Entries tagged as dbms_stats
Feb 28: Statistics on Partitioned Tables - Part 5
Actually, before looking at any recent features, let me introduce one more aspect of the existing aggregation approach used by Oracle. The examples used to date have been based on INSERTing new rows into subpartitions and, although that's the approach used for some of our tables and will suit some systems, the likelihood is that in a near-real-time DW you will be using partition exchange at some point. Which means we need to understand how the stats might be gathered and then aggregated up to the partition and table-level stats.
Although there might be other approaches, I'd say that there are two distinct approaches you are likely to use.
1) Create a temporary load table, load it with data, gather statistics on it and then exchange it with the relevant subpartition in the real table.
2) Create a temporary load table, load it with data, exchange it with the relevant subpartition and then gather stats on the subpartition.
Pete Scott left a comment on a previous post stating that he rarely uses approach 1 so no doubt he'll leave another comment here expanding on his reasons
What I want to show you is what happens if you do use approach 1 and introduce the _minimal_stats_aggregation hidden parameter that's been kicking around since Oracle 8i. The default setting of the parameter is TRUE, which means that Oracle minimises automatic stats aggregation activity. Let's see that in action.
First of all I'll recreate TEST_TAB1 as it was at the start of the series and add a new partition (and, by implication, the related subpartitions) and create a seperate table that I'll load the data into.
Now I'll use LOAD_TAB1 to repeat the same process for the four different subpartitions - INSERT data into LOAD_TAB1, gather stats on it and then exchange it with the relevant subpartition of TEST_TAB1.
All of the P_20100209 subpartitions have stats that were swapped in as part of the partition exchange operation so hopefully there'll be some aggregated global statistics.
Oh, well, that doesn't seem to have worked. Maybe the LOAD_TAB1 stats weren't gathered correctly or didn't appear as part of the subpartition exchange operation?
The subpartition stats are ok, then, but the aggregation process hasn't happened and that's because _miminal_stats_aggregation is set to TRUE (the default) which instructs Oracle to minimise aggregation operations and one of the ways it does so is to not aggregate statistics as a result of a partition exchange operation but to leave you to do that manually by gathering stats on the table partition. If we were to modify the parameter to a non-default value (and, being an underscore parameter, that's your own choice at your own risk ...), we would see different behaviour. I ran the same script, but with this small addition that changes the parameter setting at the session level.
Which will change the end result to this ...
Note that there are still no statistics at the table level because not all of the partitions have stats yet, so aggregation can't take place, but there are aggregated statistics on the P_20100209 partition, because all of the relevant subpartitions do have stats.
All you need to remember is that the default setting of _minimal_stats_aggregation means that, unless you explicitly gather statistics on the partitions you've just exchanged, aggregation will not take place! Actually, copying stats will also invoke the aggregation process too, but I'll deal with that in the next post. (Updated later. That last sentence might not be true. I've just tried something at home and I'm seeing different results at work, so more investigation needed.)
Oh, and there's much more on this subject over on Randolf Geist's blog post.
Although there might be other approaches, I'd say that there are two distinct approaches you are likely to use.
1) Create a temporary load table, load it with data, gather statistics on it and then exchange it with the relevant subpartition in the real table.
2) Create a temporary load table, load it with data, exchange it with the relevant subpartition and then gather stats on the subpartition.
Pete Scott left a comment on a previous post stating that he rarely uses approach 1 so no doubt he'll leave another comment here expanding on his reasons
What I want to show you is what happens if you do use approach 1 and introduce the _minimal_stats_aggregation hidden parameter that's been kicking around since Oracle 8i. The default setting of the parameter is TRUE, which means that Oracle minimises automatic stats aggregation activity. Let's see that in action.First of all I'll recreate TEST_TAB1 as it was at the start of the series and add a new partition (and, by implication, the related subpartitions) and create a seperate table that I'll load the data into.
SQL> ALTER TABLE TEST_TAB1 2 ADD PARTITION P_20100209 VALUES LESS THAN (20100210); Table altered. SQL> DROP TABLE LOAD_TAB1; Table dropped. SQL> CREATE TABLE LOAD_TAB1 2 AS SELECT * FROM TEST_TAB1 WHERE 1=0; Table created. SQL> CREATE UNIQUE INDEX LOAD_TAB1_IX1 ON LOAD_TAB1 2 (REPORTING_DATE, SOURCE_SYSTEM, SEQ_ID) 3 NOPARALLEL COMPRESS 1; Index created.
