A couple of thoughts, based on
Sharp increase in latch waits.
Extreme CPU
Random statements with extreme execution counts
Growth of SGA
Increased latch waits imply greater contention,
which means more CPU time in spinning - so the
first two are concurrent symptoms. Of course,
because everyone's CPU usage goes up, the time spent
by an individual session in the run queue but not running
may go up, which makes latch waits worse.
Do you see an increase in the number of processes, and is the application working through a fairly typical application server layer ? A common scenario:
1 database server gets a little overloaded and slows down
2 application server sees database response get worse so launches another half-dozen processes
3 A process connection requires a large contiguous chunk of memory in the shared pool - can't get it, so start a massive flush of ilbrary cache (and eventually triggers the auto resize)
4 Massive flush of library cache hammers library cache latches so database response slows down
To check: v$resource_limit to check peaks in process and session counts.
x$ksmspr - I think Steve Adams has some comments about what this can tell you, but it can give you a break down of usage that MAY be useful - handle with care.
Do not touch: x$ksmsp
Regards
Jonathan Lewis http://www.oracle.com/technology/community/oracle_ace/ace1.html#lewis
The Co-operative Oracle Users' FAQ http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html
Cost Based Oracle: Fundamentals http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/cbo_book/ind_book.html
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