Oracle Database 19c Automatic Indexing: Minimum Number Of Required Indexes (Low) January 20, 2020
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, 19c New Features, Automatic Indexing, Autonomous Database, Autonomous Transaction Processing, Oracle Indexes.add a comment
As I discussed in my previous posts, Oracle Automatic Indexing will try and create as few indexes as possible to satisfy existing workloads, even if that means reordering the columns in an existing index.
To illustrate how Automatic Indexing creates as few indexes as possible, I’ll create the following table which has a number of columns with differing numbers of distinct values:
SQL> create table thin_white_duke (id number, code1 number, code2 number, code3 number, code4 number, name varchar2(42)); Table created. SQL> insert into thin_white_duke select rownum, ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 100)), ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 1000)), ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 10000)), ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 100000)), 'David Bowie' from dual connect by level <= 10000000; 10000000 rows created. SQL> commit; Commit complete. SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'THIN_WHITE_DUKE'); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. SQL> select column_name, num_distinct, density from user_tab_columns where table_name='THIN_WHITE_DUKE'; COLUMN_NAME NUM_DISTINCT DENSITY --------------- ------------ ---------- ID 9914368 1.0086E-07 CODE1 100 .01 CODE2 1000 .001 CODE3 10000 .0001 CODE4 100824 9.9183E-06 NAME 1 1
I then run the following workload within a 15 minute window between Automatic Index tasks:
SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where id=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code1=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code2=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code3=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code1=42 and code2=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code1=42 and code3=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code1=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code2=42 and code1=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code2=42 and code3=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code2=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code3=42 and code1=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code3=42 and code2=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code3=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code4=42 and code1=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code4=42 and code2=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code4=42 and code3=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code1=42 and code2=42 and code3=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code1=42 and code2=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code1=42 and code3=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code2=42 and code1=42 and code3=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code2=42 and code1=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code2=42 and code3=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code3=42 and code1=42 and code2=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code3=42 and code1=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code3=42 and code2=42 and code4=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code4=42 and code1=42 and code2=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code4=42 and code1=42 and code3=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code4=42 and code2=42 and code3=42; SQL> select * from thin_white_duke where code1=42 and code2=42 and code3=42 and code4=42;
Each of these queries have no choice but to perform a Full Table Scan as there are currently no indexes defined to the table. Each query uses a different column list, so for the 30 or so SQL statements, one could potentially create 30 or so different indexes to cover each and every SQL predicate combination used above.
But how many different indexes will Automatic Indexing create?
Let’s have a look…
SQL> select dbms_auto_index.report_last_activity() report from dual; REPORT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity start : 15-JUL-2019 07:46:25 Activity end : 15-JUL-2019 07:48:56 Executions completed : 1 Executions interrupted : 0 Executions with fatal error : 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (AUTO INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Index candidates : 7 Indexes created (visible / invisible) : 7 (7 / 0) Space used (visible / invisible) : 1.8 GB (1.8 GB / 0 B) Indexes dropped : 0 SQL statements verified : 29 SQL statements improved (improvement factor) : 29 (147.2x) SQL plan baselines created : 0 Overall improvement factor : 147.2x ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (MANUAL INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unused indexes : 0 Space used : 0 B Unusable indexes : 0
We can see that Automatic Indexing only create 7 different indexes, that’s it !!
If we look at the indexes that have been created:
INDEX DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The following indexes were created: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | BOWIE | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | SYS_AI_0u1qx8vgtstkb | CODE4,CODE1,CODE2 | B-TREE | NONE | | BOWIE | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | SYS_AI_2j5g09nzrhqsw | CODE2,CODE3,CODE4 | B-TREE | NONE | | BOWIE | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | SYS_AI_4y26dtkybxq6k | CODE3,CODE4 | B-TREE | NONE | | BOWIE | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | SYS_AI_5pmdyk5pjay8a | CODE3,CODE1,CODE4 | B-TREE | NONE | | BOWIE | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | SYS_AI_6uqhvvzabg5n8 | ID | B-TREE | NONE | | BOWIE | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | SYS_AI_bwfbc6nah6uga | CODE2,CODE4 | B-TREE | NONE | | BOWIE | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | SYS_AI_fftcb8q17yy6g | CODE1,CODE2,CODE3,CODE4 | B-TREE | NONE | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We can see how the 7 indexes can collectively cover all 30 odd different SQL predicates within the workload, because the leading columns of at least one index has the necessary columns of each SQL predicate.
If we look at but one SQL example within the Automatic Index report, the query with the predicate on just the CODE4 column:
Parsing Schema Name : BOWIE SQL ID : 20h1p88d1u80r SQL Text : select * from thin_white_duke where code4=42 Improvement Factor : 1200.5x Execution Statistics: ----------------------------- Original Plan Auto Index Plan ---------------------------- ---------------------------- Elapsed Time (s): 679689 1148 CPU Time (s): 724033 933 Buffer Gets: 162070 91 Optimizer Cost: 8617 103 Disk Reads: 0 2 Direct Writes: 0 0 Rows Processed: 264 88 Executions: 3 1 PLANS SECTION --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Original ----------------------------- Plan Hash Value : 2714752625 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost | Time | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | | 8617 | | | 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | | | 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 99 | 3366 | 8617 | 00:00:01 | | 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 99 | 3366 | 8617 | 00:00:01 | | 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | 99 | 3366 | 8617 | 00:00:01 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - With Auto Indexes ----------------------------- Plan Hash Value : 2447525579 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost | Time | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 88 | 2992 | 103 | 00:00:01 | | 1 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID BATCHED | THIN_WHITE_DUKE | 88 | 2992 | 103 | 00:00:01 | | * 2 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | SYS_AI_0u1qx8vgtstkb | 99 | | 3 | 00:00:01 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We see it can now be serviced with the new SYS_AI_0u1qx8vgtstkb index, because it has the following columns (CODE4,CODE1,CODE2), with the CODE4 column as the leading column.
If we look at the details of all these new Automatic Indexes:
SQL> select index_name, auto, constraint_index, visibility, compression, status, num_rows, leaf_blocks, clustering_factor from user_indexes
where table_name='THIN_WHITE_DUKE';
INDEX_NAME AUT CON VISIBILIT COMPRESSION STATUS NUM_ROWS LEAF_BLOCKS CLUSTERING_FACTOR
-------------------- --- --- --------- ------------- -------- ---------- ----------- -----------------
SYS_AI_6uqhvvzabg5n8 YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 23553 53336
SYS_AI_fftcb8q17yy6g YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 37322 9999819
SYS_AI_2j5g09nzrhqsw YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 33154 9999815
SYS_AI_bwfbc6nah6uga YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 27564 9999822
SYS_AI_5pmdyk5pjay8a YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 31908 9999804
SYS_AI_4y26dtkybxq6k YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 27697 9999818
SYS_AI_0u1qx8vgtstkb YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 31783 9999819
SQL> select index_name, column_name, column_position from user_ind_columns where table_name='THIN_WHITE_DUKE' order by index_name, column_position;
INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION
-------------------- --------------- ---------------
SYS_AI_0u1qx8vgtstkb CODE4 1
SYS_AI_0u1qx8vgtstkb CODE1 2
SYS_AI_0u1qx8vgtstkb CODE2 3
SYS_AI_2j5g09nzrhqsw CODE2 1
SYS_AI_2j5g09nzrhqsw CODE3 2
SYS_AI_2j5g09nzrhqsw CODE4 3
SYS_AI_4y26dtkybxq6k CODE3 1
SYS_AI_4y26dtkybxq6k CODE4 2
SYS_AI_5pmdyk5pjay8a CODE3 1
SYS_AI_5pmdyk5pjay8a CODE1 2
SYS_AI_5pmdyk5pjay8a CODE4 3
SYS_AI_6uqhvvzabg5n8 ID 1
SYS_AI_bwfbc6nah6uga CODE2 1
SYS_AI_bwfbc6nah6uga CODE4 2
SYS_AI_fftcb8q17yy6g CODE1 1
SYS_AI_fftcb8q17yy6g CODE2 2
SYS_AI_fftcb8q17yy6g CODE3 3
SYS_AI_fftcb8q17yy6g CODE4 4
The 7 newly created Automatic Indexes are all VISIBLE and VALID and can collectively service all 30 odd different SQL predicates of the captured workload.
