60 Oracle Database Administration (DBA) Interview Questions (Technical)

1. What is an Oracle Instance?

An Oracle database server consists of an Oracle database and an Oracle instance. Every time a
database is started, a system global area (SGA) is allocated and Oracle background processes are
started. The combination of the background processes and memory buffers is called an Oracle
instance. We can run multiple instances on the same Oracle Database Server, where each instance
connects to its database.
Oracle instance includes:
SGA - System or Shared Global Area
Components of SGA:

DBBC - Database Buffer Cache

SP - Shared Pool; divided into Library Cache (LC) and Data Dictionary Cache (DDC) or Row
Cache.

RLB - Redo log Buffer

List of running processes of a single instance (11g) on Linux:

[oracle@hostname ~]$ top-n1-U oracle -c
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
9181 oracle 150 745m 111m 109m S 6.97.51:11.15 ora_j000_DB1_SID
9163 oracle 160 745m 68m 65m S 5.34.60:11.95 ora_j001_DB1_SID
10420oracle180 744m 12m 11m R 3.00.80:00.09 ora_j002_DB1_SID
6773 oracle 160 748m 40m 34m S 0.72.70:03.16 ora_dbw0_DB1_SID
2. What information is stored in Control File?
Oracle Database must have at least one control file.
It's a binary file contains some of the following information:

The database name and unique ID

The timestamp of database creation

The names and locations of associated datafiles and redo log files

Tablespace information

Datafile offline ranges

Archived log information and history

Backup set and backup piece information

Backup datafile and redo log information

Datafile copy information

Log records: sequence numbers, SCN range in each log

RMAN Catalog

Database block corruption information

The location of the control files is specified through the control_filesinitparam:

SYS@DB1_SID SQL>show parameter control_file;
NAME TYPE VALUE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------control_file_record_keep_time integer 7
control_files string /u01/app/oracle/oradata/DB1_SID
/control01.ctl, /u01/app/oracle/flash_recovery_area/DB1_SID/control02.ctl

3. When you start an Oracle DB which file is accessed first?

Oracle first opens and reads the initialization parameter file (init.ora)
[oracle@hostname ~]$ ls-la$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initDB1_SID.ora
-rw-r--r--1 oracle oinstall1023 May 1019:27/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbs/initDB1_SID.ora
4. What is the job of SMON and PMON processes?
MON - System Monitor Process - Performs recovery after instance failure, monitors temporary
segments and extents; cleans temp segments, coalesces free space (mandatory process for DB and
starts by default)
PMON - Process Monitor - Recovers failed process resources. In Shared Server architecture,
monitors and retarts any failed dispatcher or server proceses (mandatory process for DB and starts by
default)
[oracle@hostname ~]$ ps-ef|grep-epmon-esmon|grep-vgrep
oracle67551012:59 ? 00:00:05 ora_pmon_DB1_SID
oracle67791012:59 ? 00:00:06 ora_smon_DB1_SID
5. What is Instance Recovery?
While Oracle instance fails, Oracle performs an Instance Recovery when the associated database is
being re-started.
Instance recovery occurs in two steps:
Cache recovery:
Changes being made to a database are recorded in the database buffer cache.
These changes are also recorded in online redo log files simultaneously. When there are enough data
in the database buffer cache,they are written to data files.
If an Oracle instance fails before the data in the database buffer cache are written to data files, Oracle
uses the data recorded in the online redo log files to recover the lost data when the associated database
is re-started.
This process is called cache recovery.
Transaction recovery:
When a transaction modifies data in a database, the before image of the modified data is stored in an
undo segment.
The data stored in the undo segment is used to restore the original values in case a transaction is rolled
back.
At the time of an instance failure, the database may have uncommitted transactions. It is possible that
changes made by these uncommitted transactions have gotten saved in data files.

To maintain read consistency, Oracle rolls back all uncommitted transactions when the associated
database is re-started.
Oracle uses the undo data stored in undo segments to accomplish this.
This process is called transaction recovery.
6. What is being written into the Redo Log Files?
Redo log records all changes made in datafiles.
In the Oracle database, redo logs comprise files in a proprietary format which log a history of all
changes made to the database. Each redo log file consists of redo records. A redo record, also called a
redo entry, holds a group of change-vectors, each of which describes or represents a change made to a
single block in the database.
Let's get into this topic a little bit dipper:
Log writer (LGWR) writes redo log buffer contents Into Redo Log FIles. LGWR does this every three
seconds, when the redo log buffer is 1/3 full and immediately before the Database Writer (DBWn)
writes its changed buffers into the datafile. The redo log of a database consists of two or more redo
log files. The database requires a minimum of two files to guarantee that one is always available for
writing while the other is being archived (if the DB is in ARCHIVELOG mode). LGWR writes to
redo log files in a circular fashion. When the current redo log file fills, LGWR begins writing to the
next available redo log file. When the last available redo log file is filled, LGWR returns to the first
redo log file and writes to it, starting the cycle again.
Filled redo log files are available to LGWR for reuse depending on whether archiving is enabled.

