Need clarify some fields in v$session

Question

On 11g2/Redhat 5, my query returnsselect v.inst_id,sid,serial#,wait_class,event,status,last_call_et --,cast(Q.SQL_FULLTEXT as varchar(4000)) cur_sql  
  from gv$session v join gv$sqlarea Q on v.SQL_ID = Q.SQL_ID and v.INST_ID=Q.INST_ID
INST_ID  SID      SERIAL#  WAIT_CLASS       EVENT               STATUS   LAST_CALL_ET       
1        16       854      Other    PX Deq: reap credit         ACTIVE   0       
2        218      152      Idle     PX Deq: Execution Msg       ACTIVE   0       
2        592      217      Idle     PX Deq: Execute Reply       ACTIVE   0       
3        604      47       Other    PX Deq: reap credit         ACTIVE   0       
1        592      163      Idle     PX Deq: Execution Msg       INACTIVE 6181        
3        400      15       Idle     SQL*Net message from client INACTIVE 7321    
1        598      510      Idle     SQL*Net message from client INACTIVE 272     
2        16       66       Idle     PX Deq: Execution Msg       INACTIVE 6181       
3        217      100      Idle     PX Deq: Execution Msg       INACTIVE 713     
3        16       52       Idle     PX Deq: Execution Msg       INACTIVE 3882     I know that these session are all SQL Developer sessions and are currently doing nothing. But if I know mothing about the sessions, how can I tell from this query which session is true INACTIVE or INACTIVE. The first 4 ACTIVE sessions are NOT executing SQL.
My task is not to kill the INACTIVE session but is to look at those true active sessions and figure out which of them are causing performance problem. V$SESSION just return too many sessions, so that I want filter out the true inactive ones.
Thanks.

Answer 1

figure out which of them are causing performance problemYou could query V$SESSTAT to determine activity.
Note that V$SESSTAT information for a session is cleared when the session is closed -- e.g. by a logout. Another session may be allocated the same SID when it does a login. Also remember that if the application maintains persistent sessions you might be looking at cumulative statistics over a period of days/weeks/months for such sessions. Therefore, you could write you own routines to poll V$SESSTAT at specific intervals and identify activity from changes in statistic values, adjusting for the fact that sessions may be opening and closing frequently (and may be reusing SIDs).
Hemant K Chitale