Oracle Database Performance

Accessing how well an Oracle database is performing is tricky business. Traditionally, the work in this area has focused on the performance of the hardware components, such as the CPU and I/O devices, that support the system. The ideology behind this method was the belief that the best way to maximize the performance of the Oracle database was to minimize, as much as possible, the number of operations these components had to perform.

Response Time

However, more and more database administrators and IT managers now believe that measuring response time is a much better indicator of true Oracle database performance. The process involves analyzing how long it takes for each operation in the database to execute. The information obtained is then analyzed to identify the most time consuming events.

Once identified the database administrations sets about trying to eliminating any unnecessary system waits. This process is called database performance tuning and it entails a series of checks and balances, which hopefully will improve the database performance. Thus, before attempting to tune the performance of the Oracle database, it is important to clearly map out the objectives of the project.

The goals selected should be consistent with the particular needs and habits of the users. In addition, it is very important to keep in mind that each change should be thoroughly tested to gauge its impact on all other systems. For instance, an adjustment made might result in a small decrease in response time for queries, but dramatically increase the time it takes for the database to add or modify records.