Now I'll use LOAD_TAB1 to repeat the same process for the four different subpartitions - INSERT data into LOAD_TAB1, gather stats on it and then exchange it with the relevant subpartition of TEST_TAB1.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'GROT', 400, 'P');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'GROT', 600, 'P');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'GROT', 900, 'Z');
1 row created.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'LOAD_TAB1');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> ALTER TABLE test_tab1 EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION P_20100209_GROT WITH TABLE load_tab1;
Table altered.
SQL> ALTER TABLE test_tab1 MODIFY SUBPARTITION P_20100209_GROT REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;
Table altered.
SQL> TRUNCATE TABLE LOAD_TAB1;
Table truncated.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'JUNE', 400, 'U');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'JUNE', 600, 'U');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'JUNE', 900, 'U');
1 row created.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'LOAD_TAB1');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> ALTER TABLE test_tab1 EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION P_20100209_JUNE WITH TABLE load_tab1;
Table altered.
SQL> ALTER TABLE test_tab1 MODIFY SUBPARTITION P_20100209_JUNE REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;
Table altered.
SQL> TRUNCATE TABLE LOAD_TAB1;
Table truncated.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'HALO', 400, 'N');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'HALO', 600, 'N');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'HALO', 900, 'N');
1 row created.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'LOAD_TAB1');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> ALTER TABLE test_tab1 EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION P_20100209_HALO WITH TABLE load_tab1;
Table altered.
SQL> ALTER TABLE test_tab1 MODIFY SUBPARTITION P_20100209_HALO REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;
Table altered.
SQL> TRUNCATE TABLE LOAD_TAB1;
Table truncated.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'ZZZZ', 400, 'P');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'ZZZZ', 600, 'P');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO LOAD_TAB1 VALUES (20100209, 'ZZZZ', 900, 'Z');
1 row created.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'LOAD_TAB1');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> ALTER TABLE test_tab1 EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION P_20100209_OTHERS WITH TABLE load_tab1;
Table altered.
SQL> ALTER TABLE test_tab1 MODIFY SUBPARTITION P_20100209_OTHERS REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;
Table altered.
All of the P_20100209 subpartitions have stats that were swapped in as part of the partition exchange operation so hopefully there'll be some aggregated global statistics.
SQL> select table_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tables 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 NO SQL> select table_name, partition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tab_partitions 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and table_owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME PARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 P_20100131 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100201 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100202 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100203 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100204 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100205 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100206 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100207 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100209 NO 9 rows selected.
Oh, well, that doesn't seem to have worked. Maybe the LOAD_TAB1 stats weren't gathered correctly or didn't appear as part of the subpartition exchange operation?
SQL> select table_name, subpartition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tab_subpartitions 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and table_owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME SUBPARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_GROT NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_HALO NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_JUNE NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_OTHERS NO <<output snipped>> TEST_TAB1 P_20100209_GROT NO 28-FEB-2010 21:41:47 3 TEST_TAB1 P_20100209_HALO NO 28-FEB-2010 21:41:49 3 TEST_TAB1 P_20100209_JUNE NO 28-FEB-2010 21:41:49 3 TEST_TAB1 P_20100209_OTHERS NO 28-FEB-2010 21:41:50 3 36 rows selected.
The subpartition stats are ok, then, but the aggregation process hasn't happened and that's because _miminal_stats_aggregation is set to TRUE (the default) which instructs Oracle to minimise aggregation operations and one of the ways it does so is to not aggregate statistics as a result of a partition exchange operation but to leave you to do that manually by gathering stats on the table partition. If we were to modify the parameter to a non-default value (and, being an underscore parameter, that's your own choice at your own risk ...), we would see different behaviour. I ran the same script, but with this small addition that changes the parameter setting at the session level.
SQL> alter session set "_minimal_stats_aggregation"=FALSE; Session altered.
Which will change the end result to this ...
