=0,p=0,cr=0,cu=0,mis=0,r=0,dep=0,og=4,tim=2293771931
WAIT #1: nam='SQL*Net message to client' ela= 0 p1=675562835 p2=1 p3=0
WAIT #1: nam='db file scattered read' ela= 3 p1=17 p2=923 p3=8
WAIT #1: nam='db file scattered read' ela= 1 p1=17 p2=931 p3=8
WAIT #1: nam='db file scattered read' ela= 2 p1=17 p2=939 p3=8
WAIT #1: nam='db file sequential read' ela= 0 p1=17 p2=947 p3=1
WAIT #1: nam='db file scattered read' ela= 3 p1=17 p2=1657 p3=8

33

Wait Event Tracing

Enhancements In Oracle 9i
The dbms_support package is provided for
easier trace activation.
Elapsed times in the trace file are shown in
microseconds instead of centiseconds.
A waits=yes option has been added to
TKPROF to include wait event statistics in
the TKPROF report.
34

Using Wait Event

Information
Five examples of how wait event information
was used to diagnose production problems

35

Example #1:
Buffer Busy Waits
A magazine publisher has a website that
displays content stored in a database. At
times the website would get bogged down
response time would become poor and the
database server would become extremely
busy (near-zero idle time).

36

Viewing Wait Events

Statistics With Statspack
Collect Statspack snapshots at regular
intervals.
Statspack report shows top wait events for
entire instance during snapshot interval.
Oracle 9i Statspack also shows CPU time
used during the interval.
37

Statspack Report Output

Snap Id

Snap Time
Sessions
------- ------------------ -------Begin Snap:
61 11-Dec-02 13:00:52
145
End Snap:
71 11-Dec-02 14:00:26
145
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Top 5 Wait Events
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wait
% Total
Event
Waits Time (cs) Wt Time
------------------------ ---------- ---------- ------buffer busy waits
1,962,372 1,278,649
50.03
db file sequential read
1,336,870 1,050,878
41.12
db file scattered read
47,717
49,326
1.93
direct path write
8,070
40,574
1.59
latch free
38,220
31,012
1.21

38

What We See in the

Statspack Report
Dominant wait events:
buffer busy waits
db file sequential read

Over 23,000 seconds of wait time on these

two events in a one hour period (over 6
seconds of waiting per elapsed second)

39

Understanding the
Buffer Busy Waits Event
SQL> SELECT parameter1, parameter2, parameter3
2 FROM
v$event_name
3 WHERE name = 'buffer busy waits';
PARAMETER1
PARAMETER2
PARAMETER3
------------ ------------ -----------file#
block#
id

file#: Data file containing the desired data block

block#: Block within the data file that is desired
id: Reason the buffer in the buffer cache is
busy (see Metalink bulletin #34405.1)
40

Finding Which Data Blocks

Are Experiencing Buffer
Contention
SQL>
2
3
4
5
SID
--12
31

SELECT

sid, event, state, seconds_in_wait,

wait_time, p1, p2, p3
FROM
v$session_wait
WHERE
event = 'buffer busy waits'
ORDER BY sid;

EVENT
----------------buffer busy waits
buffer busy waits

STATE SEC TIME

P1
P2
P3
----- --- ---- ----- ----- ----WAITE
1
0
30 62157
130
WAITE
1
0
30 23558
130

41

Finding Which Data Blocks

Are Experiencing Buffer
Contention
SQL>
2
3
4
5

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
AND

owner, segment_name, segment_type

dba_extents
file_id = &absolute_file_number
&block_number BETWEEN block_id
AND block_id + blocks -1;

Enter value for absolute_file_number: 30

Enter value for block_number: 62157
OWNER
SEGMENT_NAME
SEGMENT_TYPE
----------------- ------------------- -----------PRODMGR
SAMPLES
TABLE

42

Reason Codes from

Metalink Bulletin #34405.1
P3

Reason Code

110

We want the CURRENT block either shared or

exclusive but the Block is being read into
cache by another session, so we have to wait
until their read() is completed.
Block is being read by another session and no
other suitable block image was found, so we
wait until the read is completed.
During buffer lookup for a CURRENT copy of
a buffer we have found the buffer but someone
holds it in an incompatible mode so we have to
wait.

