ORA-04036: PGA memory used by the instance exceeds PGA_AGGREGATE_LIMIT

This error was faced when one customer was trying to load data into an Oracle 12 database. From Oracle Database 12c, there is a new hard limit set for the size of PGA taken up by a particular instance. The parameter is called PGA_AGGREGATE_LIMIT. Read up on this from the Oracle 12c reference. oerr utility shows this: $oerr ora 04036 ORA-04036: PGA memory used by the instance exceeds PGA_AGGREGATE_LIMIT Cause: Private memory across the instance exceeded the limit specified in the PGA_AGGREGATE_LIMIT initialization parameter. The largest sessions using Program Global Area (PGA) memory were interrupted to get under the limit. Action: Increase the PGA_AGGREGATE_LIMIT initialization parameter or reduce memory usage. $ sqlplus / as sysdba SQL*Plus: Release 12.1.0.1.0 Production on Wed May 27 12:38:28 2015 Copyright (c) 1982, 2013, Oracle. All rights reserved. Connected to: Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.1.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Advanced Analytics and Real Application Testing options SQL> show parameter aggregate NAME TYPE VALUE ------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------ pga_aggregate_limit big integer 6000M pga_aggregate_target big integer 0 Resolution: Set the parameter to 0 (pre-12c behaviour) SQL> alter system set pga_aggregate_limit=0 scope=both; System altered. Another option is to increase the value if there is enough physical memory available to the database. This resolved the issue and the customer was able to continue loading.