John, here is a good method of making sure that system stats is =20 collected from a very busy system: begin DBMS_STATS.GATHER_SYSTEM_STATS(gathering_mode=3D>'START'); DBMS_STATS.GATHER_DATABASE_STATS ( estimate_percent =3D> NULL, block_sample =3D> FALSE, method_opt =3D> 'FOR COLUMNS SIZE SKEWONLY', degree =3D> 8, granularity =3D> 'DEFAULT', options =3D> 'GATHER', gather_sys =3D> TRUE, no_invalidate =3D> FALSE, gather_temp =3D> FALSE); DBMS_STATS.GATHER_SYSTEM_STATS(gathering_mode=3D>'STOP'); end; / This will keep even a multi-terabyte system fairly busy for a while. System statistics will be of an excellent quality. If your database is a large and busy OLTP dtabase, this best executed during peak time =20 hours. Your users will notice the difference. On 11/02/2004 06:08:02 PM, John Kanagaraj wrote: > Prasad, >=20 > >Looks like CBO is changing plan during the day when there is a peak > >activity. I am not sure why it changes the plan. I will > >monitor it tomorrow and posts the findings. >=20 > Just another though - You may have collected system stats (new in 9i) > during > off peak hours and that is not applicable during peak hours... >=20 > John > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l >=20 > --=20 Mladen Gogala Oracle DBA -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l