Purging trace and dump files with 11g ADRCI

In previous versions of Oracle prior to 11g, we had to use our own housekeeping scripts to purge the udump, cdump and bdump directories.

In Oracle 11g, we now have the ADR (Automatic Diagnostic Repository) which is defined by the diagnostic_dest parameter.

So how are unwanted trace and core dump files cleaned out in 11g automatically?

This is done by the MMON background process.

There are two time attributes which are used to manage the retention of information in ADR. Both attributes correspond to a number of hours after which the MMON background process purges the expired ADR data.

LONGP_POLICY (long term) defaults to 365 days and relates to things like Incidents and Health Monitor warnings.

SHORTP_POLICY (short term) defaults to 30 days and relates to things like trace and core dump files

The ADRCI command show control will show us what the current purge settings are as shown below.

adrci> show control

ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/ttrlwiki/ttrlwiki:
*************************************************************************
ADRID                SHORTP_POLICY        LONGP_POLICY         LAST_MOD_TIME                            LAST_AUTOPRG_TIME                        LAST_MANUPRG_TIME                        ADRDIR_VERSION       ADRSCHM_VERSION      ADRSCHMV_SUMMARY     ADRALERT_VERSION     CREATE_TIME
-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------------
1095473802           720                  8760                 2010-07-07 08:46:56.405618 +08:00        2010-08-22 22:14:11.443356 +08:00                                                 1                    2                    76                   1                    2010-07-07 08:46:56.405618 +08:00

In this case it is set to the defaults of 720 hours (30 days) for the Short Term and 8760 hours (One year) for the long term category.

We can change this by using the ADRCI command ‘set control’

In this example we are changing the retention to 15 days for the Short Term policy attribute (note it is defined in Hours)

adrci> set control (SHORTP_POLICY =360)

adrci> show control

ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/ttrlwiki/ttrlwiki:
*************************************************************************
ADRID                SHORTP_POLICY        LONGP_POLICY         LAST_MOD_TIME                            LAST_AUTOPRG_TIME                        LAST_MANUPRG_TIME                        ADRDIR_VERSION       ADRSCHM_VERSION      ADRSCHMV_SUMMARY     ADRALERT_VERSION     CREATE_TIME
-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------------
1095473802           360                  8760                 2010-08-27 09:36:09.385370 +08:00        2010-08-22 22:14:11.443356 +08:00                                                 1                    2                    76                   1                    2010-07-07 08:46:56.405618 +08:00

We can also manually purge information from the ADR using the ‘purge’ command from ADRCI (note this is defined in minutes and not hours!).

In this example we are purging all trace files older than 6 days. We see that the LAST_MANUPRG_TIME column is now populated.

adrci> purge -age 8640 -type TRACE  

adrci> show control

ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/ttrlwiki/ttrlwiki:
*************************************************************************
ADRID                SHORTP_POLICY        LONGP_POLICY         LAST_MOD_TIME                            LAST_AUTOPRG_TIME                        LAST_MANUPRG_TIME                        ADRDIR_VERSION       ADRSCHM_VERSION      ADRSCHMV_SUMMARY     ADRALERT_VERSION     CREATE_TIME
-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------------
1095473802           360                  8760                 2010-08-27 09:36:09.385370 +08:00        2010-08-22 22:14:11.443356 +08:00        2010-08-27 09:50:07.399853 +08:00        1                    2                    76                   1                    2010-07-07 08:46:56.405618 +08:00

Trace Dump File Housekeeping in 11g Adrci

Automatic Diagnostic Repository Command Interface

Starting with 11gR1, we have a new way to deal with Oracle Errors & Tracefiles: There is now a special command line utility dedicated for that purpose called adrci (Automatic Diagnostic Repository Command Interpreter). This posting is intended to show you the (in my view) essential commands, a DBA ought to know in order to use it. We will look at

1. Viewing the alert.log
2. The relation between incident & problem
3. Creation of Packages & ZIP files to send to Oracle Support
4. Managing, especially purging tracefiles

I will at first create a problem. Don’t do that with your Production Database! Especially: Never do DML on dictionary tables!

[oracle@uhesse ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Wed Jun 1 10:25:06 2011

Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> select * from v$version;

BANNER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
PL/SQL Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
CORE    11.2.0.2.0    Production
TNS for Linux: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production

SQL> show parameter diagnostic

NAME                     TYPE     VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
diagnostic_dest              string     /u01/app/oracle

SQL> grant dba to adam identified by adam;

Grant succeeded.