If archiving is disabled (the database is in NOARCHIVELOG mode), a filled redo log file is available
after the changes recorded in it have been written to the datafiles.
If archiving is enabled (the database is in ARCHIVELOG mode), a filled redo log file is available to
LGWR after the changes recorded in it have been written to the datafiles and the file has been
archived.
Oracle Database uses only one redo log files at a time to store redo records written from the redo log
buffer. The redo log file that LGWR is actively writing to is called the current redo log file. Redo log
files that are required for instance recovery are called active redo log files. Redo log files that are no
longer required for instance recovery are called inactive redo log files.
If the database is in ARCHIVELOG mode it cannot reuse or overwrite an active online log file until
one of the archiver background processes (ARCn) has archived its contents.
If archiving is disabled (DB is in NOARCHIVELOG mode), then when the last redo log file is full,
LGWR continues by overwriting the first available active file.
A log switch is the point at which the database stops writing to one redo log file and begins writing to
another. Normally, a log switch occurs when the current redo log file is completely filled and writing
must continue to the next redo log file. However, you can configure log switches to occur at regular
intervals, regardless of whether the current redo log file is completely filled. You can also force log
switches manually.
Oracle Database assigns each redo log file a new log sequence number every time a log switch occurs
and LGWR begins writing to it.
When the database archives redo log files, the archived log retains its log sequence number.
7. How do you control number of Datafiles one can have in an Oracle database?
The db_files parameter is a "soft limit " parameter that controls the maximum number of physical OS
files that can map to an Oracle instance.
The maxdatafiles parameter is a different - "hard limit" parameter.
When issuing a "create database" command, the value specified for maxdatafiles is stored in Oracle
control files and default value is 32.

The maximum number of database files can be set with the init parameter db_files.
8. How many Maximum Datafiles can there be in Oracle Database?
Regardless of the setting of this paramter, maximum per database: 65533 (May be less on some
operating systems)
Maximum number of datafiles per tablespace: OS dependent = usually 1022
Limited also by size of database blocks and by the DB_FILES initialization parameter for a particular
instance
Bigfiletablespaces can contain only one file, but that file can have up to 4G blocks.

9. What is a Tablespace
A tablespace is a logical storage unit within an Oracle database.
Tablespace is not visible in the file system of the machine on which the database resides.
A tablespace, in turn, consists of at least one datafile which, in turn, are physically located in the file
system of the server.
A datafile belongs to exactly one tablespace. Each table, index and so on that is stored in an Oracle
database belongs to a tablespace.
The tablespace builds the bridge between the Oracle database and the filesystem in which the table's
or index' data is stored.
There are three types of tablespaces in Oracle:

Permanent tablespaces

Undo tablespaces

Temporary tablespaces

10. What is the purpose of Redo Log files?

Before Oracle changes data in a datafile it writes these changes to the redo log.
If something happens to one of the datafiles, a backed up datafile can be restored and the redo, that
was written since, replied, which brings the datafile to the state it had before it became unavailable.
11. Which default Database roles are created when you create a Database?
CONNECT , RESOURCE and DBA are three default roles. The DBA_ROLES data dictionary view
can be used to list all roles of a database and the authentication used for each role.
The following query lists all the roles in the database:
SELECT*FROM DBA_ROLES;
ROLE PASSWORD
---------------- -------CONNECT NO
RESOURCE NO
DBA NO
SECURITY_ADMIN YES
12. What is a Checkpoint?
A checkpoint occurs when the DBWR (database writer) process writes all modified buffers in the
SGA buffer cache to the database data files.

Data file headers are also updated with the latest checkpoint SCN, even if the file had no changed
blocks. Checkpoints occur AFTER (not during) every redo log switch and also at intervals specified
by initialization parameters.
Set parameter LOG_CHECKPOINTS_TO_ALERT=TRUE to observe checkpoint start and end times
in the database alert log.
Checkpoints can be forced with the ALTER SYSTEM CHECKPOINT; command.
SCN can refer to:
System Change Number - A number, internal to Oracle that is incremented over time as change
vectors are generated, applied, and written to the Redo log.
System Commit Number - A number, internal to Oracle that is incremented with each database
COMMIT.
Note: System Commit Numbers and System Change Numbers share the same internal sequence
generator.
13. Which Process reads data from Datafiles?
Server Process - There is no background process which reads data from datafile or database buffer.
Oracle creates server processes to handle requests from connected user processes. A server process
communicates with the user process and interacts with Oracle to carry out requests from the
associated user process. For example, if a user queries some data not already in the database buffers of
the SGA, then the associated server process reads the proper data blocks from the datafiles into the
SGA.
Oracle can be configured to vary the number of user processes for each server process.
In a dedicated server configuration, a server process handles requests for a single user process.
A shared server configuration lets many user processes share a small number of server processes,
minimizing the number of server processes and maximizing the use of available system resources.
14. Which Process writes data in Datafiles?
Database Writer background process DBWn (20 possible) writes dirty buffers from the buffer cache to
the data files.
In other words, this process writes modified blocks permanently to disk.
15. Can you make a Datafile auto extendible.If yes, how?
YES. A Datafile can be auto extendible.
Here's how to enable auto extend on a Datafile:
SQL>alter database datafile '/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/DBSID/EXAMPLE01.DBF'
autoextend on;
Note: For tablespaces defined with multiple data files (and partitioned table files), only the "last" data
file needs the autoextend option.
SQL>spool runts.sql
SQL>select 'alter database datafile '|| file_name|| ' '|| ' autoextend on;' from dba_data_files;
SQL>@runts
16. What is a Shared Pool?
The shared pool portion of the SGA contains the library cache, the dictionary cache, buffers for
parallel execution messages, and control structures. The total size of the shared pool is determined by
the initialization parameter SHARED_POOL_SIZE.
The default value of this parameter is 8MB on 32-bit platforms and 64MB on 64-bit platforms.
Increasing the value of this parameter increases the amount of memory reserved for the shared pool.

