Re: ORA-01555 Snapshot too old

From: Sybrand Bakker <postbus_at_sybrandb.demon.nl>
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 18:09:44 +0100
Message-ID: <tuiqisc2m7hs05@corp.supernews.com>

"Ralf Pickart" <ralf.pickart_at_gmx.net> wrote in message news:78ef525e.0111070755.5573ca68_at_posting.google.com...
> Hi,
>
> I've a question about ORA-01555 and long running queries.
>
> We get this error on a select because of the delayed block cleanout
> after a large insert into a table. Obviously Oracle uses the delayed
> block cleanout only on long running transactions.
>
> Now we are looking for a workaround for this really nerving error and
> we're asking us what is a long running transaction? Especially we want
> to know how long a transaction may be before Oracle delays the block
> cleanout? Or is there another way to avoid this error?
>
> Who knows the answer?
>
> Regards
> Ralf

This question is being asked almost once a week, and this group _does_ keep archives at http://groups.google.com
Next time, please try to search the archives before posting

But anyway, here is the relevant doc from Metalink

Doc ID: Note:40689.1
Subject: ORA-01555 "Snapshot too old" - Detailed Explanation Type: BULLETIN
Status: PUBLISHED
Content Type: TEXT/PLAIN
Creation Date: 03-JAN-1997
Last Revision Date: 20-SEP-1999

ORA-01555 "Snapshot too old" - Detailed Explanation

Overview

This article will discuss the circumstances under which a query can return the Oracle error ORA-01555 "snapshot too old (rollback segment too small)". The article will then proceed to discuss actions that can be taken to avoid the error and finally will provide some simple PL/SQL scripts that illustrate
the issues discussed.

Terminology

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with standard Oracle terminology such as 'rollback segment' and 'SCN'. If not, the reader should first read the
Oracle7 Server Concepts manual and related Oracle7 documentation.

In addition to this, two key concepts are briefly covered below which help in
the understanding of ORA-01555:

READ CONSISTENCY:

This is documented in the Oracle7 Server Concepts manual and so will not be discussed further. However, for the purposes of this article this should be read and understood if not understood already.

Oracle Server has the ability to have multi-version read consistency which is
invaluable to you because it guarantees that you are seeing a consistent view
of the data (no 'dirty reads').

2. DELAYED BLOCK CLEANOUT:

This is best illustrated with an example: Consider a transaction that updates
a million row table. This obviously visits a large number of database blocks to make the change to the data. When the user commits the transaction Oracle does NOT go back and revisit these blocks to make the change permanent. It is
left for the next transaction that visits any block affected by the update to
'tidy up' the block (hence the term 'delayed block cleanout').

Whenever Oracle changes a database block (index, table, cluster) it stores a pointer in the header of the data block which identifies the rollback segment used to hold the rollback information for the changes made by the transaction. (This is required if the user later elects to not commit the changes and wishes to 'undo' the changes made.)

Upon commit, the database simply marks the relevant rollback segment header entry as committed. Now, when one of the changed blocks is revisited Oracle examines the header of the data block which indicates that it has been changed
at some point. The database needs to confirm whether the change has been committed or whether it is currently uncommitted. To do this, Oracle determines
the rollback segment used for the previous transaction (from the block's header) and then determines whether the rollback header indicates whether it has been committed or not.

If it is found that the block is committed then the header of the data block
is updated so that subsequent accesses to the block do not incur this processing.

This behaviour is illustrated in a very simplified way below. Here we walk through the stages involved in updating a data block.

STAGE 1 - No changes made

Description: This is the starting point. At the top of the data block we

              have an area used to link active transactions to a rollback
              segment (the 'tx' part), and the rollback segment header has a
              table that stores information upon all the latest transactions
              that have used that rollback segment.

              In our example, we have two active transaction slots (01 and
02)
              and the next free slot is slot 03. (Since we are free to
              overwrite committed transactions.)

