Managing Undo Data

Copyright © 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Explain DML and undo data generation
• Monitor and administer undo data
• Describe the difference between undo data and redo data
• Configure undo retention
• Guarantee undo retention
• Enable temporary undo
• Use the Undo Advisor

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 Undo Data: Overview

Undo data is:

• A record of the action of a transaction
• Captured for every transaction that changes data
• Retained at least until the transaction is ended
• Used to support:
– Rollback operations
– Read-consistent queries
– Oracle Flashback Query, Oracle Flashback
Transaction, and Oracle Flashback Table
– Recovery from failed transactions

User

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 Transactions and Undo Data

Undo
segment
Data in Undo “old” data
buffer cache in undo tablespace

Redo log New change details

buffer Redo log
UPDATE in redo log files files
DML operations

• Each transaction is assigned to only one undo segment.

• An undo segment can service more than one transaction
at a time.

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 Storing Undo Information

• Undo information is stored in undo segments, which are

stored in an undo tablespace.
• Undo tablespaces:
– Are used only for undo segments
– Have special recovery considerations
– May be associated with only a single instance
– Require that only one of them be the current writable undo
tablespace for a given instance at any given time

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 Comparing Undo Data and Redo Data

Undo Redo

Record of How to undo a change How to reproduce a

change
Used for Rollback, read consistency, Rolling forward
flashback database changes
Stored in Undo segments Redo log files

Undo
segment
Redo log
files

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 Managing Undo

Automatic undo management:

• Fully automated management of undo data and space in a
dedicated undo tablespace
• For all sessions
• Self-tuning in AUTOEXTEND tablespaces to satisfy long-
running queries
• Self-tuning in fixed-size tablespaces for best retention
DBA tasks in support of Flashback operations:
• Configuring undo retention
• Changing undo tablespace to a fixed size
• Avoiding space and “snapshot too old” errors

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 Configuring Undo Retention

• UNDO_RETENTION specifies (in seconds) how long already

committed undo information is to be retained.
• Set this parameter when:
– The undo tablespace has the AUTOEXTEND option enabled
– You want to set undo retention for LOBs
– You want to guarantee retention

DBA

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 Categories of Undo

Category Description

Active: Uncommitted undo Supports an active transaction and is never

information overwritten
Unexpired: Committed undo Required to meet the undo retention interval
information
Expired: Expired undo Overwritten when space is required for an active
information transaction

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 Guaranteeing Undo Retention

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE undotbs1 RETENTION GUARANTEE;

Retention guarantee:
15 minutes

Undo data in
undo
tablespace
SELECT statements A transaction will fail
running 15 minutes or less if it generates more undo
are always satisfied. than there is space.
Note: This example is based on an UNDO_RETENTION setting of 900 seconds (15
minutes).

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 Changing an Undo Tablespace to a Fixed Size

• Rationale:
– Supporting Flashback operations
– Limiting tablespace growth
• Steps:
1. Run regular workload.
2. Self-tuning mechanism establishes minimum required size.
3. (Optional) Use the Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Undo
Advisor, which calculates required size for future growth.
4. (Optional) Change undo tablespace to a fixed size.

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 Temporary Undo: Overview

Stored in Stored in
temporary user
tablespace tablespace

If using If not using

temporary undo Temporary temporary undo Persistent
Table Table

Temporary Permanent Redo

Undo Undo

Stored in Stored in Stored in

temporary tablespace undo tablespace redo log files

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 Temporary Undo: Benefits

• Temporary undo reduces the amount of undo stored in the

undo tablespaces.
• Temporary undo reduces the size of the redo log.
• Temporary undo enables DML operations on temporary
tables in a physical standby database with the Oracle
Active Data Guard option.

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 Enabling Temporary Undo

• Enable temporary undo for a session:

SQL> ALTER session SET temp_undo_enabled = true;

• Enable temporary undo for the database instance:

SQL> ALTER system SET temp_undo_enabled = true;

• Temporary undo mode is selected when a session first

uses a temporary object.

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 Monitoring Temporary Undo

SELECT to_char(BEGIN_TIME,'dd/mm/yy hh24:mi:ss'),

TXNCOUNT,MAXCONCURRENCY,UNDOBLKCNT,USCOUNT,NOSPACEERRCNT
FROM V$TEMPUNDOSTAT;

TO_CHAR(BEGIN_TIM TXNCOUNT MAXCONCURRENCY UNDOBLKCNT USCOUNT NOSPACEERRCNT

----------------- -------- -------------- ---------- ------- -------------
…
19/08/12 22:19:44 0 0 0 0 0
19/08/12 22:09:44 0 0 0 0 0
…
19/08/12 13:09:44 0 0 0 0 0
19/08/12 12:59:44 3 1 24 1 0

576 rows selected.

SQL>

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 Viewing Undo Information

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 Viewing Undo Activity

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 Using the Undo Advisor

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 Quiz

All you need to do to guarantee that all queries under 15

minutes will find the undo data needed for read consistency, is
set the UNDO_RETENTION parameter to 15 minutes.
a. True
b. False

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 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

• Explain DML and undo data generation
• Monitor and administer undo data
• Describe the difference between undo data and redo data
• Configure undo retention
• Guarantee undo retention
• Enable temporary undo
• Use the Undo Advisor

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 Practice: Overview

This practice covers the following topics:

• Viewing system activity
• Calculating undo tablespace sizing to support a 48-hour
retention interval
• Modifying an undo tablespace to support a 48-hour
retention interval

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