I just know from experience that many DBAs and Developers out there would create many more than just these 7 indexes, partly because it’s just easier to create a new index for each new SQL predicate that doesn’t currently have an appropriate index and partly because it’s not always easy to capture and know what all SQL predicate combinations might be in use by an application.
This is one of the really nice capabilities of Automatic Indexing, in that it tries to service the known workloads it captures with as few indexes as possible, that have all be proven first to indeed improve SQL performance.
In my next blog post, I’ll show another trick that Automatic Indexing can do to reduce the number of different indexes it needs to create…
Oracle Database 19c Automatic Indexing – Need Another Index (Another Brick in The Wall Part 2) January 16, 2020
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, 19c New Features, Automatic Indexing, Autonomous Database, Oracle Indexes.add a comment
I previously discussed how Automatic Indexing can effectively cleverly reorder an existing index if it means it can now use the new index to satisfy new SQL predicates. In this post, we’ll explore this example further with some new workloads.
So, we previously ran SQL queries with SQL predicates in the following combinations:
- CODE1=42 and CODE2=42 and CODE3=42
- CODE2=42 and CODE3=42
- CODE3=42
so an index based on CODE3, CODE2, CODE1 is able to satisfy all 3 existing predicates.
If we now run a new query with the following predicates based on CODE2=42 and CODE1=42:
SQL> select * from major_tom where code2=42 and code1=42;
no rows selected
Execution Plan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)|Time |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 28 | 7318 (6)|00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 1 | 28 | 7318 (6)|00:00:01 |
| 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 1 | 28 | 7318 (6)|00:00:01 |
|* 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL| MAJOR_TOM | 1 | 28 | 7318 (6)|00:00:01 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
4 - storage("CODE1"=42 AND "CODE2"=42)
filter("CODE1"=42 AND "CODE2"=42)
Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
8 recursive calls
4 db block gets
45853 consistent gets
0 physical reads
0 redo size
645 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
577 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
1 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
0 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
0 rows processed
The current previously re-ordered index can’t now satisfy this new predicate as the leading column of the index (CODE3) is not specified in the SQL predicate and the CBO considers an Index Skip Scan as too expensive an operation. So a Full Table Scan is chosen here by the CBO.
If we wait and see what Automatic Indexing decides to now do:
SQL> select dbms_auto_index.report_last_activity() report from dual; REPORT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity start : 21-JUN-2019 07:41:55 Activity end : 21-JUN-2019 07:42:49 Executions completed : 1 Executions interrupted : 0 Executions with fatal error : 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (AUTO INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Index candidates : 1 Indexes created (visible / invisible) : 1 (1 / 0) Space used (visible / invisible) : 201.33 MB (201.33 MB / 0 B) Indexes dropped : 0 SQL statements verified : 1 SQL statements improved (improvement factor) : 1 (5.1x) SQL plan baselines created : 0 Overall improvement factor : 5.1x ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (MANUAL INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unused indexes : 0 Space used : 0 B Unusable indexes : 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We notice that a new index has been created…
INDEX DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following indexes were created: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | BOWIE | MAJOR_TOM | SYS_AI_gmhdbjx21zcr1 | CODE1,CODE2 | B-TREE | NONE | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERIFICATION DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The performance of the following statements improved: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Parsing Schema Name : BOWIE SQL ID : 3y246nzwdpybv SQL Text : select * from major_tom where code2=42 and code1=4 Improvement Factor : 5.1x
So Automatic Indexing has decided to now create a new, second index (SYS_AI_gmhdbjx21zcr1) on the table based on CODE1, CODE2, as a single index is no longer capable to address all known SQL predicates.
SQL> select index_name, column_name, column_position from user_ind_columns where table_name='MAJOR_TOM' order by index_name, column_position; INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION ------------------------- -------------------- --------------- SYS_AI_00hxxxkgb821n CODE3 1 SYS_AI_00hxxxkgb821n CODE2 2 SYS_AI_00hxxxkgb821n CODE1 3 SYS_AI_gmhdbjx21zcr1 CODE1 1 SYS_AI_gmhdbjx21zcr1 CODE2 2
So we now have two indexes to cater for all known SQL predicates in which an index has been shown to improve performance.
Automatic Indexing will try and create the minimum number of indexes possible to cater for all known SQL workloads.
In my next post, we’ll look at a more complex example in which there could potentially be numerous different indexes that could cater for more extensive workloads and how Automatic Indexing copes rather splendidly…
Oracle Database 19c Automatic Indexing – Indexed Column Reorder (What Shall We Do Now?) December 18, 2019
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, 19c New Features, Automatic Indexing, Index Column Order, Index Column Reorder.1 comment so far
I previously discussed how the default column order of an Automatic Index (in the absence of other factors) is based on the Column ID, the order in which the columns are defined in the table.
But what if there are “other factors” based on new workloads and the original index column order is no longer optimal or appropriate ?
I’ll begin by creating a table, with the following key column defined in CODE1, CODE2, CODE3 order:
SQL> create table major_tom (id number, code1 number, code2 number, code3 number, name varchar2(42)); Table created. SQL> insert into major_tom select rownum, mod(rownum, 10)+1, ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 100)), ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 1000)), 'David Bowie' from dual connect by level <= 10000000; 10000000 rows created. SQL> commit; Commit complete. SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'MAJOR_TOM'); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. SQL> select column_name, num_distinct, density from user_tab_columns where table_name='MAJOR_TOM'; COLUMN_NAME NUM_DISTINCT DENSITY -------------------- ------------ ---------- ID 9914368 1.0086E-07 CODE1 10 .00000005 CODE2 100 .00000005 CODE3 1000 .001 NAME 1 1
If I now run the following query with predicates based on these three columns:
SQL> select * from major_tom where code3=42 and code2=42 and code1=4;
15 rows selected.
Execution Plan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10 | 280 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 10 | 280 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 10 | 280 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
|* 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL| MAJOR_TOM | 10 | 280 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
4 - storage("CODE3"=42 AND "CODE2"=42 AND "CODE1"=4)
filter("CODE3"=42 AND "CODE2"=42 AND "CODE1"=4)
Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
34 recursive calls
5 db block gets
45861 consistent gets
0 physical reads
1044 redo size
1087 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
588 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
2 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
0 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
15 rows processed
After the default 15 minutes period in which the Automatic Index task is run, if we look at what Automatic Index has been created:
INDEX DETAILS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The following indexes were created:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| BOWIE | MAJOR_TOM | SYS_AI_9mrs058nrg9d5 | CODE1,CODE2,CODE3 | B-TREE | NONE |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VERIFICATION DETAILS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The performance of the following statements improved:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parsing Schema Name : BOWIE
SQL ID : ayuj12hggwrvc
SQL Text : select * from major_tom where code3=42 and code2=42 and code1=4
Improvement Factor : 45853.8x
Execution Statistics:
-----------------------------
Original Plan Auto Index Plan
---------------------------- ----------------------------
Elapsed Time (s): 3103394 946
CPU Time (s): 3092860 1017
Buffer Gets: 596102 18
Optimizer Cost: 7354 18
Disk Reads: 0 2
Direct Writes: 0 0
Rows Processed: 195 15
Executions: 13 1
We can see Oracle has indeed created an Automatic Index (SYS_AI_9mrs058nrg9d5) in the default CODE1, CODE2, CODE3 order.
