spfile

DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE and disabling another fix

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Optimizer Patch Recommendation 6

Yes, DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE week it is. As I received so many good questions and input after my blog post whether you should enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE or not, now I can easily fill the rest of the week with new content. Today it will be about a customer’s question regarding DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE and disabling another fix.

Disabling another fix

The setup is pretty simple. Stefan wanted to disable a different fix while he had all fixes from the most recent RU enabled on purpose. Sounds simple but has a dangerous pitfall.

This is what …

Continue reading...

UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Behavior Change 15

Behavior changes introduced via a bug fix may not be something you like a lot. And thanks to Sreedhar from one of our most important customers I learned on the weekend: UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0.

UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0

Photo by Ben Wicks on Unsplash

What is happening before 19.9.0?

Until Oracle 19.8.0 you could change the UNDO_RETENTION in the CDB$ROOT, and it applied to all PDBs automatically. You may or may not have cared. But there are cases when you’d like to change an undo related parameter in the CDB$ROOT without its propagation into all PDBs.

This behavior …

Continue reading...

ORA-1555 won’t get reported into alert.log anymore since 19.4.0

Posted on September 10, 2020 by Behavior Change 8

Many thanks to a German customer for showing me this tiny behavior change with Oracle Database RU 19.4.0. From this RU on the well known ORA-1555 won’t get reported into alert.log anymore since 19.4.0. But if you still like to see the “snapshot too old” error, then you can use a workaround.

Why has this been changed?

Actually this is something I don’t understand completely. It may be just a side effect. Unpublished fix bug 29424999 – DUMP MINIMAL DIAGNOSTICS BY DEFAULT IN CASE OF ORA-01555 IN ADW/ATP ENV has been …

Continue reading...

Config file for AutoUpgrade – Tweaking init parameters

Posted on July 9, 2019 by AutoUpgrade 2

In the previous blog posts I explained how to generate a sample config file for the AutoUpgrade tool and how to adjust it. Then I gave you an overview about the most important Advanced Options you may want or need to deal with when using the utility. And in the below blog post I would like to show you have you need to edit the Config file for AutoUpgrade – Tweaking init parameters is an important topic.

This is the forth post of a series of blog posts regarding the new AutoUpgrade tool. Please find all the other available …

Continue reading...

Oracle 12.2 underscores appear in SPFILE – be aware when you flashback

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Fallback Flaws and Pitfalls 10

Oracle 12.2 underscores appear in SPFILE - be aware when you flashbackI did blog in the past weeks about Fallback Strategies with Flashback Database. But two of my reference customers came across an interesting issue when they tried to fallback: Oracle 12.2 underscores appear in the SPFILE – magically – and prevent the fallback using the existing SPFILE.

Oracle 12.2 underscores appear in SPFILE – be aware when you flashback

In one case it happened during a test, in the other case it happened during a live fallback after the Data Guard Broker has interfered with the upgrade causing real trouble. In both cases the SPFILE sits in ASM.

Both …

Continue reading...

New SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 with July 2016 (and newer) PSU/BP

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Behavior Change Oracle Database 12c Parameters 7

New Parameters in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 with July 2016 PSU/BP

By following an internal discussion and checking parameter changes between Patch Set Updates (PSU) and Proactive Bundle Patches (BP) I learned that we introduced two new SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 with the July PSU and BP. One is documented in the patch readme, the other one can be found right now only in the Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 manual:

The Oracle 12.2 documentation about ALLOW_GROUP_ACCESS_TO_SGA, the parameter which appears not in the Oracle 12.1 documentation right now, says:

ALLOW_GROUP_ACCESS_TO_SGA controls group access to shared memory

… Continue reading...

Default Changes SPFILE Parameters – Oracle 12.2

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Parameters 9

This is the 4th posting in my series about init.ora/SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.

Roy and I did a comparison between default parameter settings in Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 vs Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 vs Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. And some changes are quite interesting – of course the memory driven parameters are left out in this list.

Color RED marks a change between releases.
The databases were …

Continue reading...

SPFILE Parameter: max_pdbs – a must for Single Tenant

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Parameters Single-/Multitenant 4

Sometimes my job has a aspect making me smile at the end of the day 😉

I sat together with Johannes Ahrends during a talk at the OUGN Conference on the boat from Oslo towards Kiel. And we were discussing afterwards why there’s no official way to limit the number of PDBs which will be essential for customers wanting to go the Single Tenant track. I had my Hands-On environment up and we played a bit in the break recognizing that a constraint on CONTAINER$ won’t be the correct solution as unplug/plug operations leave leftovers in it unless you …

Continue reading...

Deprecated Parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Deprecated / Desupported Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Parameters 11

This is the 3rd posting in my series about init.ora/SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.

 

Finally, here’s the list of DEPRECATED parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1:

O7_DICTIONARY_ACCESSIBILITY
active_instance_count
asm_preferred_read_failure_groups
background_dump_dest
buffer_pool_keep
buffer_pool_recycle
commit_write
cursor_space_for_time
db_block_buffers
fast_start_io_target
instance_groups
lock_name_space
log_archive_start
parallel_adaptive_multi_user
plsql_debug
plsql_v2_compatibility
rdbms_server_dn
remote_os_authent
resource_manager_cpu_allocation
sec_case_sensitive_logon
serial_reuse
sql_trace
standby_archive_dest
unified_audit_sga_queue_size
user_dump_dest
utl_file_dir

Only the ones in BOLD were newly marked as DEPRECATED in Oracle Database …

Continue reading...

