Re: 3GB RAM usage by Oracle

> But that is not what was being criticised about your tuning posts here
> earlier, which were advocating 'more hardware will make the problem,
> whatever it is, go away' without taking the time and trouble to actually
> know what the problem is first. Now here you are saying you knew what your
> client's problem was...

Now, Howard, no cheating! C'mon, even a "2-day DBA" can run some scripts and find the root performance problem! I do consulting for a living, and I lose-out when management throws hardware at a performance problem! I always make a passionate plea to have the root problem corrected to keep by people busy.

Here is what I actually said:

"Also, you ignore the economic reality of database tuning. Time and time again, it's too costly (in both time and money) for a shop to tune their SQL. . . . Like I said, I have no problem throwing hardware at crappy code when the client doesn't want to tune it."

But Howard, heavens no, let's not agree! Let me make this as inflammatory as I can:

Don Burleson sez:

1 - Hardware costs continue to fall 10x - 20x per year while speed increases dramatically.

2 - The rates for top-shelf Oracle gurus like Sybrand, Niall and HJR continue to rise every year.

3 – RAM is an IMPORTANT exception to Moore's Law because it DOES NOT increase in speed every year. (Hint: this is VERY important point)

4 – Even a well-tuned Oracle databases has a bottleneck.

5 - Management often ignores the "big picture" and makes decisions based solely on CYA, total cost, performance benefit and total database downtime.

Ergo:

1 - Throwing hardware at an Oracle problem is a legitimate management decision, and in some cases a cost-effective one.

2 - Faster CPU will speed-up ANY CPU-Bound Oracle database.

3 - High-speed SSD will speed up ANY I/O-bound Oracle database.

4 - Faster network will speed-up ANY "SQL*Net" bound Oracle database.

By the way, (lest I not alienate you by agreeing with you), I've also seen problems with super-large data caches (for high-update databases) and I think that data buffer caches will soon be as obsolete as drum devices!

When SSD gets to be cheaper than disk, the data buffer caches become an unnecessary nuisance. It's coming sooner than you think. . . .

Have you noticed the new CPU-based costing for the CBO in 10g? Received on Sun Aug 29 2004 - 07:31:43 CDT