out of memory (pga heap) & sort_area_size=8M

[khussain]

Recently we got a ORA-4030: out of process memory (pga heap...) error

I browsed thru some thread, and came up with the following questions:

sort_area_size = 8M
shared_pool_size = 128M

We have 4G memory on the Compaq UNIX box, and usually about 2G is inactive (available for use)

According to our sys admin, per process memory can be up to 1G ! - he still needs to confim this ?

(Q1) Is 8M too high for sort_area_size ?

(Q2) What limit is it hitting, that it complains about "out of memory" ?

[khussain]

Also, when I run this query:

select value, n.name|| '('||s.statistic#||')' , sid
from v$sesstat s , v$statname n
where s.statistic# = n.statistic#
and n.name like '%ga memory%'
order by value;


The process using the highest amount of memory =
1065428864 session pga memory(20)
1065561256 session pga memory max(21)

What do these tell me ?