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How to Tune SQL with DB Link for Oracle II ?

Here is an example SQL,  the query is retrieving employee, department, and grade tables from the remote database @richdb

SELECT   *
FROM     emp_subsidiary@richdb a,
         department@richdb,
         grade@richdb
WHERE    emp_grade < 1200
         AND emp_dept = dpt_id
         AND emp_grade = grd_id
ORDER BY emp_id

Here the following is the query plan of this SQL, it takes 15.92 seconds to finish.  The first step of the query plan is ‘SELECT STATEMENT REMOTE’, it means the entire query will be execute on the remote database @richdb and the result will be sent back to the local database. The query plan is a little bit complicated and not easy to tell it is optimal or not. But one thing we can try if the query is partially executed in the local database @local.

In order to request that Oracle perform certain join operations in the local database, the SQL query must include at least one table that is executed in the local database. This allows the use of the hint /*+ DRIVING_SITE ( [ @ queryblock ] tablespec ) */ in the SQL query. If no tables are explicitly executed in the local database, there is no means to request that Oracle attempt to perform join operations in the local database.

Let’s added a dummy condition “EXISTS (SELECT ‘X’ FROM DUAL)” and a hints /*+ DRIVING_SITE(DUAL) */ to the SQL to force Oracle to execute some join operations in the local database.

SELECT   /*+ DRIVING_SITE(DUAL) */ *
FROM     emp_subsidiary@richdb a,
         department@richdb,
         grade@richdb
WHERE    emp_grade < 1200
         AND emp_dept = dpt_id
         AND emp_grade = grd_id
         AND EXISTS ( SELECT ‘x’
                      FROM   dual)
ORDER BY emp_id

Below is the query plan for the modified SQL, which takes 4.08 seconds and is approximately 4 times faster than the original SQL statement where only one join operation is performed in the remote database.

Adding an ORDERED hint to the SQL query can result in further optimization. This will break down the compound statement highlighted in the previous query plan into individual table data remote extraction, as shown in the following query plan.

SELECT   /*+ DRIVING_SITE(DUAL) ORDERED */ *
FROM     emp_subsidiary@richdb a,
         department@richdb,
         grade@richdb
WHERE    emp_grade < 1200
         AND emp_dept = dpt_id
         AND emp_grade = grd_id
         AND EXISTS ( SELECT ‘x’
                      FROM   dual)
ORDER BY emp_id

If you are familiar with Oracle Exadata, you may notice that the data retrieval process for REMOTE tables in remote database @richdb works similarly to that of the Exadata Storage Server.

It is important to remember that applying this technique to SQL queries with a DB Link is only beneficial in certain environments. For instance, it is ideal when the network speed is good, data traffic is not heavy, and the workload on the local database is low.

Tosska DB Ace for Oracle can automatically perform this type of rewrite, resulting in an SQL query that runs almost 10 times faster than the original.

Tosska DB Ace Enterprise for Oracle – Tosska Technologies Limited

DBAO Tune DB Link SQL – YouTube

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How to Tune SQL with DB Link for Oracle I?

Here is an example SQL query used to calculate the average salary of employees on the remote database @richdb in each department in the local database whose department name starts with the letter “D”.

SELECT   Avg(emp_salary),
         emp_dept
FROM     employee@richdb
WHERE    emp_dept IN (SELECT dpt_id
                      FROM   department
                      WHERE  dpt_name LIKE ‘D%’)
GROUP BY emp_dept

Here the following is the query plan of this SQL, it takes 9.16 seconds to finish.  The query plan shows a Nested Loops from DEPARTMENT in local to EMPLOYEE in the remote database. Due to the size of the EMPLOYEE table being much larger than that of the DEPARTMENT table, the nested loop join path is not optimal in this case.

To ask Oracle to consider doing the join operation in the remote database @richdb, I added a Hint  /*+ DRIVING_SITE(employee) */ to tell Oracle to use EMPLOYEE table’s database @richdb as the driving site for the distributed query.

SELECT   /*+ DRIVING_SITE(employee) */ Avg(emp_salary),
         emp_dept
FROM     employee@richdb
WHERE    emp_dept IN (SELECT dpt_id
                      FROM   department
                      WHERE  dpt_name LIKE ‘D%’)
GROUP BY emp_dept

The following query shows the driving site is changed to @richdb and remote retrieves DEPARTMENT data from the “local” database. Now the speed is improved to 5.94 seconds. But the query plan shows a little bit complicated, there is a view that is construed by a Hash Join of two “index fast full scan” of indexes from EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT.

I further change the SQL and added a dummy operation Coalesce(dpt_id,dpt_id) in the select list of the subquery to block the index fast full scan of the DEMPARTMENT table.

SELECT   /*+ DRIVING_SITE(employee) */ Avg(emp_salary),
         emp_dept
FROM     employee@richdb
WHERE    emp_dept IN (SELECT Coalesce(dpt_id,dpt_id)
                      FROM   department
                      WHERE  dpt_name LIKE ‘D%’)
GROUP BY emp_dept

The change gives the SQL a new query plan shown in the following, the performance significantly improved to 0.71 seconds. You can learn how the dummy operation Coalesce(dpt_id,dpt_id) affected the Oracle SQL optimizer decision in this example.

This kind of rewrite can be achieved by Tosska DB Ace for Oracle automatically, it shows that the rewrite is almost 13 times faster than the original SQL.

Tosska DB Ace Enterprise for Oracle – Tosska Technologies Limited