SQL> select table_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tables 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 NO SQL> SQL> select table_name, partition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tab_partitions 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and table_owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME PARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 P_20100131 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100201 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100202 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100203 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100204 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100205 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100206 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100207 NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100209 NO 28-FEB-2010 21:41:53 12 9 rows selected.
Note that there are still no statistics at the table level because not all of the partitions have stats yet, so aggregation can't take place, but there are aggregated statistics on the P_20100209 partition, because all of the relevant subpartitions do have stats.
All you need to remember is that the default setting of _minimal_stats_aggregation means that, unless you explicitly gather statistics on the partitions you've just exchanged, aggregation will not take place! Actually, copying stats will also invoke the aggregation process too, but I'll deal with that in the next post. (Updated later. That last sentence might not be true. I've just tried something at home and I'm seeing different results at work, so more investigation needed.)
Oh, and there's much more on this subject over on Randolf Geist's blog post.
Feb 28: Statistics on Partitioned Tables - Part 4
Feb 23: Statistics on Partitioned Tables - Part 3
As soon as I'd committed my last post, I knew it wasn't what I'd hoped for and said as much to a couple of people before they'd read it. I knew it would probably just add to any confusion people already had about this subject (something I'm particularly keen to avoid) but I am awash with examples at the moment and trying to pick out the right points to illustrate, in the right order, to the right depth. This is probably more of a White Paper subject, in retrospect, but I'll press on anyway.
To summarise where we are so far, though, and highlight a couple of key points ...
1) As I said in the first post, all of the examples to date are on Oracle 10.2.0.4 but I think you would see similar behaviour on earlier releases that I don't have to hand right now. The default parameters would be different, but the aggregation process goes back a long way. i.e. This is not about any 11g features, at least not yet. That will come later. (I still wish I'd put 10g in the post titles, though, like I did with the Adaptive Thresholds posts.)
2) Partitioned objects have two different kinds of stats - Global Statistics describe a Table or Partition as a whole, including all of it's child structures and Partition Statistics describe individual partitions and subpartitions. In addition, Oracle has the capability to take Partition stats and aggregate them up to generate Aggregated Global Statistics. Hopefully the last post illustrated that some elements of aggregated stats seem reliable but some not, particularly Number of Distinct Values (NDV).
3) So when looking at optimiser stats, it's essential that you look at columns like GLOBAL_STATS and at the HIGH_VALUE, LOW_VALUE and NUM_DISTINCT columns or you might kid yourself into thinking that your stats are better than they really are. I suspect that's what had happened at my current site. Be honest with yourself. Excluding those experts who might read this, how many of you have taken a quick glance at NUM_ROWS and LAST_ANALYZED columns to reassure yourself your stats are ok? You need to be careful with this stuff and Greg's post can help you check.
4) One of the more confusing aspects of the first two posts is that they showed completely different strategies to collecting stats on our tables. The first post covered the Oracle-recommended 10.2 default behaviour of gathering GLOBAL AND PARTITION stats down to the Partition level. The second post showed a completely different strategy we use on many tables of gathering no stats at all at the Table and Partition level, but gathering Subpartition statistics and having Oracle aggregate them up to the higher levels in an attempt to reduce stats gathering activity. That was deliberate, as in the next post I'm going to show you how these two strategies combined in the wrong way can cause trouble.
5) If I posted all of the examples each time, it would become a pretty long post, so I'm going to ask you to refer back to earlier posts if you want to check table definitions and the like. This is a series after all At the end, I might try to tidy everything up and post it all in one script, showing the various examples. Should that ever happen, it will be after the Hotsos Symposium. i.e. Don't hold your breath.
Hopefully that little summary will help us move on to the specific problem that we faced at work and some of the options we're looking at (because, yes folks, I have read other posts and do know some of the options but I'm trying to work my way through them here. Give it time). It might take two posts though.
What went wrong on our current system? Remember that we have traditionally gathered purely at the SUBPARTITION level and allowed Oracle to aggregate those to generate the TABLE and PARTITION stats (i.e. the approach shown in post 2). I'll be honest that it wasn't a strategy I'd seen used almost exclusively across a system before. I'd been lucky enough to find some way of gathering PARTITION stats at the very least. First I'll show you a simulation of what would happen when we start loading data for a new day. First we add a new subpartition (and because we have a subpartition template, the subpartitions are created too) then I'll insert some rows into the different new subpartitions. (Note that we actually use both inserts and partition exchange, depending on the table, but I'll deal with partition exchange later.)