But if we now run a new query, based on a predicate on just the CODE3 column:
SQL> select * from major_tom where code3=42;
9961 rows selected.
Execution Plan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10000 | 273K| 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 10000 | 273K| 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 10000 | 273K| 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
|* 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL| MAJOR_TOM | 10000 | 273K| 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
4 - storage("CODE3"=42)
filter("CODE3"=42)
Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
8 recursive calls
4 db block gets
45853 consistent gets
0 physical reads
0 redo size
166137 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
599 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
3 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
0 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
9961 rows processed
We can see the CBO has NOT used the index, as the leading column of the existing index is not mentioned in the SQL predicate and the CBO deems an Index Skip Scan as too expensive:
If we now run an SQL with predicates based on just the CODE2 and CODE3 columns:
SQL> select * from major_tom where code3=42 and code2=42;
101 rows selected.
Execution Plan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 100 | 2800 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 100 | 2800 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 100 | 2800 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
|* 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL| MAJOR_TOM | 100 | 2800 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
4 - storage("CODE3"=42 AND "CODE2"=42)
filter("CODE3"=42 AND "CODE2"=42)
Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
6 recursive calls
0 db block gets
45853 consistent gets
0 physical reads
0 redo size
2281 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
588 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
2 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
0 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
101 rows processed
The existing Automatic Index is again not used as the important CODE1 column which is the leading column of the index is not mentioned in the SQL predicates and the CBO deems an Index Skip Scan as too expensive.
I know from experience many DBAs would simply create a new index with CODE3, CODE2 as the leading columns. But what does Automatic Indexing do in the scenario?
SQL> select dbms_auto_index.report_last_activity() report from dual; REPORT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity start : 21-JUN-2019 02:39:32 Activity end : 21-JUN-2019 02:40:18 Executions completed : 1 Executions interrupted : 0 Executions with fatal error : 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (AUTO INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Index candidates : 1 Indexes created (visible / invisible) : 1 (1 / 0) Space used (visible / invisible) : 243.27 MB (243.27 MB / 0 B) Indexes dropped (space reclaimed) : 1 (243.27 MB) SQL statements verified : 1 SQL statements improved : 0 SQL plan baselines created : 0 Overall improvement factor : 0x ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (MANUAL INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unused indexes : 0 Space used : 0 B Unusable indexes : 0
We notice in the Automatic Indexing report it’s stating that one new index has been created BUT that one index has also been dropped.
INDEX DETAILS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The following indexes were created:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| BOWIE | MAJOR_TOM | SYS_AI_00hxxxkgb821n | CODE3,CODE2,CODE1 | B-TREE | NONE |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The following indexes were dropped:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| BOWIE | MAJOR_TOM | SYS_AI_9mrs058nrg9d5 | CODE1,CODE2,CODE3 | B-TREE | NONE |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL> select index_name, column_name, column_position from user_ind_columns where table_name='MAJOR_TOM' order by column_position;
INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION
-------------------- --------------- ---------------
SYS_AI_00hxxxkgb821n CODE3 1
SYS_AI_00hxxxkgb821n CODE2 2
SYS_AI_00hxxxkgb821n CODE1 3
Automatic Indexing has created a new index (SYS_AI_00hxxxkgb821n), with the columns in CODE3, CODE2, CODE1 order, as this index is able to service all currently known SQL predicate combinations:
WHERE CODE3 = x AND CODE2 = y AND CODE1= z
WHERE CODE3 = x AND CODE2 = y
WHERE CODE3 = x
as the leading column in the index is listed in all three current scenarios.
This means the previous index in CODE1, CODE2, CODE3 order is now redundant as the new index can fully service all know SQL predicate combinations. As a result, Automatic Indexing drops the redundant index.
This is a really nice capability of Automatic Indexing, the ability to effectively reorder the columns within an index based on new workloads.
But what if subsequent new SQL workloads means the new index is not able on its own to service all such workloads. I’ll discuss this scenario in my next post.
Oracle Database 19c Automatic Indexing: Index Compression (Ghosteen) December 9, 2019
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, 19c New Features, Advanced Index Compression, Automatic Indexing, AUTO_INDEX_COMPRESSION, Index Column Order, Index Compression, Index Internals.add a comment
In my previous post on Automatic Indexing, I discussed how the default index column order (in absence of other factors) is column id, the order in which the columns are defined in the table. In this post, I’ll explore if this changes if index compression is also implemented.
By default, Automatic Indexing does NOT use index compression. However, if you have access to the Advanced Compression option, you have the choice to turn on index compression in the following manner:
SQL> EXEC DBMS_AUTO_INDEX.CONFIGURE('AUTO_INDEX_COMPRESSION','ON');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Note: the AUTO_INDEX_COMPRESSION parameter is not actually documented, which could be a documentation bug or that Oracle is not yet ready to release this capability. The above will enable Automatic Indexes to be created with Compress Advanced Low, which is the “no-brain” index compression option as it will compress (deduplicate) safely with negligible CPU overheads. However, index column order is still critical to ensure effective compression as we shall see…
We begin by creating a simple table, that has four columns of interest, CODE1, CODE2, CODE3 and STATUS. They are defined in this order within the table, but CODE1 has the most number of distinct values (5000000 distinct values), then CODE2 (1000), then CODE3 (10) and finally STATUS which only has the 1 distinct value.
SQL> create table bowie_compress (id number, code1 number, code2 number, code3 number, status varchar2(42), name varchar2(42)); Table created. SQL> insert into bowie_compress select rownum, mod(rownum, 5000000)+1, mod(rownum, 1000)+1, mod(rownum, 10)+1, 'COMPLETED’, 'David Bowie' from dual connect by level <= 10000000; 10000000 rows created. SQL> commit; Commit complete. SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'BOWIE_COMPRESS'); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
In terms of being the most efficient from a compression perspective, it would be better to have the index defined in STATUS, CODE3, CODE2, CODE1 order, so that the leading columns in the index have the most duplicated values that enable effective deduplication and hence index compression. I’ve discussed the importance of index column for effective index compression a number of times previously. Arguably, it would be better not to actually index the STATUS column at all as with just 1 distinct value, provides no effective filtering benefits.
Having the CODE1 column as the leading column however with so many distinct values would effectively make the index non-compressible (with LOW compression), as the leading column would have too many distinct values to benefit much from compression.
So how does Automatic Indexing handle this scenario? Does it keep the same default index column order or does it alter the index column order to provide better index compression benefits?