      Data Block 500                   Rollback Segment Header 5
      +----+--------------+            +----------------------+---------+
      | tx | None         |            | transaction entry 01 |ACTIVE   |
      +----+--------------+            | transaction entry 02 |ACTIVE   |
      | row 1             |            | transaction entry 03 |COMMITTED|
      | row 2             |            | transaction entry 04 |COMMITTED|
      | ... ..            |            |     ...     ...   .. |  ...    |
      | row n             |            | transaction entry nn |COMMITTED|
      +------------------+             +--------------------------------+

STAGE 2 - Row 2 is updated

Description: We have now updated row 2 of block 500. Note that the data block

header is updated to point to the rollback segment 5, transaction

slot 3 (5.3) and that it is marked uncommitted (Active).

      Data Block 500                   Rollback Segment Header 5
      +----+--------------+            +----------------------+---------+
      | tx |5.3uncommitted|-----+      | transaction entry 01 |ACTIVE   |
      +----+--------------+     |      | transaction entry 02 |ACTIVE   |
      | row 1             |     +----->| transaction entry 03 |ACTIVE   |
      | row 2 *changed*   |            | transaction entry 04 |COMMITTED|
      | ... ..            |            |     ...     ...   .. |  ...    |
      | row n             |            | transaction entry nn |COMMITTED|
      +------------------+             +--------------------------------+

STAGE 3 - The user issues a commit

Description: Next the user hits commit. Note that all that this does is it

updates the rollback segment header's corresponding transaction

slot as committed. It does *nothing* to the data block.

      Data Block 500                   Rollback Segment Header 5
      +----+--------------+            +----------------------+---------+
      | tx |5.3uncommitted|-----+      | transaction entry 01 |ACTIVE   |
      +----+--------------+     |      | transaction entry 02 |ACTIVE   |
      | row 1             |     +----->| transaction entry 03 |COMMITTED|
      | row 2 *changed*   |            | transaction entry 04 |COMMITTED|
      | ... ..            |            |     ...     ...   .. |  ...    |
      | row n             |            | transaction entry nn |COMMITTED|
      +------------------+             +--------------------------------+

STAGE 4 - Another user selects data block 500

Description: Some time later another user (or the same user) revisits data

block 500. We can see that there is an uncommitted change in the

data block according to the data block's header.

              Oracle then uses the data block header to look up the
              corresponding rollback segment transaction table slot, sees
that
              it has been committed, and changes data block 500 to reflect
the
              true state of the datablock. (i.e. it performs delayed

cleanout).

      Data Block 500                   Rollback Segment Header 5
      +----+--------------+            +----------------------+---------+
      | tx | None         |            | transaction entry 01 |ACTIVE   |
      +----+--------------+            | transaction entry 02 |ACTIVE   |
      | row 1             |            | transaction entry 03 |COMMITTED|
      | row 2             |            | transaction entry 04 |COMMITTED|
      | ... ..            |            |     ...     ...   .. |  ...    |
      | row n             |            | transaction entry nn |COMMITTED|
      +------------------+             +--------------------------------+

ORA-01555 Explanation

There are two fundamental causes of the error ORA-01555 that are a result of Oracle trying to attain a 'read consistent' image. These are :

o The rollback information itself is overwritten so that Oracle is unable to

rollback the (committed) transaction entries to attain a sufficiently old enough version of the block.

o The transaction slot in the rollback segment's transaction table (stored in the rollback segment's header) is overwritten, and Oracle cannot rollback the transaction header sufficiently to derive the original rollback segment transaction slot.

Both of these situations are discussed below with the series of steps that cause the ORA-01555. In the steps, reference is made to 'QENV'. 'QENV' is short for 'Query Environment', which can be thought of as the environment that existed when a query is first started and to which Oracle is trying to attain a read consistent image. Associated with this environment is the SCN (System Change Number) at that time and hence, QENV 50 is the query environment with SCN 50.

CASE 1 - ROLLBACK OVERWRITTEN This breaks down into two cases: another session overwriting the rollback that the current session requires or the case where the current session overwrites the rollback information that it requires. The latter is discussed
in this article because this is usually the harder one to understand.

Steps:

Session 1 starts query at time T1 and QENV 50
Session 1 selects block B1 during this query
Session 1 updates the block at SCN 51
Session 1 does some other work that generates rollback information.
Session 1 commits the changes made in steps '3' and '4'. (Now other transactions are free to overwrite this rollback information)
Session 1 revisits the same block B1 (perhaps for a different row).

Now, Oracle can see from the block's header that it has been changed and

it is later than the required QENV (which was 50). Therefore we need to

get an image of the block as of this QENV.

