The term "wait event," which Oracle Corporation chose to use long ago in the Oracle7 documentation set, has caused a great deal of confusion. It has led many authors to [mis]believe that a wait event's duration must consist of only the time spent queued for some resource. Not true. It is *NOT* the 'W' in the queueing theory equation "R = S + W". The duration of a "wait event" is the time that elapses between some time t0 when the Oracle kernel makes one gettimeofday call until some later time t1 when the Oracle kernel makes another gettimeofday call. Usually in between, the Oracle kernel issues a single OS call (read, write, sleep, etc.), although there are some situations in which the kernel makes two or more syscalls in the context of a single "wait" (seek+read, for example). So the duration of a "wait event" includes all time spent making the syscall, which includes service time and any queueing delay that was incurred for the requested resource (plus the duration of one gettimeofday call, but that's a minor detail). Thankfully, the 10g documentation calls them "timed events" instead of "wait events." They're still the same thing they ever were. But now they have a less confusing name. Cary Millsap Hotsos Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.hotsos.com * Nullius in verba * Upcoming events: - Performance Diagnosis 101: 5/7 Dallas, 5/18 New Jersey, 6/22 Pittsburgh - SQL Optimization 101: 5/3 Boston, 5/24 San Diego, 6/14 Chicago - Hotsos Symposium 2005: March 6-10 Dallas - Visit www.hotsos.com for schedule details... -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Michael Brown Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 8:02 AM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Wait events Simply put an Oracle wait event is what the kernel is doing at that point in time for the session you are tracking. To understand how this applies to performance, get a copy of Cary Millsap's book. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/059600527X/ -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Computer Centre - NIIPL Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 1:21 AM To: ORALCE LIST Subject: Wait events Dear All, Please help me know about Oracle wait events and its implication in Oracle Performance. Thanks in Advance, Regards, Balu This mail is scaned by eScan Anti Virus Software ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------