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When And Why To Use HugePages on Linux x86-64? (Doc ID 2314903.1)

Last updated on JANUARY 17, 2025

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 10.2.0.1 and later
Oracle Database - Standard Edition - Version 10.2.0.1 and later
Linux x86-64
This document applies only to database with large SGA and / or many sessions.

Many documents describe the usage of HugePages on Linux as a possibility but do not emphasize enough that HugePages becomes a requirement in certain database configurations.
For a database with a small SGA or with a small number of connected users (small 'sessions') configuring HugePages won't give any improvement.
But for a database with large SGA (above 2Gb) and with many connected users (sessions>500) configuring HugePages becomes mandatory in order to diminish the memory usage at the OS level and to improve overall performance of the database.

Symptoms

The following symptoms can be observed on Linux x86-64 systems:

- ORA-4030
- poor performance of the database, slow sessions, slow queries
- low free physical memory on the system or swapping

All these symptoms happen with no obvious evidence of high memory usage on the instance side: SGA + total PGA used is much less than physical memory.

Looking at OS level we see high 'Filesystem cache', shown as "cache" or "buff/cache" in the output of 'free', despite the fact that database uses directIO (IO with the datafiles bypass Filesystem cache).
A database uses directIO when it has ASM or it has any of the following parameters:

filesystemio_options=setall
filesystemio_options=directio


During the problem time, the size of PageTables from /proc/meminfo is high, e.g it can be equal or greater than the entire SGA.

Changes

Increased the SGA to a larger value, or increased the number of sessions, or more users started to use this database and started to experience one of the described symptoms.
This is not happening all the time but only during peak hours, when there are many connected sessions at database level.
This document applies only to database with large SGA and/or many connected sessions.

Cause

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In this Document
Symptoms
Changes
Cause
Solution
References


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