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Oracle Indexing Myths (Telling Lies) September 26, 2017

Posted by Richard Foote in Oracle Indexes.
2 comments

DavidBowie-TellingLies-CD

I’m currently hard at work fully revising and updating my “Indexing Internals and Best Practices” seminar in time for a series of events I’ll be running in Australia in October/November. This has been a highly popular and acclaimed 2 day seminar that is a must for any DBA, Developer, Solutions Architect or anyone else interested in designing, developing or maintaining high performance Oracle-based databases/applications.

For a number of reasons, there are many myths in relation to how Oracle Indexes function, how they should be maintained and how and when indexes should be implemented. One of the goals of my seminar is to go through and dispel many of these myths and demonstrate how these misconceptions can unfortunately often result in inappropriate and inefficient indexing strategies being deployed. I have investigated numerous customer databases (including large scale Exadata sites) where the database is running in a severely sub-optimal manner as a direct result of  inappropriate indexing implementations based on these myths.

Some of these misconceptions are just plain wrong, some are true in other databases but not Oracle, some might have once been true but not anymore, some might be mostly true but not always, some might be mostly false but not always and it’s often these exceptions that can make such an important difference in how indexes could/should be deployed in some environments. Words such as “never” ,”always”, “all” and “none” are dangerous to use when discussing technology as exceptions, caveats and limitations can impact/distort the truth and how such technology should be implemented.

My use of the term “Best Practices” in the seminar title is actually a deliberate, somewhat cynical reuse of a term that actually gets many customers in strife as what might be a so-called “Best Practice” in one environment might be totally inappropriate in another environments.

In no particular order, the following Oracle Indexing “myths” (or misleading generalisations) are discussed throughout my seminar and are still prevalent out there in the Oracle universe:

  • Oracle B-Tree indexes become “unbalanced” over time and need to be rebuilt
  • Deleted space in index is “deadwood” and over time requires index to be rebuilt
  • If index height greater than ‘x’, it becomes inefficient and needs to be rebuilt
  • If index grows to 2x its height, it is 2x more costly to use
  • PCTFREE enables space for index entries to grow within current leaf block
  • If index has a poor (very high) Clustering Factor, rebuild the index
  • To improve the Clustering Factor, you have to rebuild the underling table
  • Clustering Factor “as good as it gets” after gathering 100% estimate index statistics
  • To improve performance, regularly rebuild indexes
  • You never have to rebuild an index to improve performance
  • Statistics from INDEX_STATS provides reliable metrics on when to rebuild an index
  • If delete rows as reported in INDEX_STATS > x%, rebuild
  • If delete rows as reported in INDEX_STATS < x%, don’t rebuild
  • Analyze Index Validate Structure is a safe method of collecting index metrics
  • Index rebuilds are inexpensive and unobtrusive
  • Primary/Unique Key constraints require a unique index
  • Drop/disable a constraint, unique index policing index is automatically dropped
  • All Foreign Key constraints must be indexed
  • Indexes should eliminate sorting
  • Only indexed columns require statistics
  • Bitmap Indexes only useful with low cardinality columns
  • Bitmap Index will be used when a B-tree is not for low cardinality columns
  • Null values are not indexed
  • Small tables (say < 100 rows) don’t benefit from indexing
  • Separating indexes from tables in tablespaces improves performance
  • Range scans not possible with Reverse Key indexes
  • Local indexes improve performance
  • Put most discriminating column first in concatenated indexes
  • If SQL references all columns in index, index column order is irrelevant
  • If leading column of index is not referenced in SQL, index not considered by CBO
  • Monitoring Indexes will highlight which indexes can be safely dropped
  • Indexing Tracking will highlight which indexes can be safely dropped
  • Index Compression make indexes smaller
  • B-Tree Index only useful with high cardinality columns
  • Pointless indexing a column with one distinct value
  • If more than x% rows returned, index is inappropriate, where x% between 0 & 100
  • Full Table Scan more efficient than index range scan with table access, when returning 100% of data
  • The CBO cost an internal value of no practical use for tuning/comparison purposes
  • Index is best solution to return 0% of data
  • You don’t need indexes in Exadata
  • Indexes less important in Exadata, as Storage Indexes can take over if database index is missing

It’s important to note it potentially only takes just the one bad row inserted in a table, one inaccurate statistic, one index being used inappropriately, one missing index not created during a application upgrade, to bring down a whole Oracle database, RAC nodes running on an Exadata included…

If you want to learn why the above statements are misleading and lots, lots, lots more, come and attend my Indexing Seminar. Tickets for the Australian events are on sale here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/richard-foote-consulting-pty-ltd-15076769762

Dates for other regions will be announced in the near future: https://richardfooteconsulting.com/seminardates/

If you wish to express an interest in attending a seminar near you, please email: richard@richardfooteconsulting.com.

