WARNING: Heavy swapping observed on system in last 5 mins
The customer's environment is Oracle Database 11.2.0.3 for IBM AIX. The following information is found in the alarm log:
Fri May 03 23:22:47 2013 WARNING: Heavy swapping observed on system in last 5 mins. Pct of memory swapped in [3.54%] pct of memory swapped out [8.73%]. Please make sure there is no memory pressure and the SGA and PGA are configured correctly. Look at DBRM trace file for more details.
The METALINK article describes as follows:
WARNING: Heavy Swapping Observed On System In Last 5 Mins.After upgrade to 11.2.0.3 [ID 1452790.1]
Modification time: 2013-3-2 Type: HOWTO status: PUBLISHED priority: 3
Applies to:Oracle Database-Enterprise Edition-Version 11.2.0.3 to 11.2.0.3 [Release 11.2]
Information in this document applies to any platform.
Goal
The document explains why you may see the following WARNING in the alert log after upgrading to 11.2.0.3.
Wed Apr 25 10:10:50 2012
WARNING: Heavy swapping observed on system in last 5 mins.
Pct of memory swapped in [7.16%] pct of memory swapped out [0.56%].
Please make sure there is no memory pressure and the SGA and PGA
Are configured correctly. Look at DBRM trace file for more details.Fix
The reason you may now see these informational messages in the alert is due to the fact that in 11.2.0.3 an enhancement fix was included for unpublished
Bug 10220118-Print warning to alert log when system is swapping (Doc ID 10220118.8)
Please refer to
Note 10220118.8-Bug 10220118-Print warning to alert log when system is swapping
Description
This fix is really an enhancement.
With this fix a warning is printed to the alert log (and DBRM trace)
If excessive swapping is observed on the system.
The warning will not be printed more than once per hour.
The same issues could have been happening on 11.2.0.2 but they simply would not have been reported.
There is no cause for concern and we suggest that the databases are just monitored as usual.
If you look in the alert log, you will see that the message does not happen every hour.
If SWAP was causing any serious issue we could also see ORA-4031/ORA-4030 and would then be able to use the DBRM trace in conjunction with obtaining further diagnostics.
-If your Platform. Is IBM-AIX then This is not the only reason for this alert log file. There is a known port-specific bug for IBM AIX on POWER Systems (64-bit):
Bug 14731911: FALSE SWAP WARNING MESSAGES PRINTED TO ALERT.LOG ON AIX
Base Bug 11801934: WRONG PAGE-IN AND PAGE-OUT OS VM STATS IN AIX.
Solution for AIX
Apply patch 11801934 if available for your platform. Or request a patch to Oracle Support in a new Service Request.
Patch 11801934 can be downloaded from: https://updates.oracle.com/download/11801934.html
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