KGH: NO ACCESS – Buffer cache inside streams pool too!

SQL> select * from v$sgastat where name like ‘KGH%’;

POOL         NAME                            BYTES
------------ -------------------------- ----------
streams pool KGH: NO ACCESS                4186144

So, it looks that also streams pool can surrender parts of its memory granules to buffer cache, if it’s unable to flush everything out from the granule for complete granule handover.

Let’s see whether that’s the case:

SQL> select last_oper_type, last_oper_mode from v$sga_dynamic_components where component = ‘streams pool’;
LAST_OPER_TYP LAST_OPER

SHRINK        DEFERRED

Yep, the last streams pool shrink operation was left in DEFERRED status, which means the granule wasn’t handed over – streams pool kept the granule for itself, marked everything it could flush out as KGH: NO ACCESS in its heap header and handed these chunks over to buffer cache manager.

Lets check whether these chunks are actually used by buffer cache buffers:

(NB! Think twice before running this query in production as it may hold your shared pool latches for very long time):

SQL> select ksmchidx,ksmchdur,ksmchcom,ksmchptr,ksmchsiz,ksmchcls from x$ksmsst where ksmchcom = 'KGH: NO ACCESS';
  KSMCHIDX   KSMCHDUR KSMCHCOM         KSMCHPTR           KSMCHSIZ KSMCHCLS
---------- ---------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------- --------
         1          4 KGH: NO ACCESS   00000003A2401FE0    4186144 no acce

So, there’s only one chunk flushed & handed over to buffer cache in the streams pool heap. The KSMCHPTR column shows the starting address of that chunk in SGA and the KSMCHSIZ is the size of that chunk.

So, let’s see if there are any buffers within that address range. First I’ll calculate the end address of that chunk (start address + size -1 = end address)

SQL> @calc 0x00000003A2401FE0 + 4186143
                     DEC                  HEX

         15611199487.000            3A27FFFFF

And now lets query X$BH using that address range to see if / how many buffer cache buffers have been placed in there:

SQL> select count(*) from x$bh where rawtohex(ba) between ‘00000003A2401FE0’ and ‘00000003A27FFFFF’;
  COUNT(*)
       483

We have just proven, that there are 483 buffer cache buffers (~3.8MB, 8kB buffers) which reside physically in streams pool heap!