ORA-00474: SMON process terminated with error

[kwil38]

Last Friday, my Oracle 9i production database shut itself down during the middle of the workday...never happened before in the 4 months we've been live with Oracle.

After examining the alert log file, I found the following error caused the database to shutdown:

Fri Dec 30 13:51:16 2005
Errors in file d:\oracle\ora92\rdbms\trace\prod_pmon_604.trc:
ORA-00474: SMON process terminated with error

Fri Dec 30 13:51:16 2005
PMON: terminating instance due to error 474
Instance terminated by PMON, pid = 604

I then checked the prod_pmon_604.trc file and it showed the following:

Dump file d:\oracle\ora92\rdbms\trace\prod_pmon_604.trc
Fri Dec 30 13:51:16 2005
ORACLE V9.2.0.5.0 - Production vsnsta=0
vsnsql=12 vsnxtr=3
Windows 2000 Version 5.2, CPU type 586
Oracle9i Release 9.2.0.5.0 - Production
JServer Release 9.2.0.5.0 - Production
Windows 2000 Version 5.2, CPU type 586
Instance name: prod

Redo thread mounted by this instance: 1

Oracle process number: 2

Windows thread id: 604, image: ORACLE.EXE

*** 2005-12-30 13:51:16.330
*** SESSION ID1.1) 2005-12-30 13:51:16.330
error 474 detected in background process
ORA-00474: SMON process terminated with error

I looked up the error number and Oracle suggests to check the accompanying messages and the background trace file, correct the problems, shut down (which Oracle did itself) and restart the instance. I restarted the instance and things have been fine ever since.

The problem is that I seem to be at a dead-end as to finding out what actually caused the SMON process to terminate since the alert log and trace file aren't really telling me what caused the error.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or have any suggestions for me to get additional information on what caused the error in the first place?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SantaMufasa]

Kwil, if you Google for [Oracle "error 474"], it results in > 100 resulting hits. Since I don't know more about your specific installation, you will need to check those Google'd results for applicability to your situation.

Let us know what you discover.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[

http://www.dasages.com:

Providing low-cost remote Database Admin services]
Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.