130
220

43

What We Have Learned So

Far
A buffer containing a data block of the
SAMPLES table is experiencing
contention.
The buffer in the buffer cache is busy
because another session is reading the
same data block from disk.

44

Understanding the DB File

Sequential Read Event
SQL> SELECT parameter1, parameter2, parameter3
2 FROM
v$event_name
3 WHERE name = 'db file sequential read';
PARAMETER1
PARAMETER2
PARAMETER3
------------ ------------ -----------file#
block#
blocks

file#: Data file containing the desired data block

block#: Block within the data file that is desired
blocks: How many blocks are being read (typically
1 for db file sequential read)
45

Finding Which Data Blocks

Are Being Read
SQL>
2
3
4
5
SID
--17
19
33

SELECT

sid, event, state, seconds_in_wait,

wait_time, p1, p2, p3
FROM
v$session_wait
WHERE
event = 'db file sequential read'
ORDER BY sid;

EVENT
----------------db file sequentia
db file sequentia
db file sequentia

STATE SEC TIME

P1
P2
P3
----- --- ---- ----- ----- ----WAITE
1
0
30 62042
1
WAITE
1
0
30 61731
1
WAITI
0
0
30 57292
1
46

Finding Which Data Blocks

Are Being Read
SQL>
2
3
4
5

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
AND

owner, segment_name, segment_type

dba_extents
file_id = &absolute_file_number
&block_number BETWEEN block_id
AND block_id + blocks -1;

Enter value for absolute_file_number: 30

Enter value for block_number: 62042
OWNER
SEGMENT_NAME
SEGMENT_TYPE
----------------- ------------------- -----------PRODMGR
SAMPLES
TABLE
47

The SAMPLES Table

Contained a LONG column with very
large values
Excessive row chaining
Most queries did not retrieve the
LONG data
Table assigned to KEEP pool, but too
large to fit entirely in memory
48

Long-Term Problem
Resolution
Convert the LONG column to a CLOB.
Large CLOB data will be stored in a
separate LOB segment.
Row chaining will be reduced or eliminated.
The table segment will be much smaller and
more likely to fit in memory.

49

Short-Term Problem
Resolution
Added index on most columns of
SAMPLES table
Allowed most queries to avoid table segment

Enlarged KEEP pool

Allowed index segment to fit in memory

50

Statspack Report Output

Snap Id
Snap Time
Sessions
------- ------------------ -------Begin Snap:
1192 20-Dec-02 13:00:49
102
End Snap:
1202 20-Dec-02 14:00:18
102
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Top 5 Wait Events
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wait
% Total
Event
Waits Time (cs) Wt Time
------------------------ ---------- ---------- ------direct path write
6,467
13,545
30.61
log file sync
4,914
7,493
16.93
library cache pin
1,175
6,090
13.76
direct path read
5,488
3,428
7.75
latch free
14,528
2,931
6.62

51

What We See in the

Statspack Report Now
No db file sequential read or buffer busy
waits.
All data was already in the buffer cache.

Physical reads reduced by over 90%.

