SQL Profile and SQL Plan Baseline

What is SQL Profile?

A SQL profile contains corrections for poor optimizer estimates discovered by the SQL Tuning advisor.A  SQL profile is to a SQL statement what statistics are to a table or index.
Implementing sql profiles allows us to replace bad sql execution plan with good execution plan.



What is SQL Plan Baseline?

A SQL plan baseline for a SQL statement consists of a set of accepted plans. When the statement is parsed, the optimizer will only select the best plan from among this set. If a different plan is found using the normal cost-based selection process, the optimizer will add it to the plan history but this plan will not be used until it is verified to perform better than the existing accepted plan and is evolved.

Oracle Database Administrator Interview Questions on RAC

Oracle RAC (Voting Disk ) FAQ's

1.What is Voting Disk?

Voting Disk is a file that maintains node membership details.
All members in the Cluster read and write Heartbeat Information in Voting Disk.

2. What Information is stored in Voting Disk?

Voting disks contain static and dynamic data.
Static data : Info about nodes in the cluster
Dynamic data : Disk heartbeat logging
It maintains and consists of important details about the cluster nodes membership, such as
- which node is part of the cluster,
- which node is joining the cluster, and
- which node is leaving the cluster.

3. Why do we need Voting Disk?

CSSD processes (Cluster Services Synchronization Daemon) monitor the health of  RAC nodes employing two distinct heart 

beats: Network heart beat and Disk heart beat. Healthy nodes will have continuous network and disk heartbeats exchanged 

between the  nodes. Break in heart beat indicates a possible error scenario. There are few different scenarios possible 

with missing heart beats:
1. Network heart beat is successful, but disk heart beat is missed.
2. Disk heart beat is successful, but network heart beat is missed.
3. Both heart beats failed.
In addition, with numerous nodes, there are other possible scenarios too. Few possible scenarios:
1. Nodes have split in to N sets of nodes, communicating within the set, but not with members in other set.
2. Just one node is unhealthy.
Nodes with quorum will maintain active membership of the cluster and other node(s) will be fenced/rebooted.

4.Why do we have odd number of voting disks?

Odd number of Voting disks are required to prevent Split Brain Syndrome.
A node must be able to access more than half of the voting disks in order to decide which node can be evicted incase of 

failure.

5. How to backup Voting Disk?

Prior to Oracle 11g R2 version, Voting Disk is backed up using dd command

From 11g R2, no need to manually backup voting disk.
It is automatically backup along with OCR  whenever there is a configuration change.

In 11g R2, Restoring Voting disk from a manually copied backupfile may prevent cluster services from starting up.

Oracle Database Administrator Interview Questions on RMAN

RMAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
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1.What is the difference between recovery catalog and Nocatalog backup in RMAN?

NoCatalog Backup:

ByDefault RMAN connects to the target database in Nocatalog Mode.
In Nocatalog Mode, Backup Information and Metadata related to RMAN is stored in target database controlfile.

Catalog Backup:

A recovery catalog is a schema created in a separate database that contains metadata obtained from the target control file.
In recovery catalog we can store rman scripts.

We can store metadata about multiple incarnations of a single target database in the catalog.
Recovery catalog is central and can have information of many databases.
If the control file is lost and must be restored from backup, the backup configuration information is available when the database is not mounted.

2.What are the differences between crosscheck and validate commands?

Validate command is to examine a backup set and report whether it can be restored. RMAN scans all of the backup pieces in the specified backup sets and looks at the checksum to verify that the contents are intact so that backup can be successfully restored if necessary.

Crosscheck command is to verify the status of backups and copies recorded in the RMAN repository against media such as disk or tape. The crosscheck command only processes files created on the same device type as the channel running crosscheck.

3.What is obsolete backup & expired backup?

A status of “expired” means that the backup piece or backup set is not found in the backup destination.

A status of “obsolete” means the backup piece is still available, but it is no longer needed. The backup piece is no longer needed since RMAN has been configured to no longer need this piece after so many days have elapsed, or so many backups have been performed.

4.What is the difference between hot backup & RMAN backup?

We need to put the database in Backup mode for Hot  Backup. RMAN Backup does not need the database to be in Backup mode.

5. Which Tables are have information required for RMAN list & report commands ?
 V$BACKUP_FILES and recovery catalog views e.g.,  RC_DATAFILE_COPY or RC_ARCHIVED_LOG.

Below tables contain RMAN Catalog information:

RC_DATABASE_INCARNATION 
RC_BACKUP_COPY_DETAILS
RC_BACKUP_CORRUPTION
RC_BACKUP-DATAFILE_SUMMARY