What is ORADEBUG:
ORADEBUG is a debugger tool, can be used for (tracing any session, dump DB memory structure, suspend/resume a session and the most useful use is to analyze the hang when an instance is hanging by creating a report shows the blocked/blocker sessions).
How to use ORADEBUG:
Firstlogin to SQLPLUS AS SYSDBA
Secondset your PID:
SQL> oradebug setmypid
To perform a cluster wide analysis:
SQL> oradebug setinst all
To make the tracefile size unlimited:
SQL> oradebug unlimit
To Run the Hang Analysis:<The most useful use for ORADEBUG>
SQL> oradebug -g def hanganalyze <level#>
-> This will create a logfile and will give you it's path.
-Available level# are:
10 Dump all processes (IGN state)
5 Level 4 + Dump all processes involved in wait chains (NLEAF state)
4 Level 3 + Dump leaf nodes (blockers) in wait chains (LEAF,LEAF_NW,IGN_DMP state)
3 Level 2 + Dump only processes thought to be in a hang (IN_HANG state)
1-2 Only HANGANALYZE basic output, no process dump at all
*Level 4 and above are resource intensive + large output, which can impact the instance performance.
Oracle recommend to use level 3:
SQL> ORADEBUG -g def hanganalyze 3
How to read the HANGANALYZE trace:
Generally: Read the log and search for these keywords "final blocker" if not found search for "blocked by"& "blocking".
Note: Open chains consist of processes waiting for a resource held by a blocker. These are not true hangs and can be resolved by killing the holding session and allowing the blocked processes to proceed. This can be useful when a process is holding a latch, frequent example is the library latch, and other processes are waiting for the latch.
Check section "State of ALL nodes" At the end of the HANGANALYZE log :
The data under this line means:
([nodenum]/cnode/sid/sess_srno/session/ospid/state/[adjlist]):
"cnode" column means: cluster node number
"sid" is the Oracle session ID!
"sess_srno" column means: SERIAL#
"ospid" The operating system process ID
"state" columns have the following vlaues:
Session with status "LEAF" or "LEAF_NW" means a session blocking others"Good candidate for kill" specially "LEAF".
Session with status "NLEAF" means waitingsession and appear to be hanging.
Session with status "IN_HANG" means there is a problem!
Session with status "IGN" or "IGN_DMP" means the session is idle.
Caution: Do not kill critical processes like SMON or PMON as that would terminate the instance.
Other Commands:
To Check the current trace file name:
SQL> oradebug tracefile_name
Flush any pending writes to the trace file and close it:
SQL> oradebug flush
SQL> oradebug close_trace
To trace a specific session with it's OS PID:
SQL> oradebug setospid
To trace a specific session with it's Oracle PID:
SQL> oradebug setorapid
To freeze/Suspend a session:
First you have to get the PID for that session and set ORADEBUG as it:
SQL> oradebug setospid 12518
*12518 is the PID for the session you want to kill
Second Freeze/Hang the session even it running in a middle of something it will freeze:
SQL> oradebug suspend
To UnFreeze/Resume the session to continue it's work:
SQL> oradebug resume
Trace Oracle Clusterware:
Trace CRS events:
SQL> oradebug dump crs 3
Trace CSS behaviour:
SQL> oradebug dump css 3
Trace OCR:
SQL> oradebug dump ocr 3
Remember:
-You can run oradebug in parallel using diffrent sqlplus sessions.
-ORADEBUG utility is poorly documented by Oracle because the caveats with using this tool to avoid potential damage to the database when calling kernel functions.
Reference: http://mgogala.byethost5.com/oradebug.pdf