16.3.7 ORA-12500

Indicates that the listener failed to start the Oracle program.

Message

ORA-12500: Listener failed to start a dedicated server process

Cause

Possible reasons include:

  • The maximum number of processes allowed for a single user has exceeded

  • The listener does not have execute permission on the Oracle program

  • The associated Microsoft Windows service is not started

In some cases, these errors may be caused by the same conditions that cause the following errors:

  • TNS-12549 or ORA-12549

  • TNS-00519

  • TNS-12540 or ORA-12540

  • TNS-00510

  • TNS-12560 or ORA-12560

Action

  • Increase the number of processes by setting the PROCESSES parameter in the database initialization file to a larger value.

  • Check the listener.log file for the detailed error stack information.

Parent topic: Resolving the Most Common Error Messages for Oracle Net Services