Skip Headers
Oracle® Database Performance Tuning Guide
11g Release 2 (11.2)

Part Number E10821-03
Go to Documentation Home
Home
Go to Book List
Book List
Go to Table of Contents
Contents
Go to Index
Index
Go to Master Index
Master Index
Go to Feedback page
Contact Us

Go to previous page
Previous
Go to next page
Next
View PDF

18 SQL Access Advisor

This chapter illustrates how to use the SQL Access Advisor, which is a tuning tool that provides advice on improving the performance of a database through partitioning, materialized views, indexes, and materialized view logs. The chapter contains the following sections:

18.1 Overview of the SQL Access Advisor

Materialized views, partitions, and indexes are essential when tuning a database to achieve optimum performance for complex, data-intensive queries. The SQL Access Advisor helps you achieve your performance goals by recommending the proper set of materialized views, materialized view logs, partitions, and indexes for a given workload. Understanding and using these structures is essential when optimizing SQL as they can result in significant performance improvements in data retrieval. The advantages, however, do not come without a cost. Creation and maintenance of these objects can be time consuming, and space requirements can be significant. In particular, partitioning of an unpartitioned base table is a complex operation that must be planned carefully.

The SQL Access Advisor index recommendations include bitmap, function-based, and B-tree indexes. A bitmap index offers a reduced response time for many types of ad hoc queries and reduced storage requirements compared to other indexing techniques. B-tree indexes are most commonly used in a data warehouse to index unique or near-unique keys. The SQL Access Advisor materialized view recommendations include fast refreshable and full refreshable MVs, for either general rewrite or exact text match rewrite.

The SQL Access Advisor, using the TUNE_MVIEW procedure, also recommends how to optimize materialized views so that they can be fast refreshable and take advantage of general query rewrite.

In addition, the SQL Access Advisor has the ability to recommend partitioning on an existing unpartitioned base table in order to improve performance. Furthermore, it may recommend new indexes and materialized views that are themselves partitioned. While creating new partitioned indexes and materialized view is no different from the unpartitioned case, partitioning existing base tables should be executed with care. This is especially true if indexes, views, constraints, or triggers are already defined on the table. See "Special Considerations when Script Includes Partitioning Recommendations" for a list of issues involving base table partitioning for performing this task online.

The SQL Access Advisor can be run from Oracle Enterprise Manager (accessible from the Advisor Central page) using the SQL Access Advisor Wizard or by invoking the DBMS_ADVISOR package. The DBMS_ADVISOR package consists of a collection of analysis and advisory functions and procedures callable from any PL/SQL program.

Figure 18-1 illustrates how the SQL Access Advisor recommends access structures for a given workload obtained from a user-defined table or the SQL cache. If a workload is not provided, it can generate and use a hypothetical workload also, provided the user schema contains dimensions defined by the CREATE DIMENSION keyword.

Figure 18-1 Materialized Views and the SQL Access Advisor

Description of Figure 18-1 follows
Description of "Figure 18-1 Materialized Views and the SQL Access Advisor"

Using the SQL Access Advisor in Enterprise Manager or API, you can do the following:

In addition, you can use the SQL Access Advisor API to do the following:

In order to make recommendations, the SQL Access Advisor relies on structural statistics about table and index cardinalities of dimension level columns, JOIN KEY columns, and fact table key columns. You can gather either exact or estimated statistics with the DBMS_STATS package. Because gathering statistics is time-consuming and full statistical accuracy is not required, it is generally preferable to estimate statistics. Without gathering statistics on a given table, any queries referencing that table will be marked as invalid in the workload, resulting in no recommendations being made for those queries. It is also recommended that all existing indexes and materialized views have been analyzed. See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the DBMS_STATS package.

18.1.1 Overview of Using the SQL Access Advisor

One of the easiest ways to use the SQL Access Advisor is to invoke its wizard, which is available in Enterprise Manager from the Advisor Central page. If you prefer to use SQL Access Advisor through the DBMS_ADVISOR package, this section describes the basic components and the sequence in which the various procedures must be called.

This section describes the four steps in generating a set of recommendations:

Step 1   Create a task

Before any recommendations can be made, a task must be created. The task is important because it is where all information relating to the recommendation process resides, including the results of the recommendation process. If you use the wizard in Oracle Enterprise Manager or the DBMS_ADVISOR.QUICK_TUNE procedure, the task is created automatically for you. In all other cases, you must create a task using the DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK procedure.

You can control what a task does by defining parameters for that task using the DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER procedure.

See "Creating Tasks" for more information about creating tasks.

Step 2   Define the workload

The workload is one of the primary inputs for the SQL Access Advisor, and it consists of one or more SQL statements, plus various statistics and attributes that fully describe each statement. If the workload contains all SQL statements from a target business application, the workload is considered a full workload; if the workload contains a subset of SQL statements, it is known as a partial workload. The difference between a full and a partial workload is that in the former case, the SQL Access Advisor may recommend dropping certain existing materialized views and indexes if it finds that they are not being used.

Typically, the SQL Access Advisor uses the workload as the basis for all analysis activities. Although the workload may contain a wide variety of statements, it carefully ranks the entries according to a specific statistic, business importance, or a combination of statistics and business importance. This ranking is critical in that it enables the SQL Access Advisor to process the most important SQL statements ahead of those with less business impact.

For a collection of data to be considered a valid workload, the SQL Access Advisor may require particular attributes to be present. Although analysis can be performed if some of the items are missing, the quality of the recommendations may be greatly diminished. For example, the SQL Access Advisor requires a workload to contain a SQL query and the user who executed the query. All other attributes are optional; however, if the workload also contained I/O and CPU information, then the SQL Access Advisor may be able to better evaluate the current efficiency of the statement. The workload is stored as a SQL Tuning Set object, which is accessed using the DBMS_SQLTUNE package, and can easily be shared among many Advisor tasks. Because the workload is independent, it must be linked to a task using the DBMS_ADVISOR.ADD_STS_REF procedure. Once this link has been established, the workload cannot be deleted or modified until all Advisor tasks have removed their dependency on the workload. A workload reference will be removed when a parent Advisor task is deleted or when the workload reference is manually removed from the Advisor task by the user using the DBMS_ADVISOR.DELETE_STS_REF procedure.

You cannot use the SQL Access Advisor without a workload, however, it is possible to create a hypothetical workload from a schema by analyzing dimensions and constraints. For best results, an actual workload should be provided in the form of a SQL Tuning Set.

The DBMS_SQLTUNE package provides several helper functions that can create SQL Tuning Sets from common workload sources, such as the SQL cache, a user-defined workload stored in a table and a hypothetical workload.

At the time the recommendations are generated, a filter can be applied to the workload to restrict what is analyzed. This provides the ability to generate different sets of recommendations based on different workload scenarios.

The recommendation process and customization of the workload are controlled by SQL Access Advisor parameters. These parameters control various aspects of the recommendation process, such as the type of recommendation that is required and the naming conventions for what it recommends.

To set these parameters, use the SET_TASK_PARAMETER procedure. Parameters are persistent in that they remain set for the lifespan of the task. When a parameter value is set using the SET_TASK_PARAMETER procedure, it does not change until you make another call to SET_TASK_PARAMETER.

Step 3   Generate the recommendations

Once a task exists and a workload is linked to the task and the appropriate parameters are set, you can generate recommendations using the DBMS_ADVISOR.EXECUTE_TASK procedure. These recommendations are stored in the SQL Access Advisor Repository.

The recommendation process generates several recommendations. Each recommendation specifies one or more actions. For example, a recommendation could be to create several materialized view logs, create a materialized view, and then analyze it to gather statistical information.

A task recommendation can range from a simple suggestion to a complex solution that requires partitioning a set of existing base tables and implementing a set of database objects such as indexes, materialized views, and materialized view logs. When an Advisor task is executed, the SQL Access Advisor carefully analyzes collected data and user-adjusted task parameters. It then forms a structured recommendation that can be viewed and implemented by the user.

See "Generating Recommendations" for more information about generating recommendations.

Step 4   View and implement the recommendations

There are two ways to view the recommendations from the SQL Access Advisor: using the catalog views or by generating a script using the DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT procedure. In Enterprise Manager, the recommendations may be displayed once the SQL Access Advisor process has completed. See "Viewing Recommendations" for a description of using the catalog views to view the recommendations. See "Generating SQL Scripts" to see how to create a script.

Not all recommendations have to be accepted and you can mark the ones that should be included in the recommendation script. However, when base table partitioning is recommended, some recommendations depend on others (for example, you cannot implement a local index if you do not also implement the partitioning recommendation on the index base table).

The final step is then implementing the recommendations and verifying that query performance has improved.

18.1.1.1 SQL Access Advisor Repository

All the information needed and generated by the SQL Access Advisor is held in the Advisor repository, which is a part of the database dictionary. The benefits of using the repository are that it:

  • Collects a complete workload for the SQL Access Advisor.

  • Supports historical data.

  • Is managed by the server.

18.2 Using the SQL Access Advisor

This section discusses general information about, as well as the steps needed to use, the SQL Access Advisor, and includes:

See Also:

Oracle Database 2 Day + Performance Tuning Guide for information about using SQL Access Advisor with Oracle Enterprise Manager

18.2.1 Steps for Using the SQL Access Advisor

Figure 18-2 illustrates the steps in using the SQL Access Advisor as well as an overview of all of the parameters in the SQL Access Advisor and when it is appropriate to use them.

Figure 18-2 SQL Access Advisor Flowchart

Description of Figure 18-2 follows
Description of "Figure 18-2 SQL Access Advisor Flowchart"

18.2.2 Privileges Needed to Use the SQL Access Advisor

You need to have the ADVISOR privilege to manage or use the SQL Access Advisor. When processing a workload, the SQL Access Advisor attempts to validate each statement in order to identify table and column references. Validation is achieved by processing each statement as if it is being executed by the statement's original user. If that user does not have SELECT privileges to a particular table, the SQL Access Advisor bypasses the statement referencing the table. This can cause many statements to be excluded from analysis. If the SQL Access Advisor excludes all statements in a workload, the workload is invalid and the SQL Access Advisor returns the following message:

QSM-00774, there are no SQL statements to process for task TASK_NAME

To avoid missing critical workload queries, the current database user must have SELECT privileges on the tables targeted for materialized view analysis. For those tables, these SELECT privileges cannot be obtained through a role.

