Causes of Oracle Buffer Busy Waits

Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting Written December 9, 2003 Updated February 10, 2008

One of the most confounding problems with Oracle is the resolution of buffer busy wait events. Buffer busy waits are common in an I/O-bound Oracle system, as evidenced by any system with read (sequential/scattered) waits in the top-five waits in the Oracle STATSPACK report, like this:
Top 5 Timed Events % Total Event Waits Time (s) Ela Time --------------------------- ------------ ----------- ----------db file sequential read 2,598 7,146 48.54 db file scattered read 25,519 3,246 22.04 library cache load lock 673 1,363 9.26 CPU time 2,154 934 7.83 log file parallel write 19,157 837 5.68

The main way to reduce buffer busy waits is to reduce the total I/O on the system. This can be done by tuning the SQL to access rows with fewer block reads (i.e., by adding indexes). Even if we have a huge db_cache_size, we may still see buffer busy waits, and increasing the buffer size won't help. The resolution of a "buffer busy wait" events is one of the most confounding problems with Oracle. In an I/O-bound Oracle system, buffer busy waits are common, as evidenced by any system with read (sequential/scattered) waits in the top-five waits. Reducing buffer busy waits reduces the total I/O on the system. This can be accomplished by tuning the SQL to access rows with fewer block reads by adding indexes, adjusting the database writer or adding freelists to tables and indexes. Even if there is a huge db_cache_size , the DBA may still see buffer busy waits and, in this case, increasing the buffer size will not help. The most common remedies for high buffer busy waits include database writer (DBWR) contention tuning, adding freelists to a table and index, implementing Automatic Segment Storage Management (ASSM, a.k.a bitmap freelists), and, of course, and adding a missing index to reduce buffer touches. In order to look at system-wide wait events, we can query the v$system_event performance view. This view, shown below, provides the name of the wait event, the total number of waits and timeouts, the total time waited, and the average wait time per event.
select * from

v$system_event where event like %wait%;

EVENT TOTAL_WAITS TOTAL_TIMEOUTS TIME_WAITED AVERAGE_WAIT --------------------------- ----------- -------------- ---------------------buffer busy waits 636528 1557 549700 863591232 write complete waits 1193 0 14799 12.4048617 free buffer waits 1601 0 622 388507183

The type of buffer that causes the wait can be queried using the v$waitstat view. This view lists the waits per buffer type for buffer busy waits, where COUNT is the sum of all waits for the class of block, and TIME is the sum of all wait times for that class: select * from v$waitstat; CLASS COUNT TIME ------------------ ---------- ---------data block 1961113 1870278 segment header 34535 159082 undo header 233632 86239 undo block 1886 1706 Buffer busy waits occur when an Oracle session needs to access a block in the buffer cache, but cannot because the buffer copy of the data block is locked. This buffer busy wait condition can happen for either of the following reasons: The block is being read into the buffer by another session, so the waiting session must wait for the block read to complete. Another session has the buffer block locked in a mode that is incompatible with the waiting session's request. Because buffer busy waits are due to contention between particular blocks, there's nothing you can do until you know which blocks are in conflict and why the conflicts are occurring. Tuning therefore involves identifying and eliminating the cause of the block contention. The v$session_wait performance view, shown below, can give some insight into what is being waited for and why the wait is occurring.
SQL> desc v$session_wait Name Null? Type ----------------------------------------- -------- ------------

SID NUMBER SEQ# NUMBER EVENT VARCHAR2(64) P1TEXT VARCHAR2(64) P1 NUMBER P1RAW RAW(4) P2TEXT VARCHAR2(64) P2 NUMBER P2RAW RAW(4) P3TEXT VARCHAR2(64) P3 NUMBER P3RAW RAW(4) WAIT_TIME NUMBER SECONDS_IN_WAIT NUMBER STATE VARCHAR2(19)

The columns of the v$session_wait view that are of particular interest for a buffer busy wait event are: P1The absolute file number for the data file involved in the wait. P2The block number within the data file referenced in P1 that is being waited upon. P3The reason code describing why the wait is occurring. Here's an Oracle data dictionary query for these values:
select p1 "File #", p2 "Block #", p3 "Reason Code" from v$session_wait where event = 'buffer busy waits';

If the output from repeatedly running the above query shows that a block or range of blocks is experiencing waits, the following query should show the name and type of the segment:

select owner, segment_name, segment_type from dba_extents where file_id = &P1 and &P2 between block_id and block_id + blocks -1;

