In addition to all the good feedback above (the pythian doc is excellent) , what value do you have set for vm.swappiness? The default is 60, but for an Oracle database server that doesn't really make much sense. http://www.redhat.com/rhecm/rest-rhecm/jcr/repository/collaboration/jcr:system/jcr:versionStorage/ee6fe0000a0526020f35498ae39e9939/14/jcr:frozenNode/rh:resourceFile suggests setting this to zero (as do I) however I don't find any official Oracle recommendations on this other than for old kernel versions and RAC databases. On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 4:20 PM, Iggy Fernandez <iggy_fernandez@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi, Hilton, > > You did not include the column headings but the reported memory > consumption probably includes the SGA size and shared binary code (the > Oracle executable itself and the shared libraries) in addition to private > memory. For example, read > http://www.pythian.com/blog/oracle-instance-memory-usage/. > > Also, would you explain "running out of swap space" with numbers. See for > example, > https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Tuning_and_Optimizing_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_for_Oracle_9i_and_10g_Databases/sect-Oracle_9i_and_10g_Tuning_Guide-Swap_Space-Checking_Swap_Space_Size_and_Usage.html > . > > If I were to guess, you have large SGAs and/or lots of connections some of > which may have large PGAs. > > Iggy. > > ------------------------------ > From: hilton@xxxxxxxx > To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Swapping Issues and ora_dbw > Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2014 09:25:18 +0000 > > > Hi there, > > > > I have a test server with three instances running and I have been seeing > that swapping issues. > > The server is running out of swap space, been flirting on the edge of 0. > > I dug a little deeper an found that the main culprits are two of the > instances: > > > > 49069 oradev 20 0 12.2g 10g 10g S 0.0 21.5 40:44.19 > ora_dbw0_DEV > > 49073 oradev 20 0 12.2g 10g 10g S 0.0 21.5 40:43.90 > ora_dbw1_DEV > > 4716 orapatch 20 0 12.2g 8.5g 8.5g S 0.0 17.9 33:20.19 > ora_dbw1_PATCH > > 4712 orapatch 20 0 12.2g 8.4g 8.4g S 0.0 17.9 31:45.49 > ora_dbw0_PATCH > > > > The weird thing is the third instance does not register although they are > the same clone from the Production instance. > > Few questions: > > · Is this not an unusually high percentage of memory for the > process to hold? > > · Is there a way to release the memory back to the server? > > · Is there a way for me to dig deeper to find out why these two > instances are holding so much memory? > > > > > > Sys Info: > > EBS R12.1.3 > > Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit > Production > > Linux 2.6.39-400.210.2.el5uek > > > > Thanks, > > > > *Hilton Meyer* > > Database Administrator > > > > *Phone: *+972-52-7908599 > > *Office: *+972-52-7908600* Fax: *1535-27908600 > > hilton@xxxxxxxx | www.komit.co > > > > [image: Description: Description: Description: komitlogoDsigniture] > > > -- Niall Litchfield Oracle DBA http://www.orawin.info