At this stage there are no stats on the new partition or subpartitions and all of the previous stats look the same. (I'll make things more succinct by avoiding the column stats for now.)
Which is probably what you expected. Now I'm going to simulate what would happen when one of the source data feeds complete and we'll gather stats on that subpartition now that the data is loaded.
Woah! What happened to our Aggregated Global Stats on the TABLE? It looks like it's never had statistics at all! Oh, and why are there no Aggregated Stats on the new partition either, given that I just gathered stats for one of it's subpartitions? Well the problem is that Oracle will only aggregate statistics when all of the components have stats that can be aggregated. The problem here is that, at this stage, P_20100208_GROT is the only subpartition of P_20100208 that has stats. The others haven't been gathered yet.
Of course, this is all behaving exactly as designed, Oracle keep emphasising that people should gather using the default granularity of 'AUTO' and so anyone who does this is asking for trouble, but the reality is that people are trying this. Look no further than Peter Scott's comment to see that someone else has come across this before now!
Let's look at the stats once the other data feeds complete and we gather the rest of the subpartition stats ....
That looks much better. So, if you are going to use this approach (and I hope this series of blogs helps you decide it's questionable) you should only gather stats on the subpartitions when you have all of the subpartitions populated and gather them all at the same time. In fact, in that case, why not just gather at the PARTITION level and get proper Global Statistics on your partitions?
Believe me, there are more horrors to come ....
To summarise where we are so far, though, and highlight a couple of key points ...
1) As I said in the first post, all of the examples to date are on Oracle 10.2.0.4 but I think you would see similar behaviour on earlier releases that I don't have to hand right now. The default parameters would be different, but the aggregation process goes back a long way. i.e. This is not about any 11g features, at least not yet. That will come later. (I still wish I'd put 10g in the post titles, though, like I did with the Adaptive Thresholds posts.)
2) Partitioned objects have two different kinds of stats - Global Statistics describe a Table or Partition as a whole, including all of it's child structures and Partition Statistics describe individual partitions and subpartitions. In addition, Oracle has the capability to take Partition stats and aggregate them up to generate Aggregated Global Statistics. Hopefully the last post illustrated that some elements of aggregated stats seem reliable but some not, particularly Number of Distinct Values (NDV).
3) So when looking at optimiser stats, it's essential that you look at columns like GLOBAL_STATS and at the HIGH_VALUE, LOW_VALUE and NUM_DISTINCT columns or you might kid yourself into thinking that your stats are better than they really are. I suspect that's what had happened at my current site. Be honest with yourself. Excluding those experts who might read this, how many of you have taken a quick glance at NUM_ROWS and LAST_ANALYZED columns to reassure yourself your stats are ok? You need to be careful with this stuff and Greg's post can help you check.
4) One of the more confusing aspects of the first two posts is that they showed completely different strategies to collecting stats on our tables. The first post covered the Oracle-recommended 10.2 default behaviour of gathering GLOBAL AND PARTITION stats down to the Partition level. The second post showed a completely different strategy we use on many tables of gathering no stats at all at the Table and Partition level, but gathering Subpartition statistics and having Oracle aggregate them up to the higher levels in an attempt to reduce stats gathering activity. That was deliberate, as in the next post I'm going to show you how these two strategies combined in the wrong way can cause trouble.
5) If I posted all of the examples each time, it would become a pretty long post, so I'm going to ask you to refer back to earlier posts if you want to check table definitions and the like. This is a series after all
At the end, I might try to tidy everything up and post it all in one script, showing the various examples. Should that ever happen, it will be after the Hotsos Symposium. i.e. Don't hold your breath.Hopefully that little summary will help us move on to the specific problem that we faced at work and some of the options we're looking at (because, yes folks, I have read other posts and do know some of the options but I'm trying to work my way through them here. Give it time
). It might take two posts though.What went wrong on our current system? Remember that we have traditionally gathered purely at the SUBPARTITION level and allowed Oracle to aggregate those to generate the TABLE and PARTITION stats (i.e. the approach shown in post 2). I'll be honest that it wasn't a strategy I'd seen used almost exclusively across a system before. I'd been lucky enough to find some way of gathering PARTITION stats at the very least. First I'll show you a simulation of what would happen when we start loading data for a new day. First we add a new subpartition (and because we have a subpartition template, the subpartitions are created too) then I'll insert some rows into the different new subpartitions. (Note that we actually use both inserts and partition exchange, depending on the table, but I'll deal with partition exchange later.)
