ORA-04030: out of process memory

Hi

I have an application that runs nicely for many days and then eventually it throws this error:

java.sql.SQLException: ORA-04030: out of process memory when   trying to allocate 57868 bytes (hash-join subh,kllcqas:kllsltba)

I have googled and metalinked this error and have learnt the following:

• the oracle process which is servicing the session for this app is trying to allocate memory for the PGA and is unable to
• this allocation request is governed by the sort_area_size setting
• the problem may be rectified by reducing the sort area size to lower the demand on physical memory

Does that sound about right?

I am confused because the box running oracle (9.2.0.4) is actually showing that 70% of memory buffers are free and that only 5% of swap is used. What worries me is that swap is being used at all when there is so much memory free. This is on RedHat AS with the latest 2.4 kernel as pulled down via up2date.

Also, the alert log shows no errors *at all*. What gives? I would have thought that if an oracle process was unable to malloc then it would be in alert log? How come the application is the place where the error appears?

thanks,
-A Received on Wed Aug 11 2004 - 02:32:01 CDT