Additionally, you must have the ADMINISTER SQL TUNING SET privilege in order to create and manage workloads in SQL Tuning Set objects. If you want to run the Advisor on SQL Tuning Sets owned by other users, you must have the ADMINISTER ANY SQL TUNING SET privilege.

18.2.3 Setting Up Tasks and Templates

This section discusses the following aspects of setting up tasks and templates:

18.2.3.1 Creating Tasks

An Advisor task is where you define what it is you want to analyze and where the results of this analysis should be placed. A user can create any number of tasks, each with its own specialization. All are based on the same Advisor task model and share the same repository.

You create a task using the CREATE_TASK procedure. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK (
   advisor_name          IN VARCHAR2,
   task_id               OUT NUMBER,
   task_name             IN OUT VARCHAR2,
   task_desc             IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
   template              IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
   is_template           IN VARCHAR2 := 'FALSE',
   how_created           IN VARCHAR2 := NULL); 

The following illustrates an example of using this procedure:

VARIABLE task_id NUMBER;
VARIABLE task_name VARCHAR2(255);
EXECUTE :task_name := 'MYTASK';
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK ('SQL Access Advisor', :task_id, :task_name);

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the CREATE_TASK procedure and its parameters.

18.2.3.2 Using Templates

When an ideal configuration for a task or workload has been identified, this configuration can be saved as a template upon which future tasks and workloads can be based.

This enables you to set up any number of tasks or workloads that can be used as intelligent starting points or templates for future task creation. By setting up a template, you can save time when performing tuning analysis. It also enables you to custom fit a tuning analysis to the business operation.

To create a task from a template, you specify the template to be used when a new task is created. At that time, the SQL Access Advisor copies the data and parameter settings from the template into the newly created task. You can also set an existing task to be a template by setting the template attribute when creating the task or later using the UPDATE_TASK_ATTRIBUTE procedure.

To use a task as a template, you tell the SQL Access Advisor to use a task when a new task is created. At that time, the SQL Access Advisor copies the task template's data and parameter settings into the newly created task. You can also set an existing task to be a template by setting the template attribute. This can be done at the command line or in Enterprise Manager.

18.2.3.3 Creating Templates

You can create a template as in the following example.

  1. Create a template called MY_TEMPLATE.

    VARIABLE template_id NUMBER;
    VARIABLE template_name VARCHAR2(255);
    EXECUTE :template_name := 'MY_TEMPLATE';
    EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK('SQL Access Advisor',:template_id, -
                                     :template_name, is_template => 'TRUE');
    
  2. Set template parameters. For example, the following sets the naming conventions for recommended indexes and materialized views and the default tablespaces:

    -- set naming conventions for recommended indexes/mvs
    EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
       :template_name, 'INDEX_NAME_TEMPLATE', 'SH_IDX$$_<SEQ>');
    
    EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
       :template_name, 'MVIEW_NAME_TEMPLATE', 'SH_MV$$_<SEQ>');
    
    -- set default tablespace for recommended indexes/mvs
    EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
       :template_name, 'DEF_INDEX_TABLESPACE', 'SH_INDEXES');
    
    EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
       :template_name, 'DEF_MVIEW_TABLESPACE', 'SH_MVIEWS');
    
  3. This template can now be used as a starting point to create a task as follows:

    VARIABLE task_id NUMBER;
    VARIABLE task_name VARCHAR2(255);
    EXECUTE :task_name := 'MYTASK';
    EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK('SQL Access Advisor', :task_id, -
                                     :task_name, template=>'MY_TEMPLATE');
    

    The following example uses a pre-defined template SQLACCESS_WAREHOUSE. See Table 18-3 for more information.

    EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK('SQL Access Advisor', -
       :task_id, :task_name,  template=>'SQLACCESS_WAREHOUSE');
    

18.2.4 SQL Access Advisor Workloads

The SQL Access Advisor supports different types of workloads, and this section discusses the following aspects of managing workloads:

18.2.4.1 SQL Tuning Set Workloads

The input workload source for the SQL Access Advisor is the SQL Tuning Set. An important benefit of using a SQL Tuning Set is that because it is stored as a separate entity, it can easily be shared among many Advisor tasks. Once a SQL Tuning Set object has been referenced by an Advisor task, it cannot be deleted or modified until all Advisor tasks have removed their dependency on the data. A workload reference will be removed when a parent Advisor task is deleted or when the workload reference is manually removed from the Advisor task by the user.

The SQL Access Advisor performs best when a workload based on actual usage is available. You can store multiple workloads in the form of SQL Tuning Sets, so that the different uses of a real-world data warehousing or transaction-processing environment can be viewed over a long period of time and across the life cycle of database instance startup and shutdown.

18.2.4.2 Using SQL Tuning Sets

The SQL Tuning Set workload is implemented using the DBMS_SQLTUNE package. See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for a description on creating and managing SQL Tuning Sets.

To transition existing SQL Workload objects to a SQL Tuning Set, the DBMS_ADVISOR package provides a procedure to copy SQL Workload data to a user-designated SQL Tuning Set. Note that, to use this procedure, the user must have the required SQL Tuning Set privileges as well as the required ADVISOR privilege.

The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.COPY_SQLWKLD_TO_STS (
   workload_name        IN VARCHAR2,
   sts_name             IN VARCHAR2,
   import_mode          IN VARCHAR2 := 'NEW');

The following example illustrates its usage:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.COPY_SQLWKLD_TO_STS('MYWORKLOAD','MYSTS','NEW');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the COPY_SQLWKLD_TO_STS procedure and its parameters.

18.2.4.3 Linking Tasks and Workloads

Before the recommendation process can begin, the task must be linked to a SQL Tuning Set. You achieve this by using the ADD_STS_REF procedure and using their respective names to link the task and a Tuning Set. This procedure establishes a link between the Advisor task and a Tuning Set. And, once a connection has been defined, the SQL Tuning Set is protected from removal or update. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.ADD_STS_REF (task_name IN VARCHAR2,
 
sts_owner IN VARCHAR2,
sts_name  IN VARCHAR2);

The sts_owner parameter may be null, in which case the STS is assumed to be owned by the current user.

The following example links the MYTASK task created to the current user's MYWORKLOAD SQL Tuning Set:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.ADD_STS_REF('MYTASK', null, 'MYWORKLOAD');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the ADD_STS_REF procedure and its parameters.

18.2.4.3.1 Removing a Link Between a SQL Tuning Set Workload and a Task

Before a task or a SQL Tuning Set workload can be deleted, if it is linked to a workload or task respectively, then the link between the task and the workload must be removed using the DELETE_STS_REF procedure. The following example deletes the link between task MYTASK and the current user's SQL Tuning Set MYWORKLOAD:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.DELETE_STS_REF('MYTASK', null, 'MYWORKLOAD');

18.2.5 Working with Recommendations

This section discusses the following aspects of working with recommendations:

18.2.5.1 Recommendations and Actions

SQL Access Advisor makes several recommendations, each of which contains one or more individual actions. In general, each recommendation provides a benefit for one query or a set of queries. All individual actions in a recommendation must be implemented together to achieve the full benefit. Actions can be shared among recommendations.

For example, a CREATE INDEX statement could provide a benefit for several queries, but some of those queries might benefit from an additional CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement. In that case, the advisor would generate two recommendations: one for the set of queries that require only the index, and another one for the set of queries that require both the index and the materialized view to run optimally.

The partition recommendation is a special type of recommendation. When SQL Access Advisor determines that partitioning a specified base table would improve workload performance, the advisor adds a partition action to every recommendation containing a query referencing the base table. This technique ensures that index and materialized view recommendations are implemented on the correctly partitioned tables.

18.2.5.2 Recommendation Options

Before recommendations can be generated, the parameters for the task must first be defined using the SET_TASK_PARAMETER procedure. If parameters are not defined, then the defaults are used.

You can set task parameters by using the SET_TASK_PARAMETER procedure. The syntax is as follows.

DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER (
   task_name           IN VARCHAR2,
   parameter           IN VARCHAR2,
   value               IN [VARCHAR2 | NUMBER]);

There are many task parameters and, to help identify the relevant ones, they have been grouped into categories in Table 18-1. Note that all task parameters for workload filtering have been deprecated.

Table 18-1 Types of Advisor Task Parameters And Their Uses

Workload Filtering Task Configuration Schema Attributes Recommendation Options

END_TIME

DAYS_TO_EXPIRE

DEF_INDEX_OWNER

ANALYSIS_SCOPE

INVALID_ACTION_LIST

JOURNALING

DEF_INDEX_TABLESPACE

COMPATIBILITY

INVALID_MODULE_LIST

REPORT_DATE_FORMAT

DEF_MVIEW_OWNER

CREATION_COST

INVALID_SQLSTRING_LIMIT

 

DEF_MVIEW_TABLESPACE

DML_VOLATILITY

INVALID_TABLE_LIST

 

DEF_MVLOG_TABLESPACE

LIMIT_PARTITION_SCHEMES

INVALID_USERNAME_LIST

 

DEF_PARTITION_TABLESPACE

MODE

RANKING_MEASURE

 

INDEX_NAME_TEMPLATE

PARTITIONING_TYPES

SQL_LIMIT

 

MVIEW_NAME_TEMPLATE

REFRESH_MODE

START_TIME

   

STORAGE_CHANGE

TIME_LIMIT

USE_SEPARATE_TABLESPACES

VALID_ACTION_LIST

 

WORKLOAD_SCOPE

VALID_MODULE_LIST

VALID_SQLSTRING_LIST

VALID_TABLE_LIST

     

VALID_USERNAME_LIST


In the following example, set the storage change of task MYTASK to 100MB. This indicates 100MB of additional space for recommendations. A zero value would indicate that no additional space can be allocated. A negative value indicates that the advisor must attempt to trim the current space utilization by the specified amount.