Total wait time on all non-idle events
reduced by over 98%.
Before: 12,786.49 / 0.5003 = 25,557.65
After: 135.45 / 0.3061 = 442.50
52

What We Learned from

Wait Event Information
Large amounts of time were being spent waiting on
single block disk reads and buffer contention in the
buffer cache.
Random samples showed the disk reads and
contention involved the SAMPLES table.
The buffer contention was the result of multiple
sessions needing the same block from disk.
Wait events pointed us directly to the problem
segment.
53

Example #2:
More Buffer Busy Waits,
Plus Latch Contention
A genetic research company stored their
data in Oracle. Applications running
concurrently on many workstations would
fetch raw data, process it, and put the data
back in the database. But throughput
bogged down as they added more
workstations.
54

Activating Wait Event

Tracing
Added to application code on workstation #30:
ALTER SESSION SET events
'10046 trace name context forever, level 8';

Could have used dbms_support if it was

installed:
dbms_support.start_trace;

Modified application code to exit after 500

iterations
55

TKPROF Wait Events

Reporting in Oracle 9i
tkprof prodgen_ora_16466.trc report_16466.prf waits=yes

56

TKPROF Report Output

UPDATE processing_stations
SET
status = 'ACTIVE', status_date = SYSDATE,
data_set_id_being_processed = :b1
WHERE station_id = 30
call
count
cpu
elapsed disk query current
rows
------- ------ ------- --------- ----- ----- ------- ----Parse
1
0.01
0.00
0
0
0
0
Execute
500
0.23
10.14
0 3616
1010
500
Fetch
0
0.00
0.00
0
0
0
0
------- ------ ------- --------- ----- ----- ------- ----total
501
0.24
10.14
0 3616
1010
500
Elapsed times include waiting on following events:
Event waited on
Times Max. Wait Total Waited
--------------------------- Waited ---------- -----------buffer busy waits
26
0.71
7.87
latch free
17
0.57
2.08
log file switch completion
3
0.09
0.20

57

What We See In the TKPROF

Report
500 trivial updates took 10.14 seconds
Most of that time was spent waiting
Dominant wait events:
buffer busy waits
latch free

CPU time plus wait time does not add up to

elapsed time due to round-off errors
58

Waits In the Trace File

WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT

#2:
#2:
#2:
#2:
#2:
#2:
#2:
#2:
#2:
#2:

nam='buffer
nam='buffer
nam='buffer
nam='buffer
nam='buffer
nam='buffer
nam='buffer
nam='buffer
nam='buffer
nam='buffer

busy
busy
busy
busy
busy
busy
busy
busy
busy
busy

waits'
waits'
waits'
waits'
waits'
waits'
waits'
waits'
waits'
waits'

ela=
ela=
ela=
ela=
ela=
ela=
ela=
ela=
ela=
ela=

527727 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220

498765 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220
137611 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220
124165 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220
5237 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220
264050 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220
270177 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220
330912 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220
156317 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220
710696 p1=18 p2=10 p3=220

Elapsed times are in microseconds in

Oracle 9i
59

Finding Which Data Blocks

Are Experiencing Buffer
Contention
SQL>
2
3
4
5

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
AND

owner, segment_name, segment_type

dba_extents
file_id = &absolute_file_number
&block_number BETWEEN block_id
AND block_id + blocks -1;

Enter value for absolute_file_number: 18

Enter value for block_number: 10
OWNER
SEGMENT_NAME
SEGMENT_TYPE
----------------- ------------------- -----------GEN
PROCESSING_STATIONS TABLE
60

Reason Codes from

Metalink Bulletin #34405.1
P3

Reason Code

110

We want the CURRENT block either shared or

exclusive but the Block is being read into
cache by another session, so we have to wait
until their read() is completed.
Block is being read by another session and no
other suitable block image was found, so we
wait until the read is completed.
During buffer lookup for a CURRENT copy of
a buffer we have found the buffer but someone
holds it in an incompatible mode so we have to
wait.

