Memory Parameter in Oracle10g

Oracle10g new feature on Memory Management :

Oracle10g introduced memory management feature to make DBA's life much easy. Automatic shared memory management(ASMM) is another self management enhancement in oracle10g. In previous release of oracle, we had to manually configure the shared pool size, java pool size, large pool size and data base buffer cache. It was often challenge to optimally configure these components because sizing them too small could cause memory errors and sizing them too large could lead to waste of memory.

In oracle10g, you need to specify only the SGA_TARGET parameter, which specifies the total size of the SGA. Individual components of the SGA are automatically allocated by the database based on the workload and history information. so during the normal online operations,the buffer cache and java pool may be bigger. During the batch window, the database can automatically increase the large pool and reduce the buffer cache.

When ASMM is enabled, then the following memory pools are automatically sized:

1 .Buffer cache (DB_CACHE_SIZE)
2. Shared pool (SHARED_POOL_SIZE)
3. Large pool (LARGE_POOL_SIZE)
4. Java pool (JAVA_POOL_SIZE)

If above automatically tuned memory pools are set to non-zero values, then those values are used as minimum levels by Automatic Shared Memory Management. You would set minimum values if an application component needs a minimum amount of memory to function properly.

The following pools are manually sized components and are not affected by ASMM.

1. DB_KEEP_CACHE_SIZE
2. DB_RECYCLE_CACHE_SIZE
3. DB_nK_CACHE_SIZE (non-default block size)
3. STREAMS_POOL_SIZE
4. LOG_BUFFER

For instance, SGA_TARGET is 400MB, LOG_BUFFER is 1M, DB_KEEP_CACHE_SIZE is 50M, then the memory available for automatically configured components is 349MB.

Questions and Answers :

1. How does ASMM work? ASMM automatically allocate the memory based on the work load and type of DB activities. We do not need to size the SGA parameters. The sga_target parameter will not dynamically manage all the sub component of the SGA memory. Some of the memory areas need to be sized by DBA as i explained above.

2. How do we switch the DB from non-ASMM to ASMM? Switching to ASSM can be done by changing SGA_TARGET parameter to non-zero value. STATISTICS_LEVEL should be TYPICAL or ALL. We need to allocate proper memory size for SGA_TARGET parameter. But this should not be greater then SGA_MAX_SIZE. Again, we need to reset the automatically tunable memory parameter to zero or minimum values. If we set minimum values for automatically tuned parameters, then oracle always maintain the minimum values all the time.

Here my DB is running in Non-ASMM. Let us switch this to ASMM.

SQL> select name,value from v$parameter where
2 name in('shared_pool_size','large_pool_size','java_pool_size','db_cache_size','sga_target');

NAME VALUE
------------------------------ ------------------------------
shared_pool_size 163577856
large_pool_size 4194304
java_pool_size 4194304
db_cache_size 432013312
sga_target 0

SQL> alter system set sga_target=1000M scope=both;

System altered.

SQL> alter system set shared_pool_size=500M scope=both;

System altered.

SQL> show sga

Total System Global Area 1048576000 bytes
Fixed Size 1252976 bytes
Variable Size 553648528 bytes
Database Buffers 486539264 bytes
Redo Buffers 7135232 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.

SQL> select target_size from v$sga_resize_ops
2 where component='shared pool';

TARGET_SIZE
-----------
528482304

SQL>

Now SGA parameters will be automatically tuned based on the workload and DB activities. But it always retain the minimum values, since we set shared_pool_size, large_pool_size, java_pool_size, db_cache_size set to non-zero values.

3. How do we disable ASMM? Disabling ASSM can be done by chaning SGA_TARGET parameter to zero value. But we need to set the below parameter with proper sizing when we disable ASMM

1. shared_pool_size
2. large_pool_size
3. java_pool_size
4. db_cache_size

SQL> alter system set sga_target=0 scope=both;

System altered.

4. When do we think that, ASMM should be disabled in oracle10g? We can disable ASMM if there is significant amount of memory resizing activity that cause the performance issue in database. This frequent memory resizing might happen when the environment is mixed of DSS and OLTP environment.

5. What is the best environment to enable the ASMM feature? Based on my knowledge, i would recommend to go for ASMM feature when DB is running on OLTP mode during the day time and DB is running on DSS more during the night time. In this scenario, ASMM feature will resize the memory based on the DB activities. DBA does not need to resize the memory for day time and night time differently.

Here are the relevant link to this topic.

Oracle9i Memory feature
Oracle11g Memory feature
Oracle Memory components