Insert Performance is poor

Question

Hi,
In my database there is one table which size is 500MB and on that table there is 5 indexes (2 are composite index).
Through sql loader 15 to 20 batch files are running and those job are inserting into this table. Means there is high insertion on this table. PCTFREE of this table is 10% and PCTUSED is default.
But insertion on this table is taking some time, even 10000 rows are taking more time to insert.
Please help.
Anand

Answer 1

You can improve the performance of SQL*Loader on conventional loads in a number of ways:
*Increase the readsize, I use 20971520 which may be the maximum
*Increase the number of rows per commit to 1000 or even 10000 (default 64)
*Increase the bindsize used to hold the values read from the data file, again I use 20971520
SQL*Loader will use array inserts, so that one INSERT statement will be sent to the database server with many data records in a single round trip, rather than one round trip per data record. This is a big performance boost. Increasing the parameters I have listed will increase the array size, increasing efficiency and reducing the number of separate array inserts issued by SQL*Loader.
Another option to test, is to drop the 5 indexes on the table, load the new data, then recreate the 5 indexes. Without the 5 indexes the load and insert of the new records will happen much faster. And the updating of the indexes could be a cause of contention between multiple, concurrent SQL*Loaders and slowing down the inserts. Depending on how big the table is, it might not take that long to recreate the indexes.
Of course, with triggers spread around your database, you cannot remove the indexes if they are needed by any of the triggers themselves fired by the data being loaded for fast execution. And of course, no other part of the application should be running either.
John