130
220

61

What We Have Learned So

Far

A buffer containing a data block of the

PROCESSING_STATIONS table is
experiencing contention.
The buffer in the buffer cache is busy
because another session has the buffer in an
incompatible mode.
All 26 buffer busy waits totaling 7.87 seconds
involved the same data block.
62

The PROCESSING_STATIONS
Table
SQL> SELECT SYSDATE - last_analyzed, blocks,
2
avg_row_len, avg_space, num_rows
3 FROM
user_tables
4 WHERE table_name = 'PROCESSING_STATIONS';
SYSDATEAVG_ AVG_
LAST_ANALYZED BLOCKS ROW_LEN SPACE NUM_ROWS
------------- ------ ------- ----- -------2.132118056
1
62 1686
100

63

Two Important Observations

There were 100 workstations running the
processing application concurrently.
The trace we ran on workstation #30
completed in just under one minute.

64

Lots of Updates!
Workstation #30 updated the
PROCESSING_STATIONS table 500 times
in less than one minute.
If all 100 workstations do similar things:
More than 50,000 updates to one data block
every minute by 100 concurrent sessions!

65

Why So Many Updates?

Workstations use the PROCESSING_STATIONS table to track which workstation is processing which data
set.
Processing one data set takes between 0.1 second and 20 minutes.
Workstations update the table frequently to keep the timestamp current. This would be helpful in the event of
a workstation crash.

66

Long-Term Problem
Resolution
Modify the application to update the
PROCESSING_STATIONS table less
frequentlyonce per data set or once per
second for larger data sets:
Will reduce updates by over 80%
Buffer busy waits will disappear or dramatically
decrease

67

Short-Term Problem
Resolution
Rebuilt the PROCESSING_STATIONS table
with PCTFREE set to 99:
Oracle reserved 99% of each data block for
future row expansion.
Each row got its own data block.
Each workstation session now updates a
separate data block.

68

The Rebuilt
PROCESSING_STATIONS
Table
SQL> SELECT SYSDATE - last_analyzed, blocks,
2
avg_row_len, avg_space, num_rows
3 FROM
user_tables
4 WHERE table_name = 'PROCESSING_STATIONS';
SYSDATEAVG_ AVG_
LAST_ANALYZED BLOCKS ROW_LEN SPACE NUM_ROWS
------------- ------ ------- ----- -------.130868056
100
62 8014
100

69

TKPROF Report Output

UPDATE processing_stations
SET
status = 'ACTIVE', status_date = SYSDATE,
data_set_id_being_processed = :b1
WHERE station_id = 30
call
count
cpu
elapsed disk query current
rows
------- ------ ------- --------- ----- ----- ------- ----Parse
1
0.00
0.00
0
0
0
0
Execute
500
0.20
2.22
0
500
1009
500
Fetch
0
0.00
0.00
0
0
0
0
------- ------ ------- --------- ----- ----- ------- ----total
501
0.20
2.22
0
500
1009
500
Elapsed times include waiting on following events:
Event waited on
Times Max. Wait Total Waited
--------------------------- Waited ---------- -----------latch free
2
0.35
0.61
70

What We See in the TKPROF

Report Now
500 updates took 2.22 seconds, down from 10.14
seconds
No more buffer busy waits
Waited 0.61 seconds on latches, down from 2.08
seconds
CPU time was 0.20 seconds, down from 0.23
seconds
1.41 seconds unaccounted forlikely a mix of
waiting for CPU and round-off error
71

Understanding the
Latch Free Event
SQL> SELECT parameter1, parameter2, parameter3
2 FROM
v$event_name
3 WHERE name = 'latch free';
PARAMETER1
PARAMETER2
PARAMETER3
------------ ------------ -----------address
number
tries

address: Join to addr in v$latch

number: Join to latch# in v$latchname
tries: Number of times the session has waited
while trying to acquire the latch
72

Waits In the Trace File

WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT

#2:
#2:
#2:
#2:

nam='latch
nam='latch
nam='latch
nam='latch

free'
free'
free'
free'

ela=
ela=
ela=
ela=

47004
14629
20652
37737

p1=15113593728
p1=15113593728
p1=15113593728
p1=15113593728

p2=97
p2=97
p2=97
p2=97

p3=0
p3=1
p3=2
p3=3

Four consecutive waits for one acquisition of

the latch
73

Finding Which Latches Are

Experiencing Contention
SQL> SELECT latch#, name
2 FROM
v$latchname
3 WHERE latch# = &latch_number;
Enter value for latch_number: 97
LATCH# NAME
---------- -------------------97 cache buffers chains