Let’s run the following SQL with all four columns in the predicates and see what index Automatic Indexing creates…
SQL> select * from bowie_compress where code1=42 and code2=42 and code3=2 and status='COMPLETED';
Execution Plan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 41 | 9998 (5)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 1 | 41 | 9998 (5)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 1 | 41 | 9998 (5)| 00:00:01 |
|* 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL| BOWIE_COMPRESS | 1 | 41 | 9998 (5)| 00:00:01 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
4 - storage("CODE1"=42 AND "CODE2"=42 AND "CODE3"=2 AND "STATUS"='COMPLETED')
filter("CODE1"=42 AND "CODE2"=42 AND "CODE3"=2 AND "STATUS"='COMPLETED')
Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
6 recursive calls
0 db block gets
63562 consistent gets
0 physical reads
0 redo size
1038 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
588 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
2 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
0 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
2 rows processed
If we look at the Automatic Indexing report for the period in which the above SQL was run:
SQL> select dbms_auto_index.report_last_activity() report from dual; REPORT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity start : 18-JUL-2019 00:18:35 Activity end : 18-JUL-2019 00:19:58 Executions completed : 1 Executions interrupted : 0 Executions with fatal error : 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (AUTO INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Index candidates : 1 Indexes created (visible / invisible) : 1 (1 / 0) Space used (visible / invisible) : 293.6 MB (293.6 MB / 0 B) Indexes dropped : 0 SQL statements verified : 1 SQL statements improved (improvement factor) : 1 (63563.9x) SQL plan baselines created : 0 Overall improvement factor : 63563.9x ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (MANUAL INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unused indexes : 0 Space used : 0 B Unusable indexes : 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INDEX DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following indexes were created: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | BOWIE | BOWIE_COMPRESS | SYS_AI_bkdhrsd29vd4f | CODE1,CODE2,CODE3,STATUS | B-TREE | NONE | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We see that Automatic Index has created the index with all four columns from the SQL predicate in again the default column order as the column order as defined in the table (CODE1, CODE2, CODE3, STATUS). Even though Automatic Index Compression was enabled, it hasn’t considered the column cardinalities in its determination of best index column order.
Automatic Indexing has the tendency to index ALL columns specified in SQL predicates, regardless of whether all such columns provide filtering benefits AND does not consider the best column order from a compression perspective when determining index column order. So definitely room for improvement here methinks.
If we look at the definition and size of the resultant Automatic Index:
SQL> select index_name, auto, constraint_index, visibility, compression, status, num_rows, leaf_blocks, clustering_factor from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE_COMPRESS'; INDEX_NAME AUT CON VISIBILIT COMPRESSION STATUS NUM_ROWS LEAF_BLOCKS CLUSTERING_FACTOR ---------------------------- --- --- --------- ------------- -------- ---------- ----------- ----------------- SYS_AI_bkdhrsd29vd4f YES NO VISIBLE ADVANCED LOW VALID 10000000 35451 10000000 SQL> select index_name, column_name, column_position from user_ind_columns where table_name='BOWIE_COMPRESS' order by index_name, column_position; INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION ---------------------------- --------------- --------------- SYS_AI_bkdhrsd29vd4f CODE1 1 SYS_AI_bkdhrsd29vd4f CODE2 2 SYS_AI_bkdhrsd29vd4f CODE3 3 SYS_AI_bkdhrsd29vd4f STATUS 4
We note the index has 35451 leaf blocks.
If we were to create the index manully in a more appropriate manner from a compression perspective, with the index columns defined in reverse order and also with another index without the redundant STATUS column:
SQL> create index bowie_compress_best_order_i on bowie_compress(status, code3, code2, code1) compress advanced low; Index created. SQL> create index bowie_compress_best_order2_i on bowie_compress(code3, code2, code1) compress advanced low; Index created. SQL> select index_name, auto, constraint_index, visibility, compression, status, num_rows, leaf_blocks, clustering_factor from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE_COMPRESS'; INDEX_NAME AUT CON VISIBILIT COMPRESSION STATUS NUM_ROWS LEAF_BLOCKS CLUSTERING_FACTOR ---------------------------- --- --- --------- ------------- -------- ---------- ----------- ----------------- SYS_AI_bkdhrsd29vd4f YES NO VISIBLE ADVANCED LOW VALID 10000000 35451 10000000 BOWIE_COMPRESS_BEST_ORDER_I NO NO VISIBLE ADVANCED LOW VALID 10000000 23509 10000000 BOWIE_COMPRESS_BEST_ORDER2_I NO NO VISIBLE ADVANCED LOW VALID 10000000 23462 10000000
We notice the resultant indexes are substantially smaller, at just 23509 and 23462 leaf blocks respectively.
It could well be that Index Compression is not yet documented because Oracle appreciates that more work yet needs to be done to create indexes optimally from a compression perspective…
Announcement: Australia/NZ “Let’s Talk Database” Events October 2019 !! September 12, 2019
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, Automatic Indexing, Exadata X8, Let's Talk Database.add a comment
I’ve very excited to announce the next series of Oracle “Let’s Talk Database” events to be run throughout Australia and New Zealand in October 2019.
I’ll be discussing two exciting topics this series, “Oracle Database 19c New Features” and “Oracle Exadata X8“. As always, these sessions run between 9am-1pm, include a networking lunch and are free, but you MUST register to attend.
Dates, locations and registration links are as follows (Note the Sydney location is NOT the Oracle office in North Ryde):
Canberra: 22 October – Registration Link (Oracle Canberra Office)
Sydney: 23 October – Registration Link (Stone and Chalk, York St)
Melbourne: 24 October – Registration Link (Oracle Melbourne Office)
Brisbane: 29 October – Registration Link (Oracle Brisbane Office)
Auckland: 30 October – Registration Link (Level 13, AMP Centre, 29 Customs Street West)
Wellington: 31 October – Registration Link (Oracle Wellington Office)
Session details as follows:
“Oracle Database 19c New Features”
The latest Oracle Database Release 19c has introduced many exciting new features and enhanced capabilities that will be of much interest to both DBAs and Developers. This session will discuss in some detail a number of these new features with practical examples on how they can assist Oracle professionals maximize the benefits of the Oracle Database, especially in relation to Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems deployments. New features discussed include Hybrid Table Partitions, Active Standby DML Redirect, Real Time Statistics, High-Frequency Automatic Optimizer Statistics Collection, SQL Quarantine, new JSON Enhancements, DISTINCT option for LISTAGG aggregate and the most exciting new feature for some time, Automatic Indexing.
“Oracle Exadata X8”
The Oracle Exadata X8 Database Machine is the latest release in Oracle’s engineered systems platform designed specifically to deliver dramatically better performance, cost effectiveness, and availability for Oracle databases. This session will discuss various expanded and new capabilities introduced with Oracle Exadata X8 such as the new Exadata Extended Storage server, automated CPU, Memory and Network monitoring, advanced intrusion detection and Docker support. The session also examines why the Exadata Platform is so critical for the Autonomous Database Cloud Services and the unique Oracle Database19c capabilities such as Memoptimized Rowstore, Automatic Indexing, Real-Time Statistics and SQL Quarantine that are supported on Exadata.
So plenty of exciting Oracle database stuff to discuss. Hope to catch you at one of these events !!
Oracle Database 19c Automatic Indexing: Default Index Column Order Part II (Future Legend) September 11, 2019
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, 19c New Features, Automatic Indexing, Clustering Factor, Index Column Order.2 comments
In Part I, we explored some options that Oracle might adopt when ordering the columns within an Automatic Index by default, in the absence of other factors where there is only the one SQL statement to be concerned with.
A point worth making is that if all columns of an index are specified within SQL equality predicates, then the ordering of columns within an index is of little consequence. I’ve discussed this point a number of times previously.
Let’s explore if perhaps the resultant Clustering Factor of an index might be a factor in the default Automatic Index column order.