SQL> connect adam/adam
Connected.
SQL> create table t (n number);

Table created.

SQL> select object_id from user_objects;

 OBJECT_ID
----------
     75719

SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> update tab$ set cols=2 where obj#=75719;

1 row updated.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> alter system flush shared_pool;

System altered.

SQL> connect adam/adam
Connected.
SQL> select * from t;
select * from t
              *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel
Process ID: 2236
Session ID: 29 Serial number: 9

I flushed the Shared Pool to get the Data Dictionary Cache empty. Else the select may not crash the session as it did. Imagine the user calls me now on the phone. Our first idea as an experienced DBA: We look at the alert.log! Right so. Please notice that we now have two different kinds of the alert.log.

One is present in the conventional text format, per OFA in $ORACLE_BASE/diag/rdbms/name of the db/name of the instance/trace This location is determined by the new initialization parameter DIAGNOSTIC_DEST, while BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST is deprecated in 11g.

1. Viewing the alert.log

The other one is in XML format placed in $ORACLE_BASE/diag/rdbms/name of the db/name of the instance/alert This version of the alert.log is accessed by adrci:

[oracle@uhesse ~]$ adrci

ADRCI: Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on Wed Jun 1 10:20:08 2011

Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

ADR base = "/u01/app/oracle"
adrci> show home
ADR Homes:
diag/tnslsnr/uhesse/listener
diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl

Please notice that we have different ADR Homes. In my case only two, because I am not using Grid Infrastructure on this Demo System, else there would be another one. I specify my Database Home first. Then I look at the alert.log. Good news if you are on Windows: Finally, you can tail -f your alert.log also 

adrci> set home diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl
adrci> show alert -tail -f
2011-06-01 10:16:35.337000 +02:00
db_recovery_file_dest_size of 4032 MB is 0.00% used. This is a
user-specified limit on the amount of space that will be used by this
database for recovery-related files, and does not reflect the amount of
space available in the underlying filesystem or ASM diskgroup.
Starting background process CJQ0
CJQ0 started with pid=21, OS id=2204
2011-06-01 10:18:42.668000 +02:00
Exception [type: SIGSEGV, Address not mapped to object] [ADDR:0x0] [PC:0x90D891A, qcstda()+702] [flags: 0x0, count: 1]
Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2236.trc  (incident=6153):
ORA-07445: exception encountered: core dump [qcstda()+702] [SIGSEGV] [ADDR:0x0] [PC:0x90D891A] [Address not mapped to object] []
Incident details in: /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6153/orcl_ora_2236_i6153.trc
Use ADRCI or Support Workbench to package the incident.
See Note 411.1 at My Oracle Support for error and packaging details.
2011-06-01 10:18:47.518000 +02:00
Dumping diagnostic data in directory=[cdmp_20110601101847], requested by (instance=1, osid=2236), summary=[incident=6153].
2011-06-01 10:18:48.727000 +02:00
Sweep [inc][6153]: completed
Sweep [inc2][6153]: completed

2. The relation between Incident & Problem

You see the incident was recorded in the alert.log. And it tells you “Use ADRCI or Support Workbench to package the incident.” We will soon see how to do that. First I’d like to explain the relation between incident and problem: An incident is the concrete occurrence of a problem. In other words: The same problem may have multiple incidents. To show that, I will open another terminal and do again a select against the table t, while still tailing the alert log from the first session.

Second terminal:

[oracle@uhesse ~]$ sqlplus adam/adam

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Wed Jun 1 10:21:52 2011

Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> select * from t where n=42;
select * from t where n=42
                         *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel
Process ID: 2299
Session ID: 36 Serial number: 11

First terminal:

2011-06-01 10:21:31.367000 +02:00
Starting background process SMCO
SMCO started with pid=19, OS id=2268
2011-06-01 10:22:08.781000 +02:00
Exception [type: SIGSEGV, Address not mapped to object] [ADDR:0x0] [PC:0x90D891A, qcstda()+702] [flags: 0x0, count: 1]
Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2299.trc  (incident=6201):
ORA-07445: exception encountered: core dump [qcstda()+702] [SIGSEGV] [ADDR:0x0] [PC:0x90D891A] [Address not mapped to object] []
Incident details in: /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6201/orcl_ora_2299_i6201.trc
Use ADRCI or Support Workbench to package the incident.
See Note 411.1 at My Oracle Support for error and packaging details.
2011-06-01 10:22:11.135000 +02:00
Dumping diagnostic data in directory=[cdmp_20110601102211], requested by (instance=1, osid=2299), summary=[incident=6201].
2011-06-01 10:22:13.370000 +02:00
Sweep [inc][6201]: completed
Sweep [inc2][6201]: completed

