Oracle Performance Tuning

Perhaps the biggest responsibility of the database administrator (DBA) is to keep the databases under his care properly tuned. In an improperly tuned database, a user might be forced to spend an excessive amount of time waiting for the system to respond to his or her requests. Furthermore, an out of tune database has a tendency to put a real strain on the system hardware.

The company can save a significant amount of time and money by conducting ongoing Oracle performance tuning. This is especially true when it comes to maintaining existing databases. Plus as the database grows or its functionality changes, it becomes increasingly important for the DBA to perform regular check ups on it to ensure that it is still performing at an optimal level.

Allocating Memory

Now that we have established the necessity of Oracle performance tuning, it is time to turn our attention toward the areas where the DBA should focus most of his or her tuning efforts. The first area to look at is whether or not essential Oracle parameters have enough physical memory allocated to them. This step could possibly involve locating functions that are using a large percentage of the memory to execute and thus causing unnecessary I/O operations.

An improperly coded query or inappropriately referenced index can consume an enormous amount of memory. The execution of these memory hungry operations can bring the entire system to a practical standstill. Once all the memory hogs in the system have been identified, the logical next step in Oracle performance tuning process involves working to eliminate them.