Tools for Tuning the Database

The intent of this guide is to allow you to quickly and efficiently tune and optimize the performance of Oracle Database.

To achieve the goals of this guide, you will need to acquire the following products, tools, features, and utilities:

• Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition

  Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition offers enterprise-class performance, scalability and reliability on clustered and single-server configurations. It includes many performance features that are used in this guide.

• Oracle Enterprise Manager

  The primary tool to manage your database is Enterprise Manager, a Web-based interface. After you install the Oracle software, create or upgrade a database, and configure the network, you can use Enterprise Manager to manage your database. In addition, Enterprise Manager provides an interface for performance advisors and for database utilities, such as SQL*Loader and Recovery Manager (RMAN).

• Oracle Diagnostics Pack

  Oracle Diagnostics Pack offers a complete, cost-effective, and easy-to-use solution to manage the performance of Oracle Database environments by providing unique features, such as automatic identification of performance bottlenecks, guided problem resolution, and comprehensive system monitoring. Key features of Oracle Diagnostics Pack used in this guide include Automatic Workload Repository (AWR), Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM), and Active Session History (ASH).

• Oracle Database Tuning Pack

  Oracle Database Tuning Pack automates the database application tuning process, thereby significantly lowering database management costs while enhancing performance and reliability. Key features of Oracle Database Tuning Pack that are used in this guide include the following:

  • SQL Tuning Advisor

    This feature enables you to submit one or more SQL statements as input and receive output in the form of specific advice or recommendations for how to tune statements, along with a rationale for each recommendation and its expected benefit. A recommendation relates to collection of statistics on objects, creation of new indexes, restructuring of the SQL statements, or creation of SQL Profiles.

  • SQL Access Advisor

    This feature enables you to optimize data access paths of SQL queries by recommending the proper set of materialized views and view logs, indexes, and partitions for a given SQL workload.

• Oracle Real Application Testing

  Oracle Real Application Testing consists of the following key features:

  • Database Replay

    This feature enables you to capture the database workload on a production system, and replay it on a test system with the exact same timing and concurrency as the production system on the same or newer release of Oracle Database.

  • SQL Performance Analyzer

    This feature enables you to assess the effect of system changes on SQL performance by identifying SQL statements that have regressed, improved, or remained unchanged.

  See Introduction to Oracle Real Application Testing to learn how to use these features.