74

What We Learned from

Wait Event Information
Much time was spent waiting on latch contention and
buffer contention in the buffer cache.
The buffer contention was all for one data block.
The buffer contention was the result of multiple
sessions needing to update the same data block.
The latch contention involved the latch that protects
the buffer cache chains data structure.
Wait events pointed us directly to the hot buffer in the
buffer cache.
75

Example #3:
Log File Waits
A data warehouse loader application was
tuned in a test environment until it met user
acceptance. The production server was
larger and more powerful, but the data loads
actually took longer in production than in the
test environment.

76

Summarizing Wait Events

During A Period of Time
v$system_event shows wait event totals since instance
startup.
v$session_event shows wait event totals since the
beginning of a session.
You can capture view contents at different points in time
and compute the delta in order to get wait event
information for a specific period of time.
Statspack and many third-party tools can do this, but a
simple script has less overhead and can be quicker to
deploy.
77

Simple Script to See Wait

Events During a 30 Second
Period
CREATE TABLE previous_events AS
SELECT SYSDATE timestamp, v$system_event.*
FROM
v$system_event;
EXECUTE dbms_lock.sleep (30);
SELECT
A.event,
A.total_waits
- NVL (B.total_waits, 0) total_waits,
A.time_waited
- NVL (B.time_waited, 0) time_waited
FROM
v$system_event A, previous_events B
WHERE
A.event NOT IN (list of idle events)
AND
B.event (+) = A.event
ORDER BY time_waited;
78

Wait Events During 30

Seconds
of Data Loading
EVENT
TOTAL_WAITS TIME_WAITED
---------------------------- ----------- ----------control file sequential read
61
1
latch free
2
1
db file sequential read
6
7
control file parallel write
41
31
log file single write
6
164
db file parallel write
13
220
enqueue
6
486
log buffer space
24
2007
log file sequential read
30
2655
log file switch completion
33
2883
log file parallel write
19
3561
log file sync
113
10249

79

What We See in the

Script Output
Over 215 seconds spent waiting on logrelated events:
Sessions waited 102 seconds for LGWR to
flush the log buffer to disk for a commit
Sessions waited 48 seconds for LGWR to make
space for more redo
LGWR waited 37 seconds for disk writes
ARCH waited 26 seconds for disk reads
80

Investigate the Redo Log

Check production online redo log location for
contention and slow hardware:
All log files located on one disk
Same disk held hot files for another database

Compare to test environment:

Log files located on a striped volume
Minimal other activity on the volume
Database in NOARCHIVELOG mode
81

Problem Resolution
Sped up online redo log file performance:
Moved log files to dedicated disks
Spread log files over multiple disks

82

What We Learned from

Wait Event Information
The disk I/O speed writing and reading the
online redo log files was the bottleneck
slowing down the data warehouse load.
Wait events pointed us directly to the area
within Oracle that was holding up the works.

83

Example #4:
Direct Path I/O Waits
Analysts in a customer service unit were
satisfied with the response time when they
queried individual customer orders from their
data warehouse. However, queries involving
summarizations of multiple orders were
unacceptably slow.

