Display all Oracle users by the time since last user activity

SQL Code

1set lines 100 pages 999
2select username
3,      floor(last_call_et / 60) "Minutes"
4,      status
5from   v$session
6where  username is not null
7order by last_call_et
8/

Sample Oracle Output:

 1USERNAME                Minutes STATUS
 2-------------------- ---------- --------
 3SYS                           0 ACTIVE
 4SYS                           1 ACTIVE
 5ORDS_PUBLIC_USER           1305 INACTIVE
 6ORDS_PUBLIC_USER           1305 INACTIVE
 7SYS                        1307 ACTIVE
 8
 95 rows selected.
10SQL>

Purpose:

• To monitor user session activity, specifically focusing on idle sessions and their durations, aiding in resource management and potential troubleshooting.

Breakdown:

Formatting Output:

*   `set lines 100 pages 999`: Adjusts display settings to accommodate potentially lengthy results.

Querying Session Data:

*   `select username, floor(last_call_et / 60) "Minutes", status from v$session`: Retrieves specific information from the `v$session` view:
    
    *   `username`: Identifies the user associated with each session.
    *   `floor(last_call_et / 60) "Minutes"`: Calculates the approximate duration of inactivity in minutes since the last call from each session, making idle time easily interpretable.
    *   `status`: Indicates the current status of each session (e.g., ACTIVE, INACTIVE).
    
*   `where username is not null`: Filters results to include only sessions with known usernames, excluding system-level sessions.
*   `order by last_call_et`: Presents results in ascending order of idle time, highlighting the longest-idle sessions first.

Key Points:

• Idle Session Focus: Targets sessions that haven't made database calls recently, potentially indicating inactive users or processes.
• Inactivity Duration in Minutes: Calculates idle time in minutes for easy interpretation and prioritization.
• Session Status Context: Provides information about whether sessions are currently active or inactive, aiding in understanding their state.
• User-Centric View: Presents information in a user-friendly format, aiding in understanding session activity patterns.

Insights and Explanations:

• Resource Management: Identifying idle sessions can help optimize resource usage by potentially terminating or reducing resources for inactive sessions.

• Troubleshooting:

  • Long-idle sessions might indicate issues such as hung processes or users forgetting to log out.
  • Analyzing idle sessions can help identify potential problems and take corrective actions.

• Monitoring:

  • Regularly monitoring idle sessions can help proactively manage database resources and prevent performance issues.

• Customization:

  • The code can be modified to adjust idle time thresholds for defining "idle" sessions or to filter for specific users or session statuses based on analysis needs.