What am I seeing here? (Installment MCLXII)

From: Ed Stevens <nospam_at_noway.nohow>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 09:32:35 -0600
Message-ID: <i8ju6vstbghe8ll9fb8qvs8mf7jb3od9c4@4ax.com>

Platform - Oracle 8.0.6 SE on NT4

When I perform this Query:

select	spid,
	to_char(logon_time,'dd-mon-yy hh24:mi:ss') Started,
	s.status,
	s.osuser,
	p.username,
	substr(p.program,1,45) pgm
from 	v$process p, 
	v$session s
	 where	p.addr=s.paddr

order by logon_time;

I get some results I can't explain. The first chunk of sessions is easy, the basic background processes:

STATUS OSUSER USERNAME PGM
-------- -------- -------- -------------

ACTIVE   UNKNOWN  UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE
ACTIVE   UNKNOWN  UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE
ACTIVE   UNKNOWN  UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE
ACTIVE   UNKNOWN  UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE
ACTIVE   UNKNOWN  UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE
ACTIVE   UNKNOWN  UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE

But what is this? (I've cut off the time and spid for brevity, but these started two days after database startup. I hope it doesn't line wrap . . )

STATUS   OSUSER     USERNAME PGM


--------         --------             --------           -------------

ACTIVE                         UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (I101)
ACTIVE                         UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (I102)
ACTIVE                         UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (I103)
ACTIVE                         UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (I106)
ACTIVE                         UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (I104)
ACTIVE                         UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (I105)

Then this bunch, that have start times of today, two days later than the last bunch.

STATUS   OSUSER     USERNAME PGM


--------         --------             --------           -------------

 ACTIVE     ATUSER   UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (P001)
 ACTIVE     ATUSER   UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (P002)
 ACTIVE     ATUSER   UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (P003)
 ACTIVE     ATUSER   UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (P004)
 ACTIVE     ATUSER   UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (P005)
 ACTIVE     ATUSER   UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (P006)
 ACTIVE     ATUSER   UNKNOWN  ORACLE80.EXE (P007)

What I find puzzling about this is that all of these are executing ORACLE80.EXE. I expect that for the background processes, but wht of these others, with the qualifier in parentheses? Especially that middle group, with no OSUSER value.

BTW, there are some other, obvious and easy to understand user connections, running pgms like SQLPLUS, TOAD, a user app, etc. Received on Wed Mar 12 2003 - 09:32:35 CST