SQL> ALTER TABLE TEST_TAB1 2 ADD PARTITION P_20100208 VALUES LESS THAN (20100209); Table altered. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'GROT', 1000, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'GROT', 30000, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'GROT', 2000, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'GROT', 10000, 'Z'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'GROT', 2400, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'HALO', 500, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'HALO', 700, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'JUNE', 1200, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'WINE', 400, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100208, 'WINE', 600, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> COMMIT; Commit complete.
At this stage there are no stats on the new partition or subpartitions and all of the previous stats look the same. (I'll make things more succinct by avoiding the column stats for now.)
SQL> select table_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tables 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 27 SQL> SQL> select table_name, partition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tab_partitions 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and table_owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME PARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 P_20100131 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 8 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 4 TEST_TAB1 P_20100203 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100204 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 4 TEST_TAB1 P_20100205 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100206 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 7 TEST_TAB1 P_20100207 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100208 NO 9 rows selected. SQL> select table_name, subpartition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tab_subpartitions 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and table_owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME SUBPARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_HALO YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_JUNE YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_OTHERS YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_HALO YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_JUNE YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_OTHERS YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202_HALO YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202_JUNE YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202_OTHERS YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 <<output snipped>> TEST_TAB1 P_20100207_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100207_HALO YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100207_JUNE YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100207_OTHERS YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100208_GROT NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100208_HALO NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100208_JUNE NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100208_OTHERS NO 36 rows selected.
Which is probably what you expected. Now I'm going to simulate what would happen when one of the source data feeds complete and we'll gather stats on that subpartition now that the data is loaded.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'TEST_TAB1', granularity => 'SUBPARTITION',
partname => 'P_20100208_GROT');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>
SQL> select table_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows
2 from dba_tables
3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1'
4 and owner='TESTUSER'
5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last;
TABLE_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ --- -------------------- ----------
TEST_TAB1 NO
SQL>
SQL> select table_name, partition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows
2 from dba_tab_partitions
3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1'
4 and table_owner='TESTUSER'
5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last;
TABLE_NAME PARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ----------
TEST_TAB1 P_20100131 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 0
TEST_TAB1 P_20100201 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 8
TEST_TAB1 P_20100202 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 4
TEST_TAB1 P_20100203 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 2
TEST_TAB1 P_20100204 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 4
TEST_TAB1 P_20100205 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 2
TEST_TAB1 P_20100206 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 7
TEST_TAB1 P_20100207 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 0
TEST_TAB1 P_20100208 NO
9 rows selected.
Woah! What happened to our Aggregated Global Stats on the TABLE? It looks like it's never had statistics at all! Oh, and why are there no Aggregated Stats on the new partition either, given that I just gathered stats for one of it's subpartitions? Well the problem is that Oracle will only aggregate statistics when all of the components have stats that can be aggregated. The problem here is that, at this stage, P_20100208_GROT is the only subpartition of P_20100208 that has stats. The others haven't been gathered yet.
SQL> select table_name, subpartition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from dba_tab_subpartitions 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 and table_owner='TESTUSER' 5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME SUBPARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_HALO YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_JUNE YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_OTHERS YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_HALO YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_JUNE YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_OTHERS YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202_HALO YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202_JUNE YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202_OTHERS YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 <<output snipped>> TEST_TAB1 P_20100207_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100207_HALO YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100207_JUNE YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100207_OTHERS YES 23-FEB-2010 06:09:55 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100208_GROT YES 23-FEB-2010 06:11:39 5 TEST_TAB1 P_20100208_HALO NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100208_JUNE NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100208_OTHERS NO 36 rows selected.
