STEP 5. Monitoring and Tuning a Database

A well-tuned database system has the following characteristics:

  • The system is mostly CPU-bound.

  • Disk I/O is well-balanced.

  • The buffer cache is working effectively.

  • The database is configured to run efficiently.

As we have already noted, the applications must also be coded efficiently if the database system is to run efficiently.

Having investigated memory, disks, networks and CPUs, you need to undertake the final step: monitor and tune the database, a process explored in detail in the following chapters for Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and DB2. Monitoring and tuning the buffer cache is a vital element of database tuning. A brief review of the main issues is presented in the next section, but before proceeding ...

Get Configuring and Tuning Databases on the Solaris™ Platform now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.