84

Database Rx Wait Event

Report

85

What We See in the

Database Rx Report
Dominant wait events:
direct path write
db file scattered read
direct path read

Above account for 99% of non-idle event

wait time
Insignificant db file sequential read waits
86

What We Have Learned So

Far
Large amount of direct path I/O activity
Usually involves temporary segments

Significant multi-block I/O reads

Full table scans are common in a data
warehouse environment

Insignificant single-block I/O reads

Frequently accessed data blocks probably in
buffer cache
87

Understanding the
Direct Path I/O Events
SQL> SELECT name, parameter1, parameter2, parameter3
2 FROM
v$event_name
3 WHERE name LIKE 'direct path%';
NAME
----------------direct path read
direct path write

PARAMETER1
----------file number
file number

PARAMETER2
---------first dba
first dba

PARAMETER3
---------block cnt
block cnt

file number: File containing data block

first dba: First block within the file to be accessed

block cnt: Number of blocks to be accessed
88

Finding Which Files Are

Being Accessed
SQL>
2
3
4
5
SID
--39
47

SELECT

sid, event, state, seconds_in_wait,

wait_time, p1, p2, p3
FROM
v$session_wait
WHERE
event = 'direct path write'
ORDER BY sid;

EVENT
----------------direct path write
direct path write

STATE SEC TIME

P1
P2
P3
----- --- ---- ----- ----- ----WAITI
0
0
201
65
7
WAITI
0
0
201 2248
7

89

Finding Which Files Are

Being Accessed
SQL> SELECT tablespace_name, file_id "AFN"
2 FROM
dba_data_files
3 WHERE file_id = 201;
no rows selected
SQL>
2
3
4

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
AND

tablespace_name, file_id + value "AFN"

dba_temp_files, v$parameter
name = 'db_files'
file_id + value = 201;

TABLESPACE_NAME
AFN
------------------------------ ---------TEMP
201
90

Problem Resolution
Increased sort_area_size:
Was set to default of 65536
Increased to 10485760 (few concurrent sessions)

If that had not solved the problem:

Tune application code to reduce sorting
Check for other active files on disks holding temp
files
Move temp files to a striped volume
91

What We Learned from

Wait Event Information
Direct path I/O accounted for 75% of the non-idle
event wait time on the system.
Multi-block reads accounted for 24% of the non-idle
event wait timenot unusual in a data warehouse
environment.
Random samples showed direct path I/O involved
the temporary tablespace.
Wait events pointed us directly to the area within
Oracle that needed adjustment.
92

Logical vs. Physical Reads

93

Logical vs. Physical Reads

During the Database Rx sample interval
there were more physical reads than logical
reads.
Direct path reads count as physical reads but
not logical reads.
Be careful how you compute your buffer
cache hit ratiosin this example you might
come up with a negative figure!
94

Example #5:
Database Link Wait Events
A company had five Oracle databases, one
per region. Due to human error, the same
customer transactions would sometimes get
loaded into multiple databases. A report was
built to identify these duplicates, but it took
30 minutes to run.

95

Isolating a Query and

Analyzing Its Wait Events
Start a new database session in SQL*Plus or a similar
tool.
Run the query.
Monitor the sessions wait events and statistics from
another session:
v$session_event
v$sesstat
This is a handy technique when you know which
statement is the bottleneck.
96

Query Output from

v$session_event
SQL>
2
3
4

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
ORDER BY

event, total_waits, time_waited, max_wait

v$session_event
sid = 47
event;

EVENT
TOTAL_WAITS TIME_WAITED
MAX_WAIT
--------------------------- ----------- ----------- ---------SQL*Net message from client
32
4435
2432
SQL*Net message from dblink
1525516
104919
31
SQL*Net message to client
33
0
0
SQL*Net message to dblink
1525516
466
9
db file sequential read
27199
8025
28
latch free
40
5
4
log file sync
1
2
2
97

Query Output from

v$sesstat
SQL>
2
3
4
5

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
AND
AND

A.name, B.value
v$statname A, v$sesstat B
A.statistic# = 12
B.statistic# = A.statistic#
B.sid = 47;

NAME
VALUE
------------------------------ ---------CPU used by this session
67937

98

What We See In the v$ Data

1.5 million waits on network roundtrips
through a database link: 1053 seconds
Network latency
Time for the remote database to respond to
each request

