New Parameters in 11.2.0.4

I am working towards upgrading databases from 11.2.0.3 to 11.2.0.4. This should go smoothly, right? Well after I upgraded a development database, I got a call about a slow performing query. In all of the 11.2.0.3 databases, the query runs in about 50 seconds. In the 11.2.0.4 databases, the query runs in 4 minutes. The execution plans are different even though the table/index stats are identical. So this is a version-related problem. One of the things I did was to check the parameters between the different versions. I was surprised to find that a simple patchset upgrade now has five new parameters.

From the 11.2.0.3 database:

 

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.3.0 Production on Tue Jul 22 14:23:39 2014
Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved.
SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> select count(*) from v$parameter
 2 where name in ('cell_offloadgroup_name','dnfs_batch_size',
 3 'enable_goldengate_replication','instant_restore','java_restrict');
COUNT(*)
----------
 0
SQL> select count(*) from v$parameter;
COUNT(*)
----------
 347

 

From the 11.2.0.4 database:

 

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.4.0 Production on Tue Jul 22 14:23:26 2014
Copyright (c) 1982, 2013, Oracle. All rights reserved.
SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected.
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 2 where name in ('cell_offloadgroup_name','dnfs_batch_size',
 3 'enable_goldengate_replication','instant_restore','java_restrict');
COUNT(*)
----------
 5
SQL> select count(*) from v$parameter;
COUNT(*)
----------
 352

 

Yep, five more parameters in 11.2.0.4. Those parameters are:

cell_offloadgroup_name
dnfs_batch_size
enable_goldengate_replication
instant_restore
java_restrict

The two in red are in the Oracle 11.2 documentation. The other three are not, nor is there any mention of them in Metalink.

 

I’ll have to see if I can get to the bottom of these and if they could be contributing to my performance problem.