Number of Oracle processes exceeded

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Article Type: General
Product: Aleph
Product Version: 20, 21, 22, 23

Problem Symptoms:
Oracle gives the following error: "Oracle error: handle_connection ORA-00020: maximum number of processes (200) exceeded"

The problem can be solved by rebooting the server, but having to do this regularly disrupts system use.

Cause:
Maximum number of processes exceeded in Oracle.

Resolution:
Increase the "processes=" value in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/init<$ORACLE_SID>ora (such as,initaleph0.ora).
200 for a 'small' system,
400 for a 'medium' system,
800 for a 'large' system.

After making the change, restart Oracle.

Additional Information

See also, Articles 000018016 ("ORA-12520: TNS:listener could not find available handler for requested ...") and 000010324 ("ORA-00020: maximum number of processes (%s) exceeded")

Article last edited: 21-Jul-2016