Of course, this is all behaving exactly as designed, Oracle keep emphasising that people should gather using the default granularity of 'AUTO' and so anyone who does this is asking for trouble, but the reality is that people are trying this. Look no further than Peter Scott's comment to see that someone else has come across this before now!
Let's look at the stats once the other data feeds complete and we gather the rest of the subpartition stats ....
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'TEST_TAB1', granularity => 'SUBPARTITION',
partname => 'P_20100208_JUNE');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'TEST_TAB1', granularity => 'SUBPARTITION',
partname => 'P_20100208_HALO');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'TEST_TAB1', granularity => 'SUBPARTITION',
partname => 'P_20100208_OTHERS');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>
SQL> select table_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows
2 from dba_tables
3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1'
4 and owner='TESTUSER'
5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last;
TABLE_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ --- -------------------- ----------
TEST_TAB1 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 37
SQL>
SQL> select table_name, partition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows
2 from dba_tab_partitions
3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1'
4 and table_owner='TESTUSER'
5 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last;
TABLE_NAME PARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ----------
TEST_TAB1 P_20100131 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 0
TEST_TAB1 P_20100201 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 8
TEST_TAB1 P_20100202 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 4
TEST_TAB1 P_20100203 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 2
TEST_TAB1 P_20100204 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 4
TEST_TAB1 P_20100205 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 2
TEST_TAB1 P_20100206 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 7
TEST_TAB1 P_20100207 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 0
TEST_TAB1 P_20100208 NO 23-FEB-2010 06:31:24 10
9 rows selected.
That looks much better. So, if you are going to use this approach (and I hope this series of blogs helps you decide it's questionable) you should only gather stats on the subpartitions when you have all of the subpartitions populated and gather them all at the same time. In fact, in that case, why not just gather at the PARTITION level and get proper Global Statistics on your partitions?
Believe me, there are more horrors to come ....
Feb 17: Statistics on Partitioned Tables - Part 1
If you've ever worked on large databases that use partitioned and subpartitioned tables, you'll be aware that there are significant challenges in maintaining up-to-date/appropriate statistics. We've encountered a few problems at work recently and I decided it would be an idea to put together a series of posts covering the basics of what can become quite an involved topic because it's not difficult to find yourself going round in circles reading the documentation, Oracle Support Notes, blog posts, forum threads and the rest until you don't know whether you're coming or going!
I'll steer clear of any remotely advanced angle and try to take some time to show simple, practical examples that might be useful to the great unwashed masses (like me). I'm pretty certain that everything I'm going to post has already been written about by the likes of Jonathan Lewis, Christian Antognini, Randolf Geist, Martin Widlake and others, but I want to write it in my own way that I can understand Sometimes I have a feeling when I write certain blog posts that I'm
going to be discussing things which are apparently obvious to
experienced people but I'm not convinced most people quite
understand. I've no idea how many parts there might be because there's no plan here, but I know it's going to end up being too much for one post.
Added later - whilst digging out a link to Martin's blog, I noticed that he's planning a whole DBMS_STATS series soon. Sigh. Keep an eye out for that, because it will be as in-depth as always. I'll stick to the simple stuff here!
This is all on Oracle 10.2.0.4 running on Linux although we have several stats-related patches applied (probably more on those later) and I'll probably run the same tests on my own 11.2.0.1 installation later to identify any differences.
All of the examples will be based on the following table definition
So there is a partition per REPORTING_DATE which is sub-partitioned depending on the SOURCE_SYSTEM that sent the data. It's probably worth pointing out at this stage that the table definition and test data does not match that used in the system I'm working on, but is similar enough to illustrate the issues and is pretty similar to several other systems I've seen or worked on in the past. Speaking of test data, I'd better insert some.
With table and data created, I'll gather some statistics using default options and it's probably worth pointing out at this stage that everyone I've spoken to at Oracle is very keen that people should start off with the default options for reasons that will hopefully become apparent.
So let's see what statistics have been gathered and focus on the simple NUM_ROWS for now.