27,000 waits for single-block disk reads: 80

seconds
99

The Query We Are Studying

SELECT

customer_id, batch_serial_number, batch_date,

load_date, batch_comment, control_total
FROM
customer_xfer_batches A
WHERE
exists
(SELECT 1
FROM
customer_xfer_batches@prdwest B
WHERE B.customer_id = A.customer_id
AND
B.batch_serial_number =
A.batch_serial_number)
ORDER BY customer_id, batch_serial_number;

100

The Query We Are Studying

Execution Plan
---------------------------------------------------------0
SELECT STATEMENT
1 0
FILTER
2 1
TABLE ACCESS (BY INDEX ROWID) OF 'CUSTOMER_XFER_BATCHES'
3 2
INDEX (FULL SCAN) OF 'CUST_XFER_BAT_PK' (UNIQUE)
4 1
REMOTE* PRDWEST
4 SERIAL_FROM_REMOTE SELECT "CUSTOMER_ID","BATCH_SERIAL_NUMBER"
FROM "CUSTOMER_XFER_BATCHES" "B"
WHERE "BATCH_SERIAL_NUMBER"=:1
AND "CUSTOMER_ID"=:2

101

CUSTOMER_XFER_BATCHES
SQL> SELECT blocks, num_rows
2 FROM
user_tables
3 WHERE table_name =
4
'CUSTOMER_XFER_BATCHES';
BLOCKS NUM_ROWS
------ -------21825 1526003

102

What We Have Learned So

Far
Oracle is doing a full scan of the index on
the local table and fetching each row one at
a time
This does avoid a sort
Very high price to pay to skip sorting a few rows

Oracle is doing one remote query for each

row fetched from the local table
103

Problem Resolution - Part 1

SELECT

customer_id, batch_serial_number, batch_date,

load_date, batch_comment, control_total
FROM
customer_xfer_batches
WHERE
(customer_id, batch_serial_number) IN
(SELECT customer_id, batch_serial_number
FROM
customer_xfer_batches
INTERSECT
SELECT customer_id, batch_serial_number
FROM
customer_xfer_batches@prdwest)
ORDER BY customer_id, batch_serial_number;

104

Query Output from

v$session_event
SQL>
2
3
4

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
ORDER BY

event, total_waits, time_waited, max_wait

v$session_event
sid = 49
event;

EVENT
TOTAL_WAITS TIME_WAITED
MAX_WAIT
--------------------------- ----------- ----------- ---------SQL*Net message from client
46
3680
2481
SQL*Net message from dblink
24
31
18
SQL*Net message to client
47
0
0
SQL*Net message to dblink
24
0
0
SQL*Net more data from dbli
5978
1337
13
db file scattered read
3430
675
8
db file sequential read
182
60
2
direct path read
148
233
11
direct path write
920
3572
33
105

Query Output from

v$sesstat
SQL>
2
3
4
5

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
AND
AND

A.name, B.value
v$statname A, v$sesstat B
A.statistic# = 12
B.statistic# = A.statistic#
B.sid = 49;

NAME
VALUE
------------------------------ ---------CPU used by this session
3227

106

What We See in the v$ Data

Now
24 network roundtrips through a database link
instead of 1.5 million: 14 seconds (down from 1053)
Fewer, larger network packets
Fewer requests to remote database

3,600 waits on mostly multi-block disk reads

instead of 27,000 waits on single-block disk reads:
7 seconds (down from 80)
Fewer multi-block reads instead of many single-block
reads

107

What We See in the v$ Data

Now
1100 waits on direct path I/O: 38 seconds (new)
Sorting to implement the INTERSECT operation

32 seconds of CPU time (down from 679)

Fewer logical reads and network roundtrips

Elapsed time: 92 seconds (down from

31 minutes)
108

Iterative Tuning
Curing one bottleneck often reveals or
creates another, smaller bottleneck.
Repeat the wait event evaluation process
after each change until performance goals
are met.
In this situation, a 95% reduction in runtime
from 31 minutes to 92 seconds still did not
meet the performance goal.
109