17. What is kept in the Database Buffer Cache?

The database buffer cache is the portion of the SGA that holds copies of data blocks read from
datafiles.
All user processes concurrently connected to the instance share access to the database buffer cache.
18. How many maximum Redo Logfiles one can have in a Database?
Maximum number of logfiles is limited by value of MAXLOGFILES parameter in the CREATE
DATABASE statement. Control file can be resized to allow more entries; ultimately an operating
system limit. Maximum number of logfiles per group - Unlimited
Consider the parameters that can limit the number of redo log files before setting up or altering the
configuration of an instance redo log.
The following parameters limit the number of redo log files that you can add to a database:
MAXLOGFILES & MAXLOGMEMBERS.
The MAXLOGFILES parameter used in the CREATE DATABASE statement determines the
maximum number of groups of redo log files for each database. Group values can range from 1 to
MAXLOGFILES.
When the compatibility level is set earlier than 10.2.0, the only way to override this upper limit is to
re-create the database or its control file. Therefore, it is important to consider this limit before creating
a database.
When compatibility is set to 10.2.0 or later, you can exceed the MAXLOGFILES limit, and the
control files expand as needed.
If MAXLOGFILES is not specified for the CREATE DATABASE statement, then the database uses
an operating system specific default value.
The MAXLOGMEMBERS parameter used in the CREATE DATABASE statement determines the
maximum number of members for each group. As with MAXLOGFILES, the only way to override
this upper limit is to re-create the database or control file. Therefore, it is important to consider this
limit before creating a database.
If no MAXLOGMEMBERS parameter is specified for the CREATE DATABASE statement, then the
database uses an operating system default value.
19. What is difference between PFile and SPFile?
A PFILE is a static, text file located in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs - UNIX
An SPFILE (Server Parameter File) is a persistent server-side binary file that can only be modified
with the "ALTER SYSTEM SET" command.

20. What is PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET parameter?

PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET: specifies the target aggregate PGA memory available to all server
processes attached to the instance.
21. Large Pool is used for what?
The large pool is an optional memory area and provides large memory allocations for:

Session memory for the shared server and the Oracle XA interface (used where transactions
interact with more than one database)

I/O server processes, buffer area

Oracle backup and restore operations (RMAN)

User Global Area (UGA) for shared servers

22. What is PCT Increase setting?

PCTINCREASE refers to the percentage by which each next extent (beginning with the third extend)
will grow.
The size of each subsequent extent is equal to the size of the previous extent plus this percentage
increase.
Preventing tablespace fragmentation
Try to set PCTINCREASE to 0 or 100. Bizarre values for PCTINCREASE will contribute to
fragmentation.
For example if you set PCTINCREASE to 1 you will see that your extents are going to have weird
and wacky sizes: 100K, 100K, 101K, 102K, etc. Such extents of bizarre size are rarely re-used in their
entirety.
PCTINCREASE of 0 or 100 gives you nice round extent sizes that can easily be reused. Eg.100K,
100K, 200K, 400K, etc.
Locally Managed tablespaces (available from Oracle 8i onwards) with uniform extent sizes virtually
eliminates any tablespace fragmentation.
Note that the number of extents per segment does not cause any performance issue anymore, unless
they run into thousands and thousands where additional I/O may be required to fetch the additional
blocks where extent maps of the segment are stored.
23. What is PCTFREE and PCTUSED Setting?
PCTFREE is a block storage parameter used to specify how much space should be left in a database
block for future updates.
For example, for PCTFREE=10, Oracle will keep on adding new rows to a block until it is 90% full.
This leaves 10% for future updates (row expansion).
When using Oracle Advanced Compression, Oracle will trigger block compression when the
PCTFREE is reached. This eliminates holes created by row deletions and maximizes contiguous free
space in blocks.
See the PCTFREE setting for a table:
SQL> SELECT pct_free FROM user_tables WHERE table_name = 'EMP';
PCT_FREE
---------10
PCTUSED is a block storage parameter used to specify when Oracle should consider a database
block to be empty enough to be added to the freelist. Oracle will only insert new rows in blocks that
isenqueued on the freelist.
For example, if PCTUSED=40, Oracle will not add new rows to the block unless sufficient rows are
deleted from the block so that it falls below 40% empty.
24. What is Row Migration and Row Chaining?
Row Migration refers to rows that were moved to another blocks due to an update making them too
large to fit into their original blocks.
Oracle will leave a forwarding pointer in the original block so indexes will still be able to "find" the
row. Note that Oracle does not discriminate between chained and migrated rows, even though they
have different causes. A chained row is a row that is too large to fit into a single database data block.
For example, if you use a 4KB blocksize for your database, and you need to insert a row of 8KB into
it, Oracle will use 3 blocks and store the row in pieces.

Some conditions that will cause row chaining are:

Tables whose row size exceeds the blocksize

Tables with long and long raw columns are prone to having chained rows

Tables with more then 255 columns will have chained rows as Oracle break wide tables up
into pieces.

Detecting row chaining:

This query will show how many chained (and migrated) rows each table has:
SQL>SELECT owner, table_name, chain_cnt FROM dba_tables WHERE chain_cnt> 0;
To see which rows are chained:
SQL>ANALYZE TABLE tablename LIST CHAINED ROWS;
This will put the rows into the INVALID_ROWS table which is created by the utlvalid.sql script
(located in $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin).
25. What is ORA-01555 - Snapshot Too Old error and how do you avoid it?
The ORA-01555 is caused by Oracle read consistency mechanism. If you have a long running SQL
that starts at 11:30 AM, Oracle ensures that all rows are as they appeared at 11:30 AM, even if the
query runs until noon!
Oracles does this by reading the "before image" of changed rows from the online undo segments. If
you have lots of updates, long running SQL and too small UNDO, the ORA-01555 error will
appear. ORA-01555 error relates to insufficient undo storage or a too small value for the
undo_retention parameter:
ORA-01555: snapshot too old: rollback segment number string with name "string" too small
Cause: Rollback records needed by a reader for consistent read are overwritten by other writers.
Action: If in Automatic Undo Management mode, increase the setting of UNDO_RETENTION.
Otherwise, use larger rollback segments.
You can get an ORA-01555 error with a too-small undo_retention, even with a large undo tables.
However, you can set a super-high value for undo_retention and still get an ORA-01555 error.
The ORA-01555 snapshot too old error can be addressed by several remedies:

Re-schedule long-running queries when the system has less DML load

Increasing the size of your rollback segment (undo) size

The ORA-01555 snapshot too old also relates to your setting for automatic undo retention

Don't fetch between commits

26. What is a Locally Managed Tablespace?

Locally Managed Tablespace is a tablespace that record extent allocation in the tablespace header.
Each tablespace manages it's own free and used space within a bitmap structure stored in one of the
tablespace's data files.
Advantages of Locally Managed Tablespaces:

Eliminates the need for recursive SQL operations against the data dictionary (UET$ and
FET$ tables)

Reduce contention on data dictionary tables (single ST enqueue)

Locally managed tablespaces eliminate the need to periodically coalesce free space
(automatically tracks adjacent free space)

Changes to the extent bitmaps do not generate rollback information

27. Can you audit SELECT statements?

YES. But beware, you will need a storage mechanism to hold your SQL SELECT audits, a high data
volume that can exceed the size of your whole database, everyday.
SQL SELECT auditing can be accomplished in several ways:

Oracle audit table command: audit SELECT table by FRED by access;

Oracle Fined-grained Auditing

In a busy database, the volume of the SELECT audit trail could easily exceed the size of the database
every data.
Plus, all data in the audit trail must also be audited to see who has selected data from the audit trail.
28. What does DBMS_FGA package do?
The DBMS_FGA package provides fine-grained security functions. DBMS_FGA is a PL/SQL
package used to define Fine Grain Auditing on objects.
DBMS_FGA Package Subprograms:

ADD_POLICY Procedure - Creates an audit policy using the supplied predicate as the audit
condition

DISABLE_POLICY Procedure - Disables an audit policy

DROP_POLICY Procedure - Drops an audit policy

ENABLE_POLICY Procedure - Enables an audit policy

29. What is Cost Based Optimization?

The Oracle Cost Based Optimizer (CBO) is a SQL Query optimizer that uses data statistics to identify
the query plan with lowest cost before execution. The cost is based on the number of rows in a table,
index efficiency, etc.
All applications should be converted to use the Cost Based Optimizer as the Rule Based Optimizer is
not be supported in Oracle 10g and above releases.
30. How often you should collect statistics for a table?
Analyse if it's necessary!
- Refresh STALE statistics before the batch processes run but only for tables involved in batch run,
- Don't do it if you don't have to.
- Oracle databse has default, scheduled job "gather_stats_job" that analyses stats on a daily basis
during the maintenance window time.
31. How do you collect statistics for a table, schema and Database?

Using DBMS_STATS package to gather Oracle dictionary statistics.

32. Can you make collection of Statistics for tables automatically?
YES. Oracle databse has default, scheduled job "gather_stats_job" that analyses stats on a daily basis
during the maintenance window time.
There are two scheduled activities related to the collection of Oracle "statistics":

AWR statistics: Oracle has an automatic method to collect AWR "snapshots" of data that is
used to create elapsed-time performance reports.

Optimizer statistics: Oracle has an automatic job to collect statistics to help the optimizer
make intelligent decisions about the best access method to fetch the desired rows.

This job can be disabled with this command:

+execdbms_scheduler.disable(SYS.GATHER_STATS_JOB);
Oracle collects optimizer statistics for SQL via the default of autostats_target = auto.
33. On which columns you should create Indexes?
In general, you should create an index on a column in any of the following situations:

The column is queried frequently

A referential integrity constraint exists on the column

A UNIQUE key integrity constraint exists on the column

The following list gives guidelines in choosing columns to index:

You should create indexes on columns that are used frequently in WHERE clauses

Are used frequently to join tables

Are used frequently in ORDER BY clauses

On columns that have few of the same values or unique values in the table

34. What type of Indexes are available in Oracle?

There are many index types within Oracle:
B*Tree Indexes - common indexes in Oracle. They are similar construct to a binary tree, they provide
fast access by key, to an individual row or range of rows, normally requiring very few reads to find
the correct row.
The B*Tree index has several subtypes:

Index Organised Tables - A table stored in a B*Tree structure

B*Tree Cluster Indexes - They are used to index the cluster keys

Reverse Key Indexes - The bytes in the key are reversed. This is used to stop sequential keys
being on the same block like 999001, 999002, 999003 would be reversed to 100999, 200999,
300999 thus these would be located on different blocks.

Descending Indexes - They allow data to be sorted from big to small (descending) instead of
small to big (ascending).

Bitmap Indexes - With a bitmap index , a single index entry uses a bitmap to point to many rows
simultaneously, they are used with low data that is mostly read-only. Schould be avoided in OLTP
systems.
Function Based Indexes - These are B*Tree or bitmap indexes that store the computed result of a
function on a row(s) (for example sorted results)- not the column data itself.
Application Domain Indexes - These are indexes you build and store yuorself, either in Oracle or
outside of Oracle
interMedia Text Indexes - This is a specialised index built into Oracle to allow for keyword searching
of large bodies of text.
35. What is B-Tree Index?
A B-Tree index is a data structure in the form of a tree, but it is a tree of database blocks, not rows.
Note: "B" is not for binary; it's balanced.
36. A table is having few rows, should you create indexes on this table
Small tables do not require indexes; if a query is taking too long, then the table might have grown
from small to large.
You can create an index on any column; however, if the column is not used in any of these
situations, creating an index on the column does not increase performance and the index takes up
resources unnecessarily.
37. A Column is having many repeated values which type of index you should create on this
column, if you have to?
For example, assume there is a motor vehicle database with numerous low-cardinality columns such
as car_color, car_make, car_model, and car_year. Each column contains less than 100 distinct values
by themselves, and a b-tree index would be fairly useless in a database of 20 million vehicles.
38. When should you rebuilt indexes?
In 90% cases - NEVER.
When the data in index is sparse (lots of holes in index, due to deletes or updates) and your query is
usually range based.
Also index blevel is one of the key indicators of performance of sql queries doing Index range scans.
39. Can you built indexes online?
YES. You can create and rebuild indexes online.
This enables you to update base tables at the same time you are building or rebuilding indexes on that
table.
You can perform DML operations while the index build is taking place, but DDL operations are not
allowed.
Parallel execution is not supported when creating or rebuilding an index online.
The following statements illustrate online index build operations:
CREATE INDEX emp_name ON emp (mgr, emp1, emp2, emp3) ONLINE;
40. Can you see Execution Plan of a statement?