I begin by creating a table that has two columns of interest, CODE1 which is poorly clustered and CODE2 which is very well clustered:
SQL> create table muse (id number, code2 number, code1 number, name varchar2(42));
Table created.
SQL> create sequence muse_seq;
Sequence created.
SQL> create or replace procedure pop_muse as
begin
for code1_value in 1..10000 loop
for i in 1..100 loop
insert into muse values (muse_seq.nextval, ceil(dbms_random.value(0,100)), code1_value, 'Back Holes');
end loop;
end loop;
commit;
end;
/
Procedure created.
SQL> exec pop_muse
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'MUSE');
We then run the following query in which to hopefully create an Automatic Index on both CODE1 and CODE2 columns:
SQL> select * from muse where code1=406 and code2=83; 15 rows selected.
If we wait for the Automatic Index to be created and check out the Automatic Index report:
INDEX DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 The following indexes were created: *: invisible ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | BOWIE | MUSE | SYS_AI_c1m8fkukj1368 | CODE2,CODE1 | B-TREE | NONE | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERIFICATION DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 The performance of the following statements improved: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Parsing Schema Name : BOWIE SQL ID : 0pdqsvpggupnz SQL Text : select * from muse where code1=406 and code2=83 Improvement Factor : 4092.8x
SQL> select index_name, column_name, column_position from user_ind_columns
where table_name='MUSE' order by index_name, column_position;
INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION
---------------------- -------------------- ---------------
SYS_AI_c1m8fkukj1368 CODE2 1
SYS_AI_c1m8fkukj1368 CODE1 2
We notice the index is created in CODE2, CODE1 column order.
If we create a manual index with the column order reversed:
SQL> create index muse_code1_code2_i on muse(code1, code2);
Index created.
SQL> select index_name, auto, constraint_index, visibility, compression, status, num_rows, leaf_blocks, clustering_factor
from user_indexes where table_name='MUSE';
INDEX_NAME AUT CON VISIBILIT COMPRESSION STATUS NUM_ROWS LEAF_BLOCKS CLUSTERING_FACTOR
---------------------- --- --- --------- ------------- -------- ---------- ----------- -----------------
SYS_AI_c1m8fkukj1368 YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 1000000 2506 362900
MUSE_CODE1_CODE2_I NO NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 1000000 2510 129878
We notice that the manual index has the better resultant Clustering Factor. So the Clustering Factor doesn’t appear to be a factor in Automatic Index column order (no pun intended).
If we re-create the initial table in Part I, but this time with the columns defined in the table in reverse order:
SQL> create table major_tom3 (id number, code3 number, code2 number, code1 number, name varchar2(42)); Table created. SQL> insert into major_tom3 select rownum, mod(rownum, 1000)+1, ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 100)), ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 10)), 'David Bowie' from dual connect by level commit; Commit complete. SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'MAJOR_TOM3'); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
If we again run the following query:
SQL> select * from major_tom3 where code3=4 and code2=42 and code1=42 ...
And wait for the Automatic Index to be created and look at the resultant report:
INDEX DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 The following indexes were created: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | BOWIE | MAJOR_TOM3 | SYS_AI_g6sw030tg5ba9 | CODE3,CODE2,CODE1 | B-TREE | NONE | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERIFICATION DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 The performance of the following statements improved: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Parsing Schema Name : BOWIE SQL ID : 22kts3uwj7kma SQL Text : select * from major_tom3 where code3=4 and code2=42 and code1=42 Improvement Factor : 45854.1x
SQL> select i.index_name, i.column_name, i.column_position, t.num_distinct from user_ind_columns i, user_tab_columns t where i.table_name = t.table_name and i.column_name = t.column_name and i.table_name='MAJOR_TOM3' order by i.index_name, i.column_position; INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION NUM_DISTINCT -------------------- --------------- --------------- ------------ SYS_AI_g6sw030tg5ba9 CODE3 1 1000 SYS_AI_g6sw030tg5ba9 CODE2 2 100 SYS_AI_g6sw030tg5ba9 CODE1 3 10
We notice that the resultant Automatic Index has been created in CODE3, CODE2, CODE1 order.
After creating many many Automatic Indexes under all sorts of different scenarios, the DEFAULT behaviour is for Oracle to create Automatic Indexes in Column ID order (the order in which they are defined in the table definition).
Of course as we’ll see in future posts, if there are several conflicting SQL predicates, there are various other factors that govern a more appropriate Automatic Index order, but the fact that Oracle creates Automatic Indexes in Column ID order in the absence of other factors is useful to know.
As I said previously, if all indexed columns are specified in SQL equality predicates, index column order has little consequence. But as we’ll see in the next post, there are scenarios where index column order can be very important and this default index column order may not be the most optimal…
Oracle Database 19c Automatic Indexing: Default Index Column Order Part I (Anyway Anyhow Anywhere) September 2, 2019
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, 19c New Features, Automatic Indexing, Index Column Order, Oracle Indexes.1 comment so far
The next thing I was curious about regarding Automatic Indexing was in which order would Oracle by default order the columns within an index. This can be a crucial decision with respect to the effectiveness of the index (but then again, may not be so crucial as well). Certainly one would expect the index column order be dependent on the SQL predicates running in the database and I’ll discuss all that in future posts, but what is the default behaviour here with regard index column order based (for now) on a single SQL predicate.
I could come up with a number of possible options that Oracle might adopt when determining the default index column order such as:
- Column Name Order
- Column ID Order
- (Reverse) Column Cardinality Order
- Best Clustering Factor
- Other (Random even)
So to investigate this, I started with a basic table with 3 columns (CODE1, CODE2, CODE3) that had differing levels of cardinality:
SQL> create table major_tom (id number, code1 number, code2 number, code3 number, name varchar2(42)); Table created. SQL> insert into major_tom select rownum, mod(rownum, 10)+1, ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 100)), ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 1000)), 'David Bowie' from dual connect by level commit; Commit complete. SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'MAJOR_TOM'); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. SQL> select column_name, num_distinct, density from user_tab_columns where table_name='MAJOR_TOM'; COLUMN_NAME NUM_DISTINCT DENSITY -------------------- ------------ ---------- ID 9914368 1.0086E-07 CODE1 10 .00000005 CODE2 100 .00000005 CODE3 1000 .001 NAME 1 1
I then ran the following query with a predicate based on the 3 columns CODE1, CODE2 and CODE3:
SQL> select * from major_tom where code3=42 and code2=42 and code1=4; 15 rows selected. Execution Plan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10 | 280 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 | | 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | | | 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 10 | 280 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 | | 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 10 | 280 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 | |* 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL| MAJOR_TOM | 10 | 280 | 7354 (7)| 00:00:01 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If we look at the resultant Automatic Index:
INDEX DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 . The following indexes were created: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | BOWIE | MAJOR_TOM | SYS_AI_9mrs058nrg9d5 | CODE1,CODE2,CODE3 | B-TREE | NONE | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL> select i.index_name, i.column_name, i.column_position, t.num_distinct from user_ind_columns i, user_tab_columns t where i.table_name = t.table_name and i.column_name = t.column_name and i.table_name='MAJOR_TOM' order by i.index_name, i.column_position; INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION NUM_DISTINCT -------------------- --------------- --------------- ------------ SYS_AI_9mrs058nrg9d5 CODE1 1 10 SYS_AI_9mrs058nrg9d5 CODE2 2 100 SYS_AI_9mrs058nrg9d5 CODE3 3 1000
We notice that the Automatic Index is in CODE1, CODE2, CODE3 order.