I have seen the second incident recorded. I exit out of the tail -f with CTRL+C and continue:

adrci> show problem

ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl:
*************************************************************************
PROBLEM_ID           PROBLEM_KEY                                                 LAST_INCIDENT        LASTINC_TIME                             
-------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------------
1                    ORA 7445 [qcstda()+702]                                     6201                 2011-06-01 10:22:08.924000 +02:00       
1 rows fetched

So I have one problem with the ID 1 and the last incident occurred at 10:22. Are there more?

adrci> show incident

ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl:
*************************************************************************
INCIDENT_ID          PROBLEM_KEY                                                 CREATE_TIME                              
-------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
6153                 ORA 7445 [qcstda()+702]                                     2011-06-01 10:18:42.995000 +02:00       
6201                 ORA 7445 [qcstda()+702]                                     2011-06-01 10:22:08.924000 +02:00       
2 rows fetched

I want to see some more detail about the incidents:

adrci> show incident -mode detail -p "incident_id=6201"

ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl:
*************************************************************************

**********************************************************
INCIDENT INFO RECORD 1
**********************************************************
   INCIDENT_ID                   6201
   STATUS                        ready
   CREATE_TIME                   2011-06-01 10:22:08.924000 +02:00
   PROBLEM_ID                    1
   CLOSE_TIME                   
   FLOOD_CONTROLLED              none
   ERROR_FACILITY                ORA
   ERROR_NUMBER                  7445
   ERROR_ARG1                    qcstda()+702
   ERROR_ARG2                    SIGSEGV
   ERROR_ARG3                    ADDR:0x0
   ERROR_ARG4                    PC:0x90D891A
   ERROR_ARG5                    Address not mapped to object
   ERROR_ARG6                   
   ERROR_ARG7                   
   ERROR_ARG8                   
   ERROR_ARG9                   
   ERROR_ARG10                  
   ERROR_ARG11                  
   ERROR_ARG12                  
   SIGNALLING_COMPONENT          SQL_Parser
   SIGNALLING_SUBCOMPONENT      
   SUSPECT_COMPONENT            
   SUSPECT_SUBCOMPONENT         
   ECID                         
   IMPACTS                       0
   PROBLEM_KEY                   ORA 7445 [qcstda()+702]
   FIRST_INCIDENT                6153
   FIRSTINC_TIME                 2011-06-01 10:18:42.995000 +02:00
   LAST_INCIDENT                 6201
   LASTINC_TIME                  2011-06-01 10:22:08.924000 +02:00
   IMPACT1                       0
   IMPACT2                       0
   IMPACT3                       0
   IMPACT4                       0
   KEY_NAME                      ProcId
   KEY_VALUE                     25.3
   KEY_NAME                      Client ProcId
   KEY_VALUE                     oracle@uhesse (TNS V1-V3).2299_140262306875136
   KEY_NAME                      PQ
   KEY_VALUE                     (0, 1306916528)
   KEY_NAME                      SID
   KEY_VALUE                     36.11
   OWNER_ID                      1
   INCIDENT_FILE                 /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2299.trc
   OWNER_ID                      1
   INCIDENT_FILE                 /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6201/orcl_ora_2299_i6201.trc
1 rows fetched

I want to look at the incident tracefile mentioned above:

