DBProviderFactories.GetFactory("Oracle.DataAccess.Client") very slow

Question

The call to System.Data.Common.DBProvidersFactories.GetFactory("Oracle.DataAccess.Client") is taking over 2 minutes to return on my computer. By comparison, calls to GetFactory() for the System.Data.SqlClient and IBM.Data.DB2 takes less than a second.
Even more strange, the same call is very fast if I am running the code inside of the VS2010 debugger.
ODAC version 11.2.0.1.2 (32bit version)
Windows 7 64 bit
.NET 3.5 SP1
Oracle server - not relevant since test pgm is not connecting to a serve.
Code developed with VS 2010.
Test pgm built with:
- Target CPU=32 (so app runs as 32bit mode, instead of 64)
- Target Framework = .NET 3.5 SP1
The call has not always been this slow. I have been running with ODAC 11.2.0.1.2 since it's release. But, IIRC, the slowness just started several weeks ago.
Below is the test pgm:
Imports System.Configuration
Imports System.Data.Common
Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        CreateFactory("Oracle.DataAccess.Client")
        CreateFactory("System.Data.SqlClient")
        CreateFactory("IBM.Data.DB2")
    End Sub
    Sub CreateFactory(ByVal providerName As String)
        Dim sw = New Stopwatch
        sw.Start()
        Dim factory = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(providerName)
        sw.Stop()
        If factory Is Nothing Then
            Throw New Exception(String.Format("DbProviderFactories.GetFactory({0}) failed", providerName))
        End If
        Console.WriteLine("DbProviderFactories.GetFactory({0}) call took {1} secs", providerName, sw.Elapsed.TotalSeconds)
    End Sub
End ModuleThe output I get is:
DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(Oracle.DataAccess.Client) call took 130.1584958 secs
DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(System.Data.SqlClient) call took 0.0001462 secs
DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(IBM.Data.DB2) call took 0.1252213 secs
Please let me know if you need any more information. All help is appreciated.
Jim

Answer 1

As I mentioned before, if I loaded the DBProviderFactory object, for the IBM.Data.DB2 provider, loading the Oracle.DataAccesss.Client provider ran quickly. The IBM.Data.DB2 provider always using a distributed transaction to communicate with the database. So, my guess is that the IBM DBProviderFactory was doing work to prepare for a distributed transaction. And this prep work allows the Oracle DBProviderFactory to run much faster.
So to test my theory, I created a TransactionScope object, before creating the Oracle DBProviderFactory. See new code below:
<pre>
Sub Main()
Using ts = New Transactions.TransactionScope()
CreateFactory("Oracle.DataAccess.Client")
End Using
End Sub
Sub CreateFactory(ByVal providerName As String)
Dim sw = New Stopwatch
sw.Start()
Dim factory = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(providerName)
sw.Stop()
If factory Is Nothing Then
Throw New Exception(String.Format("DbProviderFactories.GetFactory({0}) failed", providerName))
End If
Console.WriteLine("DbProviderFactories.GetFactory({0}) call took {1} secs", providerName, sw.Elapsed.TotalSeconds)
End Sub
</pre>
And this was the result:
DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(Oracle.DataAccess.Client) call took 0.1925129 sec
a dramatic speedup.
Is this expected behavior? More importantly, is there a fix to make loading the Oracle DbProviderFactory faster without requiring the creation of a TransactionScope object?
Thanks,
Jim
Edited by: thompkin on Nov 18, 2010 10:55 AM