Problem:
========

You are running Oracle8i with Multi-Threaded Server (MTS) enabled
and intermittently receive the following error messages in the alert.log:

  skgpspawn failed:category = 27143, depinfo = 24, p = pipe, loc = skgpspawn2  
  failed to start dispatcher 'D017' for network '(ADDRESS=(PARTIAL=YES)(PROTOCOL=i
  pc))', er=27143       

  skgpspawn failed:category = 27142, depinfo = 11, p = fork, loc = skgpspawn3  
  failed to start multi-threaded server 'S066', er=27142    
  
You are unable to spawn shared servers (dispatchers).

You may also receive the following error when you connect to the database:

  TNS-12540 "TNS:internal limit restriction exceeded"


Solution:
=========

  o Increase swap or memory,

--OR--

  o Reduce the number of shared servers (dispatchers) that can be started.

Note: If you are running on Unixware and Oracle 8.1.5, apply the patch 
      for Bug Number 1003255.  This patch fixes a problem with excessive 
      memory use by shadow processes.


Explanation:
============

When you are running MTS and more shared servers need to be started, they
are automatically started up to the number of max servers specified in the 
init.ora file.

This problem is occurring because you are running out of resources on
your machine that are required for the servers to startup.

The error messages:

  skgpspawn failed:category = 27143, depinfo = 24, p = pipe, loc = skgpspawn2
  skgpspawn failed:category = 27142, depinfo = 11, p = fork, loc = skgpspawn3

indicate that you are failing to spawn a shared server.  The errors
translate to:

  ORA-27143   "OS system call failure"
  ORA-27142   "could not create new process"

The operating system call that is failing is also in the error message:

  p = pipe
  p = fork

So the operating system calls pipe() and fork() are failing, and this is 
usually caused by a lack of system resources.

Therefore, because there is a lack of memory and swap available on the 
system, this is causing the operating system calls pipe() and fork() 
to fail.  When these calls fail, the shared servers are unable to start.


References:
===========

Bug Number 1003255.


Additional Search Words:
========================

7445 600 FT

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