PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND
TUNING ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE
FOR APPLICATIONS DBAS
John Kanagaraj
Cisco Systems Inc.
Paper# 3604 – COLLABORATE 2010
Speaker’s Qualifications
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IT Architect @ Cisco Systems Inc
Executive Editor SELECT Journal
Oracle ACE
Co-author Oracle Database 10g Insider
Solutions
Technical Editor for various books
Published in many tech magazines
Frequent speaker – IOUG/OAUG/RUGs
Skilled in Oracle Database and
Applications Tuning
SELECT: Call for Articles/Reviewers
– The SELECT Journal is IOUG’s Technical Quarterly
– Distributed to all IOUG members worldwide
– Yearly Best Practices and Tips booklet
• Submit an article or Review one!
• Contact ‘select@ioug.org’
What this presentation is about
• Approach to performance monitoring and
tuning
• Overview of end to end EBS performance
• Tier based approach
• Oracle Database 10g, 11g specifics for EBS
• Oracle RAC considerations
• Q&A
Audience survey
• Audience profile – DBA/Application Admin
• Version survey
EBS - Its all the same!
(with some changes)
• EBS employs well-understood technologies
• Just in a different way using a strong F/work! 
• E.g.: Gathering Table/Index statistics
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EBS uses “Gather Schema Statistics” program
Calls FND_STATS.GATHER_TABLE_STATS
This is a PL/SQL wrapper that calls DBMS_STATS
DBMS_STATS gathers object statistics
• In a very controlled manner – METHOD_OPT for e.g.
• FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS – controls histograms
• FND_EXCLUDE_TABLE_STATS – excludes tables
An Architectural overview
An approach to performance
management
• Before starting, ask the following questions:
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What am I working towards? (Capacity? Issues?)
What is slow? (Conc programs slow, Forms ok)
When is it slow? (Time of day? Period end?)
Extent of slowness? (All users? All geographies?)
What is the Business priority? (Who gets the slice?)
What is the SLA? (What is the target to aim for?)
• Create and agree Service Level Agreements
• Understand and document
Business/Process/Data flow (esp. Qtr/Yr end)
Application Execution profile
Application Execution profile
Desktop Tier
• Browser and JVM (Jinitiator, Sun JRE)
• Runs the Applet client for Oracle Forms
• Needs CPU and Memory
– Guess which is more important?
• Keep out pop-up blockers
• Stop unnecessary services
• Check OTN paper on PC Client Performance
here
“Tech Stack” – Application tier
• A number of technologies involved
– Java-JRE-JVM, J2EE-OC4J, Apache/Web Servers
– Networking, Load Balancers, Security layers
• Performance stats not very obvious/missing
• Skills do not normally lie in the DBA arena
• Three areas to consider:
– Latest level of patches/certifications ensure some
testing and supportability
– Provide adequate computing resources
– Simple configuration settings can make a huge
difference (positively and negatively)
An Architectural overview
Web Server tier
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Caching makes a lot of difference
Cache static content as much as possible
Go easy on graphics – logos, etc. (size!)
Use parallel downloads if possible
Consider local accelerators such as Akamai
Consider network latency when
designing/deploying OAF (or custom) pages
• Chatty applications suffer most from latency
• Use FireBug or Charles to debug
An Architectural overview
Forms tier
• Forms applet requires direct connection (i.e.
not connection pooled)
• Forms suffers more directly from “chattiness”
– Update a field => SELECT for UPDATE (traffic++)
– Forms navigation triggers => validation traffic
– LOVs adds to this problem; use good filters
• Forms settings – Notes 384241.1, 138159.1
– Socket mode, Forms DCD, Cancel Query
• Use Forms Trace: Notes 135389.1, 296559.1
JVM Troubleshooting & Tuning
• Note: 362851.1 JVM setup Guidelines for EBS
• Provide adequate CPU/Memory (Beware VMs!)
