URGENT! Writes to Disk while Doing a SELECT statement?

Please Help...
Situation:
Test Server running Oracle 7.3.4.0.1 on Solaris 2.6 release 5/98. I'm the only one logged in on the server and database. Sun E450 Server attatched to a A5000. (software Raid 0+1).

I'm observing the I/O of the Sun E450 Server. I do a Basic select on a view
(which is join of 5 tables). It is a basic select with no sorting (no Order
by). I notice that three of my datafiles are being written to: rbs, temp, and my data datafile.

My question:
What is going on? What is Oracle doing? Why did I see write activity (every time) and no Read activity (Maybe there was Read activity only the first time running the SELECT statement?).

Bonus Question: I'm experiencing a 50% performance loss with the same database on two servers. The only thing I can think of (which isn't logical) is that the high performance database is on Solaris 2.5.1 and the low performance database is on 2.6. Can anyone relate to this?

The High(er) performance database is running on a single 176Mhz processor Sun Ultra 2 attached to an Andataco (running RAID 5) while the low performance database is running on quad 400mhz processor Sun E450 attached to a Sun A5000
(Running RAID 0+1). The Database (consisting of 500MB...Yes, I mean Megabytes)
is configuired the same (memory, tables, indexes, init<sid>.ora and all). I looked into Hardware, Network, RAID setup, ect. and came up blank. The only thing that I didn't check into, is the OS. So, should I consider the OS as a performance factor?

Not in my 2.5 years have I heard/seen such a thing on Solaris. Thanks in advance, to those of you who reply to this post.

Regards,
Satar
Oracle DBA/UNIX System Admin
"Opinions are the result of the voices in my head only, and do not reflect my employer or Oracle Corporation."

PS Thomas Kyte, if I ever needed you (these past 2 years)...The time is now.

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own Received on Wed Feb 03 1999 - 02:06:47 CST