DATA DICTIONARY CACHE NOTES:
Parameter - Name of the parameter that determines the number of entries in the data dictionary cache.
Gets - Total number of requests for information on the data object.
Getmisses - Number of data requests resulting in cache misses.
% Cache Misses - Miss Ratio
Count - Total number of entries in the cache
Usage - Number of cache entries that contain valid data.
This report shows the DC cache statistics (a part of the shared pool).
Whenever the database parses a SQL statement, it scans the text for syntax and semantic correctness. The semantic
check requires cross-referencing of the information in the SQL statement and the data dictionary, including the
table names, columns-to-date relationships, column names, data types, and security access privileges. To resolve
the relationships, Oracle uses the data dictionary cache in the SGA. When the data sought in not in the cache, Oracle
executes SQL statements to retrieve the data dictionary information from the SYSTEM tablespace. These statements for data
dictionary information represent one type of recursive SQL statement. To increase the size available to the dictionary
cache, increase the size of the shared pool area (via the SHARED_POOL_SIZE init.ora parameter.)
Missing a get on the data dictionary or shared pool area of the SGA is more costly than missing a get
on a data buffer or waiting for a redo buffer.
If these parameters look familiar - you are probably recalling them from Oracle v6 (when you tuned these in the
init.ora file)