One of the frequent recommendations around performance in OBIEE that one hears is a blanket insistence on disabling the BI Server log. It is a line that is repeated by Oracle support, propogated in Best Practice guides, and repeated throughout blog posts on the subject. Antony Heljula did a talk on the subject at the recent RittmanMead BI Forum in Brighton, and I would like to echo and expand on it here.
The Myth: If you are having performance problems in OBIEE, you should switch off BI Server logging
The arguments for:
1. 2. 3. 4.
Instinct would tell us that writing a log is going to take longer than not writing to a log On a system with high user concurrency, we would expect to see contention for writing to the log file Usage Tracking records report response times, so why do we also need the server logging Log files will cause the disk to fill up, which left uncontrolled could cause system instability
The arguments against:
1. If you have performance problems in OBIEE, then you need logging in place to be able to trace and diagnose them. The BI Server log gives us vital information such as what physical SQL results from a logical query from the front end. If you turn off logging, you lose all visibility of query behaviour, timings, and row counts. 2. OBIEE writes lots of logs, more so now in 11g. Why only disable one of them? Why not all logs? 3. If a query takes 30 seconds to run, how much of that 30 seconds is actually going to be in log overhead? You disable logging and now your query runs in 29.999 seconds. Its still slow, its still a performance problem and now you dont have the data available with which to diagnose the problem! 4. Usage Tracking doesnt record the same level of detail around a querys behaviour (response time profile, row counts) that the server log does. 5. By default, Usage Tracking chops off Logical SQL above 1024 characters in length. 6. Sometimes you need the log file to confirm that Usage Tracking is reporting correctly (especially in circumstances
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where report run times seem unusually high)
7. Error messages returned from the database are not captured in Usage Tracking
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To a point, I am being contrary in arguing this specific issue, but it is important with this and other broad-stroke pronouncements around performance that get regurgitating without context and caveats that they are understood. In particular, labelling it a Best Practice is a dangerous fallacy as it implies that it should be done without much further thought or consideration of its consequences.
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If the NFR for a reports performance is [sub]-second and it is not being met, then profiling of the end-to-end response time breakdown should be done, and it might be that it demonstrates that the logging is impeding performance. But the point is that it is proven rather than done blindly.
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Further reading Cary Millsaps paper, Thinking Clearly About Performance, is an excellent starting point for developing an understanding of a logical and methodical approach to performance problem solving. James Morle wrote an great blog post on the subject of Best Practice and why it is dangerous terminology, entitled Right Practice
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Posted in Oracle BI Suite EE, Performance | 2 Comments
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Comments Mark Rittman Says: May 22nd, 2012 at 9:52 am
Strikes me that this could do with some actual evidence/numbers to back it up. How about using Venkats load testing tool to test the impact of logging with 10, 100 etc concurrent users against SampleApp?
Mike Neal Says:
May 24th, 2012 at 10:58 pm
Thanks Robin, I had always thought the pros(log) more than out-weigh the cons (no log). But it went for several years that no logging whas the standard in Production environments and everyone took it as the way. Thanks for the post and the effort to test this instead of going with the flow.
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