adrci> show trace /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6201/orcl_ora_2299_i6201.trc
/u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6201/orcl_ora_2299_i6201.trc
 ----------------------------------------------------------
 LEVEL PAYLOAD
 ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Dump file /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6201/orcl_ora_2299_i6201.trc
 Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
 With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
 ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1
 System name:      Linux
 Node name:        uhesse
 Release:  2.6.32-100.28.5.el6.x86_64
 Version:  #1 SMP Wed Feb 2 18:40:23 EST 2011
 Machine:  x86_64
 Instance name: orcl
 Redo thread mounted by this instance: 1
 Oracle process number: 25
 Unix process pid: 2299, image: oracle@uhesse (TNS V1-V3)
*** 2011-06-01 10:22:08.929
 *** SESSION ID:(36.11) 2011-06-01 10:22:08.929
 *** CLIENT ID:() 2011-06-01 10:22:08.929
 *** SERVICE NAME:(SYS$USERS) 2011-06-01 10:22:08.929
 *** MODULE NAME:(SQL*Plus) 2011-06-01 10:22:08.929
 *** ACTION NAME:() 2011-06-01 10:22:08.929
Dump continued from file: /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2299.trc
 1>     ***** Error Stack *****
 ORA-07445: exception encountered: core dump [qcstda()+702] [SIGSEGV] [ADDR:0x0] [PC:0x90D891A] [Address not mapped to object] []
 1<     ***** Error Stack *****
 1>     ***** Dump for incident 6201 (ORA 7445 [qcstda()+702]) *****
 2>      ***** Beginning of Customized Incident Dump(s) *****
 2>      ***** Beginning of Customized Incident Dump(s) *****
 Exception [type: SIGSEGV, Address not mapped to object] [ADDR:0x0] [PC:0x90D891A, qcstda()+702] [flags: 0x0, count: 1]
 Registers:
 %rax: 0x0000000000000000 %rbx: 0x00007f915c77f0e0 %rcx: 0x0000000000000007
 %rdx: 0x0000000000000000 %rdi: 0x00007f915c77be98 %rsi: 0x0000000000000000
 %rsp: 0x00007fffc65178e0 %rbp: 0x00007fffc6517960  %r8: 0x0000000000000028
 %r9: 0x0000000000002000 %r10: 0x00000000093849c0 %r11: 0x0000000000000168
 %r12: 0x00007f915c77ade8 %r13: 0x000000008edbb178 %r14: 0x00007f915c777da0
 %r15: 0x00007f915c77ae28 %rip: 0x00000000090d891a %efl: 0x0000000000010246
 qcstda()+686 (0x90d890a) mov -0x40(%rbp),%rdi
 qcstda()+690 (0x90d890e) mov %rdx,0x18(%rbx)
 qcstda()+694 (0x90d8912) mov 0x60(%r15),%rsi
 qcstda()+698 (0x90d8916) mov %ecx,0x8(%r15)
 > qcstda()+702 (0x90d891a) mov %ecx,(%rsi)
 qcstda()+704 (0x90d891c) mov 0x78(%rdi),%rdx
 qcstda()+708 (0x90d8920) test %rdx,%rdx
 qcstda()+711 (0x90d8923) jnz 0x90d8d03
 qcstda()+717 (0x90d8929) mov -0x70(%rbp),%rdi
*** 2011-06-01 10:22:08.963
 dbkedDefDump(): Starting a non-incident diagnostic dump (flags=0x3, level=3, mask=0x0)
 3>       ***** Current SQL Statement for this session (sql_id=8r222qucmawdt) *****
          select * from t where n=42
 3<       ***** current_sql_statement ***** 3 

3. Creation of Packages & ZIP files to send to Oracle Support

I may not be able to solve the problem myself. Oracle Support will help me with that one. I gather all the required information with a method called “Incident Packaging Service” (IPS):

adrci> ips create package problem 1 correlate all
 Created package 2 based on problem id 1, correlation level all

This did not yet create a ZIP file and is therefore referred to as “Logical Package”. The ZIP file is generated from the Logical Package that was created:

adrci> ips generate package 2 in "/home/oracle"  
Generated package 2 in file /home/oracle/ORA7445qc_20110601112533_COM_1.zip, mode complete

4. Managing, especially purging of tracefiles

Now to the management of tracefiles. You may notice that 11g creates lots of tracefiles that need to be purged from time to time. In fact, this is done automatically, but you may want to change the default purge policy:

adrci> show tracefile -rt
 01-JUN-11 10:31:48  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mmon_2106.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:43:43  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ckpt_2100.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:22:13  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/alert_orcl.log
 01-JUN-11 09:22:11  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_diag_2088.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:22:10  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2299.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:22:10  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6201/orcl_ora_2299_i6201.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:18:47  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2236.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:18:47  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6153/orcl_ora_2236_i6153.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:17:19  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dbrm_2090.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:16:44  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_j002_2210.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:16:30  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2187.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:16:19  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mman_2094.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:16:16  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_vktm_2082.trc
 01-JUN-11 09:16:14  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2016.trc
 30-MAY-11 14:07:02  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mmon_2093.trc
 30-MAY-11 11:15:30  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_3414.trc
 30-MAY-11 11:00:01  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_j000_2245.trc
 30-MAY-11 10:56:58  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dbrm_2077.trc
 30-MAY-11 10:56:20  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_j002_2201.trc
 30-MAY-11 10:56:06  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2178.trc
 30-MAY-11 10:55:58  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mman_2081.trc
 30-MAY-11 10:55:55  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_vktm_2069.trc
 30-MAY-11 10:55:53  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2006.trc
 27-MAY-11 10:53:25  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mmon_8589.trc
 27-MAY-11 10:17:05  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_11390.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:26:41  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_10739.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:23:53  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dbrm_8573.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:22:58  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8687.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:22:54  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mman_8577.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:22:50  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_vktm_8565.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:22:48  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8516.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:22:44  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8515.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:22:44  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_vktm_8347.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:21:24  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dbrm_8355.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:20:29  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8470.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:20:28  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mmon_8371.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:20:28  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8381.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:20:26  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mman_8359.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:20:20  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8299.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:20:15  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8297.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:20:15  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_vktm_8096.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:20:07  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8296.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:19:42  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8285.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:19:33  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dm00_8271.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:19:33  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dw00_8273.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:19:11  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dbrm_8104.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:53  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8267.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:33  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_j001_8237.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:26  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mmon_8219.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:23  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8231.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:22  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_cjq0_8229.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:16  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8131.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:14  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_m000_8223.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:13  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mman_8108.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:18:05  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8048.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:17:59  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_vktm_7920.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:17:59  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_8046.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:17:00  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mman_7932.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:16:56  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_7954.trc
 27-MAY-11 09:16:51  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_7871.trc

I have already got some tracefiles. How long are they going to stay?

adrci> show control

ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl:
*************************************************************************
ADRID                SHORTP_POLICY        LONGP_POLICY         LAST_MOD_TIME                            LAST_AUTOPRG_TIME                        LAST_MANUPRG_TIME                        ADRDIR_VERSION       ADRSCHM_VERSION      ADRSCHMV_SUMMARY     ADRALERT_VERSION     CREATE_TIME                              
-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------------
1335663986           720                  8760                 2011-05-27 10:16:46.997118 +02:00                                                                                          1                    2                    80                   1                    2011-05-27 10:16:46.997118 +02:00       
1 rows fetched

The ordinary tracefiles will stay for 30 days (720 hours), while files like incident files stay one year (8760 hours) by default. We can change that policy with for example:

adrci> set control (SHORTP_POLICY = 360)

adrci> set control (LONGP_POLICY = 2190)

adrci> show control
ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl:
*************************************************************************
ADRID                SHORTP_POLICY        LONGP_POLICY         LAST_MOD_TIME                            LAST_AUTOPRG_TIME                        LAST_MANUPRG_TIME                        ADRDIR_VERSION       ADRSCHM_VERSION      ADRSCHMV_SUMMARY     ADRALERT_VERSION     CREATE_TIME
-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------------
1335663986           360                  2190                 2011-06-01 11:42:17.208064 +02:00                                                                                          1                    2                    80                   1                    2011-05-27 10:16:46.997118 +02:00
1 rows fetched

Also, we may want to purge tracefiles manually. Following command will manually purge all tracefiles older than 2 days(2880 minutes):

adrci> purge -age 2880 -type trace
adrci> show tracefile -rt
   01-JUN-11 10:46:54  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mmon_2106.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:43:43  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ckpt_2100.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:22:13  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/alert_orcl.log
   01-JUN-11 09:22:11  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_diag_2088.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:22:10  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6201/orcl_ora_2299_i6201.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:22:10  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2299.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:18:47  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/incident/incdir_6153/orcl_ora_2236_i6153.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:18:47  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2236.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:17:19  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dbrm_2090.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:16:44  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_j002_2210.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:16:30  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2187.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:16:19  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mman_2094.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:16:16  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_vktm_2082.trc
   01-JUN-11 09:16:14  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2016.trc
   30-MAY-11 14:07:02  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mmon_2093.trc
   30-MAY-11 11:15:30  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_3414.trc
   30-MAY-11 11:00:01  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_j000_2245.trc
   30-MAY-11 10:56:58  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_dbrm_2077.trc
   30-MAY-11 10:56:20  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_j002_2201.trc
   30-MAY-11 10:56:06  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2178.trc
   30-MAY-11 10:55:58  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_mman_2081.trc
   30-MAY-11 10:55:55  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_vktm_2069.trc
   30-MAY-11 10:55:53  diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl/trace/orcl_ora_2006.trc

Conclusion: With adrci, we have a new and efficient utility to deal with Oracle Errors – especially for collecting information to send them to Oracle Support. This functionality is called Incident Packaging Service. 11g is generating lots of tracefiles. We can control the purging policy of them with adrci. Finally, we can now tail -f our alert.log from any OS.

