Optimizing Oracle Server

Performance on LINUX

Tips for Maximizing Toad Productivity

OOUG 2009
Columbus, OH
July 16th
© 2008 Quest Software, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Agenda
• Apply “low hanging fruit” fixes to speed up Oracle
performance on Linux

• We’ll look at both database and operating system

level modifications …

• Goal is simple – how can we maximize Oracle

performance on Linux servers!
Bert Scalzo …
Database Expert & Product Architect for Quest Software

Oracle Background:
• Worked with Oracle databases for over two decades (starting with version 4)
• Work history includes time at both “Oracle Education” and “Oracle Consulting”

Academic Background:
• Several Oracle Masters certifications
• BS, MS and PhD in Computer Science
• MBA (general business)
• Several insurance industry designations

Key Interests:
• Data Modeling
• Database Benchmarking
• Database Tuning & Optimization
• "Star Schema" Data Warehouses
• Oracle on Linux – and specifically: RAC on Linux

Articles for: Articles for:

• Oracle’s Technology Network (OTN) • Dell Power Solutions
• Oracle Magazine, Magazine
• Oracle Informant • The Linux Journal
• PC Week (eWeek) • www.linux.com
• www.orafaq.com 3
Books by Bert …

Coming in 2009 …

4
Couple of Questions (for both our benefit)

• How many people using

– Where using Linux
• Production
• Development
• Personal Education
– Which Linux Distribution
• Oracle Enterprise Linux
• Redhat Enterprise Server
• SUSE Linux Enterprise
• Other ???
LINUX Server Popularity
• IDC – Linux Servers:

– Posted 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth

– Year-over-year revenue growth of 45.1%
– Unit shipments up 32.1%
– Revenue exceeded $1.4 billion quarterly (will reach 9.1 billion by
2008)
– HP was first with 24.3% market share
– IBM was second with 20.3% market share
– Customers continue to expand role of Linux servers into an ever
increasing array of workloads in both commercial and technical
segments of the market

• Gartner – Linux Servers:

– One of hottest applications for Linux is on RDBMS servers

– Linux was the fastest growing platform for RDBMS past year
– Enterprises turning to Linux as an alternative for older Unix’s
LINUX Web Popularity
In Netcraft’s July 2000 survey of 18,169,498 web sites.

#1 OS !!!

www.netcraft.com/survey/index-200007.html
LINUX Web Popularity

http://survey.netcraft.com/index-200106.html
LINUX Web Popularity

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2003/07/index.html
LINUX Gaining Momentum
LINUX Gaining Momentum
http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=414985
Popularity != Performance

Some plausible reasons for this:

• Relative newness of the LINUX OS in general
• RISC UNIX sys admin unfamiliar with INTEL
• INTEL UNIX sys admin unfamiliar with LINUX
• Windows based sys admin unfamiliar with UNIX
• Oracle, Oracle, Oracle …
Where Can We Look

What is Tunable:
• Hardware
Linux Tuning
• Operating System
• Database
• Network
SQL Tuning
• Application

SQL Tuning Advice – focus on application first, and then

database and possibly network.

Linux Tuning Advice – focus on hardware, LINUX and

Oracle database configurations.
Performance Pyramid

Network

Hardware

OS

DBMS

Application
Our Main Goal

To squeeze all the blood out of our LINUX turnip …

Which LINUX Distribution
OS Product Status

SLES-9 10gR2 Certified

Red Hat Enterprise AS/ES 4 10gR2 Certified

Red Hat Enterprise AS/ES 3 10gR2 Certified

SLES-9 10g Certified

SLES-8 10g Certified

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 4 10g Certified

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 3 10g Certified

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 2.1 10g Certified

Red Flag DC Server 4.0 (China Only) 10g Certified

Monta Vista Carrier Grade Linux 3.1 (Embedded) 10g Certified

Miracle Linux Standard Edition 2.1 (Japan only) 10g Certified

Asianux 2.0 10g Certified

Asianux 1.0 10g Certified

UnitedLinux 1.0 9.2 Certified

SLES-9 9.2 Certified

SLES-8 9.2 Certified

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 4 9.2 Certified

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 3 9.2 Certified

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 2.1 9.2 Certified

Red Flag DC Server 4.0 (China Only) 9.2 Certified

Monta Vista Carrier Grade Linux 3.0 (Embedded) 9.2 Certified

Miracle Linux Standard Edition 2.1 (Japan only) 9.2 Certified

Asianux 1.0 9.2 Certified

Which LINUX Distribution
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/12/05/strong_growth_for_debian.html
Test Method

TPC benchmark (www.tpc.org)