YES. In many ways, for example from GUI based tools like TOAD, Oracle SQL Developer.
Configuring AUTOTRACE, a SQL*Plus facility
AUTOTRACE is a facility within SQL*Plus to show us the explain plan of the queries we've
executed, and the resources they used.
Once the PLAN_TABLE has been installed in the database, You can control the report by setting the
AUTOTRACE system variable.

SET AUTOTRACE OFF - No AUTOTRACE report is generated. This is the default.

SET AUTOTRACE ON EXPLAIN - The AUTOTRACE report shows only the optimizer
execution path.

SET AUTOTRACE ON STATISTICS - The AUTOTRACE report shows only the SQL
statement execution statistics.

SET AUTOTRACE ON - The AUTOTRACE report includes both the optimizer execution
path and the SQL statement execution statistics.

SET AUTOTRACE TRACEONLY - Like SET AUTOTRACE ON, but suppresses the
printing of the user's query output, if any.

41. A table has been created with below settings. What will be size of 4th extent?
storage (initial 200k
next 200k
minextents 2
maxextents 100
pctincrease 40)
What will be size of 4th extent?
"NEXT" Specify in bytes the size of the next extent to be allocated to the object.
Percent Increase allows your segment to grow at an increasing rate.
The first two extents will be of a size determined by the Initial and Next parameter (200k)
The third extent will be 1 + PCTINCREASE/100 times the second extent (1,4*200=280k).
AND The fourth extent will be 1 + PCTINCREASE/100 times the third extent (1,4*280=392k!!!),
and so on...
42. What is DB Buffer Cache Advisor?
The Buffer Cache Advisor provides advice on how to size the Database Buffer Cache to obtain
optimal cache hit ratios.
Member of Performance Advisors --> Memory Advisor pack.
43. What is STATSPACK tool?
STATSPACK is a performance diagnosis tool provided by Oracle starting from Oracle 8i and above.
STATSPACK is a diagnosis tool for instance-wide performance problems; it also supports application
tuning activities by providing data which identifies high-load SQL statements.
Although AWR and ADDM (introduced in Oracle 10g) provide better statistics than STATSPACK,
users that are not licensed to use the Enterprise Manager Diagnostic Pack should continue to use
statspack.

More information about STATSPACK, can be found in file

$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/spdoc.txt.
44. Can you change SHARED_POOL_SIZE online?
YES. That's possible.
SQL>alter system set shared_pool_size=500M scope=both;
System altered.
It's a lot quicker to bounce the instance when changing this.

45. Can you Redefine a table Online?

Yes you can. In any database system, it is occasionally necessary to modify the logical or physical
structure of a table to:

Improve the performance of queries or DML

Accommodate application changes

Manage storage

Oracle Database provides a mechanism to make table structure modifications without significantly
affecting the availability of the table.
The mechanism is called online table redefinition.
When a table is redefined online, it is accessible to both queries and DML during much of the
redefinition process.
The table is locked in the exclusive mode only during a very small window that is independent of the
size of the table and complexity of the redefinition, and that is completely transparent to users.
Online table redefinition requires an amount of free space that is approximately equivalent to the
space used by the table being redefined. More space may be required if new columns are added.
You can perform online table redefinition with the Enterprise Manager Reorganize Objects wizard or
with the DBMS_REDEFINITION package.
46. Can you assign Priority to users?
YES. This is achievable with Oracle Resource Manager.
DBMS_RESOURCE_MANAGER is the packcage to administer the Database Resource Manager.
The DBMS_RESOURCE_MANAGER package maintains plans, consumer groups, and plan
directives. It also provides semantics so that you may group together changes to the plan schema.
47. You want users to change their passwords every 2 months. How do you enforce this?
Oracle password security is implemented via Oracle "profiles" which are assigned to users.
PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME - limits the number of days the same password can be used for
authentication
First, start by creating security "profile" in Oracle database and then alter the user to belong to the
profile group.
1) creating a profile:
create profile all_users
limit
PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME 60
PASSWORD_GRACE_TIME 10

PASSWORD_REUSE_TIME UNLIMITED
PASSWORD_REUSE_MAX 0
FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS 3
PASSWORD_LOCK_TIME UNLIMITED;
2) Create user and assign user to the all_users profile
SQL>create user chuck identified by norris profile all_users;
3) To "alter profile" parameter, say; change to three months:
SQL>alter profile all_users set PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME = 90;
48. How do you delete duplicate rows in a table?
There is a few ways to achieve that:

Using subquery to delete duplicate rows:

DELETE FROM table_name WHERE rowid NOT IN (SELECT max(rowid) FROM table_name
GROUP BY id);
More ways:

Use RANK to find and remove duplicate table rows

Use self-join to remove duplicate rows

Use analytics to detect and remove duplicate rows

Delete duplicate table rows that contain NULL values

49. What is Automatic Management of Segment Space setting?

Oracle9i New Feature Series: Automatic Segment Space Management
Automatic Segment Space Management (ASSM) introduced in Oracle9i is an easier way of managing
space in a segment using bitmaps.
It eliminates the DBA from setting the parameters pctused, freelists, and freelist groups.
ASSM can be specified only with the locally managed tablespaces (LMT).
Oracle uses bitmaps to manage the free space. Bitmaps allow Oracle to manage free space more
automatically.
Here is an example:
CREATE TABLESPACE example
DATAFILE '/oradata/ORA_SID/example01.dbf' SIZE 50M
EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL UNIFORM SIZE 2M
SEGMENT SPACE MANAGEMENT AUTO;
The storage parameters PCTUSED, FREELISTS and FREELIST GROUPS specified while creating a
table are ignored by Oracle on a LMT ASSM tablespace. Oracle does not produce an error.
One huge benefit of having ASSM is to reduce the Buffer Busy Waits you see on segments.
Beware:
Using ASSM can hinder database DML performance, and most Oracle experts will use manual
freelists and freelist groups.
50. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE statements?

The DELETE command is used to remove rows from a table. A WHERE clause can be used to only
remove some rows.
If no WHERE condition is specified, all rows will be removed. After performing a DELETE operation
you need to COMMIT or ROLLBACK the transaction to make the change permanent or to undo it.
DELETE will cause all DELETE triggers on the table to fire.
TRUNCATE removes all rows from a table. A WHERE clause is not permited. The operation cannot
be rolled back and no triggers will be fired.
As such, TRUCATE is faster and doesn't use as much undo space as a DELETE.
51. What is COMPRESS and CONSISTENT setting in EXPORT utility?
COMPRESS
Simply: COMPRESS=n - Allocated space in database for imported table will be exactly as the space
required to hold the data.
COMPRESS=y - The INITIAL extent of the table would be as large as the sum of all the extents
allocated to the table in the original database.
In other words:
The default, COMPRESS=y, causes Export to flag table data for consolidation into one initial extent
upon import.
If extent sizes are large (for example, because of the PCTINCREASE parameter), the allocated space
will be larger than the space required to hold the data.
If you specify COMPRESS=n, Export uses the current storage parameters, including the values of
initial extent size and next extent size.
If you are using locally managed tablespaces you should always export with COMPRESS=n
An
CONSISTENT
Default: n. Specifies whether or not Export uses the SET TRANSACTION READ ONLY statement to
ensure that the data seen by Export is consistent to a single point in time and does not change during
the execution of the exp command.
You should specify CONSISTENT=y when you anticipate that other applications will be updating the
target data after an export has started.
If you use CONSISTENT=n, each table is usually exported in a single transaction. However, if a table
contains nested tables, the outer table and each inner table are exported as separate transactions.
If a table is partitioned, each partition is exported as a separate transaction.
Therefore, if nested tables and partitioned tables are being updated by other applications, the data that
is exported could be inconsistent. To minimize this possibility, export those tables at a time when
updates are not being done.
52. What is the difference between Direct Path and Conventional Path loading?
A conventional path load executes SQL INSERT statements to populate tables in an Oracle database.
A direct path load eliminates much of the Oracle database overhead by formatting Oracle data blocks
and writing the data blocks directly to the database files.
53. Can you disable and enable Primary key?
You can use the ALTER TABLE statement to enable, disable, modify, or drop a constraint.
When the database is using a UNIQUE or PRIMARY KEY index to enforce a constraint, and
constraints associated with that index are dropped or disabled, the index is dropped, unless you
specify otherwise.
While enabled foreign keys reference a PRIMARY or UNIQUE key, you cannot disable or drop the
PRIMARY or UNIQUE key constraint or the index.

Disabling Enabled Constraints

The following statements disable integrity constraints. The second statement specifies that the
associated indexes are to be kept.
ALTER TABLE dept DISABLE CONSTRAINT dname_ukey;
ALTER TABLE dept DISABLE PRIMARY KEY KEEP INDEX, DISABLE UNIQUE (dname, loc)
KEEP INDEX;
The following statements enable novalidate disabled integrity constraints:
ALTER TABLE dept ENABLE NOVALIDATE CONSTRAINT dname_ukey;
ALTER TABLE dept ENABLE NOVALIDATE PRIMARY KEY, ENABLE NOVALIDATE
UNIQUE (dname, loc);
The following statements enable or validate disabled integrity constraints:
ALTER TABLE dept MODIFY CONSTRAINT dname_key VALIDATE;
ALTER TABLE dept MODIFY PRIMARY KEY ENABLE NOVALIDATE;
The following statements enable disabled integrity constraints:
ALTER TABLE dept ENABLE CONSTRAINT dname_ukey;
ALTER TABLE dept ENABLE PRIMARY KEY, ENABLE UNIQUE (dname, loc);
To disable or drop a UNIQUE key or PRIMARY KEY constraint and all dependent FOREIGN KEY
constraints in a single step, use the CASCADE option of the DISABLE or DROP clauses.
For example, the following statement disables a PRIMARY KEY constraint and any FOREIGN KEY
constraints that depend on it:
ALTER TABLE dept DISABLE PRIMARY KEY CASCADE;
54. What is an Index Organized Table?
An index-organized table (IOT) is a type of table that stores data in a B*Tree index structure. Normal
relational tables, called heap-organized tables, store rows in any order (unsorted). In contrast to this,
index-organized tables store rows in a B-tree index structure that is logically sorted in primary key
order. Unlike normal primary key indexes, which store only the columns included in it definition, IOT
indexes store all the columns of the table (an exception to this rule - is being called the overflow area).
Properties and restrictions:

An IOT must contain a primary key

Rows are accessed via a logical rowid and not a physical rowid like in heap-organized tables

An IOT cannot be in a cluster

An IOT cannot contain a column of LONG data type

You cannot modify an IOT index property using ALTER INDEX (error ORA-25176), you
must use an ALTER TABLE instead.