What We Have So Far

Rewritten query completes in 92 seconds:
32 CPU seconds
38 seconds of wait on direct path I/O
14 seconds of wait on network roundtrips
7 seconds of wait on multi-block and singleblock reads

110

Problem Resolution - Part 2

Eliminating or speeding up direct path I/O
seems like the logical next step:
sort_area_size set to 1 Mb
Try dynamically changing it to 100 Mb?

111

Query Output from

v$session_event
SQL>
2
3
4

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
ORDER BY

event, total_waits, time_waited, max_wait

v$session_event
sid = 46
event;

EVENT
TOTAL_WAITS TIME_WAITED
MAX_WAIT
--------------------------- ----------- ----------- ---------SQL*Net message from client
47
442
287
SQL*Net message from dblink
25
25
14
SQL*Net message to client
48
0
0
SQL*Net message to dblink
25
0
0
SQL*Net more data from dbli
6050
1378
26
db file scattered read
3430
945
8
db file sequential read
191
59
1
log file sync
1
3
3
112

Query Output from

v$sesstat
SQL>
2
3
4
5

SELECT
FROM
WHERE
AND
AND

A.name, B.value
v$statname A, v$sesstat B
A.statistic# = 12
B.statistic# = A.statistic#
B.sid = 46;

NAME
VALUE
------------------------------ ---------CPU used by this session
3296

113

What We See in the v$ Data

Now
Waits on network roundtrips through a
database link, multi-block reads, and singleblock reads unchanged
CPU time used unchanged
Direct path I/O waits eliminated completely
Entire sort now performed in memory

Elapsed time: 55 seconds (down from 92)

114

What We Learned from

Wait Event Information
A query ran slowly due to excessive network
roundtrips and single-block reads.
After these problems were corrected, 40% of the
query execution time was devoted to sorting to
disk.
Wait events showed us how Oracle was spending
its time while executing the query, helping us
improve the querys performance in an iterative
fashion.
115

A Summary Of Wait Event

Techniques
Using Statspack snapshots and reports to
analyze wait events at the instance level
Polling v$session_wait to determine which
buffers or latches have contention
Enabling wait event tracing in a session
Using Oracle 9i TKPROF to tabulate waits
at the statement level within one session
116

A Summary Of Wait Event

Techniques (continued)
Collecting wait event data for a session or the
entire instance at two different times and
computing the difference to find the wait events
during a specific period of time
Ranking cumulative wait event data in order to
see which wait events account for the most wait
time
Isolating a statement and analyzing its wait events
117

Send Us Your Wait Event

Puzzles
We are always looking for interesting wait
event situations to learn from!
If you are trying to diagnose a problem using
the wait event interface, feel free to email us
wait events data and a problem description.
Well do our best to look over what you send
us and share our thoughts with you.
118

The White Paper

A companion white paper to this presentation
is available for free download from our
companys website at:
www.dbspecialists.com/presentations.html

119

Resources from
Database Specialists
The Specialist newsletter
www.dbspecialists.com/specialist.html

Database Rx
dbrx.dbspecialists.com/guest
Provides secure, automated monitoring, alert
notification, and analysis of your Oracle
databases

120

In Conclusion
The wait event interface gives you access to a
detailed accounting of how Oracle processes
spend their time.
Wait events touch all aspects of the Oracle
database server.
The wait event interface will not always give you
the answer to every performance problem, but it
will just about always give you insights that guide
you down the proper path to problem resolution.
121

Contact Information
Roger Schrag
rschrag@dbspecialists.com
Terry Sutton
tsutton@dbspecialists.com
Database Specialists, Inc.
388 Market Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94111
Tel: 415/344-0500
Web: www.dbspecialists.com

122