Automatic SQL Tuning in Oracle Database 10g

This article the discusses the new features which automate the tuning of SQL statements in Oracle 10g:
Overview
In its normal mode the query optimizer needs to make decisions about execution plans in a very short time. As a result it may not always be able to obtain enough information to make the best decision. Oracle 10g allows the optimizer to run in tuning mode where it can gather additional information and make recommendations about how specific statements can be tuned further. This process may take several minutes for a single statement so it is intended to be used on high-load resource-intensive statements.In tuning mode the optimizer performs the following analysis:
Statistics Analysis
The optimizer recommends the gathering of statistics on objects with missing or stale statistics. Additional statistics for these objects are stored in an SQL profile.
SQL Profiling - The optimizer may be able to improve performance by gathering additional statistics and altering session specific parameters such as the OPTIMIZER_MODE. If such improvements are possible the information is stored in an SQL profile. If accepted this information can then used by the optimizer when running in normal mode. Unlike a stored outline which fixes the execution plan, an SQL profile may still be of benefit when the contents of the table alter drastically. Even so, it's sensible to update profiles periodically. The SQL profiling is not performed when the tuining optimizer is run in limited mode.
Access Path Analysis
The optimizer investigates the effect of new or modified indexes on the access path. It's index recommendations relate to a specific statement so where necessary it will also suggest the use of the SQL Access Advisor to check the impact of these indexes on a representative SQL workload.
SQL Structure Analysis - The optimizer suggests alternatives for SQL statements that contain structures that may impact on performance. The implementation of these suggestions requires human intervention to check their validity. The automatic SQL tuning features are accessible from Enterprise Manager on the "Advisor Central" page these or from PL/SQL using the DBMS_SQLTUNE package. This article will focus on the PL/SQL API as the Enterprise Manager interface is reasonably intuative.

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