Alter database link Password 11g

Our organization requires a regular password change on some database accounts for security compliance. If this account is used in the database link in other database, that database link has to be dropped and recreated with an updated password.

This changes in 11gR2 because it now offers the alter database link to change password. No more drop and recreate database link!

Sample here is on the database where database link is located:

The password of the database link’s account has just been changed.

db11gr2 SQL> select count(*) from tb_test@DL_TEST;
select count(*) from tb_test@DL_TEST
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied
ORA-02063: preceding line from DL_TEST

db11gr2 SQL> alter database link DL_TEST connect to dblink_test identified by dblink_test;

Database link altered.

db11gr2 SQL> select count(1) from tb_test@DL_TEST;

COUNT(1)
----------
6304
This option is not available in the pre-11gR2.

db11gr1 SQL > alter database link DL_TEST connect to dblink_test identified by dblink_test;

alter database link DL_TEST connect to dblink_test identified by dblink_test
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02231: missing or invalid option to ALTER DATABASE

Finding NULL in column

select column_name, num_nulls from all_tab_columns where table_name = 'SOME_TABLENAME' and owner = 'SOME_OWNER';

---------column contain Null------------------
set serveroutput on
declare
  l_count integer;
begin
  for col in (select table_name, column_name
              from user_tab_columns where table_name='&Enter_Table_Name')
  loop
    execute immediate 'select count(*) from '||col.table_name
                      ||' where '||col.column_name
                      ||' is null and rownum=1'
      into l_count;
    if l_count != 0 then
      dbms_output.put_line ('Column '||col.column_name||' contains nulls');
    end if;
  end loop;
end;
/


----column contain Only Null----------------------------------
set serveroutput on
declare
  l_count integer;
begin
  for col in (select table_name, column_name
              from user_tab_columns where table_name='&Enter_Table_Name')
  loop
    execute immediate 'select count(*) from '||col.table_name
                      ||' where '||col.column_name
                      ||' is not null and rownum=1'
      into l_count;
    if l_count = 0 then
      dbms_output.put_line ('Column '||col.column_name||' contains only nulls');
    end if;
  end loop;
end;
/

----------------------------------------------------------

Finding Any Character / NULL in All tables, Columns in Schema

create or replace function find_in_schema(val varchar2)
return varchar2 is
  v_old_table user_tab_columns.table_name%type;
  v_where     Varchar2(32766);
  v_first_col boolean := true;
  type rc     is ref cursor;
  c           rc;
  v_rowid     varchar2(20);

begin
  for r in (
    select
      t.*
    from
      user_tab_cols t, user_all_tables a
    where t.table_name = a.table_name
      and t.data_type like '%CHAR%'
    order by t.table_name) loop

    if v_old_table is null then
      v_old_table := r.table_name;
    end if;

    if v_old_table <> r.table_name then
      v_first_col := true;

      -- dbms_output.put_line('searching ' || v_old_table);

      open c for 'select rowid from "' || v_old_table || '" ' || v_where;

      fetch c into v_rowid;
      loop
        exit when c%notfound;
        dbms_output.put_line('  rowid: ' || v_rowid || ' in ' || v_old_table);
        fetch c into v_rowid;
      end loop;

      v_old_table := r.table_name;
    end if;

    if v_first_col then
      v_where := ' where ' || r.column_name || ' like ''%' || val || '%''';
      v_first_col := false;
    else
      v_where := v_where || ' or ' || r.column_name || ' like ''%' || val || '%''';
    end if;

  end loop;
  return 'Success';
end;
/


set serveroutput on size 1000000 format wrapped

select find_in_schema('KSHITIJ') from dual;

it provide the rowid with table

select find_in_schema(NULL) from dual;

select find_in_schema(NULL) from TABLE_NAME;


---------------------------------------------------
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
ORA-06512: at "LDBO.FIND_IN_SCHEMA", line 45
06502. 00000 -  "PL/SQL: numeric or value error%s"
*Cause:  
*Action:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
v_where     Varchar2(4000);       to        v_where     Varchar2(32766);
you might try to load a column in a record field that is defined with a smaller size than the data returned from the select.