If we create a similar table, but this time have the columns with a different order of cardinality:
SQL> create table major_tom2 (id number, code1 number, code2 number, code3 number, name varchar2(42)); Table created. SQL> insert into major_tom2 select rownum, mod(rownum, 1000)+1, ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 100)), ceil(dbms_random.value(0, 10)), 'David Bowie' from dual connect by level; SQL> commit; Commit complete. SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'MAJOR_TOM2'); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. SQL> select * from major_tom where code3=42 and code2=42 and code1=4; 15 rows selected.
We notice that the resultant automatic index is still in the same CODE1, CODE2 and CODE3 order:
INDEX DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The following indexes were created: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | BOWIE | MAJOR_TOM2 | SYS_AI_7w9t3tt9u171r | CODE1,CODE2,CODE3 | B-TREE | NONE | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL> select i.index_name, i.column_name, i.column_position, t.num_distinct from user_ind_columns i, user_tab_columns t where i.table_name = t.table_name and i.column_name = t.column_name and i.table_name='MAJOR_TOM2' order by i.index_name, i.column_position; INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION NUM_DISTINCT -------------------- --------------- --------------- ------------ SYS_AI_7w9t3tt9u171r CODE1 1 1000 SYS_AI_7w9t3tt9u171r CODE2 2 100 SYS_AI_7w9t3tt9u171r CODE3 3 10
So we can eliminate column cardinality as being a contributing factor in Oracle deciding in which manner to order the indexed columns.
Which is unfortunate as we’ll see in a future post when we decide to implement Oracle Index Compression with Automatic Indexing.
In the next post, we’ll explore further other considerations and confirm how Oracle does indeed decide to order columns within an Automatic Index by default.
Oracle 19c Automatic Indexing: How Many Executions Does It Take? (One Shot) August 29, 2019
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, 19c New Features, Automatic Indexing, Oracle Indexes.2 comments
One of the first questions I asked when playing with the new Oracle Database 19c Automatic Indexing feature was how many executions of an SQL does it take for a new index to be considered?
To find out, I create the following table:
SQL> create table bowie_one (id number constraint bowie_one_pk primary key, code number, name varchar2(42)); Table created. SQL> insert into bowie_one select rownum, mod(rownum, 1000000)+1, 'David Bowie' from dual connect by level SQL> commit; Commit complete. SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'BOWIE_ONE'); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
I then ran the following query just once and checked to see if the Automatic Indexing task would pick this execution up and consider building a new index:
SQL> select * from bowie_one where code=42;
10 rows selected.
Execution Plan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10 | 230 | 6208 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 10 | 230 | 6208 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 10 | 230 | 6208 (7)| 00:00:01 |
|* 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL| BOWIE_ONE | 10 | 230 | 6208 (7)| 00:00:01 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
4 - storage("CODE"=42)
filter("CODE"=42)
Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
12 recursive calls
0 db block gets
39000 consistent gets
0 physical reads
132 redo size
867 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
588 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
2 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
0 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
10 rows processed
The following Automatic Indexing report detailed the following:
SQL> select dbms_auto_index.report_last_activity() report from dual; REPORT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity start : 26-JUN-2019 13:03:30 Activity end : 26-JUN-2019 21:13:06 Executions completed : 24 Executions interrupted : 0 Executions with fatal error : 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (AUTO INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Index candidates : 1 Indexes created (visible / invisible) : 1 (1 / 0) Space used (visible / invisible) : 184.55 MB (184.55 MB / 0 B) Indexes dropped : 0 SQL statements verified : 3 SQL statements improved (improvement factor) : 1 (19500x) SQL plan baselines created : 0 Overall improvement factor : 6.9x ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (MANUAL INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unused indexes : 0 Space used : 0 B Unusable indexes : 0
So an index was indeed created. Later in the report:
INDEX DETAILS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following indexes were created:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| BOWIE | BOWIE_ONE | SYS_AI_5tabfu6wtkbdh | CODE | B-TREE | NONE |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VERIFICATION DETAILS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------The performance of the following statements improved:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parsing Schema Name : BOWIE
SQL ID : 9n89axkwrvw4b
SQL Text : select * from bowie_one where code=42
Improvement Factor : 19500x
Execution Statistics:
-----------------------------
Original Plan Auto Index Plan
---------------------------- ----------------------------
Elapsed Time (s): 198342 961
CPU Time (s): 187768 1112
Buffer Gets: 39000 13
Optimizer Cost: 6208 14
Disk Reads: 0 2
Direct Writes: 0 0
Rows Processed: 10 10
Executions: 1 1
So the above details that an index on the CODE column of the BOWIE_ONE table was indeed created after just 1 execution.
For those wondering, yes the Elaspsed and CPU times are actually in Microseconds (1 millionth of a second) and not in seconds as stated…
The final section of the report details:
PLANS SECTION
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Original
-----------------------------
Plan Hash Value : 227986582
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost | Time |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | | 6208 | |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 10 | 230 | 6208 | 00:00:01 |
| 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 10 | 230 | 6208 | 00:00:01 |
| 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL | BOWIE_ONE | 10 | 230 | 6208 | 00:00:01 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes
-----
- dop_op_reason = scan of object BOWIE.BOWIE_ONE
- dop = 2
- px_in_memory_imc = no
- px_in_memory = no
- With Auto Indexes
-----------------------------
Plan Hash Value : 2734060610
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost | Time |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10 | 230 | 14 | 00:00:01 |
| 1 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID BATCHED | BOWIE_ONE | 10 | 230 | 14 | 00:00:01 |
| * 2 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | SYS_AI_5tabfu6wtkbdh | 10 | | 3 | 00:00:01 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
------------------------------------------
* 2 - access("CODE"=42)
Notes
-----
- Dynamic sampling used for this statement ( level = 11 )
It details that indeed, a new plan using the newly Automatic Index would be substantially more efficient.
If we look at details of the new Automatic Index:
SQL> select index_name, auto, constraint_index, visibility, compression, status, num_rows, leaf_blocks, clustering_factor from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE_ONE'; INDEX_NAME AUT CON VISIBILIT COMPRESSION STATUS NUM_ROWS LEAF_BLOCKS CLUSTERING_FACTOR ---------------------- --- --- --------- ------------- -------- ---------- ----------- ----------------- BOWIE_ONE_PK NO YES VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 19642 57523 SYS_AI_5tabfu6wtkbdh YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 22285 10000000 SQL> select index_name, column_name, column_position from user_ind_columns where table_name='BOWIE_ONE' order by index_name, column_position; INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION ---------------------- --------------- --------------- BOWIE_ONE_PK ID 1 SYS_AI_5tabfu6wtkbdh CODE 1
The newly created Automatic Index is both Valid and Visible and so can be used globally within the database.
If I now re-run the original query:
SQL> select * from bowie_one where code=42;
10 rows selected.
Execution Plan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10 | 230 | 13 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10001 | 10 | 230 | 13 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID BATCHED| BOWIE_ONE | 10 | 230 | 13 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 4 | BUFFER SORT | | | | | |
| 5 | PX RECEIVE | | 10 | | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 6 | PX SEND HASH (BLOCK ADDRESS) | :TQ10000 | 10 | | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 7 | PX SELECTOR | | | | | |
|* 8 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | SYS_AI_5tabfu6wtkbdh | 10 | | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
8 - access("CODE"=42)
Statistics
---------------------------------------------------------
12 recursive calls
0 db block gets
13 consistent gets
0 physical reads
0 redo size
867 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
588 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
2 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
2 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
10 rows processed
The CBO now uses the newly created Automatic Index.