• Impact of # of JVMs and settings of interest
– Level and Verbosity of logging (switch off when done)
– Heap settings: balance size versus GC overheads
– Larger heaps may reduce OOM errors, but…
• May mask issues – cursor leaks (track GC patterns)
• Result in long GC pauses (application freezes)
• Check full/partial GCs, parallel GC, no. of threads and type
– Heap dumps will be required for Support
– Use EM Application Server Control
Concurrent Manager tuning
• Framework to submit, schedule, control and
execute batch jobs and transaction processors
• Needs good understanding of:
– Underlying FND tables (monitor/troubleshoot/report)
– Concept of queues, parameters such as number,
type, width, runtime window, inclusion/exclusion,
sleep times, cache and other settings (Manage CM)
• CM Queues are basically “pipes”
• Balance is key: Number/width vs. Complexity
and Load
Concurrent Manager tuning
• Configure Managers by priority and runtimes
– Avoid queue backup! (breakout Standard Manager)
– “Short(Long)/Critical”, “Short(Long)/Non-critical”,
“Administrative” and “Period End”
– Set up process to review all new conc. jobs
• Purging Concurrent Managers
– Relook at the defaults depending on request rate
– Purge different reports by their individual rate
– Consider APPLCSF log/out file system performance
• Set Sleep seconds/Cache by manager type
Concurrent Manager tuning
• Store/Analyze Request Completion times
– Variation is key to pointing out problem areas
– Could be caused by underlying inefficient SQL
and/or varying parameters
– Check unbounded inputs
– Read “An Industrial Engineer’s Approach to
Managing Oracle Databases" by Robyn Anderson
Sands in the Q2 2009 issue of IOUG SELECT
– Check Metalink Note: 1057802.1 Best Practices for
Performance for Concurrent Managers
• Non-SQL related Reports performance – Check
Note 296559.1
Oracle Database tuning
• Database performance is key to overall EBS
performance
• Database produces a large number of stats
• First, follow the standards!
– Strictly follow the mandatory Init.ora parameters
– Make sure all objects are analyzed as per EBS
approved methods
– Don’t make any unapproved/unsupported changes
– (Try to) keep up with all the DB patches
Oracle Database tuning
• Next, provide adequate computing resources
– CPU: Plan for peak processing (Qtr/Year End) as
well as for growth and spikes in business
– Memory: Same as CPU; Cater for increase in
JVMs or Connection pool setting
– I/O: Track I/O rates from AWR/Statspack, monitor
redo, undo and TEMP write performance (RAID 1)
– Depending on OS Memory Free, adjust the
SGA_TARGET upward (watch for swapping)
– Memory pools: This is the lower limit when
SGA_TARGET is set
Tools: Oracle Database 10g
• AWR – Performance Warehouse
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Out of the box Workload Repository (7 day retention)
Active Session History: in memory, persisted
ADDM: Hourly snapshots automatically analyzed
High load SQLs and Statistics
Advisors: SQL Tuning, SQL Access, etc.
New views provide much better analysis
Tightly integrated to Oracle Enterprise Manager
• Check IOUG repository for papers/articles
AWR Report: Deep dive
Top 5 Timed Events
Avg %Total
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Event
Waits
Time (s)
wait
Call
(ms)
Time Wait Class
----------------------- ------------ ----------- ------ ------ ---------db file sequential read
10,818,054
CPU time
74,085
7
20,605
56.7
User I/O
15.8
gc buffer busy
2,086,824
12,810
6
9.8
Cluster
db file scattered read
3,226,504
12,362
4
9.5
User I/O
879,441
4,312
5
3.3
User I/O
read by other session
– 1 Hour snap: 16 CPUs: 57,600 seconds available
– Shared with another 10g database – used up the rest
– OS CPU usage (sar: -u 100% CPU busy; -q: Large
CPU queue; Wait I/O% high)
A process interacts with CPU
“CPU Used”
Waiting for CPU (not
accounted in Oracle)
I/O Wait - various
CPU 0
CPU 1
Ready Queue
Wait Queue
CPU Slice
Context switches
CPU Interrupt
CPU Interrupt
CPU Interrupt
CPU Interrupt
CPU Interrupt
CPU load: Wait time inflation
“CPU Used”
Waiting for CPU
( not
accounted in Oracle
)
I/ O Wait- various
CPU0
Wait time inflation
CPU1
Ready Queue
Wait Queue
CPU Slice
Context switches
CPU Interrupt
CPU Interrupt
CPU Interrupt
CPU Interrupt
CPU Interrupt
AWR Report: Deeper dive
Top 5 Timed Events
Avg %Total
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Event
Waits
Time (s)
wait
Call
(ms)
Time Wait Class
----------------------- ------------ ----------- ------ ------ ---------db file sequential read
10,818,054
CPU time
74,085
7
20,605
56.7
User I/O
15.8
gc buffer busy
2,086,824
12,810
6
9.8
Cluster
db file scattered read
3,226,504
12,362
4
9.5
User I/O
879,441
4,312
5
3.3
User I/O
read by other session
– High CPU usage caused CPU starvation
– Many processes in CPU Ready Queue
– Resulting “I/O Wait Time” inflation
AWR Report: Deep dive
SQL ordered by CPU Time
DB/Inst: TSTDB/TSTDB1
Snaps: 1675-1676
-> Resources reported for PL/SQL code includes the resources used by all SQL
statements called by the code.
