Re: LOCALLY MANAGED EXTENT PERFORMANCE

  • From: jungwolf <spatenau@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Oracle-L <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:26:26 -0500

Pardon me for taking things out of order.  I think the following gets
to the main issue we're discussing.
On 4/26/05, Tim Gorman <tim@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Oh, we measure free space percentage as well -- that's just a lot easier =
to
> do and not the main topic of the thread.
>=20
> We monitor both percentage of free space within tablespaces as well as
> ability to perform "N" extensions.  After all, either one can bite you ve=
ry
> very quickly, and usually at night or on weekends...

I guess that's the question I have.  With either one you are watching
the number dwindle to 0 with set warning and alert thresholds.  To me
they are two different ways to calculate the answer to the same
question:  "How much space left?".  Why look at extents for this
information when percentage (or bytes) is much easier to calculate and
handle?

I guess I'm just not seeing what you gain by looking at extents.=20
There will be special circumstances such as when extent sizes are
large compared to space, but otherwise...

> Just because features exist doesn't make them good ideas for everything..=
.

True, true.  My answer to the interview question "tell me about a
project that failed" involves a horrific misapplication of
partitioning...

> If you use autoextension, what will you end up with in terms of datafile
> sizes?  Obviously, a mish-mash of odd-sized files.  With some really real=
ly
> big files that are really really busy.

That's a good, rich question that leads into many areas.  Do you have
a set max datafile size?  How are you dividing objects into
tablespaces?  (By size, type, access, application organization,
partition scheme, dartboard throws, any/all/none?)  Are you
partitioning?  Do partitions get their own tablespaces?  Do you have
pruning or archiving requirements?  What is your SLA on restore times?
 Are you keeping track of extent numbers (under 4k)?  How solid are
the sizing and growth estimates?  Oracle 9.2 limits you to 32GB files,
10g seems to have the sky as the limit.

Whew!  So, I (we?) have gone far afield.  Basically I mean to say that
of course one doesn't throw ATTM at an object and set autoextend on
files and walk away.  For brevity I'm snipping a lot of good points
you raise that need to be addressed when designing DB policies.


> > Finally, you said:
> >> Think it through.
> > I'd love to hear how you come to a different conclusion.
>=20
> File management within file-systems is no different than segment manageme=
nt
> within tablespaces.  Uniform-sized objects are easier to manage over time
> than odd-sized objects.  Plain and simple.  That's what I meant by "think=
 it
> through".  The discussion about backup/restore (above) is one such
> consideration...

Wellll, I only partially agree.  Uniform-sized objects are easier to
manage when _I_ have to manage them, but the various tools Oracle has
added to the RDBMS have taken a lot of the sweatwork out of managing
the well-behaved objects.  LMT, ATTM, autoextend; a halfway decent
sizing document; and some monitoring scripts can go a long way towards
taming the small and medium stuff.

That leaves the large stuff, and that's where I agree it is easier to
manage them when they are mainly uniform.

Steven
--
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