So it only potentially takes just the one execution of an SQL statement for an Automatic Index to be created.
Therefore some caution needs to be exercised in environments where there may be a very large number of ad-hoc queries where specific indexes may not be necessary for once only executed predicate combinations.
That said, the Automatic Indexing process is highly efficient in building only the bare minimum of column indexed combinations to cater for all known SQL predicates.
More on this in a future post.
Oracle 19c Automatic Indexing: My First Auto Index (Absolute Beginners) August 19, 2019
Posted by Richard Foote in 19c, 19c New Features, Automatic Indexing, Oracle Indexes.3 comments
I am SOOOO struggling with this nightmare block editor but here goes. Please excuse any formatting issues below:
I thought it was time to show the new Oracle 19c Automatic Indexing feature in action and what better way than to go through how I created my first ever Automatic Index.
To start, I create a typically simple little table:
SQL> create table bowie (id number constraint bowie_pk primary key, code number, name varchar2(42)); Table created. SQL> insert into bowie select rownum, mod(rownum, 1000000)+1, 'David Bowie' from dual connect by level commit; Commit complete. SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>null, tabname=>'BOWIE'); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. SQL> select index_name, auto, constraint_index, visibility, compression, status, num_rows, leaf_blocks, clustering_factor from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE'; INDEX_NAME AUT CON VISIBILIT COMPRESSION STATUS NUM_ROWS LEAF_BLOCKS CLUSTERING_FACTOR ------------------------- --- --- --------- ------------- -------- ---------- ----------- ----------------- BOWIE_PK NO YES VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 19429 58133
The key column here is CODE, which is highly selective with just 10 rows on average per CODE value.
If I run the following query a number of times:
SQL> select * from bowie where code=42;
10 rows selected.
Execution Plan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10 | 230 | 6208 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 10 | 230 | 6208 (7)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 10 | 230 | 6208 (7)| 00:00:01 |
|* 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL | BOWIE | 10 | 230 | 6208 (7)| 00:00:01 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
4 - storage("CODE"=42)
filter("CODE"=42)
Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
6 recursive calls
0 db block gets
39026 consistent gets
0 physical reads
0 redo size
867 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
588 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
2 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
0 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
10 rows processed
The query runs slowly as it performs a Full Table Scan of a 10M row table when returning just 10 runs.
Perhaps an index would be a good idea…
With Auto Indexing, we just wait approx. 15 minutes until the Auto Index task completes, or manually run exec dbms_auto_index_internal.task_proc(true);
As discussed in my previous blog post, the Auto Indexing task will look at the workload over the past 15 minutes and determine if a new index might be warranted to improve the performance of an SQL.
We can query the results of the last Auto Index task by running the following:
SQL> select dbms_auto_index.report_last_activity() report from dual; REPORT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity start : 20-JUN-2019 08:12:15 Activity end : 20-JUN-2019 08:12:55 Executions completed : 1 Executions interrupted : 0 Executions with fatal error : 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (AUTO INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Index candidates : 1 Indexes created (visible / invisible) : 1 (1 / 0) Space used (visible / invisible) : 184.55 MB (184.55 MB / 0 B) Indexes dropped : 0 SQL statements verified : 2 SQL statements improved (improvement factor) : 1 (39044.8x) SQL plan baselines created : 0 Overall improvement factor : 6.9x ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY (MANUAL INDEXES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unused indexes : 0 Space used : 0 B Unusable indexes : 0
At this point in the report, we can see Oracle has verified 2 SQL statements and has created 1 new, visible index using 184.55 MB of space. It has improved 1 SQL statement by a factor of 39044.8x and improved things overall by a factor of 6.9x. (we’ll look at how Oracle determines these values in a later post).
The report continues with the Index Details section:
INDEX DETAILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following indexes were created: --------------------------------------------------------------------- | Owner | Table | Index | Key | Type | Properties | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | BOWIE | BOWIE | SYS_AI_600vgjmtqsgv3 | CODE | B-TREE | NONE | ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle has decided to create a new indexed called “SYS_AI_600vgjmtqsgv3” on the CODE column of the BOWIE table. Notice the mixed case naming convention for the new Auto Index, oh what fun and games to be had…
Next the Verification Details section:
VERIFICATION DETAILS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The performance of the following statements improved:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parsing Schema Name : BOWIE
SQL ID : dd5gzx7skf6as
SQL Text : select * from bowie where code=42
Improvement Factor : 39044.8x
Execution Statistics:
-----------------------------
Original Plan Auto Index Plan
---------------------------- ----------------------------
Elapsed Time (s): 3241698 108
CPU Time (s): 3174021 108
Buffer Gets: 663764 13
Optimizer Cost: 6204 14
Disk Reads: 0 0
Direct Writes: 0 0
Rows Processed: 170 10
Executions: 17 1
So the SQL we previously ran has an improvement factor of 39044.8x with the new plan that uses the newly created Auto Index. These numbers are a little nonsensical as we’ll see in a later post, but it does sound kinda impressive…
Finally, we get to the Plans Section of the report:
PLANS SECTION --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Original ----------------------------- Plan Hash Value : 3567883234 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost | Time | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | | 6204 | | | 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | | | 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 425 | 20825 | 6204 | 00:00:01 | | 3 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | 425 | 20825 | 6204 | 00:00:01 | | 4 | TABLE ACCESS STORAGE FULL | BOWIE | 425 | 20825 | 6204 | 00:00:01 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - With Auto Indexes ----------------------------- Plan Hash Value : 493118340 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost | Time | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10 | 230 | 14 | 00:00:01 | | 1 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID BATCHED | BOWIE | 10 | 230 | 14 | 00:00:01 | | * 2 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | SYS_AI_600vgjmtqsgv3 | 10 | | 3 | 00:00:01 |
Here Oracle compares the original plan with the new plan that uses the new index. The new plan is much more efficient and so the index is created as a Valid, Visible index.
Note: the vast majority of my test cases were run on the Dedicated Autonomous Application Transaction Processing (ATP) environment, where parallelism is common for most plans by default.
Let’s look at details of the newly created Automatic Index:
SQL> select index_name, auto, constraint_index, visibility, compression, status, num_rows, leaf_blocks, clustering_factor from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE'; INDEX_NAME AUT CON VISIBILIT COMPRESSION STATUS NUM_ROWS LEAF_BLOCKS CLUSTERING_FACTOR ------------------------- --- --- --------- ------------- -------- ---------- ----------- ----------------- BOWIE_PK NO YES VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 19429 58133 SYS_AI_600vgjmtqsgv3 YES NO VISIBLE DISABLED VALID 10000000 22419 10000000 SQL> select index_name, column_name, column_position from user_ind_columns where table_name='BOWIE' order by index_name, column_position; INDEX_NAME COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_POSITION ------------------------- -------------------- --------------- BOWIE_PK ID 1 SYS_AI_600vgjmtqsgv3 CODE 1
There is new column column called AUTO in DBA_INDEXES to denote where an index has been automatically created by Oracle.
So the new SYS_AI_600vgjmtqsgv3 Automatic Index on the CODE column is both VISIBLE and VALID in this case, meaning it can be globally used within the database. As we’ll see if future posts, this is not always the case with Automatic Indexes.
If we now re-run the initial SQL query I ran and look at the execution plan:
SQL> select * from bowie where code=42;
10 rows selected.
