Oracle Processes And Sessions

The processes configuration parameter sets the upper limit on the number of processes (including background processes). Each user session can use one or more processes.

Determine the current settings with the following queries.

select name, value from v$parameter where name in ('processes', 'sessions');

NAME
----------------------------------------------------------------
VALUE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
processes
300

sessions
600

In this query, column SESSIONS_HIGHWATER is useful for determining if the running instance is close to the limit.

SQL> select * from v$license;

SESSIONS_MAX SESSIONS_WARNING SESSIONS_CURRENT SESSIONS_HIGHWATER USERS_MAX
------------ ---------------- ---------------- ------------------ ----------
0 0 161 246 0