TPC Benchmark™ C (TPC-C) is an OLTP workload. It is a mixture of read-only and update
intensive transactions that simulate the activities found in complex OLTP application
environments. It does so by exercising a breadth of system components associated with
such environments, which are characterized by:
• The simultaneous execution of multiple transaction types that span a breadth of
complexity
• On-line and deferred transaction execution modes
• Multiple on-line terminal sessions
• Moderate system and application execution time
• Significant disk input/output
• Transaction integrity (ACID properties)
• Non-uniform distribution of data access through primary and secondary keys
• Databases consisting of many tables with a wide variety of sizes, attributes, and
relationships
• Contention on data access and update

Excerpt from “TPC BENCHMARK™ C: Standard Specification, Revision 3.5”

Test Platform

Simulate
200
Users
Carpenter Needs Tools
Between the hardware, LINUX and Oracle – there
are far too many dependent variables for tuning to
rely merely on human intuition and experience.

Free is nice – but you often get what you pay for!

If your customer or management are willing to buy

more hardware for better performance, then there is
obviously budget for tuning tools – press the issue!

Golden Rule #1: Use OS & DB tuning tools!

Golden Rule #2: Don’t rely on free tools only!
Tools Used

This is not a sales pitch – I’m a DBA (a.k.a techno-nerd)!

Benchmark Factory
• Create, populate and index the test database (200 megs)
• Simulate 200 concurrent users via a single or many PC’s

LINUX Freebies
• Command line utilities:
• X-Windows utilities:
sar, mpstat, iostat, vmstat, linmon, ipcs,
top, free, hdparm, linuxconf, slmon, …
gtop, ktop, xload, xosview, kperfmeter,
gkrellmm, procmeter, gpowertweak, …
Benchmark Factory - GUI
Benchmark Factory - Agent
 LINUX cmd tools
sar –r

01:00:00 PM kbmemfree kbmemused %memused kbmemshrd kbbuffers kbcached kbswpfree kbswpused %swpused
01:10:00 PM 465132 48128 9.37 0 2708 26136 525288 0 0.00
01:20:00 PM 463352 49908 9.72 0 2784 26732 525288 0 0.00
01:30:00 PM 463356 49904 9.72 0 2784 26736 525288 0 0.00
01:40:03 PM 1652 511608 99.67 0 532 18216 447360 77928 14.83
01:50:01 PM 1604 511656 99.68 0 768 17228 369024 156264 29.74
02:00:00 PM 376852 136408 26.57 0 1120 25692 503344 21944 4.17

Average: 295324 217936 42.46 0 1782 23456 482598 42690 8.12

vmstat

procs memory swap io system cpu

r b w swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id
0 5 0 122308 1588 440 17492 0 124 145 81 906 338 5 5 90
0 1 0 124608 1588 440 16992 0 230 194 97 1114 435 8 6 86
0 3 0 127132 1588 432 17140 0 253 164 155 992 373 11 5 84
0 1 0 128836 1588 440 17344 0 171 172 88 987 394 8 5 87
0 1 0 130428 1592 468 17024 0 159 189 143 1104 426 11 7 82
0 0 0 132052 1596 460 16940 2 164 181 131 1059 407 7 5 87
0 0 0 133240 1600 444 16508 1 120 166 124 1006 394 8 5 87
0 5 0 134920 1588 452 16596 0 168 138 122 870 344 6 7 87
1 2 0 136800 1592 448 16500 12 190 184 104 1074 419 7 7 86
1 0 0 138400 1600 432 16576 0 160 158 128 991 394 9 6 86
0 1 0 139764 1588 468 16516 0 136 183 135 1086 433 9 6 84
1 0 0 140780 1596 456 16680 5 102 126 65 815 332 9 8 83
1 1 0 141984 1588 444 16756 0 120 157 93 957 388 10 9 81
0 3 0 143044 1588 456 16516 0 106 185 137 1097 441 10 9 81
1 2 0 143944 1588 464 16468 0 90 138 115 899 348 12 7 82
1 2 0 144940 1588 464 16320 2 100 179 133 1099 442 8 8 84
1 1 0 146092 1596 468 16588 0 115 147 82 910 367 8 8 84
0 2 0 146820 1588 460 16416 18 73 135 111 882 338 7 7 86
0 5 0 147580 1588 440 16284 2 76 125 84 841 343 8 6 87
0 2 0 148144 1596 444 15776 0 56 134 89 890 361 6 5 89
0 0 0 148652 1588 448 15480 0 51 109 47 767 316 7 6 87
LINUX gui tools
Here We Go

Work up “Performance Pyramid”:

• Application (TPC – no mods)

• Database
• Operating System
• Hardware

Other general benchmarking advice:

• Limit to one item per try

• OS Low Hanging Fruit 1st
• DB Low Hanging Fruit 2nd
• Easy items before hard stuff
DB1 - Initial Database Creation

Test database created via Oracle’s

Database Block Size = 2K “Database Configuration Assistant”

SGA Buffer Cache = 64M Prior to 9i, the tool’s default settings were
ridiculously lower than these. A novice DBA
or system admin user might use those lower
SGA Shared Pool = 64M default values and get much worse results!