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER('MYTASK','STORAGE_CHANGE', 100000000);

In the following example, set the VALID_TABLE_LIST parameter to filter out all queries that do no consist of tables SH.SALES and SH.CUSTOMERS.

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
   'MYTASK', 'VALID_TABLE_LIST', 'SH.SALES, SH.CUSTOMERS');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the SET_TASK_PARAMETER procedure and its parameters.

18.2.5.3 Evaluation Mode

SQL Access Advisor operates in two modes: problem-solving and evaluation. By default, SQL Access Advisor attempts to solve access method problems by looking for enhancements to index structures, partitions, materialized views, and materialized view logs. For example, a problem-solving run may recommend creating a new index, adding a new column to a materialized view log, and so on.

When performing evaluation only, SQL Access Advisor comments only on which access structures the supplied workload will use. An evaluation-only run may only produce recommendations such as retaining an index, retaining a materialized view, and so on. The evaluation mode can be useful to see exactly which indexes and materialized views are actually being used by a workload. SQL Access Advisor does not evaluate the performance impact of existing base table partitioning.

18.2.5.4 View Intermediate Results During Recommendation Analysis

The SQL Access Advisor now has the ability to see intermediate results during the analysis operation. Previously, results of an analysis operation were unavailable until the processing had completed or was interrupted by the user. Now, the user may access results in the corresponding recommendation and action tables even while the SQL Access Advisor task is still executing. The benefit is that long running tasks can provide evidence that may allow the user to accept the current results by interrupting the task rather than waiting for a lengthy execution to complete.

To accept the current set of recommendations, the user must interrupt the task. This will signal SQL Access Advisor to stop processing and mark the task as INTERRUPTED. At that point, the user may update recommendation attributes and generate scripts. Alternatively, the SQL Access Advisor can be allowed to complete the recommendation process.

Note that intermediate results represent recommendations for the workload contents up to that point in time. If it is critical that the recommendations be sensitive to the entire workload, then Oracle recommends that you allow the task execution to complete normally. Additionally, recommendations made by the advisor early in the recommendation process will not contain any base table partitioning recommendations because the partitioning analysis requires a substantial part of the workload to be processed before it can determine whether partitioning would be beneficial. Therefore, only later intermediate results will contain base table partitioning recommendations if the SQL Access Advisor detects a benefit.

18.2.5.5 Generating Recommendations

You can generate recommendations by using the EXECUTE_TASK procedure with your task name. After the procedure finishes, you can check the DBA_ADVISOR_LOG table for the actual execution status and the number of recommendations and actions that have been produced. The recommendations can be queried by task name in {DBA, USER}_ADVISOR_RECOMMENDATIONS and the actions for these recommendations can be viewed by task in {DBA, USER}_ADVISOR_ACTIONS.

18.2.5.5.1 EXECUTE_TASK Procedure

This procedure performs the SQL Access Advisor analysis or evaluation for the specified task. Task execution is a synchronous operation, so control will not be returned to the user until the operation has completed, or a user-interrupt was detected. Upon return or execution of the task, you can check the DBA_ADVISOR_LOG table for the actual execution status.

Running EXECUTE_TASK generates recommendations, where a recommendation comprises one or more actions, such as creating a materialized view log and a materialized view. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.EXECUTE_TASK (task_name   IN VARCHAR2);

The following illustrates an example of using this procedure:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.EXECUTE_TASK('MYTASK');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the EXECUTE_TASK procedure and its parameters.

18.2.5.6 Viewing Recommendations

Each recommendation generated by the SQL Access Advisor can be viewed using several catalog views, such as (DBA, USER)_ADVISOR_RECOMMENDATIONS. However, it is easier to use the GET_TASK_SCRIPT procedure or use the SQL Access Advisor in Enterprise Manager, which graphically displays the recommendations and provides hyperlinks to quickly see which SQL statements benefit from a recommendation. Each recommendation produced by the SQL Access Advisor is linked to the SQL statement it benefits.

The following shows the recommendation (rec_id) produced by an Advisor run, with their rank and total benefit. The rank is a measure of the importance of the queries that the recommendation helps. The benefit is the total improvement in execution cost (in terms of optimizer cost) of all the queries using the recommendation.

VARIABLE workload_name VARCHAR2(255); 
VARIABLE task_name VARCHAR2(255);
EXECUTE :task_name := 'MYTASK';
EXECUTE :workload_name := 'MYWORKLOAD'; 

SELECT REC_ID, RANK, BENEFIT
FROM USER_ADVISOR_RECOMMENDATIONS WHERE TASK_NAME = :task_name;

    REC_ID       RANK    BENEFIT
---------- ---------- ----------
         1          2       2754
         2          3       1222
         3          1       5499
         4          4        594

To identify which query benefits from which recommendation, you can use the views DBA_* and USER_ADVISOR_SQLA_WK_STMTS. The precost and postcost numbers are in terms of the estimated optimizer cost (shown in EXPLAIN PLAN) without and with the recommended access structure changes, respectively. To see recommendations for each query, issue the following statement:

SELECT sql_id, rec_id, precost, postcost,
       (precost-postcost)*100/precost AS percent_benefit
FROM USER_ADVISOR_SQLA_WK_STMTS
WHERE TASK_NAME = :task_name AND workload_name = :workload_name;

    SQL_ID     REC_ID    PRECOST   POSTCOST PERCENT_BENEFIT
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------------
       121          1       3003        249      91.7082917
       122          2       1404        182       87.037037
       123          3       5503          4      99.9273124
       124          4        730        136       81.369863

Each recommendation consists of one or more actions, which must be implemented together to realize the benefit provided by the recommendation. The SQL Access Advisor produces the following types of actions:

  • PARTITION BASE TABLE

  • CREATE|DROP|RETAIN MATERIALIZED VIEW

  • CREATE|ALTER|RETAIN MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG

  • CREATE|DROP|RETAIN INDEX

  • GATHER STATS

The PARTITION BASE TABLE action partitions an existing unpartitioned base table. The CREATE actions corresponds to new access structures. RETAIN recommendations indicate that existing access structures must be kept. DROP recommendations are only produced if the WORKLOAD_SCOPE parameter is set to FULL. The GATHER STATS action will generate a call to DBMS_STATS procedure to gather statistics on a newly generated access structure. Note that multiple recommendations may refer to the same action, however when generating a script for the recommendation, you will only see each action once.

In the following example, you can see how many distinct actions there are for this set of recommendations.

SELECT 'Action Count', COUNT(DISTINCT action_id) cnt
FROM USER_ADVISOR_ACTIONS WHERE task_name = :task_name;

'ACTIONCOUNT        CNT
------------   --------
Action Count         20

-- see the actions for each recommendations
SELECT rec_id, action_id, SUBSTR(command,1,30) AS command
FROM user_advisor_actions WHERE task_name = :task_name
ORDER BY rec_id, action_id;

    REC_ID  ACTION_ID COMMAND
---------- ---------- ------------------------------
         1          5 CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         1          6 ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         1          7 CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         1          8 ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         1          9 CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         1         10 ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         1         11 CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW
         1         12 GATHER TABLE STATISTICS
         1         19 CREATE INDEX
         1         20 GATHER INDEX STATISTICS
         2          5 CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         2          6 ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         2          9 CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG
         ...
    

Each action has several attributes that pertain to the properties of the access structure. The name and tablespace for each access structure when applicable are placed in attr1 and attr2 respectively. The space occupied by each new access structure is in num_attr1. All other attributes are different for each action.

Table 18-2 maps SQL Access Advisor action information to the corresponding column in DBA_ADVISOR_ACTIONS. In the table, "MV" refers to a materialized view.

Table 18-2 SQL Access Advisor Action Attributes


ATTR1 ATTR2 ATTR3 ATTR4 ATTR5 ATTR6 NUM_ATTR1

CREATE INDEX

Index name

Index tablespace

Target table

BITMAP or BTREE

Index column list / expression

Unused

Storage size in bytes for the index

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW

MV name

MV tablespace

REFRESH COMPLETE REFRESH FAST, REFRESH FORCE, NEVER REFRESH

ENABLE QUERY REWRITE, DISABLE QUERY REWRITE

SQL SELECT statement

Unused

Storage size in bytes for the MV

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG

Target table name

MV log tablespace

ROWID PRIMARY KEY, SEQUENCE OBJECT ID

INCLUDING NEW VALUES, EXCLUDING NEW VALUES

Table column list

Partitioning subclauses

Unused

CREATE REWRITE EQUIVALENCE

Name of equivalence

Checksum value

Unused

Unused

Source SQL statement

Equivalent SQL statement

Unused

DROP INDEX

Index name

Unused

Unused

Unused

Index columns

Unused

Storage size in bytes for the index

DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW

MV name

Unused

Unused

Unused

Unused

Unused

Storage size in bytes for the MV

DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG

Target table name

Unused

Unused

Unused

Unused

Unused

Unused

PARTITION TABLE

Table name

RANGE, INTERVAL, LIST, HASH, RANGE-HASH, RANGE-LIST

Partition key for partitioning (column name or list of column names)

Partition key for subpartitioning (column name or list of column names)

SQL PARTITION clause

SQL SUBPARTITION clause

Unused

PARTITION INDEX

Index name

LOCAL, RANGE, HASH

Partition key for partitioning (list of column names)

Unused

SQL PARTITION clause

Unused

Unused

PARTITION ON MATERIALIZED VIEW

MV name

RANGE, INTERVAL, LIST, HASH, RANGE-HASH, RANGE-LIST

Partition key for partitioning (column name or list of column names)

Partition key for subpartitioning (column name or list of column names)

SQL SUBPARTITION clause

SQL SUBPARTITION clause

Unused

RETAIN INDEX

Index name

Unused

Target table

BITMAP or BTREE

Index columns

Unused

Storage size in bytes for the index

RETAIN MATERIALIZED VIEW

MV name

Unused

REFRESH COMPLETE or REFRESH FAST

Unused

SQL SELECT statement

Unused

Storage size in bytes for the MV

RETAIN MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG

Target table name

Unused

Unused

Unused

Unused

Unused

Unused


The following PL/SQL procedure can be used to print out some of the attributes of the recommendations.

