Oracle 11g : ORA-00384 insufficient memory to grow cache

Question

Hi ,
I am trying to manually set the db_cache_size and I am getting the following error :
SQL> alter system set sga_max_size=100M scope=spfile;
System altered.
SQL>alter system set db_cache_size=50M scope=spfile
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-32017: failure in updating SPFILE
ORA-00384: Insufficient memory to grow cache
Please give me any suggestions.
-Nanjappan

Answer 1

The error is bacially that you have set the sga size to smaller as compared to the size of the maximum sga.See here,
SQL> show sga
Total System Global Area  188313600 bytes
Fixed Size                  1332048 bytes
Variable Size             138415280 bytes
Database Buffers           41943040 bytes
Redo Buffers                6623232 bytes
SQL> alter system set db_cache_size=50m scope=spfile;
alter system set db_cache_size=50m scope=spfile
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-32017: failure in updating SPFILE
ORA-00384: Insufficient memory to grow cache
SQL> alter system set db_cache_size=42m scope=spfile;
alter system set db_cache_size=42m scope=spfile
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-32017: failure in updating SPFILE
ORA-00384: Insufficient memory to grow cache
SQL> select  * from V$versionl;
select  * from V$versionl
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00942: table or view does not exist
SQL> select  * from V$version;
BANNER
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
PL/SQL Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
CORE    11.1.0.6.0      Production
TNS for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
SQL>
SQL> show parameter max
NAME                                 TYPE        VALUE
java_max_sessionspace_size           integer     0
license_max_sessions                 integer     0
license_max_users                    integer     0
log_archive_max_processes            integer     4
max_commit_propagation_delay         integer     0
max_dispatchers                      integer
max_dump_file_size                   string      unlimited
max_enabled_roles                    integer     150
max_shared_servers                   integer
memory_max_target                    big integer 0
object_cache_max_size_percent        integer     10
NAME                                 TYPE        VALUE
parallel_max_servers                 integer     40
result_cache_max_result              integer     5
result_cache_max_size                big integer 928K
sec_max_failed_login_attempts        integer     10
session_max_open_files               integer     10
sga_max_size                         big integer 180M
SQL>My buffer cache size if increased from the current size , its going to go beyond the sga_max_size ad hence the error is reported. As mentioned already, either bounce the db to chanhe the maximum SGA or make some another parameter small in size and than retry.
HTH
Aman....