Installing Oracle Database software is one of our regular activities as DBA.

There
might be supporting notes in each and every project we support, to complete it
quicker and more efficiently. One of the pre-requisites we implement is to set up
appropriate Kernel parameters at the operating system level on UNIX platforms.
But, it would be really awesome to understand the reason behind using those
parameters. Incorrect values of these parameters will lead to performance issues in
the database as well. In the Oracle installation documents, it is clearly advised the
list of parameters to set and their respective values.
This blog will explain you the purpose of Kernel parameters we set when installing
database software and its side effects when not set correctly. It will help you to
debug when you tune the performance at the OS level.
List of Parameters:
Below are the list of parameters Oracle advises in the documents to set up on Linux
64-bit environment. We will take this set of parameters in this blog to understand
them in detail.
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 4294967295

kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048586

What happens to your #Oracle #Database with

wrong #Kernel parameter values?CLICK TO TWEET
Categories:
These parameters can be categorized into 3 sections as the first part of the name
says.

fs File handles: All possible limitations in handling files.

2. kernel Kernel specifics: Limitations on resource usage at kernel
1.

level like Memory, CPU etc

3. net Network specifics: Limitations on network usage.
Let us explore:
1.fs:

fs.aio-max-nr This parameter defines the maximum number of

ASYNCHRONOUS I/O calls that system can handle on the server. While aio-nr shows
the number of calls that system has at that moment.
If this parameter value is insufficient for Oracle Database, then the possible error
that you see in alert log will be:

ORA-27090: Unable to reserve kernel resources for

asynchronous disk I/O
fs.file-max This parameter defines the maximum number of file handles,
meaning that how many number of opened files can system support at any
instance.
It is recommended to have a minimum of 256 as value for every 4MB of RAM you
have. So for 8GB RAM = 2048 * 4MB = 2048 * 256 = 524288.

So if you are growing your RAM on the server, then consider to re-check this
parameter.
2.kernel:

SHMMNI, SHMALL, SHMMAX Before we describe each one of these, all of

them defines the limitations on using shared memory on the server. With respect to
UNIX shared memory is just memory segments shared between multiple application
processes on the server. So Oracle Database is one of them.
SHMMNI It sets the maximum number of shared memory segments that server
can handle. As Oracle recommends the value should be at least 4096, it says that we
cannot find more than 4096 number of shared memory segments at any instance
on the server. Note that SHMMNI value is in numbers.
SHMALL It defines the total amount of shared memory PAGES that can be used
system-wide. It means that to the use all the physical memory this value should be
less than or equal to total physical memory size. For DBAs, it means that sum of all
SGA sizes on the server should be less than or equal to SHMALL value. Note that
SHMALL value is a number of pages.
SHMMAX It defines the maximum size that one shared memory segment that
server can allocate. Note that SHMMAX value in bytes. Oracle recommends that this
value should be greater than half of the physical memory on the server.

Appropriate #Kernel parameters for your #Oracle

#DatabaseCLICK TO TWEET
Case study:
Let us run through a case study to understand these parameter effects better.
Consider you have a server with 8GB physical memory(RAM). Lets define the best
possible SHMMNI, SHMALL, SHMMAX values for this system.

SHMMNI No change it should be 4096. It must be increased if you have more than
at least one fourth (1024) Oracle Databases running on the server. Which we never
recommend.
SHMALL By default the page size on Linux is 4KB. The total size of RAM is 8GB. Let
us leave at least 1GB of RAM for Linux kernel to run, with which consider 7GB can be
used for Oracle Databases. Now value of SHMALL can be:
(7*1024*1024)KB/4KB = 1835008

SHMMAX If you want the maximum size of SGA on this server to be 5GB, then this
parameter value should be 5*1024*1024*1024 = 5368709120 bytes. This, in turn,
says that you should not have any database with more than 5GB of SGA. But you
can have multiple databases with each 5GB of SGA or even less. This is the fact why

Oracle recommends to have this value more than half of the memory to utilize it for
SGA(s).
By chance, if your SGA size is more than 5GB say it is 7GB then 2 shared memory
areas will be allocated to SGA with one of 5GB and two of 2GB sizes, which doesnt
perform well.
3.net:

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range This parameter defines the range of

port numbers that system can use for programs which want to connect to the
server without a specific port number.
Now, it makes sense if you have come across somebody advising you not to use

port numbers for listener beyond 9000

. Also, just look back to documents
on OEM installation, Oracle uses and advises all the default port numbers less than

9000

. As I observed.

net.core.rmem This parameter defines the default and maximum RECEIVE

socket memory through TCP.
net.core.wmem This parameter defines the default and maximum SEND
socket memory through TCP.