Once the segment is identified, the v$segment_statistics performance view facilitates real-time monitoring of segment-level statistics. This enables a DBA to identify performance problems associated with individual tables or indexes, as shown below. select object_name, statistic_name, value from V$SEGMENT_STATISTICS where object_name = 'SOURCE$';
OBJECT_NAME STATISTIC_NAME VALUE ----------- ------------------------- ---------SOURCE$ logical reads 11216 SOURCE$ buffer busy waits 210 SOURCE$ db block changes 32 SOURCE$ physical reads 10365 SOURCE$ physical writes 0 SOURCE$ physical reads direct 0 SOURCE$ physical writes direct 0 SOURCE$ ITL waits 0 SOURCE$ row lock waits

We can also query the dba_data_files to determine the file_name for the file involved in

the wait by using the P1 value from v$session_wait for the file_id.
SQL> desc dba_data_files Name Null? Type ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------FILE_NAME VARCHAR2(513) FILE_ID NUMBER TABLESPACE_NAME VARCHAR2(30) BYTES NUMBER BLOCKS NUMBER STATUS VARCHAR2(9) RELATIVE_FNO NUMBER AUTOEXTENSIBLE VARCHAR2(3) MAXBYTES NUMBER MAXBLOCKS NUMBER INCREMENT_BY NUMBER USER_BYTES NUMBER USER_BLOCKS NUMBER

Interrogating the P3 (reason code) value from v$session_wait for a buffer busy wait event will tell us why the session is waiting. The reason codes range from 0 to 300 and can be decoded.
Code 0 100 110 Reason for wait A modification is happening on a SCUR or XCUR buffer but has not yet completed. The block is being read into the buffer cache. We want to NEW the block, but the block is currently being read by another session (most likely for undo). We want the CURRENT block either shared or exclusive but the block is being read into cache by another session, so we have to wait until its read() is completed. We want to get the block in current mode, but someone else is currently reading it into the cache. Wait for the user to complete the read. This occurs during buffer lookup. Block is being read by another session, and no other suitable block image was found, so we wait until the read is completed. This may also occur after a buffer

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cache assumed deadlock. The kernel can't get a buffer in a certain amount of time and assumes a deadlock. Therefore it will read the CR version of the block. 200 210 We want to NEW the block, but someone else is using the current copy, so we have to wait for that user to finish. The session wants the block in SCUR or XCUR mode. If this is a buffer exchange or the session is in discrete TX mode, the session waits for the first time and the second time escalates the block as a deadlock, so does not show up as waiting very long. In this case, the statistic: "exchange deadlocks" is incremented, and we yield the CPU for the "buffer deadlock" wait event. During buffer lookup for a CURRENT copy of a buffer, we have found the buffer but someone holds it in an incompatible mode, so we have to wait. Trying to get a buffer in CR/CRX mode, but a modification has started on the buffer that has not yet been completed. CR/CRX scan found the CURRENT block, but a modification has started on the buffer that has not yet been completed.

220 230 231

Reason codes As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, buffer busy waits are prevalent in I/Obound systems. I/O contention, resulting in waits for data blocks, is often due to numerous sessions repeatedly reading the same blocks, as when many sessions scan the same index. In this scenario, session one scans the blocks in the buffer cache quickly, but then a block has to be read from disk. While session one awaits the disk read to complete, other sessions scanning the same index soon catch up to session one and want the same block currently being read from disk. This is where the buffer busy wait occurswaiting for the buffer blocks that are being read from disk. The following rules of thumb may be useful for resolving each of the noted contention situations: Data block contentionIdentify and eliminate HOT blocks from the application via changing PCTFREE and or PCTUSED values to reduce the number of rows per data block. Check for repeatedly scanned indexes. Since each transaction updating a block requires a transaction entry, increase the INITRANS value. Freelist block contentionIncrease the FREELISTS value. Also, when using Parallel Server, be certain that each instance has its own FREELIST GROUPs. Segment header contentionAgain, increase the number of FREELISTs and use FREELIST GROUPs, which can make a difference even within a single instance. Undo header contentionIncrease the number of rollback segments. Mark Bobak notes that buffer busy waits with P3=0 indicate disk I/O contention, indicating the freelists will not improve concurrency:

"buffer busy wait w/ P3=0 means the buffer is locked because the contents are being read from disk by another session. (See MetaLink Doc ID 34405.1 for more details.) This is most likely caused by multiple, concurrent sessions that are reading the same table or set of tables. In my experience, it's most often due to multiple, concurrent queries doing full table scans on the same table. Since this a read concurrency problem, changing freelists will NOT help." In these cases, buffering-up the tables (e.g. KEEP pool), or using faster storage (SSD) can remove this disk enqueue wait evsnts.