Advantages of an IOT

As an IOT has the structure of an index and stores all the columns of the row, accesses via
primary key conditions are faster as they don't need to access the table to get additional
column values.

As an IOT has the structure of an index and is thus sorted in the order of the primary key,
accesses of a range of primary key values are also faster.

As the index and the table are in the same segment, less storage space is needed.

In addition, as rows are stored in the primary key order, you can further reduce space with key
compression.

As all indexes on an IOT uses logical rowids, they will not become unusable if the table is
reorganized.

Row overflow area

If some columns of the table are infrequently accessed, it is possible to offload them into another
segment named the overflow area. An overflow segment will decrease the size of the main (or top)
segment and will increase the performance of statements that do not need access the columns in the
overflow area.
Notes:
The overflow area can contains only columns that are not part of the primary key.
If a row cannot fit in a block, you must define an overflow area.
Consequently, the primary key values of an IOT must fit in a single block.
The columns of the table that are recorded in the overflow segment are defined using the
PCTHRESHOLD and/or INCLUDING options of the OVERFLOW clause (examples on source
website).
55. What is a Global Index and Local Index?
Local Index - each partition of a local index is associated with exactly one partition of the table.
Global Index - global index is associated with multiple partitions of the table.
Oracle offers two types of global partitioned index:
- Global Range Partitioned Indexes
- Global Hash Partitioned Indexes
Global Nonpartitioned Indexes - behave just like a nonpartitioned index.
56. What is the difference between Range Partitioning and Hash Partitioning?
Range Partitioning maps data to partitions based on a range of column values (e.g. a date column)
Hash Partitioning maps data to partitions based on a hashing algorithm, evenly distributing data
between the partitions.
This is typically used where ranges aren't appropriate, i.e. customer number, product ID
57. What is difference between Multithreaded/Shared Server and Dedicated Server?
Oracle Database creates server processes to handle the requests of user processes connected to an
instance.
A server process can be either of the following:
- A dedicated server process, which services only one user process
- A shared server process, which can service multiple user processes
Your database is always enabled to allow dedicated server processes, but you must specifically
configure and enable shared server by setting one or more initialization parameters.

58. Can you import objects from Oracle ver. 7.3 to 9i?
Different versions of the import utility are upwards compatible. This means that one can take an
export file created from an old export version, and import it using a later version of the import utility.
Oracle also ships some previous catexpX.sql scripts that can be executed as user SYS enabling older
imp/exp versions to work (for backwards compatibility).
For example, one can run $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catexp7.sql on an Oracle 8 database to
allow the Oracle 7.3 exp/imp utilities to run against an Oracle 8 database.
59. How do you move tables from one tablespace to another tablespace?
There are several methods to do this;
1) export the table, drop the table, create the table definition in the new
tablespace, and then import the data (imp ignore=y).
2) Create a new table in the new tablespace with the CREATE TABLE statement AS SELECT all
from source table
command:
CREATE TABLE temp_name TABLESPACE new_tablespace AS SELECT * FROM source_table;
Then drop the original table and rename the temporary table as the original:
DROP TABLE real_table;
RENAME temp_name TO real_table;
Note: don't forget to rebuild any indexes.
1. What is an Oracle Instance?
2. What information is stored in Control File?
3. When you start an Oracle DB which file is accessed first?
4. What is the Job of SMON, PMON processes?
5. What is Instance Recovery?
6. What is written in Redo Log Files?
7. How do you control number of Datafiles one can have in an Oracle database?
8. How many Maximum Datafiles can there be in an Oracle Database?
9. What is a Tablespace?
10. What is the purpose of Redo Log files?
11. Which default Database roles are created when you create a Database?
12. What is a Checkpoint?
13. Which Process reads data from Datafiles?
14. Which Process writes data in Datafiles?
15. Can you make a Datafile auto extendible. If yes, how?
16. What is a Shared Pool?
17. What is kept in the Database Buffer Cache?
18. How many maximum Redo Logfiles one can have in a Database?
19. What is difference between PFile and SPFile?
20. What is PGA_AGGREGRATE_TARGET parameter?
21. Large Pool is used for what?
22. What is PCT Increase setting?
23. What is PCTFREE and PCTUSED Setting?
24. What is Row Migration and Row Chaining?
25. What is 01555 - Snapshot Too Old error and how do you avoid it?
26. What is a Locally Managed Tablespace?
27. Can you audit SELECT statements?
28. What does DBMS_FGA package do?
29. What is Cost Based Optimization?

30. How often you should collect statistics for a table?

31. How do you collect statistics for a table, schema and Database?
32. Can you make collection of Statistics for tables automatic?
33. On which columns you should create Indexes?
34. What type of Indexes are available in Oracle?
35. What is B-Tree Index?
36. A table is having few rows, should you create indexes on this table?
37. A Column is having many repeated values which type of index you should
create on this column, if you have to?
38. When should you rebuilt indexes?
39. Can you built indexes online?
40. Can you see Execution Plan of a statement.
41. A table is created with the following setting
storage (initial 200k next 200k minextents 2 maxextents 100 pctincrease
40)
What will be size of 4th extent?
42. What is DB Buffer Cache Advisor?
43. What is STATSPACK tool?
44. Can you change SHARED_POOL_SIZE online?
45. Can you Redefine a table Online?
46. Can you assign Priority to users?
47. You want users to change their passwords every 2 months. How do you
enforce this?
48. How do you delete duplicate rows in a table?
49. What is Automatic Management of Segment Space setting?
50. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE statements?
51. What is COMPRESS and CONSISTENT setting in EXPORT utility?
52. What is the difference between Direct Path and Convention Path loading?
53. Can you disable and enable Primary key?
54. What is an Index Organized Table?
55. What is a Global Index and Local Index?
56. What is the difference between Range Partitioning and Hash Partitioning?
57. What is difference between Multithreaded/Shared Server and Dedicated
Server?
58. Can you import objects from Oracle ver. 7.3 to 9i?
59. How do you move tables from one tablespace to another tablespace?
60. How do see how much space is used and free in a tablespace?
1. Which types of backups you can take in Oracle?
2. A database is running in NOARCHIVELOG mode then which type of backups
you can take?