Standby Database: Forcefully log switch in every 30 min automatically

Controlling Archive Lag

You can force all enabled redo log threads to switch their current logs at regular time intervals. In a primary/standby database configuration, changes are made available to the standby database by archiving redo logs at the primary site and then shipping them to the standby database. The changes that are being applied by the standby database can lag behind the changes that are occurring on the primary database, because the standby database must wait for the changes in the primary database redo log to be archived (into the archived redo log) and then shipped to it. To limit this lag, you can set the ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET initialization parameter. Setting this parameter lets you specify in seconds how long that lag can be.


Setting the ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET Initialization Parameter

When you set the ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET initialization parameter, you cause the database to examine the current redo log of the instance periodically. If the following conditions are met, then the instance will switch the log:


The current log was created prior to n seconds ago, and the estimated archival time for the current log is m seconds (proportional to the number of redo blocks used in the current log), where n + m exceeds the value of the ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET initialization parameter.


The current log contains redo records.



In an Oracle Real Application Clusters environment, the instance also causes other threads to switch and archive their logs if they are falling behind. This can be particularly useful when one instance in the cluster is more idle than the other instances (as when you are running a 2-node primary/secondary configuration of Oracle Real Application Clusters).

The ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET initialization parameter specifies the target of how many seconds of redo the standby could lose in the event of a primary shutdown or failure if the Oracle Data Guard environment is not configured in a no-data-loss mode. It also provides an upper limit of how long (in seconds) the current log of the primary database can span. Because the estimated archival time is also considered, this is not the exact log switch time.

The following initialization parameter setting sets the log switch interval to 30 minutes (a typical value).
ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET = 1800



A value of 0 disables this time-based log switching functionality. This is the default setting.

You can set the ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET initialization parameter even if there is no standby database. For example, the ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET parameter can be set specifically to force logs to be switched and archived.

ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET is a dynamic parameter and can be set with the ALTER SYSTEM SET statement.


Caution:
The ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET parameter must be set to the same value in all instances of an Oracle Real Application Clusters environment. Failing to do so results in unpredictable behavior.



Factors Affecting the Setting of ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET

Consider the following factors when determining if you want to set the ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET parameter and in determining the value for this parameter.


Overhead of switching (as well as archiving) logs


How frequently normal log switches occur as a result of log full conditions


How much redo loss is tolerated in the standby database



Setting ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET may not be very useful if natural log switches already occur more frequently than the interval specified. However, in the case of irregularities of redo generation speed, the interval does provide an upper limit for the time range each current log covers.

If the ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET initialization parameter is set to a very low value, there can be a negative impact on performance. This can force frequent log switches. Set the parameter to a reasonable value so as not to degrade the performance of the primary database.

Change Notification not received from Oracle database 11.2.0.1 to client 11.2.0.3

                                      

Server version

Client version 11.2.0.1.0 11.2.0.2.0 11.2.0.2.0 + fix 11.2.0.3.0 11.2.0.1.0 works fails works fails 11.2.0.2.0 fails  works fails fails 11.2.0.2.0 + fix works fails works works 11.2.0.3.0 fails works works

Solution

Apply patches or upgrade versions as applicable to obtain a working combination.

A workaround can be used to bypass the authentication phase, which is where the problem behavior occurs.  To do that, set the following event in the database:

  

alter system set events '10867 trace name context forever, level 1';

RAID recommendation for Oracle Database

Redo logs are extremely write intensive, and high bandwidth storage such as SSD are ideas for relieving I/O bottlenecks.  Also, online redo logs should always be multiplexed, and RAID1 provides few additional benefits.

RAID	Type of Raid	Control File	Database File	Redo Log File	Archive Log File
0	Striping	Avoid	OK	Avoid	Avoid
1	Shadowing	Best	OK	Best	Best
1+0	Striping and Shadowing	OK	Best	Avoid	Avoid
3	Striping with static parity	OK	OK	Avoid	Avoid
5	Striping with rotating parity	OK	Best if RAID0-1 not available	Avoid	Avoid

RAID Recommendations (From MOSC NOTE: 45635.1)