Oracle RAC and difference between V$ and GV$ views
Since the introduction of Oracle RAC, we have seen the additional system dictionary views of GV$ which reflect information across the various nodes of a RAC system. Unlike the V$ views of the data dictionary, which relate to the current status of the single node you are connected to, the GV$ allows you to see status throughout the system. In this article we will show how to view sessions through the entire system instead of just a single node.
1. Connect to NODE1 of your Oracle RAC system as a DBA users, in this example we connect as the user ljcatt..
mylinux>$ sqlplus ljcatt/ljcatt
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production on Tue Sep 1 18:05:43 2009
Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, OLAP and Data Mining options
SQL>
2. Connect to NODE2 of your Oracle RAC as sysdba.
mylinux>$ sqlplus ‘/ as sysdba’
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production on Tue Sep 1 18:07:28 2009
Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, OLAP and Data Mining options
SQL>
3. Use the SQL statement “select distinct(username) from v$session;” to view the current connections within NODE2 of your RAC. NOTE: You will not be able to see the connection from LJCATT in this dictionary view, because it only reflects connections to NODE2 and not the entire RAC.
SQL> select distinct(username) from v$session;
USERNAME
——————————
SYS
4. Wile still connected to NODE2 as sysdba, use the SQL statement “select distinct(username) from gv$session;” to view all sessions within the RAC. NOTE: Now you can see the connection to LJCATT.
SQL> select distinct(username) from gv$session;
USERNAME
——————————
LJCATT
SYS
SQL>
5. The GV$ dictionary views have the additional INST_ID column which give the node that the action is occurring in. Use the SQL statement “select inst_id from gv$session where username=’LJCATT’” to identify the NODE which LJCATT is currently connected to.
SQL> Select inst_id from gv$session where username=’LJCATT’;
INST_ID
———-
1
SQL>
The lesson learned, when you are administrating a RAC system use the dictionary views of GV$ and not V$.
Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g

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