Technical Notes

IBM Oracle International Competency Center (ICC)

October 07, 2015

email address: ibmoracle@us.ibm.com

Disabling unshared segment aliasing on AIX for Oracle Database 11.2.0.3

Problem Overview

When 1 TB unshared segment aliasing is enabled on AIX 7.1 TL0, AIX 6.1 TL6, or higher, Oracle
database 11.2.0.3 may run slow with high system time. This issue is specific to 11.2.0.3 and does
not impact 11.2.0.2 and lower, 11.2.0.4 or 12cR1. Recommendations to address the issue are
provided.
Problem Description

IBM introduced 1 TB segment aliasing feature on AIX 7.1 TL0, enabled by default and on AIX
6.1 TL6, enabled explicitly (by vmo command). When 1 TB segment aliasing feature is enabled,
it can improve the performance of large scale applications such as databases using relatively large
amount of shared memory. In order to benefit from 1 TB segment aliasing the memory regions
allocated by the application must meet specific size and alignment requirements. Oracle database
11.2.0.3 creates a SGA that contains more than one shared memory region and the alignment of
those shared memory regions do not meet the requirement of utilizing shared segment alias.
Furthermore, performance overhead and high system time have been observed when using
unshared aliases during Oracle process creation and tear down when Oracle database 11.2.0.3 is
running on AIX 7.1 or higher and on AIX 6.1 TL6 or higher with 1 TB unshared segment aliasing
enabled.
Problem Resolution

IBM and Oracle recommend that customers running Oracle database 11.2.0.3 on AIX 6.1 TL6,
AIX 7.1 TL0 or higher apply IBM APAR IV23851. This will take customers AIX level to
respective service pack in which unshared segment aliasing is disabled as a default option while
keeping shared segment aliasing turned on as default.
If customer does not want to apply IBM APAR IV23851, unshared segment aliasing can be turned
off by executing the following as root user.
# vmo -r -o shm_1tb_unsh_enable=0
Effective change requires bosboot and reboot.

IBM Oracle ICC Flash

ibmoracle@us.ibm.com
Copyright 2015, IBM Corporation

When 1 TB unshared segment aliasing is enabled, the following is the output from vmo command.
CUR represents the current value and its set to 1.
# vmo -L shm_1tb_unsh_enable
NAME
CUR
DEF
BOOT
MIN
MAX
UNIT
TYPE
DEPENDENCIES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------shm_1tb_unsh_enable
1
1
1
0
1
boolean
B
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When 1 TB unshared segment aliasing is disabled, the following is the output from vmo command.
CUR represents the current value and its set to 0.
# vmo -L shm_1tb_unsh_enable
NAME
CUR
DEF
BOOT
MIN
MAX
UNIT
TYPE
DEPENDENCIES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------shm_1tb_unsh_enable
0
1
0
0
1
boolean
B
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IBM and Oracle recommend that do not turn on unshared segment aliasing on AIX 6.1 and AIX
7.1 when Oracle database 11.2.0.3 is used.
Additional information
AIX 7.1 documentation library - 1 TB Segment Aliasing
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/aix/v7r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.prftungd/doc/prftungd/1TB_seg
ment_aliasing.htm
My Oracle Support (for the Oracle Certification Matrix)(1) :

https://support.oracle.com/CSP/ui/flash.html
(1)A

userid and password are required to access that website. This is available for Oracle customers and Oracle
Business Partners.

For further information on this Flash, please e-mail the IBM Oracle International Competency
Center at ibmoracle@us.ibm.com with any questions you may have on this topic.

IBM Oracle ICC Flash

ibmoracle@us.ibm.com
Copyright 2015, IBM Corporation