CONNECT SH/SH;
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE show_recm (in_task_name IN VARCHAR2) IS 
CURSOR curs IS
  SELECT DISTINCT action_id, command, attr1, attr2, attr3, attr4
  FROM user_advisor_actions
  WHERE task_name = in_task_name
  ORDER BY action_id;
  v_action        number;
  v_command     VARCHAR2(32);
  v_attr1       VARCHAR2(4000);
  v_attr2       VARCHAR2(4000);
  v_attr3       VARCHAR2(4000);
  v_attr4       VARCHAR2(4000);
  v_attr5       VARCHAR2(4000);
BEGIN
  OPEN curs;
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('=========================================');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Task_name = ' || in_task_name);
  LOOP
     FETCH curs INTO  
       v_action, v_command, v_attr1, v_attr2, v_attr3, v_attr4 ;
   EXIT when curs%NOTFOUND;
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Action ID: ' || v_action);
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Command : ' || v_command);
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Attr1 (name)      : ' || SUBSTR(v_attr1,1,30));
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Attr2 (tablespace): ' || SUBSTR(v_attr2,1,30));
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Attr3             : ' || SUBSTR(v_attr3,1,30));
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Attr4             : ' || v_attr4);
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Attr5             : ' || v_attr5);
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('----------------------------------------');  
   END LOOP;   
   CLOSE curs;      
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('=========END RECOMMENDATIONS============');
END show_recm;
/
-- see what the actions are using sample procedure
set serveroutput on size 99999
EXECUTE show_recm(:task_name);
A fragment of a sample output from this procedure is as follows:
Task_name = MYTASK
Action ID: 1
Command : CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG 
Attr1 (name)      : "SH"."CUSTOMERS"
Attr2 (tablespace):
Attr3             : ROWID, SEQUENCE
Attr4             :  INCLUDING NEW VALUES
Attr5             :
----------------------------------------
..
----------------------------------------
Action ID: 15
Command : CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW
Attr1 (name)      : "SH"."SH_MV$$_0004"
Attr2 (tablespace): "SH_MVIEWS"
Attr3             : REFRESH FAST WITH ROWID
Attr4             : ENABLE QUERY REWRITE
Attr5             :
----------------------------------------
..
----------------------------------------
Action ID: 19
Command : CREATE INDEX
Attr1 (name)      : "SH"."SH_IDX$$_0013"
Attr2 (tablespace): "SH_INDEXES"
Attr3             : "SH"."SH_MV$$_0002"
Attr4             : BITMAP
Attr5             :

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for details regarding Attr5 and Attr6.

18.2.5.7 Stopping the Recommendation Process

If the SQL Access Advisor takes too long to make its recommendations using the procedure EXECUTE_TASK, you can stop it by calling the CANCEL_TASK procedure and passing in the task_name for this recommendation process. If you use CANCEL_TASK, no recommendations will be made. Therefore, if recommendations are required, consider using the INTERRUPT_TASK procedure.

18.2.5.7.1 Interrupting Tasks

The INTERRUPT_TASK procedure causes an Advisor operation to terminate as if it has reached its normal end. As a result, the user can see any recommendations that have been formed up to the point of the interrupt.

An interrupted task cannot be restarted. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.INTERRUPT_TASK (task_name IN VARCHAR2);

The following illustrates an example of using this procedure:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.INTERRUPT_TASK ('MY_TASK');
18.2.5.7.2 Canceling Tasks

The CANCEL_TASK procedure causes a currently executing operation to terminate. An Advisor operation may take a few seconds to respond to this request. Because all Advisor task procedures are synchronous, to cancel an operation, you must use a separate database session.

A cancel command effective restores the task to its condition before the start of the canceled operation. Therefore, a canceled task or data object cannot be restarted (but you can reset the task using DBMS_ADVISOR.RESET_TASK and then executing it again). Its syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.CANCEL_TASK (task_name   IN  VARCHAR2);

The following illustrates an example of using this procedure:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CANCEL_TASK('MYTASK');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the CANCEL_TASK procedure and its parameters.

18.2.5.8 Marking Recommendations

By default, all SQL Access Advisor recommendations are ready to be implemented, however, the user can choose to skip or exclude selected recommendations by using the MARK_RECOMMENDATION procedure. MARK_RECOMMENDATION allows the user to annotate a recommendation with a REJECT or IGNORE setting, which will cause the GET_TASK_SCRIPT to skip it when producing the implementation procedure. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.MARK_RECOMMENDATION (
   task_name          IN VARCHAR2
   id                 IN NUMBER,
   action             IN VARCHAR2);

The following example marks a recommendation with ID 2 as REJECT. This recommendation and any dependent recommendations will not appear in the script.

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.MARK_RECOMMENDATION('MYTASK', 2, 'REJECT');

If the Advisor made a partition recommendation (that is, a recommendation to partition one or multiple previously unpartitioned base tables), careful consideration should be given as to whether this recommendation should be skipped. The reason is that changing a table's partitioning scheme affects the cost of all queries, indexes, and materialized views defined on that table. Therefore, the Advisor's remaining recommendations on that table will no longer be optimal if you skip the partitioning recommendation. If you want to see recommendations on your workload that do not contain partitioning, you should reset the advisor task and rerun it with the ANALYSIS_SCOPE parameter changed to exclude partitioning recommendations.

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the MARK_RECOMMENDATIONS procedure and its parameters.

18.2.5.9 Modifying Recommendations

Using the UPDATE_REC_ATTRIBUTES procedure, the SQL Access Advisor names and assigns ownership to new objects such as indexes and materialized views during the analysis operation. However, it does not necessarily choose appropriate names, so you may manually set the owner, name, and tablespace values for new objects. For recommendations referencing existing database objects, owner and name values cannot be changed. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.UPDATE_REC_ATTRIBUTES (
   task_name            IN VARCHAR2
   rec_id               IN NUMBER,
   action_id            IN NUMBER,
   attribute_name       IN VARCHAR2,
   value                IN VARCHAR2);

The attribute_name parameter can take the following values:

  • OWNER

    Specifies the owner name of the recommended object.

  • NAME

    Specifies the name of the recommended object.

  • TABLESPACE

    Specifies the tablespace of the recommended object.

The following example modifies the attribute TABLESPACE for recommendation ID 1, action ID 1 to SH_MVIEWS.

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.UPDATE_REC_ATTRIBUTES('MYTASK', 1, 1, - 
                                           'TABLESPACE', 'SH_MVIEWS');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the UPDATE_REC_ATTRIBUTES procedure and its parameters.

18.2.5.10 Generating SQL Scripts

An alternative to querying the metadata to see the recommendations is to create a script of the SQL statements for the recommendations, using the procedure GET_TASK_SCRIPT. The resulting script is an executable SQL file that can contain DROP, CREATE, and ALTER statements. For new objects, the names of the materialized views, materialized view logs, and indexes are auto-generated by using the user-specified name template. You should review the generated SQL script before attempting to execute it.

There are several task parameters that control the naming conventions (MVIEW_NAME_TEMPLATE and INDEX_NAME_TEMPLATE), the owner for these new objects (DEF_INDEX_OWNER and DEF_MVIEW_OWNER), and the tablespaces (DEF_MVIEW_TABLESPACE and DEF_INDEX_TABLESPACE).

The following example shows how to generate a CLOB containing the script for the recommendations:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE(DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT('MYTASK'),
               'ADVISOR_RESULTS', 'advscript.sql'); 

To save the script to a file, a directory path must be supplied so that the procedure CREATE_FILE knows where to store the script. In addition, read and write privileges must be granted on this directory. The following example shows how to save an advisor script CLOB to a file:

-- create a directory and grant permissions to read/write to it
CONNECT SH/SH;
CREATE DIRECTORY ADVISOR_RESULTS AS '/mydir';
GRANT READ ON DIRECTORY ADVISOR_RESULTS TO PUBLIC;
GRANT WRITE ON DIRECTORY ADVISOR_RESULTS TO PUBLIC;

The following is a fragment of a script generated by this procedure. The script also includes PL/SQL calls to gather statistics on the recommended access structures and marks the recommendations as IMPLEMENTED at the end:

Rem  Access Advisor V11.1.0.0.0 - Production
Rem  
Rem  Username:        SH
Rem  Task:            MYTASK
Rem  Execution date:  15/08/2006 11:35
Rem  
set feedback 1
set linesize 80
set trimspool on
set tab off
set pagesize 60
whenever sqlerror CONTINUE

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG ON "SH"."PRODUCTS"
    WITH ROWID, SEQUENCE("PROD_ID","PROD_SUBCATEGORY")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;
ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE ON "SH"."PRODUCTS"
    ADD ROWID, SEQUENCE("PROD_ID","PROD_SUBCATEGORY")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;
..
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW "SH"."MV$$_00510002"
    REFRESH FAST WITH ROWID
    ENABLE QUERY REWRITE
    AS SELECT SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_STATE_PROVINCE C1, COUNT(*) M1 FROM
SH.CUSTOMERS WHERE (SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_STATE_PROVINCE = 'CA') GROUP
BY SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_STATE_PROVINCE;
BEGIN
  DBMS_STATS.GATHER_TABLE_STATS('"SH"', '"MV$$_00510002"', NULL, 
     DBMS_STATS.AUTO_SAMPLE_SIZE);
END;
/
..
CREATE BITMAP INDEX "SH"."MV$$_00510004_IDX$$_00510013"
    ON "SH"."MV$$_00510004" ("C4");
whenever sqlerror EXIT SQL.SQLCODE
BEGIN
  DBMS_ADVISOR.MARK_RECOMMENDATION('"MYTASK"',1,'IMPLEMENTED');
  DBMS_ADVISOR.MARK_RECOMMENDATION('"MYTASK"',2,'IMPLEMENTED');
  DBMS_ADVISOR.MARK_RECOMMENDATION('"MYTASK"',3,'IMPLEMENTED');
  DBMS_ADVISOR.MARK_RECOMMENDATION('"MYTASK"',4,'IMPLEMENTED');
END;
/

See Also:

Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for CREATE DIRECTORY syntax and Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for detailed information about the GET_TASK_SCRIPT procedure

18.2.5.11 Special Considerations when Script Includes Partitioning Recommendations

The Advisor may recommend partitioning an existing unpartitioned base table to improve query performance. When the Advisor implementation script contains partition recommendations, you must take note of the following issues:

  • Partitioning an existing table is a complex and extensive operation, which may take considerably longer than implementing a new index or materialized view. Sufficient time should be reserved for implementing this recommendation.