Obsolete SPFILE Parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Parameters 5

This is the 2nd posting in my series about init.ora/SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.

Find the list of the 159 obsoleted parameters here (and of course in V$OBSOLETE_PARAMETERS):

_app_ctx_vers
_average_dirties_half_life
_aw_row_source_enabled
_compatible_no_recovery
_data_transfer_cache_size
_db_no_mount_lock
_dlm_send_timeout
_dtree_bintest_id
_dtree_compressbmp_enabled
_evolve_plan_baseline_report_level
_fast_start_instance_recovery_target
_fic_max_length
_fic_outofmem_candidates
_idl_conventional_index_maintenance
_kgl_latch_count
_kks_free_cursor_stat_pct
_kspptbl_mem_usage
_lm_direct_sends
_lm_multiple_receivers
_lm_rcv_buffer_size
_lm_statistics
_log_archive_buffer_size
_log_io_size
_max_log_write_io_parallelism
_module_action_old_length
_optimizer_adaptive_plans
_optimizer_choose_permutation
_oracle_trace_events
_oracle_trace_facility_version
_plan_verify_local_time_limit
_plsql_conditional_compilation
_px_async_getgranule
_px_slaves_share_cursors
_seq_process_cache_const
_spr_use_hash_table
_sqlexec_progression_cost
_use_hidden_partitions
… Continue reading...

New SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Parameters 8

This is the 1st posting in my series about init.ora/SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.

Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 is available now in the Oracle Cloud.

And this is the list of 46 new init.ora/spfile parameters compared to Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 – including the links (where possible) to the Oracle Database 12.2 Reference documentation.

 

Parameter

Description
allow_global_dblinks LDAP lookup for DBLINKS
allow_group_access_to_sga Allow read access for SGA
… Continue reading...

New (some undocumented) Parameters in Oracle 12.1.0.2

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Oracle Database 12c Parameters 0

Every release offers some surprises – even to myself 😉

Right now Roy and I are in the final steps to refresh our big slide deck to the new layout, but more important, to have Oracle 12.1.0.2 information included as well (were necessary). So I did my usual “compare parameters” query between releases – getting unusual surprises this time.

This is the list of new parameters introduced with the patch set Oracle Database 12.1.0.2. Where applicable I have added the link to the doc.

But as you may recognize not all of them are explained in the doc 😉

… Continue reading...

Parameter _rollback_segment_count can cause trouble

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Flaws and Pitfalls Parameters 2

Just some weeks ago we’ve learned that setting the hidden underscore parameter:

_rollback_segment_count

may cause trouble during upgrade. This parameter is used in very rare cases to have under all circumstances and situations this specified number of UNDO’s online. Now during upgrade this may result in massive latch contention  – and there’s a patch available as well. Recommendation is to unset it during upgrade.

I don’t think that many people will hit this as I personally haven’t seen databases with this underscore in their init.ora or spfiles. So take this post more or less as a reminder …

Continue reading...

Upgrade – and an interesting surprise

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Flaws and Pitfalls Oracle Database 11g Parameters Patch Recommendation 0

Patchset 11.2.0.2 is out there for a long, looong time. But still Roy and me – and unfortunately our customers – sometimes experience some nice surprises after upgrade.

Roy did work on the weekend with a financial institution customer in the US to support them during their go-live on Oracle 11.2.0.2 with several systems. It was well tested and long planned. And overall the whole process went well except for one database (see Roy’s entry below on the change with JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES in 11.2.0.2).

Yesterday I’ve received a text message from Roy to have a closer look into a service request …

Continue reading...

DBMS_SCHEDULER jobs stuck after upgrade to 11.2? Check this parameter!

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Parameters 2

I think I learn something new practically every time that I talk to or work with customers. Here’s a nugget of information that may be worth its weight in gold if you are upgrading in a RAC environment. You might find after the upgrade that your DBMS_SCHEDULER jobs seem to be scheduled but unable to run, as if the scheduler is stuck for some reason.

The reason for this is an interesting parameter job_queue_processes whose behavior changed in 11.2. The parameter itself has been around for a long time, but here is the important note from the 11.2 Upgrade …

Continue reading...

New hidden parameters in Oracle 11.2

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Parameters 2

We really welcome every external review of our slides. And also recommendations from customers visiting our workshops.

So it happened to me more than a week ago that Marco Patzwahl, the owner of MuniqSoft GmbH, had a very lengthy train ride in Germany (as the engine drivers go on strike this week it could have become even worse) and nothing better to do than reviewing our slide set. And he had plenty of recommendations.

Besides that he pointed us to something at least I was not aware of and added it to the slides:

In patch set 11.2.0.2 …

Continue reading...
Mike Dietrich
Oracle Senior Director of Product Manager for Database Upgrade, Migrations and Patching writing just another blog.

Opinions certainly are my own as is this page.

Archives

Categories

Upgrade @YouTube

Subscribe via Email

Join 7,885 other subscribers

Follow me on Twitter