Tune SQL Developer – Make SQL Developer faster

Oracle SQL Developer is slow and you want to tune SQL Developer? Or too slow for you? Then you should tune your Developer Tool. It is really easy and everyone can do it.

First you have to find your installation directory. There you have to edit the following file: “sqldeveloper\ide\bin\ide.conf”. You can use Notepad++ for editing conf files.

Change the following lines to make the SQL Developer faster

At first you have to change the XMS and XMS VMOptions. Find the lines and change it to the following values:

=> sqldeveloper\ide\bin\ide.conf

RAM 8-16GB:
AddVMOption -Xms1024M
AddVMOption -Xmx2048M

RAM 32 GB and more: 
AddVMOption -Xms2048M
AddVMOption -Xmx4096M

Add the following lines to Tune SQL Developer

The following lines are not contained in the file so you have to add them at the end of the file. It is also possible to add them to another file if this file is available (but often it isn’t):

• \jdeveloper\ide\bin\ide.conf
• \jdeveloper\ide\bin\user.conf

If this files are not present (doesn’t exist) just add them to the “sqldeveloper\ide\bin\ide.conf” configuration.

# Increase MaxPermSize
AddVMOption -XX:MaxPermSize=1024M 

# Memory Monitor
AddVMOption -DMainWindow.MemoryMonitorOn=true 

# Optimize Strings and Text
AddVMOption -XX:+UseStringCache 
AddVMOption -XX:+OptimizeStringConcat 
AddVMOption -XX:+UseCompressedStrings  

# 64 Bit System and 16GB RAM or Less (Reduce Object Pointer Memory Size)
AddVMOption -XX:+UseCompressedOops 

# Aggressive Garbage Collection
AddVMOption -XX:+AggressiveOpts

# Multi Core Machines
AddVMOption -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC 
AddVMOption -DVFS_ENABLE=true 
AddVMOption -Dsun.java2d.ddoffscreen=false 
AddVMOption -XX:+UseParNewGC 
AddVMOption -XX:+CMSIncrementalMode 
AddVMOption -XX:+CMSIncrementalPacing 
AddVMOption -XX:CMSIncrementalDutyCycleMin=0 
AddVMOption -XX:CMSIncrementalDutyCycle=10

With these simple lines you should be able to stop a slow SQL Developer and make it more fast. But before you try your new SQL Developer it is important to restart the program. So just close the SQL Developer and open it again. At this point the new configurations should be loaded and should do the job to tune SQL developer.

More, you should update SQL Developer at least once a year so nstall you have the newest version. A newer version not only have new options but is often faster. So don’t forget to restart and update the SQL developer after you change the configurations. If you install a new SQL Developer version, it could happen that the configuration is deleted – so you have to add and change the lines again. You should keep that in mind.

You like SQL? There are many blog posts about SQL, SQL Developer and PL/SQL.