  • While index and materialized view recommendations are easy to reverse by deleting the index or view, a table, once partitioned, cannot easily be restored to its original state. Therefore, you should ensure that you backup your database before executing a script containing partition recommendations.

  • While repartitioning a base table, SQL Access Advisor scripts make a temporary copy of the original table, which occupies the same amount of space as the original table. Therefore, the repartitioning process requires sufficient free disk space for another copy of the largest table to be repartitioned. You must ensure that such space is available before running the implementation script.

    The partition implementation script attempts to migrate dependent objects such as indexes, materialized views, and constraints. However, some object cannot be automatically migrated. For example, PL/SQL stored procedures defined against a repartitioned base table typically become invalid and must be be recompiled.

  • If you decide not to implement a partition recommendation that the advisor has made, please note that all other recommendations on the same table in the same script (such as CREATE INDEX and CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW recommendations) are dependent on the partitioning recommendation. In order to obtain accurate recommendations, you should not simply remove the partition recommendation from the script but rather rerun the advisor with partitioning disabled (for example, by setting parameter ANALYSIS_SCOPE to a value that does not include the keyword TABLE).

See Also:

Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for CREATE DIRECTORY syntax and Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for detailed information about the GET_TASK_SCRIPT procedure.

18.2.5.12 When Recommendations are no Longer Required

The RESET_TASK procedure resets a task to its initial starting point. This has the effect of removing all recommendations, and intermediate data from the task. The actual task status is set to INITIAL. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.RESET_TASK (task_name     IN VARCHAR2);

The following illustrates an example of using this procedure:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.RESET_TASK('MYTASK');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the RESET_TASK procedure and its parameters.

18.2.6 Performing a Quick Tune

If you only want to tune a single SQL statement, the QUICK_TUNE procedure accepts as its input a task_name and a SQL statement. It will then create a task and workload and execute that task. There is no difference in the results from using QUICK_TUNE. They are exactly the same as those from using EXECUTE_TASK, but this approach is easier to use when there is only a single SQL statement to be tuned. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.QUICK_TUNE (
   advisor_name           IN VARCHAR2,
   task_name              IN VARCHAR2,
   attr1                  IN CLOB,
   attr2                  IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
   attr3                  IN NUMBER := NULL,
   task_or_template       IN VARCHAR2 := NULL);

The following example shows how to quick tune a single SQL statement:

VARIABLE task_name VARCHAR2(255);
VARIABLE sql_stmt VARCHAR2(4000);
EXECUTE :sql_stmt := 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM customers 
                      WHERE cust_state_province =''CA''';
EXECUTE :task_name  := 'MY_QUICKTUNE_TASK';
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.QUICK_TUNE(DBMS_ADVISOR.SQLACCESS_ADVISOR,
              :task_name, :sql_stmt);

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the QUICK_TUNE procedure and its parameters.

18.2.7 Managing Tasks

Every time recommendations are generated, tasks are created and, unless some maintenance is performed on these tasks, they will grow over time and will occupy storage space. There may be tasks that you want to keep and prevent accidental deletion. Therefore, there are several management operations that can be performed on tasks:

18.2.7.1 Updating Task Attributes

Using the UPDATE_TASK_ATTRIBUTES procedure, you can:

  • Change the name of a task.

  • Give a task a description.

  • Set the task to be read-only so it cannot be changed.

  • Make the task a template upon which other tasks can be defined.

  • Changes various attributes of a task or a task template.

The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.UPDATE_TASK_ATTRIBUTES (
   task_name          IN VARCHAR2
   new_name           IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
   description        IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
   read_only          IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
   is_template        IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
   how_created        IN VARCHAR2 := NULL);

The following example updates the name of an task MYTASK to TUNING1:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.UPDATE_TASK_ATTRIBUTES('MYTASK', 'TUNING1');

The following example marks the task TUNING1 to read-only

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.UPDATE_TASK_ATTRIBUTES('TUNING1', read_only => 'TRUE');

The following example marks the task MYTASK as a template.

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.UPDATE_TASK_ATTRIBUTES('TUNING1', is_template=>'TRUE');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the UPDATE_TASK_ATTRIBUTES procedure and its parameters.

18.2.7.2 Deleting Tasks

The DELETE_TASK procedure deletes existing Advisor tasks from the repository. The syntax is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.DELETE_TASK (task_name  IN VARCHAR2);

The following illustrates an example of using this procedure:

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.DELETE_TASK('MYTASK');

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for more information regarding the DELETE_TASK procedure and its parameters.

18.2.7.3 Setting the DAYS_TO_EXPIRE Parameter

When a task or workload object is created, the parameter DAYS_TO_EXPIRE is set to 30. The value indicates the number of days until the task or object will automatically be deleted by the system. If you want to save a task or workload indefinitely, the DAYS_TO_EXPIRE parameter should be set to ADVISOR_UNLIMITED.

18.2.8 Using SQL Access Advisor Constants

You can use the constants shown in Table 18-3 with the SQL Access Advisor.

Table 18-3 SQL Access Advisor Constants

Constant Description
ADVISOR_ALL

A value that is used to indicate all possible values. For string parameters, this value is equivalent to the wildcard % character.

ADVISOR_CURRENT

Indicates the current time or active set of elements. Typically, this is used in time parameters.

ADVISOR_DEFAULT

Indicates the default value. Typically used when setting task or workload parameters.

ADVISOR_UNLIMITED

A value that represents an unlimited numeric value.

ADVISOR_UNUSED

A value that represents an unused entity. When a parameter is set to ADVISOR_UNUSED, it will have no effect on the current operation. This is typically used for setting a parameter as unused for its dependent operations.

SQLACCESS_GENERAL

Specifies the name of a default SQL Access general-purpose task template. This template will set the DML_VOLATILITY task parameter to TRUE and ANALYSIS_SCOPE to INDEX, MVIEW.

SQLACCESS_OLTP

Specifies the name of a default SQL Access OLTP task template. This template will set the DML_VOLATILITY task parameter to TRUE and ANALYSIS_SCOPE to INDEX.

SQLACCESS_WAREHOUSE

Specifies the name of a default SQL Access warehouse task template. This template will set the DML_VOLATILITY task parameter to FALSE and EXECUTION_TYPE to INDEX, MVIEW.

SQLACCESS_ADVISOR

Contains the formal name of the SQL Access Advisor. It can be used when procedures require the Advisor name as an argument.


18.2.9 Examples of Using the SQL Access Advisor

This section illustrates some typical scenarios for using the SQL Access Advisor. Oracle Database provides a script that contains this chapter's examples, aadvdemo.sql.

18.2.9.1 Recommendations From a User-Defined Workload

The following example imports workload from a user-defined table, SH.USER_WORKLOAD. It then creates a task called MYTASK, sets the storage budget to 100 MB and runs the task. The recommendations are printed out using a PL/SQL procedure. Finally, it generates a script, which can be used to implement the recommendations.

Step 1   Prepare the USER_WORKLOAD table

The USER_WORKLOAD table is loaded with SQL statements as follows:

CONNECT SH/SH;
-- aggregation with selection
INSERT INTO user_workload (username, module, action, priority, sql_text)
VALUES ('SH', 'Example1', 'Action', 2, 
'SELECT   t.week_ending_day, p.prod_subcategory, 
          SUM(s.amount_sold) AS dollars, s.channel_id, s.promo_id
 FROM sales s, times t, products p WHERE s.time_id = t.time_id
 AND s.prod_id = p.prod_id AND s.prod_id > 10 AND s.prod_id < 50
 GROUP BY t.week_ending_day, p.prod_subcategory, 
          s.channel_id, s.promo_id')
/

-- aggregation with selection
INSERT INTO user_workload (username, module, action, priority, sql_text)
VALUES ('SH', 'Example1', 'Action', 2, 
 'SELECT   t.calendar_month_desc, SUM(s.amount_sold) AS dollars
  FROM     sales s , times t
  WHERE    s.time_id = t.time_id
  AND    s.time_id between TO_DATE(''01-JAN-2000'', ''DD-MON-YYYY'')
                       AND TO_DATE(''01-JUL-2000'', ''DD-MON-YYYY'')
GROUP BY t.calendar_month_desc')
/

--Load all SQL queries.
INSERT INTO user_workload (username, module, action, priority, sql_text)
VALUES ('SH', 'Example1', 'Action', 2, 
'SELECT ch.channel_class, c.cust_city, t.calendar_quarter_desc,
   SUM(s.amount_sold) sales_amount
FROM sales s, times t, customers c, channels ch
WHERE s.time_id = t.time_id AND s.cust_id = c.cust_id
AND s.channel_id = ch.channel_id AND c.cust_state_province = ''CA''
AND   ch.channel_desc IN (''Internet'',''Catalog'')
AND   t.calendar_quarter_desc IN (''1999-Q1'',''1999-Q2'')
GROUP BY ch.channel_class, c.cust_city, t.calendar_quarter_desc')
/

-- order by
INSERT INTO user_workload (username, module, action, priority, sql_text)
VALUES ('SH', 'Example1', 'Action', 2, 
  'SELECT c.country_id, c.cust_city, c.cust_last_name
FROM customers c WHERE c.country_id IN (52790, 52789)
ORDER BY c.country_id, c.cust_city, c.cust_last_name')
/
COMMIT;

CONNECT SH/SH;
set serveroutput on;