So at the moment the row counts look spot-on and there are Global Statistics on both the Table and the Partitions of the table and no statistics at all on the Subpartitions. First, let's talk about global statistics. There are several good resources kicking around describing global stats so I'll list just a couple here. I always like a documentation reference and although this is the 11.2 documentation and so some of it isn't correct for 10g, I like the very simple mention of global stats given in the first two paragraphs on 13.3.1.3 - global stats are statistics on the table that describe the table as a whole, in addition to the stats on the underlying partitions. The important point is that sometimes the optimiser will use the global stats, sometimes the partition stats and sometimes both, depending on the query. For those of you with Support access, Note 236935.1 goes into more detail.
However, our example is complicated by the fact that we have subpartitions too. So at this stage we have global stats that describe the table as a whole (including all of the underlying partitions) and global stats on each partition that describe that partition (and all of its underlying subpartitions). At this stage, let's just assume that having global stats is 'a good thing' which is why Oracle's default option is to gather them at the Table and Partition levels. In the next post I'll look at why they're important.
Why no Subpartition stats, then? Well, the optimiser is only going to use stats on subpartitions when it can guarantee that it's going to use a single subpartition and as that's probably less likely than you think, Oracle doesn't collect those stats by default, but is able to use higher level partition stats to guess what's going on at the subpartition level too. However, if you do think your queries are going to be able to drill down to a specific subpartition effectively, you can choose to gather subpartition statistics too. Beware though that, as far as I'm aware, the optimiser won't use subpartition stats at all, prior to 10.2.0.4 so there's no benefit to the additional overhead if you're running an earlier version.
In the next post I'll look at why global stats are both a good and bad thing ....
I'll steer clear of any remotely advanced angle and try to take some time to show simple, practical examples that might be useful to the great unwashed masses (like me). I'm pretty certain that everything I'm going to post has already been written about by the likes of Jonathan Lewis, Christian Antognini, Randolf Geist, Martin Widlake and others, but I want to write it in my own way that I can understand
Sometimes I have a feeling when I write certain blog posts that I'm
going to be discussing things which are apparently obvious to
experienced people but I'm not convinced most people quite
understand. I've no idea how many parts there might be because there's no plan here, but I know it's going to end up being too much for one post.Added later - whilst digging out a link to Martin's blog, I noticed that he's planning a whole DBMS_STATS series soon. Sigh. Keep an eye out for that, because it will be as in-depth as always. I'll stick to the simple stuff here!
This is all on Oracle 10.2.0.4 running on Linux although we have several stats-related patches applied (probably more on those later) and I'll probably run the same tests on my own 11.2.0.1 installation later to identify any differences.
All of the examples will be based on the following table definition
SQL> CREATE TABLE TEST_TAB1
(
REPORTING_DATE NUMBER NOT NULL,
SOURCE_SYSTEM VARCHAR2(30 CHAR) NOT NULL,
SEQ_ID NUMBER NOT NULL,
STATUS VARCHAR2(1 CHAR) NOT NULL
)
PARTITION BY RANGE (REPORTING_DATE)
SUBPARTITION BY LIST (SOURCE_SYSTEM)
SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE
(SUBPARTITION GROT VALUES ('GROT') TABLESPACE TEST_DAT01,
SUBPARTITION JUNE VALUES ('JUNE') TABLESPACE TEST_DAT01,
SUBPARTITION HALO VALUES ('HALO') TABLESPACE TEST_DAT01,
SUBPARTITION OTHERS VALUES (DEFAULT) TABLESPACE TEST_DAT01)
(
PARTITION P_20100131 VALUES LESS THAN (20100201) NOLOGGING NOCOMPRESS,
PARTITION P_20100201 VALUES LESS THAN (20100202) NOLOGGING NOCOMPRESS,
PARTITION P_20100202 VALUES LESS THAN (20100203) NOLOGGING NOCOMPRESS,
PARTITION P_20100203 VALUES LESS THAN (20100204) NOLOGGING NOCOMPRESS,
PARTITION P_20100204 VALUES LESS THAN (20100205) NOLOGGING NOCOMPRESS,
PARTITION P_20100205 VALUES LESS THAN (20100206) NOLOGGING NOCOMPRESS,
PARTITION P_20100206 VALUES LESS THAN (20100207) NOLOGGING NOCOMPRESS,
PARTITION P_20100207 VALUES LESS THAN (20100208) NOLOGGING NOCOMPRESS
)
NOCOMPRESS
NOCACHE
NOPARALLEL
MONITORING;
Table created.
