Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Reviewing the performance tuning process
Tuning the performance of an Oracle database is a complex task, which requires in-depth
knowledge in different areas. There are a lot of forums, documents, and tutorials online
responding to many performance tuning issues related to Oracle Database; often, however,
the information gathered from these sources may not be enough to solve the peculiar
problem we are experiencing, because of different database versions, different server
architectures, and a wide number of variables which make it difficult to find the correct
recipe to resolve the symptoms we are facing.
Many would-be DBAs approach a performance problem with a bad attitude; that is, they
pretend to solve performance issues without investigating the problem, or with little
knowledge about what happens under the hood. Often this approach leads to solutions
which don't work or—in the worst case—seem to work temporarily, presenting the same
problem or another one after a while.
In the following section, we will see the performance tuning process adopted in this topic,
which can help us in finding the correct way to diagnose, solve, and prevent performance
issues on Oracle Databases.
How to do it...
To solve a performance problem on the database, we need to follow these steps:
1.
Elaborate a baseline.
2.
Investigate the problem.
3.
Assume a solution, a test case, and a rollback strategy.
4.
Implement the solution and test for correctness.
5.
Test the solution.
6.
Compare the results.
7.
If the results are not as good as expected, iterate the process.