VARIABLE task_id NUMBER;
VARIABLE task_name VARCHAR2(255);
VARIABLE workload_name VARCHAR2(255);
Step 2   Create a SQL Tuning Set named MYWORKLOAD
EXECUTE :workload_name := 'MYWORKLOAD';
EXECUTE DBMS_SQLTUNE.CREATE_SQLSET(:workload_name, 'test purposeV);
Step 3   Load the SQL Tuning Set from the user-defined table SH.USER_WORKLOAD
DECLARE
  sqlset_cur DBMS_SQLTUNE.SQLSET_CURSOR;    /*a sqlset cursor variable*/
BEGIN
OPEN  sqlset_cur FOR
  SELECT
    SQLSET_ROW(null, sql_text, null, null, username, null,
     null, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,null, 0,0,0,0)
   AS ROW
  FROM USER_WORKLOAD;
DBMS_SQLTUNE.LOAD_SQLSET(:workload_name, sqlset_cur);
END;
Step 4   Create a task named MYTASK
EXECUTE :task_name := 'MYTASK';
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK('SQL Access Advisor', :task_id, :task_name);
Step 5   Set task parameters
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER(:task_name, 'STORAGE_CHANGE', 100);
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER(:task_name, 'ANALYSIS_SCOPE, INDEX');
Step 6   Create a link between the SQL Tuning Set and the task
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.ADD_STS_REF(:task_name, :workload_name);
Step 7   Execute the task
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.EXECUTE_TASK(:task_name);
Step 8   View the recommendations
-- See the number of recommendations and the status of the task.
SELECT rec_id, rank, benefit
FROM user_advisor_recommendations WHERE task_name = :task_name;

See "Viewing Recommendations" or "Generating SQL Scripts" for further details.

-- See recommendation for each query.
SELECT sql_id, rec_id, precost, postcost,
      (precost-postcost)*100/precost AS percent_benefit
FROM user_advisor_sqla_wk_stmts
WHERE task_name = :task_name AND workload_name = :workload_name;

-- See the actions for each recommendations.
SELECT rec_id, action_id, SUBSTR(command,1,30) AS command
FROM user_advisor_actions
WHERE task_name = :task_name
ORDER BY rec_id, action_id;

-- See what the actions are using sample procedure.
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 99999
EXECUTE show_recm(:task_name);
Step 9   Generate a script to Implement the recommendations
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE(DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT(:task_name),
                                 'ADVISOR_RESULTS', 'Example1_script.sql');

18.2.9.2 Generate Recommendations Using a Task Template

The following example creates a template and then uses it to create a task. It then uses this task to generate recommendations from a user-defined table, similar to "Recommendations From a User-Defined Workload".

CONNECT SH/SH;
VARIABLE template_id NUMBER;
VARIABLE template_name VARCHAR2(255);
Step 1   Create a template called MY_TEMPLATE
EXECUTE :template_name := 'MY_TEMPLATE';
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK ( -
   'SQL Access Advisor',:template_id, :template_name, is_template=>'TRUE');
Step 2   Set template parameters

Set naming conventions for recommended indexes and materialized views.

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
   :template_name,  'INDEX_NAME_TEMPLATE', 'SH_IDX$$_<SEQ>');
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
   :template_name, 'MVIEW_NAME_TEMPLATE', 'SH_MV$$_<SEQ>');

--Set default owners for recommended indexes/materialized views.
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
   :template_name, 'DEF_INDEX_OWNER', 'SH');
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
   :template_name, 'DEF_MVIEW_OWNER', 'SH');

--Set default tablespace for recommended indexes/materialized views.
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
   :template_name, 'DEF_INDEX_TABLESPACE', 'SH_INDEXES');
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER ( -
   :template_name, 'DEF_MVIEW_TABLESPACE', 'SH_MVIEWS');
Step 3   Create a task using the template
VARIABLE task_id NUMBER;
VARIABLE task_name VARCHAR2(255);
EXECUTE :task_name := 'MYTASK';
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK ( -
   'SQL Access Advisor', :task_id, :task_name, template => 'MY_TEMPLATE');

--See the parameter settings for task
SELECT parameter_name, parameter_value
FROM user_advisor_parameters
WHERE task_name = :task_name AND (parameter_name LIKE '%MVIEW%' 
   OR parameter_name LIKE '%INDEX%');
Step 4   Create a SQL Tuning Set named MYWORKLOAD
EXECUTE :workload_name := 'MYWORKLOAD';
EXECUTE DBMS_SQLTUNE.CREATE_SQLSET(:workload_name, 'test_purpose');
Step 5   Load the SQL Tuning Set from the user-defined table SH.USER_WORKLOAD
DECLARE
   sqlset_cur DBMS_SQLTUNE.SQLSET_CURSOR;  /*a sqlset cursor variable*/
BEGIN
OPEN sqlset_cur FOR
   SELECT
   SQLSET_ROW(null,sql_text,null,null,username, null, null, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
      null,0,0,00) AS row
   FROM user_workload;
DBMS_SQLTUNE.LOAD_SQLSET(:workload_name, sqlsetcur);
END;
Step 6   Create a link between the workload and the task
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.ADD_STS_REF(:task_name, :workload_name);
Step 7   Execute the task
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.EXECUTE_TASK(:task_name);
Step 8   Generate a script
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE(DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT(:task_name),-
'ADVISOR_RESULTS', 'Example2_script.sql');

18.2.9.3 Evaluate Current Usage of Indexes and Materialized Views

This example illustrates how the SQL Access Advisor can be used to evaluate the utilization of existing indexes and materialized views. We assume the workload is loaded into USER_WORKLOAD table as in "Recommendations From a User-Defined Workload". The indexes and materialized views that are being currently used (by the given workload) will appear as RETAIN actions in the SQL Access Advisor recommendations.

VARIABLE task_id NUMBER;
VARIABLE task_name VARCHAR2(255);
VARIABLE workload_name VARCHAR2(255);
Step 1   Create a SQL Tuning Set named WORKLOAD
EXECUTE :workload_name := 'MYWORKLOAD';
EXECUTE DBMS_SQLTUNE.CREATE_SQLSET(:workload_name, 'test_purpose');
Step 2   Load the SQL Tuning Set from the user-defined table SH.USER_WORKLOAD
DECLARE
  sqlset_cur DBMS_SQLTUNE.SQLSET_CURSOR;  /*a sqlset cursor variable*/
BEGIN
OPEN sqlset_cur FOR
SELECT
  SQLSET_ROW(null,sql_text,null,null,username, null, null, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
   null, 0,0,0,0)
    AS ROW
  FROM user_workload;
DBMS_SQLTUNE.LOAD_SQLSET(:workload_name, :sqlsetcur);
END;
Step 3   Create a task named MY_EVAL_TASK
EXECUTE :task_name := 'MY_EVAL_TASK';
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_TASK ('SQL Access Advisor', :task_id, :task_name);
Step 4   Create a link between workload and task
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.ADD_STS_REF(:task_name, :workload_name);
Step 5   Set task parameters to indicate EVALUATION ONLY task
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.SET_TASK_PARAMETER (:task_name, 'EVALUATION_ONLY', 'TRUE');
Step 6   Execute the task
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.EXECUTE_TASK(:task_name);
Step 7   View evaluation results
--See the number of recommendations and the status of the task.
SELECT rec_id, rank, benefit
FROM user_advisor_recommendations WHERE task_name = :task_name;

--See the actions for each recommendation.
SELECT rec_id, action_id, SUBSTR(command,1,30) AS command, attr1 AS name
FROM user_advisor_actions WHERE task_name = :task_name
ORDER BY rec_id, action_id;

18.3 Tuning Materialized Views for Fast Refresh and Query Rewrite

Several DBMS_MVIEW procedures can help you create materialized views that are optimized for fast refresh and query rewrite. The EXPLAIN_MVIEW procedure can tell you whether a materialized view is fast refreshable or eligible for general query rewrite and EXPLAIN_REWRITE will tell you whether query rewrite will occur. However, neither tells you how to achieve fast refresh or query rewrite.

To further facilitate the use of materialized views, the TUNE_MVIEW procedure shows you how to optimize your CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement and to meet other requirements such as materialized view log and rewrite equivalence relationship for fast refresh and general query rewrite. TUNE_MVIEW analyzes and processes the CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement and generates two sets of output results: one for the materialized view implementation and the other for undoing the CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW operations. The two sets of output results can be accessed through views or be stored in external script files created by the SQL Access Advisor. These external script files are ready to execute to implement the materialized view.

With the TUNE_MVIEW procedure, you no longer require a detailed understanding of materialized views to create a materialized view in an application because the materialized view and its required components (such as a materialized view log) will be created correctly through the procedure.

See Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for detailed information about the TUNE_MVIEW procedure.

18.3.1 DBMS_ADVISOR.TUNE_MVIEW Procedure

This section discusses the following information:

18.3.1.1 TUNE_MVIEW Syntax and Operations

The syntax for TUNE_MVIEW is as follows:

DBMS_ADVISOR.TUNE_MVIEW (
  task_name IN OUT VARCHAR2, mv_create_stmt IN [CLOB | VARCHAR2])

The TUNE_MVIEW procedure takes two input parameters: task_name and mv_create_stmt. task_name is a user-provided task identifier used to access the output results. mv_create_stmt is a complete CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement that is to be tuned. If the input CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement does not have the clauses of REFRESH FAST or ENABLE QUERY REWRITE, or both, TUNE_MVIEW will use the default clauses REFRESH FORCE and DISABLE QUERY REWRITE to tune the statement to be fast refreshable if possible or only complete refreshable otherwise.

The TUNE_MVIEW procedure handles a broad range of CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statements that can have arbitrary defining queries in them. The defining query could be a simple SELECT statement or a complex query with set operators or inline views. When the defining query of the materialized view contains the clause REFRESH FAST, TUNE_MVIEW analyzes the query and checks to see if it is fast refreshable. If it is already fast refreshable, the procedure will return a message saying "the materialized view is already optimal and cannot be further tuned". Otherwise, the TUNE_MVIEW procedure will start the tuning work on the given statement.