SQL> CREATE UNIQUE INDEX TEST_TAB1_IX1 ON TEST_TAB1
(REPORTING_DATE, SOURCE_SYSTEM, SEQ_ID)
LOCAL NOPARALLEL COMPRESS 1;
Index created.
So there is a partition per REPORTING_DATE which is sub-partitioned depending on the SOURCE_SYSTEM that sent the data. It's probably worth pointing out at this stage that the table definition and test data does not match that used in the system I'm working on, but is similar enough to illustrate the issues and is pretty similar to several other systems I've seen or worked on in the past. Speaking of test data, I'd better insert some.
SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100201, 'GROT', 1000, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100202, 'GROT', 30000, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100203, 'GROT', 2000, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100204, 'GROT', 1000, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100205, 'GROT', 2400, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100201, 'JUNE', 500, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100201, 'HALO', 700, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100202, 'HALO', 1200, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100201, 'WINE', 400, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100206, 'WINE', 600, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> INSERT INTO TEST_TAB1 VALUES (20100204, 'WINE', 700, 'P'); 1 row created. SQL> COMMIT; Commit complete.
With table and data created, I'll gather some statistics using default options and it's probably worth pointing out at this stage that everyone I've spoken to at Oracle is very keen that people should start off with the default options for reasons that will hopefully become apparent.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('TESTUSER', 'TEST_TAB1', GRANULARITY => 'DEFAULT');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
So let's see what statistics have been gathered and focus on the simple NUM_ROWS for now.
SQL> select table_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from user_tables 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 11 SQL> select table_name, partition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from user_tab_partitions 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME PARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 P_20100131 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 0 TEST_TAB1 P_20100201 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 4 TEST_TAB1 P_20100202 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100203 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 1 TEST_TAB1 P_20100204 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 2 TEST_TAB1 P_20100205 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 1 TEST_TAB1 P_20100206 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 1 TEST_TAB1 P_20100207 YES 10-FEB-2010 16:31:17 0 8 rows selected. SQL> select table_name, subpartition_name, global_stats, last_analyzed, num_rows 2 from user_tab_subpartitions 3 where table_name='TEST_TAB1' 4 order by 1, 2, 4 desc nulls last; TABLE_NAME SUBPARTITION_NAME GLO LAST_ANALYZED NUM_ROWS ------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- -------------------- ---------- TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_GROT NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_HALO NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_JUNE NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100131_OTHERS NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_GROT NO TEST_TAB1 P_20100201_HALO NO <output snipped ....there are a lot of subpartitions, all missing stats!>
So at the moment the row counts look spot-on and there are Global Statistics on both the Table and the Partitions of the table and no statistics at all on the Subpartitions. First, let's talk about global statistics. There are several good resources kicking around describing global stats so I'll list just a couple here. I always like a documentation reference and although this is the 11.2 documentation and so some of it isn't correct for 10g, I like the very simple mention of global stats given in the first two paragraphs on 13.3.1.3 - global stats are statistics on the table that describe the table as a whole, in addition to the stats on the underlying partitions. The important point is that sometimes the optimiser will use the global stats, sometimes the partition stats and sometimes both, depending on the query. For those of you with Support access, Note 236935.1 goes into more detail.
However, our example is complicated by the fact that we have subpartitions too. So at this stage we have global stats that describe the table as a whole (including all of the underlying partitions) and global stats on each partition that describe that partition (and all of its underlying subpartitions). At this stage, let's just assume that having global stats is 'a good thing' which is why Oracle's default option is to gather them at the Table and Partition levels. In the next post I'll look at why they're important.
Why no Subpartition stats, then? Well, the optimiser is only going to use stats on subpartitions when it can guarantee that it's going to use a single subpartition and as that's probably less likely than you think, Oracle doesn't collect those stats by default, but is able to use higher level partition stats to guess what's going on at the subpartition level too. However, if you do think your queries are going to be able to drill down to a specific subpartition effectively, you can choose to gather subpartition statistics too. Beware though that, as far as I'm aware, the optimiser won't use subpartition stats at all, prior to 10.2.0.4 so there's no benefit to the additional overhead if you're running an earlier version.
In the next post I'll look at why global stats are both a good and bad thing ....
Comments