-> % Total DB Time is the Elapsed Time of the SQL statement divided
into the Total Database Time multiplied by 100
CPU
Elapsed
Time (s)
Time (s)
CPU per
Executions
% Total
Exec (s) DB Time
SQL Id
---------- ---------- ------------ ----------- ------- ------------11,733
15,203
1,525
7.69
52.2 4bdz6z8r4b2dj
Module: icx.por.req.server.RequisitionAM
SELECT PSSV.COUNTRY FROM PO_VENDORS PSV, PO_VENDOR_CONTACTS PSCV, PO_VENDOR_SITE
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'EMPLOYEE' ) AND (SYSDATE BETWEEN NVL (PSV.START_DATE_ACTIVE, SYSDATE - 1) AND
Tuning SQL
• Standard code:
– Search for SQL in Metalink
– Possible performance bugs
– Open a TAR 
• SQL Tuning:
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Traditional: Trace/TKPROF, Rewrite SQL/redesign
Check Stats fix (Histograms, TCF)
SQL Tuning Advisor: Deep dive in IOUG paper
SQL Outlines: Fix from the outside
If on 11g, look at SQL Plan Baselines
Looking into the past
• Active Session History: Execution history
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Introduced in 10g, expanded in 11g
1 second sample in memory; 10th sample persisted
V$ACTIVE_SESSION_HISTORY in memory
DBA_HIST_ACTIVE_SESS_HISTORY in AWR
• Bind variable capture
– Values for bind variables captured/stored in AWR
– 1st parse, then at 15 min interval
– V$SQL_BIND_CAPTURE/DBA_HIST_SQLBIND
Object Statistics in EBS
• “Gather Schema Statistics” => FND_STATS
• DBMS_STATS gathers object statistics
– History optionally stored (not required in 10g)
– METHOD_OPT: Builds column list for histogram
from FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS
– See Metalink CKE Note: 358323.1
– 11i/R12 difference: Default INVALIDATE=YES
• Register custom schemas to use this method
• Be aware of bind peeking (solved in 11g?)
Oracle RAC in EBS
Online Users: Forms, Self Service
F/E 2
F/E 1
F/E 3
Interconnect
2 Node DB servers
DB Node 1
DB Node 2
Interconnect ships
Database blocks across
nodes
(Main overhead in RAC)
Non EBS
Queries
Discoverer
(ad-hoc)
Other I/Fs
Services direct nonEBS connections to
one node (Node 2)
Shared storage
Connection
fails over to
Node 1
Services
Web/Forms (online) and
Concurrent Manager (batch)
front-end servers
Each Concurrent manager
connects to one specific
node; Online users load
balance to both nodes
Primary
connection
to Node 2
RAC: AWR report
Segments by CR Blocks Received
-> Total CR Blocks Received:
-> Captured Segments account for
DB/Inst: TSTDB/TSTDB2
127,334
56.8% of Total
Tablespace
Owner
Name
Snaps: 26401-26402
Subobject
Object Name
Name
CR
Obj.
Blocks
Type
Received
%Total
---------- ---------- -------------------- ---------- ----- ------------ ------APPLSYS
APPLSYSD1
FND_CONCURRENT_REQUE
TABLE
21,345
16.76
APPLSYS
APPLSYSX1
FND_CONCURRENT_REQUE
INDEX
9,357
7.35
XXAPP_O
XXAPPD1
SYS_IOT_TOP_4005193
INDEX
7,771
6.10
XXAPP_O
XXAPPD1
XXAPP_RPR_REPAIR_ORD
TABLE
7,770
6.10
INV
INVD1
MTL_MATERIAL_TRANSAC
TABLE
6,716
5.27
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– Too many Conc. Managers; very low Sleep_seconds
– Expensive external queries: not using directed
Services (Application partitioning)
Other factors in EBS
• Application tuning:
– Keep up with patches/certifications
– Test/apply performance patches proactively 
– See Note: 244040.1 for recommended patches
• Develop/implement Archive/Purge Policy
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WF Purging is key
Check/pursue purging for specific modules
If R12, check Purge Portal
Archiving provided by Oracle as well as 3rd party:
HP, IBM – Buzzword is “ILM”
What we covered
• Approach to performance monitoring and
tuning
• Overview of end to end EBS performance
• Tier based approach
• Oracle Database 10g, 11g specifics for EBS
• Oracle RAC considerations
• Q&A
Thank you 
Please complete the Survey
(Paper #3604)
Link up with me on LinkedIn
John Kanagaraj