Question

Oracle FAQ defines temp table space as follows:

Temporary tablespaces are used to manage space for database sort operations and for storing global temporary tables. For example, if you join two large tables, and Oracle cannot do the sort in memory, space will be allocated in a temporary tablespace for doing the sort operation.

That’s great, but I need more detail about what exactly is using the space. Due to quirks of the application design most queries do some kind of sorting, so I need to narrow it down to client executable, target table, or SQL statement.

Essentially, I’m looking for clues to tell me more precisely what might be wrong with this (rather large application). Any sort of clue might be useful, so long as it is more precise than ‘sorting’.

Answer 1

I’m not sure exactly what information you have to hand already, but using the following query will point out which program/user/sessions etc are currently using your temp space.

SELECT   b.TABLESPACE        , b.segfile#        , b.segblk#        , ROUND (  (  ( b.blocks * p.VALUE ) / 1024 / 1024 ), 2 ) size_mb        , a.SID        , a.serial#        , a.username        , a.osuser        , a.program        , a.status     FROM v$session a        , v$sort_usage b        , v$process c        , v$parameter p    WHERE p.NAME = 'db_block_size'      AND a.saddr = b.session_addr      AND a.paddr = c.addr ORDER BY b.TABLESPACE        , b.segfile#        , b.segblk#        , b.blocks; 

Once you find out which session is doing the damage, then have a look at the SQL being executed, and you should be on the right path.