What is the meaning of “_enable_shared_pool_durations” parameter?
With sga_target set, the shared pool and the streams pool have of subpools subpools for 4 durations.
The durations are “instance”, “session”, “cursor”, and “execution”.
The main advantage of “_enable_shared_pool_durations = false” is that all the durations are combined into one pool and so a duration will not run out while another duration has free memory. This is true for both the shared pool and the streams pool.
The disadvantage of the setting is that neither the streams pool nor the shared pool can shrink. (Without the setting, only the execution duration of the shared pool is eligible to shrink.)
The setting does not affect the large pool because the large pool is not divided into durations.
With sga_target set, all the pools grow by transferring granules from the buffer cache. Shrinks if enabled go back to the buffer cache. There is no direct transfer from one pool to another pool or from one duration to another duration. All transfers involve the buffer cache as source or target.
Note that “_kghdsidx_count=4” creates four “list-set” pools (standard subpools) for the each of the shared pool, large pool, and streams pool. Each list-set has its own kgh latch. The list-set pools are orthogonal to the duration subpools. So if sga_target is set and durations are not disabled, the shared pool and the streams pool have 16 subpool/duration combinations, i.e. 4 subpools * 4 durations.
Impact of setting _enable_shared_pool_durations = false
This will change the architecture of memory in the pools. When set to FALSE, subpools within the SGA will no longer have 4 durations. Instead, each subpool will have only a single duration. This mimics the behavior in 9i, and the shared pool will no longer be able to shrink.
The advantage of this is that the performance issues documented in this note can be avoided. A duration will not encounter memory exhaustion while another duration has free memory.
The disadvantage is that the shared pool (and streams pool) are not able to shrink, mostly negating the benefits of ASMM.