Execution Plan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 10 | 230 | 13 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10001 | 10 | 230 | 13 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID BATCHED| BOWIE | 10 | 230 | 13 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 4 | BUFFER SORT | | | | | |
| 5 | PX RECEIVE | | 10 | | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 6 | PX SEND HASH (BLOCK ADDRESS) | :TQ10000 | 10 | | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 7 | PX SELECTOR | | | | | |
|* 8 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | SYS_AI_600vgjmtqsgv3 10 | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
8 - access("CODE"=42)
Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
12 recursive calls
0 db block gets
13 consistent gets
0 physical reads
0 redo size
867 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
588 bytes received via SQL*Net from client
2 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
2 sorts (memory)
0 sorts (disk)
10 rows processed
We notice the new Automatic Index has been used by the CBO to substantially improve the performance of the query (just 13 consistent gets).
OK, so that’s the end of the Intro. In the next blog article, we’ll start looking at some of the specifics of how Auto Indexing works behind the covers and why it’s important to understand some of these workings…
Intro: Initial Thoughts On Oracle Autonomous Database Cloud Services (Automatic For The People) March 22, 2019
Posted by Richard Foote in 18c, 19c, 19c New Features, Autonomous Data Warehouse, Autonomous Database, Autonomous Transaction Processing, Oracle Indexes.4 comments
I’m currently writing up a few blog pieces on indexing in the Oracle Autonomous Database environments, but I thought I’ll begin by introducing what exactly are Oracle Autonomous Database Cloud Services and some of my initial thoughts, as there’s still some confusion on all this.
Introduced by Uncle Larry at Oracle OpenWorld 2017, Oracle Autonomous Databases are positioned as “self-driving” Cloud- Based database environments, that automatically address many of the tasks usually performed by DBAs such as patching, backups, security and what is of most interest to me, database tuning.
The first of these cloud environments, the Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud Service (ADW) was first released in March 2018, with the Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing Cloud Service (ATP) released in August 2018.
So key point number one. These are all Oracle Autonomous Database Cloud Services, there are no actual Autonomous Databases as such. These environments currently consist of the following key components:
- Oracle Database 18c (and above)
- Oracle Cloud Environment
- Oracle Exadata Infrastructure
- Oracle Policy-Driven Automation
So the Oracle Database alone is not an autonomous database. An Oracle 18c database running on your On-Premises Exadata is still not enough to be an autonomous database platform. It requires all the above components, which is why this is only available on the Oracle Cloud environment (and will likely be soon available on the Oracle Cloud at Customer environment, where all these components can also be replicated).
Now having a database environment is which many of the mundane DBA tasks (such as database provisioning, patching, taking backups, etc.) can be automated can only be a good thing and the Autonomous Database Cloud services delivers on all these. Creating an Autonomous Database environment truly just takes a few minutes and I could easily connect via SQL*PLUS and SQL Developer on my laptop a few minutes later.
However, my key interest here is in database tuning (hey, I’m a database tuning guy) and the capability of the Autonomous Database Cloud Services in being able to self-tune and self-repair itself when database performance issues and inefficiencies are encountered.
So, are we there yet?
So my second key point is that is many ways, we already have a “self-tuning” database with Oracle and have had so for many many years. I’m old enough to remember the Rule-Based Optimizer, when the structure of the SQL was critical to performance. I remember tuning Rollback Segments and manually setting extent sizes to make sure no segment got too close to 121 extents else it couldn’t grow any further. I remember manually setting Freelists, I remember having to write my own jobs to run maintenance tasks and setting tablespaces to be in backup mode etc. etc. etc.
The Oracle Database has evolved over the years, where Oracle DBAs don’t have to worry about these things. If you wish, you can now configure the Oracle database to also automatically adjust memory components, automatically collect necessary schema statistics, automatically create baselines and to tune SQL queries, etc. etc. etc.
All of these Oracle database capabilities are crucial in the new Oracle autonomous database environments, as are new Oracle 18c features and as will be new Oracle 19c features (especially in relation to self-tuning the Autonomous Transaction Processing Cloud Service). The newer autonomous database capabilities are just part of this Oracle database self-tuning evolution, with in the future some new policy-driven based automation thrown into the mix.
So are we indeed there yet with a completely self-tuning database with these new autonomous database services? In a word, no.
Which brings me to my next key point. This is all very very new. All these autonomous database services are effectively at “Edition One” status. This will all take time to eventually evolve to be truly, fully self-tuning database environments. There’ll be some new cool capabilities and features which will assist in some areas but be initially deficient in other areas. But clearly this is the future and clearly in future releases, more and more self-tuning capabilities will be added that will make things easier to both manage and tune Oracle database environments.
Note Oracle Corporation itself (depending on who you talk to) is quite clear that it isn’t there yet, with the web-page on the Autonomous Transaction Processing Cloud services clearly stating that “Workload Optimization* (coming soon)“, but with lots of clues on what’s to come with features such as “Database tunes itself (indexes, memory, partitions, SQL plans, parallelism, optimizer stats) for the incoming workload as data changes over time“.
Do many of these upcoming features sound familiar? If you’re not sure, check out the Oracle Database 19c New Features manual.
Which brings me to my final key point here. Even if you’re not particularly interested in the Cloud, if you view managing On-Premises environments as being your foreseeable future, some the best things that has happened to you in relation to the Oracle Database comes courtesy to you as a result of Oracle’s strategic direction with the cloud. Many of the best new features introduced in the past few Oracle Database releases, especially in relation to the CBO and much of the online stuff such moving tables and partitions online, moving data files online, converting tables to be partitioned online, converting partitioned tables differently online, merging/splitting partitions online, etc. etc. are clearly going to be critical in a self-managing/tuning database. As a DBA of an On-Premises database environment, you can also take advantage of these new capabilities.
It will enable Oracle in its autonomous environments for example to automatically convert that table to be partitioned in this specific manner to improve overall performance, all behind the scenes, without anyone necessarily knowing it’s done so.
Is it there yet? No. Is it coming? You bet.
That said, some newer Oracle Database 19c features that will clearly be critical to a self-tuning autonomous databases moving forward such as Real-Time Statistics, SQL Quarantine and Automatic Indexing will only be available in the Oracle Cloud and Exadata platforms. So take note…
Which brings me to indexing.
When the first Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse cloud service was announced in March 2018, one of the key “features” of the new autonomous platform was that indexing was disabled (as were other traditional Data Warehouse database capabilities such as Partitioning, Materialized Views, etc.). But how can you effectively “tune” a database when you take away some of the key tuning capabilities? The short answer is that you can’t, unless the database has somewhat simplistic data workloads and data structures.
Remember, this was “Version One” with the first autonomous database environment and the initial strategy was to make the Oracle database not smarter, but dumber. Simplify it such that DBAs can’t easily “break” things and by simply making the Exadata platform do all the heavy lifting with regards to database tuning. A more simplified environment makes things a little easier to “self-tune” as there are fewer moving parts to worry about.
For more simplistic Data Warehouse environments, this might all be adequate. For those of you who follow my blog and my previous discussions on indexing on Exadata, dropping all indexes on Exadata, even on Data Warehouse environments was generally a bad idea. So providing an Oracle database platform, even an autonomous one running on an Exadata platform, where all indexing was effectively disabled, was always going to have performance shortfalls in some scenarios. Try running ad-hoc queries on the supplied SSB LINEORDER table for example. Smart Scans, Storage Indexes, HCC, Result Caches, etc. will only take you so far.
So as I said, Oracle evolves and improves and now allows database indexes to be created in the Autonomous Data Warehouse cloud service.
Which will be the focus on upcoming blog posts, so stay tuned.
