Good chapter for V$ views and AWR report

I’m helping a coworker learn how to do Oracle performance tuning and today I think we found some good documentation on which V$ views to use for tuning which can also help with reading an AWR report.  In a previous post I talked about how I was asked for AWR documentation and couldn’t find any comprehensive documentation of all the details of an AWR report.  This is still true, but Chapter 10 of the 11gR2 Performance Tuning Guide does have a nice detailed review of the V$ views and how to use them to resolve certain types of performance problems.

Years ago I learned about how to use the V$ views for performance tuning from papers and books by Craig Shallahamer, Don Burleson, and others.  I don’t believe the older versions of the performance tuning guide had the details that these authors had in their materials.  I remember reading the version 7 performance tuning guide multiple times but I have to confess I haven’t read the 11.2 guide cover to cover.  It looks like chapter 10 is more comprehensive than earlier guides in terms of describing the V$ views and how to use them for tuning.  So, I’m going to read it along with my coworker and see if this chapter is helpful.  The jury is still out, but at first look it seems like a worthwhile chapter to study.

– Bobby