The TUNE_MVIEW procedure can generate the output statements that correct the defining query by adding extra columns such as required aggregate columns or fix the materialized view logs so that FAST REFRESH is possible. In the case of a complex defining query, the TUNE_MVIEW procedure may decompose the query and generates two or more fast refreshable materialized views or will restate the materialized view in a way to fulfill fast refresh requirements as much as possible. The TUNE_MVIEW procedure supports defining queries with the following complex query constructs:

  • Set operators (UNION, UNION ALL, MINUS, and INTERSECT)

  • COUNT DISTINCT

  • SELECT DISTINCT

  • Inline views

When the ENABLE QUERY REWRITE clause is specified, TUNE_MVIEW will also fix the statement using a process similar to REFRESH FAST, that will redefine the materialized view so that as many of the advanced forms of query rewrite are possible.

The TUNE_MVIEW procedure generates two sets of output results as executable statements. One set of the output (IMPLEMENTATION) is for implementing materialized views and required components such as materialized view logs or rewrite equivalences to achieve fast refreshability and query rewritablity as much as possible. The other set of the output (UNDO) is for dropping the materialized views and the rewrite equivalences in case you decide they are not required.

The output statements for the IMPLEMENTATION process include:

  • CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG statements: creates any missing materialized view logs required for fast refresh.

  • ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE statements: fixes any materialized view log related requirements such as missing filter columns, sequence, and so on, required for fast refresh.

  • One or more CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statements: In the case of one output statement, the original defining query is directly restated and transformed. Simple query transformation could be just adding required columns. For example, add rowid column for materialized join view and add aggregate column for materialized aggregate view. In the case of decomposition, multiple CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statements are generated and form a nested materialized view hierarchy in which one or more submaterialized views are referenced by a new top-level materialized view modified from the original statement. This is to achieve fast refresh and query rewrite as much as possible. Submaterialized views are often fast refreshable.

  • BUILD_SAFE_REWRITE_EQUIVALENCE statement: enables the rewrite of top-level materialized views using submaterialized views. It is required to enable query rewrite when a composition occurs.

Note that the decomposition result implies no sharing of submaterialized views. That is, in the case of decomposition, the TUNE_MVIEW output will always contain new submaterialized view and it will not reference existing materialized views.

The output statements for the UNDO process include:

  • DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW statements to reverse the materialized view creations (including submaterialized views) in the IMPLEMENTATION process.

  • DROP_REWRITE_EQUIVALENCE statement to remove the rewrite equivalence relationship built in the IMPLEMENTATION process if needed.

Note that the UNDO process does not include statement to drop materialized view logs. This is because materialized view logs can be shared by many different materialized views, some of which may reside on remote Oracle instances.

18.3.1.2 Accessing TUNE_MVIEW Output Results

There are two ways to access TUNE_MVIEW output results:

  • Script generation using DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT function and DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE procedure.

  • Use USER_TUNE_MVIEW or DBA_TUNE_MVIEW views.

18.3.1.2.1 USER_TUNE_MVIEW and DBA_TUNE_MVIEW Views

After executing TUNE_MVIEW, the results are output into the SQL Access Advisor repository tables and are accessible through the Oracle views, USER_TUNE_MVIEW and DBA_TUNE_MVIEW. See Oracle Database Reference for further details.

18.3.1.2.2 Script Generation DBMS_ADVISOR Function and Procedure

The most straightforward method for generating the execution scripts for a recommendation is to use the procedure DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT. The following is a simple example. First, a directory must be defined which is where the results will be stored:

CREATE DIRECTORY TUNE_RESULTS AS  '/tmp/script_dir';
GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY TUNE_RESULTS TO PUBLIC;

Now generate both the implementation and undo scripts and place them in /tmp/script_dir/mv_create.sql and /tmp/script_dir/mv_undo.sql, respectively.

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE(DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT(:task_name),- 
      'TUNE_RESULTS', 'mv_create.sql'); 
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE(DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT(:task_name, - 
      'UNDO'), 'TUNE_RESULTS', 'mv_undo.sql');

Now let us review some examples using the TUNE_MVIEW procedure.

Example 18-1 Optimizing the Defining Query for Fast Refresh

This example shows how TUNE_MVIEW changes the defining query to be fast refreshable. A CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement is defined in variable create_mv_ddl, which includes a FAST REFRESH clause. Its defining query contains a single query block in which an aggregate column, SUM(s.amount_sold), does not have the required aggregate columns to support fast refresh. If you execute the TUNE_MVIEW statement with this MATERIALIZED VIEW CREATE statement, the resulting materialized view recommendation will be fast refreshable:

VARIABLE task_cust_mv VARCHAR2(30);
VARIABLE create_mv_ddl VARCHAR2(4000);
EXECUTE :task_cust_mv := 'cust_mv';

EXECUTE :create_mv_ddl := '
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW cust_mv
REFRESH FAST
DISABLE QUERY REWRITE AS
SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
FROM sales s, customers cs
WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id
GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id';

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.TUNE_MVIEW(:task_cust_mv, :create_mv_ddl);

The original defining query of cust_mv has been modified by adding aggregate columns in order to be fast refreshable.

The output from TUNE_MVIEW includes an optimized materialized view defining query as follows:

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV
REFRESH FAST WITH ROWID
DISABLE QUERY REWRITE AS
SELECT SH.SALES.PROD_ID C1, SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID C2,
          SUM("SH"."SALES"."AMOUNT_SOLD") M1,
          COUNT("SH"."SALES"."AMOUNT_SOLD") M2,
          COUNT(*) M3
     FROM SH.SALES, SH.CUSTOMERS
     WHERE SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID = SH.SALES.CUST_ID
     GROUP BY SH.SALES.PROD_ID, SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID;

The UNDO output is as follows:

DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV;

Example 18-2 Access IMPLEMENTATION Output Through USER_TUNE_MVIEW View

SELECT STATEMENT FROM USER_TUNE_MVIEW
WHERE TASK_NAME= :task_cust_mv AND SCRIPT_TYPE='IMPLEMENTATION';

Example 18-3 Save IMPLEMENTATION Output in a Script File

CREATE DIRECTORY TUNE_RESULTS AS '/myscript'
GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY TUNE_RESULTS TO PUBLIC;

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE(DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT(:task_cust_mv), -
   'TUNE_RESULTS', 'mv_create.sql');

Example 18-4 Enable Query Rewrite by Creating Multiple Materialized Views

This example shows how a materialized view's defining query with set operators UNION, which is not supported by query rewrite, can be decomposed into several submaterialized views and then query rewrite is possible. The input detail tables are assumed to be sales, customers, and countries, and they do not have materialized view logs.First, you need to execute the TUNE_MVIEW statement with the CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement defined in the variable create_mv_ddl.

EXECUTE :task_cust_mv := 'cust_mv2';

EXECUTE :create_mv_ddl := '
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW cust_mv
ENABLE QUERY REWRITE AS
SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, COUNT(*) cnt, SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
FROM sales s, customers cs, countries cn
WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id AND cs.country_id = cn.country_id
AND cn.country_name IN (''USA'',''Canada'')
GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id
UNION
SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, COUNT(*) cnt, SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
FROM sales s, customers cs
WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id AND s.cust_id IN (1005,1010,1012)
GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id';

The materialized view defining query contains a UNION set operator that does not support general query rewrite but if it is decomposed into multiple materialized views, query rewrite is possible. In order to support general query rewrite, the MATERIALIZED VIEW defining query will be decomposed.

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.TUNE_MVIEW(:task_cust_mv, :create_mv_ddl);

The following recommendation from TUNE_MVIEW is comprised of the materialized view logs and multiple materialized view:

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG ON "SH"."CUSTOMERS" 
WITH ROWID, SEQUENCE("CUST_ID")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;

ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE ON
    "SH"."CUSTOMERS"
    ADD ROWID, SEQUENCE("CUST_ID")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG ON
    "SH"."SALES"
    WITH ROWID, SEQUENCE("PROD_ID","CUST_ID","AMOUNT_SOLD")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;

ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE ON
    "SH"."SALES"
    ADD ROWID, SEQUENCE("PROD_ID","CUST_ID","AMOUNT_SOLD")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG ON
    "SH"."COUNTRIES"
    WITH ROWID, SEQUENCE("COUNTRY_ID","COUNTRY_NAME")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;

ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE ON
    "SH"."COUNTRIES"
    ADD ROWID, SEQUENCE("COUNTRY_ID","COUNTRY_NAME")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;

ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE ON
    "SH"."CUSTOMERS"
    ADD ROWID, SEQUENCE("CUST_ID","COUNTRY_ID")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;

ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE ON
    "SH"."SALES"
    ADD ROWID, SEQUENCE("PROD_ID","CUST_ID","AMOUNT_SOLD")
    INCLUDING NEW VALUES;

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV$SUB1
    REFRESH FAST WITH ROWID ON COMMIT
    ENABLE QUERY REWRITE
    AS SELECT SH.SALES.PROD_ID C1, SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID C2,
 SUM("SH"."SALES"."AMOUNT_SOLD")
        M1, COUNT("SH"."SALES"."AMOUNT_SOLD") M2, COUNT(*) M3 FROM SH.SALES,
        SH.CUSTOMERS WHERE SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID = SH.SALES.CUST_ID AND
 (SH.SALES.CUST_ID IN (1012, 1010, 1005)) 
GROUP BY SH.SALES.PROD_ID, SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID;

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV$SUB2
    REFRESH FAST WITH ROWID ON COMMIT
    ENABLE QUERY REWRITE
    AS SELECT SH.SALES.PROD_ID C1, SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID C2,
      SH.COUNTRIES.COUNTRY_NAME  C3, SUM("SH"."SALES"."AMOUNT_SOLD") M1, COUNT("SH"."SALES".
"AMOUNT_SOLD")
        M2, COUNT(*) M3 FROM SH.SALES, SH.CUSTOMERS, SH.COUNTRIES WHERE
 SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID        = SH.SALES.CUST_ID AND SH.COUNTRIES.COUNTRY_ID = SH.CUSTOMERS.COUNTRY_ID
        AND (SH.COUNTRIES.COUNTRY_NAME IN ('USA', 'Canada')) GROUP BY
 SH.SALES.PROD_ID,
        SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID, SH.COUNTRIES.COUNTRY_NAME;

