This post first appeared at Oracleinaction by Anju Garg (Myself).
I will demonstrate that undo for DML’s is stored both in undo tablespace and online redo logs. Then, we will analyze the reasons for duplicating the storage of undo.
First, let’s demonstrate that
The Oracle redo contains undo
Checkpointing causes
Dirty blocks to be written to datafiles
Buffers containing undo to be written to undo tablespace
Overview:
Steps
Find out name of the current undo tablespace
Create an undo tablespace undotbs2
Create a tablespace test_undo
Create a table test_undo_tab in tablespace test_undo
Insert two rows with txt – teststring1, teststring2 in test_undo_tab
Perform manual checkpoint
Switch logs so that new log does not contain string teststring1
Find out name of current redo log
Switch undo tablespace to undotbs2
Update the column value from teststring1 to teststring_uncommitted and do not commit
In another session, update the column value from teststring2 to teststring_committed and commit
Check that both new and old (undo) values have been written to current redo log
Check that undo tablespace does not contain pre update values i.e. teststring1 and teststring2 as undo information is still in buffer cache and checkpoint has not taken place yet
Perform manual checkpoint so that dirty buffers as well as buffers containing undo information are flushed to disk
Check that datafile does contain updated values (both committed and uncommitted)
Check that undo tablespace contains pre update values i.e. teststring1 and teststring2
Implementation:
1. Find out name of the current undo tablespace
sql>sho parameter undo_tablespace
NAME TYPE VALUE
---------------------------------- ------ -------
undo_tablespace string UNDOTBS1
SQL>alter system set undo_tablespace = undotbs2;
sho parameter undo_tablespace
NAME TYPE VALUE
--------------------------------- ------- ---------
undo_tablespace string UNDOTBS2
SQL> col member for a30
select member, l.status from v$log l, v$logfile f where l.group# = f.group# and l.status = 'CURRENT';
MEMBER STATUS
--------------------------- ----------------
/u01/app/oracle/redo04.log CURRENT
12. Check that datafile does not contain updated values i.e. teststring_committed and teststring_uncommitted as checkpointing has not taken place yet and dirty buffers have not been flushed to disk
13. Check that undo tablespace does not contain pre update value i.e. teststring1 and teststring2 as undo information is in buffer cache and checkpointing has not taken place yet
15. Check that datafile does contain updated values (both committed and uncommitted) i.e. teststring_committed and teststring_uncommitted as checkpointing has taken place yet and dirty buffers have been flushed to disk
SQL>drop tablespace test_undo including contents and datafiles;
alter system set undo_tablespace=undotbs1;
drop tablespace undotbs2 including contents and datfiles;
Log writer writes both undo and redo for every DML in a transaction (committed/uncommitted) irrespective of whether checkpoint has taken place or not.
On checkpoint,
Undo present in buffers in database buffer cache is written to undo tablespace .
Dirty buffers containing committed/uncommitted data are written to datafiles.
It implies that in a running database,
- datafiles may contain uncommitted data (buffers dirtied by uncommitted transaction and checkpoint takes place)
- committed data may not be there in datafiles (checkpointing not done after commit)
- redo/undo for committed changes will always be there in redo logs (Lgwr writes on commit).
- redo/undo for Uncommitted changes may be there in redo logs(Lgwr writes every 3 seconds)
In addition to redo logs, undo information
may be present in buffer cache (checkpoint has not taken place after change)
will be written to undo tablespace on checkpoint
will never be overwritten until a transaction is active
Now the question arises why undo information is being stored both in undo tablespace and redo logs.
Let’s see what will happen if undo is stored in redo logs only.
A redo log can be reused once changes protected by it have been written to datafiles (and archivelogs if database is in archivelog mode).
It implies that if I make a change and do not commit it
Change is written to a redo log
Checkpoint takes place
Uncommitted change is written to datafile
I decide to rollback the change
If redo log has not been overwritten
Search entire redo log for the undo and then rollback
Else (redo log has been overwritten)
Undo information is not available for rollback.
One might argue that if somehow a redo log is not allowed to be overwritten until it contains active undo, we might be able to manage with undo stored in redo logs only.
This solution is not feasible as
Size of redo logs will grow enormously large very soon as thet contain both undo and redo (a user might decide not to end a transaction for months)
To rollback a change, enormous amount of data in redo logs (both redo and undo) will have to be searched leading to degraded performance
There will be contention on redo logs as they are being used for both
Writing redo and undo
Reading to rollback a change
Hence, undo information has to be stored separately from redo and is used for rolling back uncommited transactions .
The undo stored in undo buffers/undo tablespace is additionally used for
Read consistency
Flashback query
Flashback version query
Now, let’s see what will happen if undo is stored in undo buffers and undo tablespace only.
SCENARIO – I
I make a change and do not commit
The redo for the change is present in redo logs
The undo for the change is present in buffer cache
The undo for the change is not present in undo tablespace as checkpoint has not taken place
The instance crashes
Undo information present in buffer cache is wiped out
As part of instance recovery, redo is applied and datafiles contain uncommitted data
The database cannot be opened as undo information needed to rollback uncommitted change is not available leading to an inconsistent database.
SCENARIO – II
I take hot backup of a tablespace.
The datafile for the tablespace is lost or corrupted.
I take the tablespace offline and restore the datafile from backup.
I recover the datafile
The redo logs and archivelogs contain redo data for both committed and uncommitted transactions
The redo logs and archivelogs do not contain undo data (as per our assumption).
As part of recovery, redo for all the committed/uncommitted changes is read from online/archive redo logs and applied
The tablespace cannot be brought online as the undo information needed to rollback uncommitted changes is not available
Hence, to resolve above problems, undo is stored in redo logs also. During roll forward phase of instance/media recovery, as changes (redo in redo logs) are applied to datafiles, undo stored in redo logs is used to generate undo segments. These segments are subsequently used to rollback uncommitted changes during rollback phase of instance/media recovery.
Comments (2)
Author
Commented:Kindly do the needful.
Regards
Anju Garg
Author
Commented:I have made the required change.
Regards
Anju Garg