27 November, 2014

ORA-27107: Farewell, automatic huge pages...

I've just run into this problem head first and without warning while creating a new database:

ORA-27107: AUTO value for USE_LARGE_PAGES parameter is no longer supported

Introduced in 11.2.0.3,  the value was a quick and somewhat dirty way to use huge pages on Linux machines without the hassle of having to reboot after each change in SGA usage (creation/deletion of instances, changing sga_target, etc.)

While my 11.2.0.3 and 12.1.0.1 instances are happily running with use_large_pages=auto, an attempt to create a fully patched (PSU 12.1.0.2.1) instance with this value failed.

MetaLink shows a relevant internal enhancement request (Bug 14500387 : PROVIDE A MECHANISM TO DISABLE USE_LARGE_PAGES=AUTO), but there is no evidence it has been implemented. It is not in the list of bugs fixed by the October 2014 PSU.

The only reference I found was in the documentation - who would have thought the docs can get ahead of MetaLink!

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to do some calculating and prealocating of huge pages. What was that root password again?