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Database Blocks

Free used and unused blocks

Free blocks

Free blocks are blocks below the high water mark whose filling is below the pctused attribute.
If an insert statement is executed, Oracle tries to insert the row in a free block. If it doesn't find a free block, it tries to insert it in an unused block.
Free blocks of a segment are recorded in the segment's free list.
See also dbms_space.free_blocks
pctfree controls the threshold when a free block becomes a non-free block.

Unused blocks

A block that has never been written to is a unused block. Unused blocks are beyond the high water mark.
The number of unused blocks can be found with dbms_space.unused_space.

Used blocks

A block that has been written to is a used blocks. Used blocks are below the high water mark.
A free block is also a used block; but a used block is not always a free block.

Getting the count of used and free blocks

With free blocks and unused blocks it is possible to get the count of used and free blocks, respectively, within a segment.

Size of db blocks

Since Oracle 10g, it's possible to define multiple block sizes for a database. However, one of the sizes is the standard size. The size of the (standard) database block is determined by the db_block_size init parameter. This standard block size is the block size of blocks in the system tablepsace.

Interested transaction list (ITL)

See initrans and maxtrans.
Each ITL uses 24 bytes overhead.

Block header

All blocks have a header that consists of:
  • Block type
    1=undo segment header, 2=undo segment block, 5=data segment header, 7=temporary table, 11=data file header, 14=Unlimited rollback segment header, 15=Unlimited deferred rollback segment header, 16=Unlimited data segment header, 17=Unlimited data segment header with FL groups, 18=Extent map block
  • Block format
    Is it an oracle 7 or oracle 8, (or 9, or 10???) formatted block?
  • Relative database address
  • SCN
  • SCN sequence number
  • Check value
    Is used for integrity checking at the block level if db_block_checksum is set.
  • Tail
    The tail is not at the beginning of a block but at its end: it is used as a block consistency check. That is, the value must be equal to SCN + block type + SCN sequence number.

RBA

The redo log address (RBA) plays an important role. . To be finished.

Checking integrity of blocks

The integrity of database blocks can be checked with dbverify [dbv] (the database verify tool) or dbms_dbverify.

Overhead

Not all bytes in a datablock actually store inserted (or selectable) data. Some bytes are also used for Oracle to organize the data so that it can be found again. These (additional) data are called overhead.
The following applies for tables:
The overhead consists of
  • fixed header
  • transaction header
  • table directory
  • row directory
  • row header
  • column size
fixed header + transaction header + table directory + row directory = block header.

Fixed header

The size of the block header is 57 bytes.

Transaction header

The size of the transaction header is dependant on the initrans parameter.
Specifically, its size is at least 23*initrans bytes. It can grow up to 23*maxtrans bytes.

Table directory

The table directory is used to find the start position of each row (or row directory).
The size of the table directory is 4 bytes*number of tables. Number of tables is important for cluster tables. For other tables, it's 1 (eg 4 bytes).

Row directory

The row directory uses 2 bytes per stored row.

Row header

For non cluster tables, the row header is 3 bytes. Each stored row has one row header. One byte is used to store flags, one byte to indicate if the row is locked (for example because it's updated but not commited), and one byte for the column count.

Column size

Each column within a row needs at least 1 byte indicating the size of the data in the column. For varchar2's longer than 250 bytes, 3 bytes are used.

PCTFREE

When calculating the amount of storable data in a block, the pctfree must also be considered.

Corrupt blocks

Blocks might become corrupt. Information about corrupt blocks is recorded in the control files.

Dirty blocks

to be finished...

Checking block data integrity in memory

Oracle allows to check the integrity of data within a database block before it is written from memory (that is: buffer cache) to the harddisk by setting the parameter db_block_checksum to full.
If a data integrity error is detected, an ORA-00227, ORA-00368 or ORA-01578 is raised.

Database block address

Each block in the database is uniquely identified with the database block address (dba).

x$bh

With x$bh, it is possible to query some information about db_blocks in the buffer cache.