3. Can you take partial backups if the Database is running in NOARCHIVELOG

mode?
4. Can you take Online Backups if the the database is running in NOARCHIVELOG
mode?
5. How do you bring the database in ARCHIVELOG mode from NOARCHIVELOG
mode?
6. You cannot shutdown the database for even some minutes, then in which
mode you should run
the database?
7. Where should you place Archive logfiles, in the same disk where DB is or
another disk?
8. Can you take online backup of a Control file if yes, how?
9. What is a Logical Backup?
10. Should you take the backup of Logfiles if the database is running in
ARCHIVELOG mode?
11. Why do you take tablespaces in Backup mode?
12. What is the advantage of RMAN utility?
13. How RMAN improves backup time?
14. Can you take Offline backups using RMAN?
15. How do you see information about backups in RMAN?
16. What is a Recovery Catalog?
17. Should you place Recovery Catalog in the Same DB?
18. Can you use RMAN without Recovery catalog?
19. Can you take Image Backups using RMAN?
20. Can you use Backupsets created by RMAN with any other utility?
21. Where RMAN keeps information of backups if you are using RMAN without
Catalog?
22. You have taken a manual backup of a datafile using o/s. How RMAN will know
about it?
23. You want to retain only last 3 backups of datafiles. How do you go for it in
RMAN?
24. Which is more efficient Incremental Backups using RMAN or Incremental
Export?
25. Can you start and shutdown DB using RMAN?
26. How do you recover from the loss of datafile if the DB is running in
NOARCHIVELOG mode?
27. You loss one datafile and it does not contain important objects. The important
objects are there in other datafiles which are intact. How do you proceed in this

situation?
28. You lost some datafiles and you don't have any full backup and the database
was running in NOARCHIVELOG mode. What you can do now?
29. How do you recover from the loss of datafile if the DB is running in
ARCHIVELOG mode?
30. You loss one datafile and DB is running in ARCHIVELOG mode. You have full
database backup of 1 week old and partial backup of this datafile which is just 1
day old. From which backup should you restore this file?
31. You loss controlfile how do you recover from this?
32. The current logfile gets damaged. What you can do now?
33. What is a Complete Recovery?
34. What is Cancel Based, Time based and Change Based Recovery?
35. Some user has accidentally dropped one table and you realize this after two
days. Can you recover this table if the DB is running in ARCHIVELOG mode?
36. Do you have to restore Datafiles manually from backups if you are doing
recovery using RMAN?
37. A database is running in ARCHIVELOG mode since last one month. A datafile
is added to the database last week. Many objects are created in this datafile.
After one week this datafile gets damaged before you can take any backup. Now
can you recover this datafile when you don't have any backups?
38. How do you recover from the loss of a controlfile if you have backup of
controlfile?
39. Only some blocks are damaged in a datafile. Can you just recover these
blocks if you are using RMAN?
40. Some datafiles were there on a secondary disk and that disk has become
damaged and it will take some days to get a new disk. How will you recover from
this situation?
41. Have you faced any emergency situation. Tell us how you resolved it?
42. At one time you lost parameter file accidentally and you don't have any
backup. How you will recreate a new parameter file with the parameters set to
previous values.
1. How do you see how many instances are running?
2. How do you automate starting and shutting down of databases in Unix?
3. You have written a script to take backups. How do you make it run
automatically every week?
4. What is OERR utility?
5. How do you see Virtual Memory Statistics in Linux?
6. How do you see how much hard disk space is free in Linux?
7. What is SAR?
8. What is SHMMAX?
9. Swap partition must be how much the size of RAM?
10. What is DISM in Solaris?
11. How do you see how many memory segments are acquired by Oracle
Instances?
12. How do you see which segment belongs to which database instances?
13. What is VMSTAT?
14. How do you set Kernel Parameters in Red Hat Linux, AIX and Solaris?
15. How do you remove Memory segments?
16. What is the difference between Soft Link and Hard Link?
17. What is stored in oratab file?
18. How do you see how many processes are running in Unix?
19. How do you kill a process in Unix?
20. Can you change priority of a Process in Unix?

how to find long running query

Query V$Session_longops
SELECT s.SID,
s.serial#,
s.machine,
ROUND(sl.elapsed_seconds/60) || ':' ||
MOD(sl.elapsed_seconds,60) elapsed,
ROUND(sl.time_remaining/60) || ':' ||
MOD(sl.time_remaining,60) remaining,
ROUND(sl.sofar/sl.totalwork*100, 2) progress_pct
FROM v$session s,
v$session_longopssl
WHERE s.SID = sl.SID
AND s.serial# = sl.serial#
ORDER BY 4 DESC
And then run the following query
SELECT a.sql_text
FROM v$sqltext a,
v$session b
WHERE a.address = b.sql_address
AND a.hash_value = b.sql_hash_value
AND b.sid = &1 --> From above sql
ORDER BY a.piece;