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV
    REFRESH FORCE WITH ROWID
    ENABLE QUERY REWRITE
    AS  (SELECT "CUST_MV$SUB2"."C1" "PROD_ID","CUST_MV$SUB2"."C2" 
"CUST_ID",SUM("CUST_MV$SUB2"."M3")
        "CNT",SUM("CUST_MV$SUB2"."M1") "SUM_AMOUNT" FROM "SH"."CUST_MV$SUB2"
        "CUST_MV$SUB2" GROUP BY "CUST_MV$SUB2"."C1","CUST_MV$SUB2"."C2")UNION
        (SELECT "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1" "PROD_ID","CUST_MV$SUB1"."C2" 
"CUST_ID",SUM("CUST_MV$SUB1"."M3")
        "CNT",SUM("CUST_MV$SUB1"."M1") "SUM_AMOUNT" FROM "SH"."CUST_MV$SUB1"
        "CUST_MV$SUB1" GROUP BY "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1","CUST_MV$SUB1"."C2");

BEGIN
DBMS_ADVANCED_REWRITE.BUILD_SAFE_REWRITE_EQUIVALENCE ('SH.CUST_MV$RWEQ',
  'SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, COUNT(*) cnt,
          SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
   FROM sales s, customers cs, countries cn
   WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id AND cs.country_id = cn.country_id
         AND cn.country_name IN (''USA'',''Canada'')
   GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id
   UNION
   SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, COUNT(*) cnt,
          SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
   FROM sales s, customers cs
   WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id AND s.cust_id IN (1005,1010,1012)
   GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id',
  '(SELECT "CUST_MV$SUB2"."C3" "PROD_ID","CUST_MV$SUB2"."C2" "CUST_ID",
           SUM("CUST_MV$SUB2"."M3") "CNT",
           SUM("CUST_MV$SUB2"."M1") "SUM_AMOUNT" 
    FROM "SH"."CUST_MV$SUB2" "CUST_MV$SUB2"
    GROUP BY "CUST_MV$SUB2"."C3","CUST_MV$SUB2"."C2")
   UNION
   (SELECT "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C2" "PROD_ID","CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1" "CUST_ID",
           "CUST_MV$SUB1"."M3" "CNT","CUST_MV$SUB1"."M1" "SUM_AMOUNT"
    FROM "SH"."CUST_MV$SUB1" "CUST_MV$SUB1")',-1553577441)
END;
/;

The DROP output is as follows:

DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV$SUB1
DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV$SUB2
DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV
DBMS_ADVANCED_REWRITE.DROP_REWRITE_EQUIVALENCE('SH.CUST_MV$RWEQ')

The original defining query of cust_mv has been decomposed into two submaterialized views seen as cust_mv$SUB1 and cust_mv$SUB2. One additional column COUNT(amount_sold) has been added in cust_mv$SUB1 to make that materialized view fast refreshable.

The original defining query of cust_mv has been modified to query the two submaterialized views instead where both submaterialized views are fast refreshable and support general query rewrite.

The required materialized view logs are added to enable fast refresh of the submaterialized views. Note that, for each detail table, two materialized view log statements are generated: one is the CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement and the other is an ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW FORCE statement. This is to ensure the CREATE script can be run multiple times.

The BUILD_SAFE_REWRITE_EQUIVALENCE statement is to connect the old defining query to the defining query of the new top-level materialized view. It is to ensure that query rewrite will make use of the new top-level materialized view to answer the query.

Example 18-5 Access IMPLEMENTATION Output Through USER_TUNE_MVIEW View

SELECT * FROM USER_TUNE_MVIEW
WHERE TASK_NAME='cust_mv2'
AND SCRIPT_TYPE='IMPLEMENTATION';

Example 18-6 Save IMPLEMENTATION Output in a Script File

The following statements save the IMPLEMENTATION output in a script file located at /myscript/mv_create2.sql:

CREATE DIRECTORY TUNE_RESULTS AS '/myscript'
GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTRY TUNE_RESULTS TO PUBLIC;
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE(DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT('cust_mv2'),
   'TUNE_RESULTS', 'mv_create2.sql');

18.3.1.3 Fast Refreshable with Optimized Sub-Materialized View

The example illustrates how TUNE_MVIEW can optimize the materialized view so that fast refresh is possible. In the example, the materialized view's defining query with set operators is transformed into one sub-materialized view and one top-level materialized view. The subselect queries in the original defining query are of similar shape and their predicate expressions are combined.

The materialized view defining query contains a UNION set-operator so that the materialized view itself is not fast-refreshable. However, two subselect queries in the materialized view defining query can be combined as one single query.

Example 18-7 Optimized Sub-Materialized View for Fast Refresh

EXECUTE :task_cust_mv := 'cust_mv3';
EXECUTE :create_mv_ddl := '

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW cust_mv
REFRESH FAST ON DEMAND
ENABLE QUERY REWRITE AS
SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, COUNT(*) cnt, SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
FROM sales s, customers cs
WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id AND s.cust_id IN (2005,1020)
GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id UNION
SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, COUNT(*) cnt, SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
FROM sales s, customers cs -
WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id AND s.cust_id IN (1005,1010,1012)
GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id';

EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.TUNE_MVIEW(:task_cust_mv, :create_mv_ddl);

The following recommendation will be made by TUNE_MVIEW with an optimized submaterialized view combining the two subselect queries and the submaterialized view is referenced by a new top-level materialized view as follows:

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG ON "SH"."SALES" 
  WITH ROWID, SEQUENCE ("PROD_ID","CUST_ID","AMOUNT_SOLD")
  INCLUDING NEW VALUES

ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE ON "SH"."SALES"
  ADD ROWID, SEQUENCE ("PROD_ID","CUST_ID","AMOUNT_SOLD")
  INCLUDING NEW VALUES

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG ON "SH"."CUSTOMERS" 
  WITH ROWID, SEQUENCE ("CUST_ID")  INCLUDING NEW VALUES

ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW LOG FORCE ON "SH"."CUSTOMERS"
  ADD ROWID, SEQUENCE ("CUST_ID")  INCLUDING NEW VALUES

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV$SUB1
  REFRESH FAST WITH ROWID
  ENABLE QUERY REWRITE AS
  SELECT SH.SALES.CUST_ID C1, SH.SALES.PROD_ID C2, 
    SUM("SH"."SALES"."AMOUNT_SOLD") M1, 
    COUNT("SH"."SALES"."AMOUNT_SOLD")M2, COUNT(*) M3 
    FROM SH.CUSTOMERS, SH.SALES
    WHERE SH.SALES.CUST_ID = SH.CUSTOMERS.CUST_ID AND
    (SH.SALES.CUST_ID IN (2005, 1020, 1012, 1010, 1005))
    GROUP BY SH.SALES.CUST_ID, SH.SALES.PROD_ID

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV 
  REFRESH FORCE WITH ROWID ENABLE QUERY REWRITE AS
  (SELECT "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C2" "PROD_ID","CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1" "CUST_ID",
    "CUST_MV$SUB1"."M3" "CNT","CUST_MV$SUB1"."M1" "SUM_AMOUNT" 
    FROM "SH"."CUST_MV$SUB1" "CUST_MV$SUB1" 
    WHERE "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=2005 OR "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=1020)
    UNION 
    (SELECT "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C2" "PROD_ID","CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1" "CUST_ID",
      "CUST_MV$SUB1"."M3" "CNT","CUST_MV$SUB1"."M1" "SUM_AMOUNT" 
      FROM "SH"."CUST_MV$SUB1" "CUST_MV$SUB1" 
      WHERE "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=1012 OR "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=1010 OR 
            "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=1005)
      
DBMS_ADVANCED_REWRITE.BUILD_SAFE_REWRITE_EQUIVALENCE ('SH.CUST_MV$RWEQ',
      'SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, COUNT(*) cnt, 
       SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
       FROM sales s, customers cs
       WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id AND s.cust_id IN (2005,1020)
       GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id UNION
       SELECT s.prod_id, s.cust_id, COUNT(*) cnt,
       SUM(s.amount_sold) sum_amount
       FROM sales s, customers cs
       WHERE s.cust_id = cs.cust_id AND s.cust_id IN (1005,1010,1012)
       GROUP BY s.prod_id, s.cust_id',
      '(SELECT "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C2" "PROD_ID",
        "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1" "CUST_ID",
        "CUST_MV$SUB1"."M3" "CNT","CUST_MV$SUB1"."M1" "SUM_AMOUNT" 
        FROM "SH"."CUST_MV$SUB1" "CUST_MV$SUB1" 
        WHERE "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=2005OR "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=1020)
       UNION
       (SELECT "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C2" "PROD_ID",
        "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1" "CUST_ID",
        "CUST_MV$SUB1"."M3" "CNT","CUST_MV$SUB1"."M1" "SUM_AMOUNT"
        FROM "SH"."CUST_MV$SUB1" "CUST_MV$SUB1" 
        WHERE "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=1012 OR "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=1010 OR
              "CUST_MV$SUB1"."C1"=1005)',
      1811223110);

The original defining query of cust_mv has been optimized by combining the predicate of the two subselect queries in the sub-materialized view CUST_MV$SUB1. The required materialized view logs are also added to enable fast refresh of the submaterialized views.

The DROP output is as follows:

DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV$SUB1
DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW SH.CUST_MV
DBMS_ADVANCED_REWRITE.DROP_REWRITE_EQUIVALENCE('SH.CUST_MV$RWEQ');

The following statements save the IMPLEMENTATION output in a script file located at /myscript/mv_create3.sql:

CREATE DIRECTORY TUNE_RESULTS AS '/myscript'
GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY TUNE_RESULTS TO PUBLIC;
EXECUTE DBMS_ADVISOR.CREATE_FILE(DBMS_ADVISOR.GET_TASK_SCRIPT('cust_mv3'),
   'TUNE_RESULTS', 'mv_create3.sql');