Monitoring process usage

From: Janine Sisk <janine_at_furfly.net>
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 09:44:17 -0800
Message-Id: <6FC4E4E9-8450-419F-939C-746B8811FD74_at_furfly.net>



This is a real DBA 101 question... I have a 9.2 installation that has been running without issue for years, and suddenly it has started running out of processes every few months. The first couple of times I misdiagnosed the problem, thinking it meant UNIX processes. This time I dug deeper and realized it was actually hitting the PROCESSES limit within Oracle.

I have doubled the value of the PROCESSES initialization parameter, from 250 to 500. If the problem is due solely to the website getting busier over time, which it has been, then that should fix it. But I want to keep an eye on things to see if there is something running amok (this client does a lot of his own programming, and he's not a trained programmer, so it's entirely possible that he has created a monster).

So, my question - I have been searching the Google, looking for a script I can run periodically to check on how many processes are in use and whether we are close to the limit, but I can't find one. I'm sure I could write one with a bit of research, but it seems silly to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to. Does anyone have a script or link they could share?

thanks,

janine

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Received on Tue Feb 02 2010 - 11:44:17 CST

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