 

 

 

“Oracle Indexing Internals & Best Practices” Seminar: Australia 2017 Tour (Stage) September 19, 2017

Posted by Richard Foote in Index Internals Seminar, Oracle Indexes, Richard Foote Consulting.
1 comment so far

seminar photo

I’ll be running a fully revised and updated version of my acclaimed “Oracle Indexing Internals and Best Practices” seminar throughout Australia in Oct/Nov 2017. Previous versions of this seminar have been hugely popular and run in some 18 countries. This updated version will feature lots of new material including 12c related indexing capabilities and recommendations.

Indexes are fundamental to every Oracle database and are crucial for optimal performance. However, there’s an incredible amount of misconception, misunderstanding and pure myth regarding how Oracle indexes function and should be maintained. Many applications and databases are suboptimal and run inefficiently primarily because an inappropriate indexing strategy has been implemented.

This seminar examines most available Oracle index structures/options and discusses in considerable detail how indexes function, how/when they should be used and how they should be maintained. A key component of the seminar is how indexes are costed and evaluated by the Cost Based Optimizer (CBO) and how appropriate data management practices are vital for an effective indexing strategy.  It also covers many useful tips and strategies to maximise the benefits of indexes on application/database performance and scalability, as well as in maximising Oracle database investments. Much of the material is exclusive to this seminar and is not generally available in Oracle documentation or in Oracle University courses.

This is a must attend seminar of benefit to DBAs, Developers, Solution Architects and anyone else interested in designing, developing or maintaining high performance Oracle-based applications. It’s a fun, but intense, content rich seminar that is suitable for people of all experiences (from beginners to seasoned Oracle experts). All seminars are small class environments, with plenty of opportunity for attendees to ask questions specific to their particular environment.

Full seminar details can be found on my new website: https://richardfooteconsulting.com/seminardates

The full Australian itinerary and enrolment details as follows:

Perth 30-31 October 2017: For full details and how to enrol (enrolments close on 22 October or when event is full): https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/oracle-indexing-internals-and-best-practices-seminar-with-richard-foote-tickets-37783577698

Adelaide 1-2 November 2017: For full details and how to enrol (enrolments close on 22 October or when event is full): https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/oracle-indexing-internals-and-best-practices-seminar-with-richard-foote-tickets-37793217531

Canberra 6-7 November 2017: For full details and how to enrol (enrolments close on 28 October or when event is full): https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/oracle-indexing-internals-and-best-practices-seminar-with-richard-foote-tickets-37793625752

Brisbane 8-9 November 2017: For full details and how to enrol (enrolments close on 1 November or when event is full): https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/oracle-indexing-internals-and-best-practices-seminar-with-richard-foote-tickets-37793828358

Melbourne 13-14 November 2017: For full details and how to enrol (enrolments close on 4 November or when event is full): https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/oracle-indexing-internals-and-best-practices-seminar-with-richard-foote-tickets-37794100171

Sydney 15-16 November 2017: For full details and how to enrol (enrolments close on 7 November or when event is full): https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/oracle-indexing-internals-and-best-practices-seminar-with-richard-foote-tickets-37794680908

Note: Numbers are strictly limited due to the small class nature of the seminars. Please book early to avoid disappointment as seminars are not scheduled regularly.

 

For additional information on seminar content, upcoming seminars or training requests, contact me at richard@richardfooteconsulting.com.

 

 

Richard Foote Consulting Has Arrived (New Angels Of Promise) September 18, 2017

Posted by Richard Foote in Index Internals Seminar, Oracle Indexes, Richard Foote Consulting.
6 comments

Today is the official launch of Richard Foote Consulting, my new independent company in which I’ll be providing specialist Oracle Database consulting and training services, focusing on database performance tuning, database problem resolutions and database health check assessments (at least until everyone moves across to the new self-tuning Oracle Cloud database). Based on all the interest I’ve already received, this journey should be a blast.

For all the details, please visit the new website: richardfooteconsulting.com.

I will also be running training seminar events, starting with a fully revised and updated version of the very popular “Oracle Indexing Internals and Best Practices” seminar. The first series will be an Australian Tour in October/November. For all currently scheduled seminars, see my Seminar Dates Page or just check out the Blog slide bar for a list of upcoming seminars.

And most important of all, I might now have time to post blog articles more regularly 🙂

For information on upcoming seminars, consulting services, rates or availability, please email richard@richardfooteconsulting.com.