SGA Redo Cache = 4M

Redo Log Files = 4M

Tablespaces = Dictionary
DB2 – Increase Buffer Cache & Shared Pool

Database Block Size = 2K

SGA Buffer Cache = 128M

SGA Shared Pool = 128M

SGA Redo Cache = 4M

Redo Log Files = 4M

Tablespaces = Dictionary
DB3 – Increase Redo Cache & Log Files

Database Block Size = 2K

SGA Buffer Cache = 128M

SGA Shared Pool = 128M

SGA Redo Cache = 16M

Redo Log Files = 16M

Tablespaces = Dictionary
DB4 – 4K Block Size

Database Block Size = 4K

SGA Buffer Cache = 128M

SGA Shared Pool = 128M

SGA Redo Cache = 16M

Redo Log Files = 16M

Tablespaces = Dictionary
DB5 – Local Tablespaces

Database Block Size = 4K

SGA Buffer Cache = 128M

SGA Shared Pool = 128M

SGA Redo Cache = 16M

Redo Log Files = 4M

Tablespaces = Local
DB6 – 8K Block Size

Be careful – for example on RAC setup

Database Block Size = 8K choosing larger block size may cause
interconnect overload / hot-spots
SGA Buffer Cache = 128M

SGA Shared Pool = 128M

SGA Redo Cache = 16M

Redo Log Files = 16M

Tablespaces = Local
DB7 – IO Slaves + Increase Redo Log Files

Database Block Size = 8K INIT.ORA

session_cached_cursors=2
SGA Buffer Cache = 128M db_block_lru_latches=8
dbwr_io_slaves=4
SGA Shared Pool = 128M lgwr_io_slaves=4

SGA Redo Cache = 16M

Redo Log Files = 64M

Tablespaces = Local
 Oracle Modification Results

DB1 DB2 DB3 DB4 DB5 DB6 DB7 DB Final

load time49.41 48.57 41.39 17.35 15.07 11.42 10.48 10.48
% Improved -1.73% -17.35% -138.56% -15.13% -31.96% -8.97% -371.47%
trans/sec 8.15 9.15 10.09 10.18 10.43 10.68 10.72 10.72
% Improved 10.88% 9.33% 0.89% 2.36% 2.42% 0.32% 23.93%
OS1 – IPC + Monolithic Kernel

Kernel = 2.2.14-5smp
Monolithic Kernel - If you compile
Linuxconf = monolithic everything into the kernel to exactly
match your hardware and thus
make minimal use of modules.
Shared memory
/usr/src/linux-2.2.16/include/asm/shmparam.h
#define SHMMAX 0x13000000

Semaphors
/usr/src/linux-2.2.16/include/linux/sem.h
#define SEMMNI 100
#define SEMMSL 512
#define SEMMNS (SEMMNI*SEMMSL)
#define SEMOPM 100
#define SEMVMX 32767
OS2 – Newer Minor Kernel Update

Kernel = 2.2.16-3smp

Linuxconf = monolithic

Shared memory
/usr/src/linux-2.2.16/include/asm/shmparam.h
#define SHMMAX 0x13000000

Semaphors
/usr/src/linux-2.2.16/include/linux/sem.h
#define SEMMNI 100
#define SEMMSL 512
#define SEMMNS (SEMMNI*SEMMSL)
#define SEMOPM 100
#define SEMVMX 32767
OS3 – Newer Major Kernel Update

Kernel = 2.4.1smp Edit /etc/sysctl.conf

kernel.shmmax = 2147483647
Linuxconf = monolithic kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128

The sem values are:

Shared memory •SEMMSL
•SEMMNS
/usr/src/linux-2.4.00/include/linux/shm.h
•SEMOPM
#define SHMMAX 0x13000000
•SEMMNI

Semaphors To set w/out a reboot on Redhat:

/usr/src/linux-2.4.00/include/linux/sem.h
sysctl -p
#define SEMMNI 128
#define SEMMSL 512
#define SEMMNS (SEMMNI*SEMMSL)
#define SEMOPM 128
#define SEMVMX 32767
OS4 – Newer Minor Kernel Update After Major

Kernel = 2.4.17smp Edit /etc/sysctl.conf

kernel.shmmax = 2147483647
Linuxconf = monolithic kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128

The sem values are:

Shared memory •SEMMSL
•SEMMNS
/usr/src/linux-2.4.00/include/linux/shm.h
•SEMOPM
#define SHMMAX 0x13000000
•SEMMNI

Semaphors To set w/out a reboot on Redhat:

/usr/src/linux-2.4.00/include/linux/sem.h
sysctl -p
#define SEMMNI 128
#define SEMMSL 512
#define SEMMNS (SEMMNI*SEMMSL)
#define SEMOPM 128
#define SEMVMX 32767
OS5 – noatime file attribute

The ext2 file system normally records when a file Actually, this can be done on
was last modified and last accessed. We don’t need Windows server as well!
to know access time for Oracle files as background
programs open and access the files until shutdown.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Sy
chattr +A file_name stem\CurrentControlSet\Control\
FileSystem
chattr –R +A directory_name

Edit /etc/fstab NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate=1

/dev/sda6 / ext2 defaults,noatime 1 1

/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults,noatime 1 2
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/md0 /u01 ext2 defaults,noatime 1 2
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
none /proc proc defaults,noatime 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults,noatime 0 0
 OS6 – bdflush rate for VM
The bdflush file is closely related to the operation of
the virtual memory (VM) subsystem of the Linux
kernel and also has a little influence on disk usage.
Default = "40 500 64 256 500 3000 500 1884 2"
Redhat 6.1
echo “100 1200 128 512 15 500 1884 2” > /proc/sys/vm/bdflush
Redhat 6.2 (edit /etc/sysctl.conf)
vm.bdflush = 100 1200 128 512 15 5000 500 1884 2
Restart daemon
/etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart
1st parm is max # of dirty buffers in
cache. Higher = delayed disk writes.
2nd parm is max # of dirty buffers per
write. Higher = delayed, bursty I/O.
3rd parm is # of buffers added to
list of free buffers by refill_freelist.
4th parm refill_freelist comes
across more than nref_dirt dirty
buffers, it will wake up bdflush.
5th parm is max time Linux waits
before writing dirty buffers to disk
for data blocks.
6th parm is max time Linux waits
before writing dirty buffers to disk
for file system metadata.
OS7 – Ext3 File System
Ext3 is a journaling file system based upon ext2 – benefits include:

• both backward and forward compatible with ext2

• easy to change from ext2 to ext3 and gain the benefits without reformatting
• does not require a file system check even after an unclean system shutdown
• recovery time does not depend on the size of the file system or the number of files
• provide stronger guarantees about data integrity in case of an unclean system shutdown
• faster (higher throughput) than ext2 as ext3's journaling optimizes hard drive head motion

Create Load Create Total

TPC-C Database Tables Indexes Time
EXT2 348 295 234 877
EXT3 228 158 122 508
Reiser 378 297 537 1,212
IBM JFS 351 277 231 859
RAW 396 290 225 911
RAW X 2 396 240 263 899
 LINUX Modification Results

DB1 DB Final OS1 OS2 OS3 OS4 OS5 OS6 OS7 OS Final Total
load time 49.41 10.48 9.54 9.40 8.32 8.20 5.58 4.43 3.80 3.80 3.80
% Improved -371.47% -9.85% -1.49% -12.98% -1.46% -46.95% -25.96% -16.58% -151.05% -1200.26%
trans/sec 8.15 10.72 11.51 11.52 12.82 12.90 13.88 14.99 20.51 20.51 20.51
% Improved 23.93% 6.90% 0.10% 10.09% 0.66% 7.09% 7.37% 26.92% 43.88% 60.25%
Some Final Thoughts
IDE Drives
• Default IDE settings stink – they must be changed and generally yield 500% improvement!!!
• Test speed via hdparm –Tt /dev/hda
• Tune spped via hdparm –X66 –d1 –u1 –m16 –c3 /dev/hda

MTS
• Problematic under LINUX, more than a few TAR’s registered with Oracle technical support

Hardware RAID
• LINUX driver support generally tier 2 and often provided by someone other than the vendor

4K File System
• mke2fs –b 4096 mount_point
• LINUX default file system block size = 1K, but max is 4K
• Typical improvement of 5% for each increase (i.e. 5% for 1k–>2k and 5% for 2k–>4k)

PGCC Compiler
• www.goof.com/pcg
• PGCC is a version of the GNU C compiler (gcc) with special optimizations for Pentium CPU
• The 30% improvement achieved by the Intel engineers is rare in the real world (don’t bank on it)
• Typical improvement of 5% using intermediate optimization level like -O3 and no fine-tuning
• Recompile kernel – only small improvement since Oracle makes few calls to LINUX kernel
• Recompile glibc – bigger improvement possible, but headache unless already know process
 Questions and Answers …

Thank You
Presenters:
Bert Scalzo: Bert.Scalzo@Quest.com

Note: these slides should be available on OOUG web site, but

we’ll also make sure to post them on our company’s web site:

www.toadworld.com/Experts/BertScalzosToadFanaticism/tabid/318/Default.aspx