UNDO_RETENTION

2.21 UNDO_RETENTION

This specifies (in seconds) the low threshold value of undo retention. For AUTOEXTEND undo tablespaces, the system retains undo for at least the time specified in this parameter, and automatically tunes the undo retention period to satisfy the undo requirements of the queries. For fixed- size undo tablespaces, the system automatically tunes for the maximum possible undo retention period, based on undo tablespace size and usage history, and ignores UNDO_RETENTION unless retention guarantee is enabled.

The UNDO_RETENTION parameter can only be honored if the current undo tablespace has enough space. If an active transaction requires undo space and the undo tablespace does not have available space, then the system starts reusing unexpired undo space. This action can potentially cause some queries to fail with a "snapshot too old" message.

Property	Description
Parameter type	Integer
Default value	900
Range of values	0 to 231 – 1
Recommended values	1800

Oracle Banking Trade Finance relevance

Increased value along with automatic undo management helps to avoid “snapshot too old error”.

Parent topic: Database Initialization Parameters