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4 Replies Last post: Oct 29, 2009 7:48 AM by TimothyGaray  

Oracle Runaway Process Consumes All vCPUs posted: Oct 28, 2009 6:28 AM

Click to view TimothyGaray's profile Enthusiast
TimothyGaray
58 posts since
Sep 21, 2006

A question was posed to us by our DBAs in regards to Oracle 10g running in a VM.

When the server was physical, if one Oracle process took off, it did not chew up all available computing resources - just the CPU that the particular process was running on.

Now that the server is virtual, if an Oracle process takes off, it chews up both vCPUs doing whatever.

We were considering giving it 4 vCPUs but their concern is that if someone submits a huge query then it will just consume 4 vCPUs at 100%.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with this? I'm not very familiar with Oracle.

Thanks!

-Tim


Re: Oracle Runaway Process Consumes All vCPUs

1. Oct 28, 2009 1:53 PM in response to: TimothyGaray
Click to view aandriolli's profile Expert VMware Employees
aandriolli
195 posts since
May 2, 2007
There is no reason for a process using only one CPU core in a physical server to make use of two vCPUs in a VM. The ESX virtualization does not affect application behavior.

Can you check if your operating system inside the VM is using the proper HAL? If its Windows, it should be using a multiprocessor HAL, since you have 2 vCPUs, for instance. HAL issues tend to cause quite weird behaviors.

br>
VMs Made in Brazil
PS: por favor considere dar pontos a este ou qualquer outro post caso lhe seja útil.

Re: Oracle Runaway Process Consumes All vCPUs

2. Oct 29, 2009 6:40 AM in response to: aandriolli
Click to view TimothyGaray's profile Enthusiast
TimothyGaray
58 posts since
Sep 21, 2006

I checked: ACPI Multiprocessor PC

I've got additional monitoring turned on and am waiting for "it" to happen again. If/when that happens, hopefully we will have more information as to what is going on.

-Tim


Re: Oracle Runaway Process Consumes All vCPUs

3. Oct 29, 2009 6:51 AM in response to: TimothyGaray
Click to view petedr's profile Master
petedr
1,440 posts since
Mar 18, 2006
Interesting one, I hadn't seen that actity before. Any thoughts I'll post back,

www.phdvirtual.com, makers of esXpress

Re: Oracle Runaway Process Consumes All vCPUs

4. Oct 29, 2009 7:48 AM in response to: petedr
Click to view TimothyGaray's profile Enthusiast
TimothyGaray
58 posts since
Sep 21, 2006

Yes, I'm not sure why it would behave differently between a physical machine and a VM but the DBAs swear it does this. I'm hoping to see it and then maybe gain a little better understanding of what is going on. I'm already at a disadvantage since I am more of a SQL Server man than an Oracle man so I have no idea what to even look at when it comes to what Oracle does.

-Tim


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