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Purpose

The purpose of this note is to provide an introduction to ORA-7445 errors, and to suggest the next step in diagnosing the error.  The note is written with a UNIX bias, although the concepts are generic.

Scope & Application

To be used by the DBA when reporting ORA-7445 errors to Oracle Support Services.
 

What is an ORA-7445 error?

An ORA-7445 error is raised by an Oracle server process when it has received a fatal signal from the operating system.  The error may be raised in either a foreground or background process.  The process will normally

• write an error to the alert log
• write a trace file in either user_dump_dest or background_dump_dest
• create a core dump in core_dump_dest
  
  

There are many ‘illegal’ operations that the operating system can trap.  A common example is a process writing to an invalid memory location, and so to protect the system the offending process will be sent a fatal signal.

Typically, the signals seen are SIGBUS (signal 10, bus error) and SIGSEGV (signal 11, segmentation violation).  There are other UNIX signals and exceptions that may happen, however, they are likely caused by OS problems rather than an Oracle problem.  Examples of other signals are: SIGINT, SIGKILL, SIGSYS.  A complete list is available in Note 1038055.6.

An ORA-7445 is a generic error, and can occur from anywhere in the Oracle code.  The precise location of the error is identified by the trace file it produces.

What Does an ORA-7445 Error Look Like?

The appearance of an ORA-7445 error varies slightly from platform to platform.  The two general forms are illustrated here.

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