If an old enough version of the block can be found in the buffer cache

then we will use this, otherwise we need to rollback the current block

to generate another version of the block as at the required QENV.

       It is under this condition that Oracle may not be able to get the
       required rollback information because Session 1's changes have
generated
       rollback information that has overwritten it and returns the ORA-1555
       error.

CASE 2 - ROLLBACK TRANSACTION SLOT OVERWRITTEN

Session 1 starts query at time T1 and QENV 50
Session 1 selects block B1 during this query
Session 1 updates the block at SCN 51
Session 1 commits the changes (Now other transactions are free to overwrite this rollback information)
A session (Session 1, another session or a number of other sessions) then use the same rollback segment for a series of committed transactions.

       These transactions each consume a slot in the rollback segment
       transaction table such that it eventually wraps around (the slots are
       written to in a circular fashion) and overwrites all the slots. Note
       that Oracle is free to reuse these slots since all transactions are
       committed.

    6. Session 1's query then visits a block that has been changed since the
       initial QENV was established. Oracle therefore needs to derive an
image
       of the block as at that point in time.

       Next Oracle attempts to lookup the rollback segment header's
transaction
       slot pointed to by the top of the data block. It then realises that
this
       has been overwritten and attempts to rollback the changes made to the
       rollback segment header to get the original transaction slot entry.

       If it cannot rollback the rollback segment transaction table
       sufficiently it will return ORA-1555 since Oracle can no longer
derive
       the required version of the data block.

It is also possible to encounter a variant of the transaction slot being overwritten when using block cleanout. This is briefly described below :

Session 1 starts a query at QENV 50. After this another process updates the blocks that Session 1 will require. When Session 1 encounters these blocks it determines that the blocks have changed and have not yet been cleaned out (via delayed block cleanout). Session 1 must determine whether the rows in the block existed at QENV 50, were subsequently changed,

In order to do this, Oracle must look at the relevant rollback segment transaction table slot to determine the committed SCN. If this SCN is after the QENV then Oracle must try to construct an older version of the block and
if it is before then the block just needs clean out to be good enough for the QENV.

If the transaction slot has been overwritten and the transaction table cannot be rolled back to a sufficiently old enough version then Oracle cannot derive the block image and will return ORA-1555.

(Note: Normally Oracle can use an algorithm for determining a block's SCN

        during block cleanout even when the rollback segment slot has been
        overwritten. But in this case Oracle cannot guarantee that the
        version of the block has not changed since the start of the query).

Solutions

This section lists some of the solutions that can be used to avoid the ORA-01555 problems discussed in this article. It addresses the cases where rollback segment information is overwritten by the same session and when the rollback segment transaction table entry is overwritten.

It is worth highlighting that if a single session experiences the ORA-01555 and it is not one of the special cases listed at the end of this article, then
the session must be using an Oracle extension whereby fetches across commits are tolerated. This does not follow the ANSI model and in the rare cases where
ORA-01555 is returned one of the solutions below must be used.

CASE 1 - ROLLBACK OVERWRITTEN

Increase size of rollback segment which will reduce the likelihood of overwriting rollback information that is needed.
Reduce the number of commits (same reason as 1).
Run the processing against a range of data rather than the whole table. (Same reason as 1).
Add additional rollback segments. This will allow the updates etc. to be spread across more rollback segments thereby reducing the chances of overwriting required rollback information.
If fetching across commits, the code can be changed so that this is not done.
Ensure that the outer select does not revisit the same block at different times during the processing. This can be achieved by :
- Using a full table scan rather than an index lookup
- Introducing a dummy sort so that we retrieve all the data, sort it and then sequentially visit these data blocks.

CASE 2 - ROLLBACK TRANSACTION SLOT OVERWRITTEN

Use any of the methods outlined above except for '6'. This will allow transactions to spread their work across multiple rollback segments therefore reducing the likelihood or rollback segment transaction table slots being consumed.
If it is suspected that the block cleanout variant is the cause, then force block cleanout to occur prior to the transaction that returns the ORA-1555. This can be achieved by issuing the following in SQL*Plus, SQL*DBA or Server Manager :

      alter session set optimizer_goal = rule;
      select count(*) from table_name;

     If indexes are being accessed then the problem may be an index block
and
     clean out can be forced by ensuring that all the index is traversed.
Eg,
     if the index is on a numeric column with a minimum value of 25 then the
     following query will force cleanout of the index :

      select index_column from table_name where index_column > 24;

Examples

Listed below are some PL/SQL examples that can be used to illustrate the ORA-1555 cases given above. Before these PL/SQL examples will return this error the database must be configured as follows :

o Use a small buffer cache (db_block_buffers).

