Oracle Undo Segment

What Is Undo?

Oracle Database creates and manages information that is used to roll back, or undo, changes to the database. Such information consists of records of the actions of transactions, primarily before they are committed. These records are collectively referred to as undo.

Undo records are used to:

• Roll back transactions when a ROLLBACK statement is issued

• Recover the database

• Provide read consistency

• Analyze data as of an earlier point in time by using Oracle Flashback Query

• Recover from logical corruptions using Oracle Flashback features

When a ROLLBACK statement is issued, undo records are used to undo changes that were made to the database by the uncommitted transaction. During database recovery, undo records are used to undo any uncommitted changes applied from the redo log to the data files. Undo records provide read consistency by maintaining the before image of the data for users who are accessing the data at the same time that another user is changing it.

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Undo Segments and Transactions

When a transaction starts, the database binds (assigns) the transaction to an undo segment, and therefore to a transaction table, in the current undo tablespace. In rare circumstances, if the database instance does not have a designated undo tablespace, then the transaction binds to the system undo segment.

Multiple active transactions can write concurrently to the same undo segment or to different segments. For example, transactions T1 and T2 can both write to undo segment U1, or T1 can write to U1 while T2 writes to undo segment U2.

Conceptually, the extents in an undo segment form a ring. Transactions write to one undo extent, and then to the next extent in the ring, and so on in cyclical fashion. Figure 12-20 shows two transactions, T1 and T2, which begin writing in the third extent (E3) of an undo segment and continue writing to the fourth extent (E4).

At any given time, a transaction writes sequentially to only one extent in an undo segment, known as the current extent for the transaction. Multiple active transactions can write simultaneously to the same current extent or to different current extents. Figure 12-20 shows transactions T1 and T2 writing simultaneously to extent E3. Within an undo extent, a data block contains data for only one transaction.

As the current undo extent fills, the first transaction needing space checks the availability of the next allocated extent in the ring. If the next extent does not contain data from an active transaction, then this extent becomes the current extent. Now all transactions that need space can write to the new current extent. In Figure 12-21, when E4 is full, T1 and T2 continue writing to E1, overwriting the nonactive undo data in E1.

If the next extent does contain data from an active transaction, then the database must allocate a new extent. Figure 12-22 shows a scenario in which T1 and T2 are writing to E4. When E4 fills up, the transactions cannot continue writing to E1 because E1 contains active undo entries. Therefore, the database allocates a new extent (E5) for this undo segment. The transactions continue writing to E5.

Transaction Rollback

When a ROLLBACK statement is issued, the database uses undo records to roll back changes made to the database by the uncommitted transaction. During recovery, the database rolls back any uncommitted changes applied from the online redo log to the data files. Undo records provide read consistency by maintaining the before image of the data for users accessing data at the same time that another user is changing it.

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