REASON: You do not want the session executing the script to be able to

            find old versions of the block in the buffer cache which can be
            used to satisfy a block visit without requiring the rollback
            information.

o Use one rollback segment other than SYSTEM.

REASON: You need to ensure that the work being done is generating rollback

information that will overwrite the rollback information required.

o Ensure that the rollback segment is small.

REASON: See the reason for using one rollback segment.

ROLLBACK OVERWRITTEN

  rem * 1555_a.sql - Example of getting ora-1555 "Snapshot too old" by
  rem *              a session overwriting the rollback information required
  rem *              by the same session.

drop table bigemp;
create table bigemp (a number, b varchar2(30), done char(1));

drop table dummy1;
create table dummy1 (a varchar2(200));

  rem * Populate the example tables.
  begin
   for i in 1..4000 loop

     insert into bigemp values (mod(i,20), to_char(i), 'N');
     if mod(i,100) = 0 then
       insert into dummy1 values ('ssssssssssss');
       commit;
     end if;

   end loop;
   commit;
  end;
  /

rem * Ensure that table is 'cleaned out'. select count(*) from bigemp;

declare

Must use a predicate so that we revisit a changed block at a different
time.
If another tx is updating the table then we may not need the predicate cursor c1 is select rowid, bigemp.* from bigemp where a < 20;

begin
for c1rec in c1 loop

     update dummy1 set a = 'aaaaaaaa';
     update dummy1 set a = 'bbbbbbbb';
     update dummy1 set a = 'cccccccc';
     update bigemp set done='Y' where c1rec.rowid = rowid;
     commit;

   end loop;
  end;
  /

ROLLBACK TRANSACTION SLOT OVERWRITTEN

  rem * 1555_b.sql - Example of getting ora-1555 "Snapshot too old" by
  rem *              overwriting the transaction slot in the rollback
  rem *              segment header. This just uses one session.

drop table bigemp;
create table bigemp (a number, b varchar2(30), done char(1));

  rem * Populate demo table.
  begin
   for i in 1..200 loop

     insert into bigemp values (mod(i,20), to_char(i), 'N');
     if mod(i,100) = 0 then
       commit;
     end if;

   end loop;
   commit;
  end;
  /

  drop table mydual;
  create table mydual (a number);
  insert into mydual values (1);
  commit;

rem * Cleanout demo table.
select count(*) from bigemp;

declare

cursor c1 is select * from bigemp;

begin

The following update is required to illustrate the problem if block
cleanout has been done on 'bigemp'. If the cleanout (above) is commented
out then the update and commit statements can be commented and the
script will fail with ORA-1555 for the block cleanout variant. update bigemp set b = 'aaaaa'; commit;

for c1rec in c1 loop

     for i in 1..20 loop
       update mydual set a=a;
       commit;
     end loop;

   end loop;
  end;
  /

Special Cases

There are other special cases that may result in an ORA-01555. These are given
below but are rare and so not discussed in this article :

o Trusted Oracle can return this if configured in OS MAC mode. Decreasing LOG_CHECKPOINT_INTERVAL on the secondary database may overcome the problem.

o If a query visits a data block that has been changed by using the Oracle7 discrete transaction facility then it will return ORA-01555.

o It is feasible that a rollback segment created with the OPTIMAL clause may

cause a query to return ORA-01555 if it has shrunk during the life of the query causing rollback segment information required to generate consistent

read versions of blocks to be lost.

Summary

This article has discussed the reasons behind the error ORA-01555 "Snapshot too old", has provided a list of possible methods to avoid the error when it is encountered, and has provided simple PL/SQL scripts that illustrate the cases discussed.

Search Words:

ORA-1555 Hth

--
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA

to reply remove '-verwijderdit' from my e-mail address

Received on Wed Nov 07 2001 - 11:09:44 CST