ORA-0600

Have you observed an ORA-0600 error reported in your alert log?

The ORA-600 error is the generic internal error number for Oracle program exceptions. It indicates that a process has encountered a low-level, unexpected condition.

The ORA-600 error statement includes a list of arguments in square brackets:

ORA 600 "internal error code, arguments: [%s], [%s],[%s], [%s], [%s]"

The first argument is the internal message number or character string. This argument and the database version number are critical in identifying the root cause and the potential impact to your system.  The remaining arguments in the ORA-600 error text are used to supply further information (e.g. values of internal variables etc).

The first argument may help to narrow your problem to known issues. However, this argument can point to functionality that is referenced by many areas in the Oracle source code. The more detailed call stack information reported in the ORA-600 error trace may be needed to find a solution.

Looking for the best way to diagnose?

Whenever an ORA-600 error is raised, a trace file is generated and an entry is written to the alert.log with details of the trace file location. As of Oracle 11g, the database includes an advanced fault diagnosability infrastructure to manage trace data. For more detail on this functionality see the FAQ and quick steps video.

Note 453125.1 11g Diagnosability Frequently Asked Questions
Note 443529.1 11g Quick Steps to Package and Send Critical Error Diagnostic Information to Support[Video]
1.  Check the Alert Log
The alert log may indicate additional errors or other internal errors at the time of the problem. Focus your analysis of the problem on the first internal error in the sequence. There are some exceptions, but often additional internal errors are side-effects of the first error condition.
The associated trace file may be truncated if the MAX_DUMP_FILE_SIZE parameter is not setup high enough or to „unlimited‟. If you see a message at the end of the trace file
"MAX DUMP FILE SIZE EXCEEDED"
there could be vital diagnostic information missing in the file and finding the root issue may be very difficult. Set the MAX_DUMP_FILE_SIZE appropriately and regenerate the error for complete trace information.

2.  Search 600/7445 Lookup Tool

Visit My Oracle Support to access the ORA-00600 Lookup tool (Note 600.1). The ORA-600/ORA-7445 Lookup tool may lead you to applicable content in My Oracle Support on the problem and can be used to investigate the problem with argument data from the error message or you can pull out key stack pointers from the associated trace file to match up against known bugs.
3.  Investigate reference material on the error 
In the search tool from above, choose Error Code ORA-600 and enter the first argument number or character string. Click on „Lookup error‟ button to review the reference note for your error. The reference note will provide a description of the error and may point to specific notes or bugs that possibly cause the error. 4.  "Fine tune" searches in Knowledge Base
You can also click on the "Search Knowledge Base‟ button. This potentially returns a large result set. To narrow the hits, add symptom key words or phrases to your search in the Knowledge Base. You might also find more specific matches using the call stack functions listed in the trace file just after the first argument listed with the ORA-600 error text.

As an example, you receive the ORA-600 [kghalo] error. The initial search in My Oracle Support brings back hundreds of hits. The call stack from the trace file shows the following functions: ... kghfnd kghalo kghgex ... Adding 'kghgex' to the search keywords in the Knowledge Base narrows the hits to less than 30. See the following note and video for more pointers on using the ORA-600/ORA-7445 Lookup Tool. Note 600.1 ORA-600/ORA-7445 Lookup tool Note 1082674.1 A Video To Demonstrate The Usage Of The ORA-600/ORA-7445 Lookup Tool [Video] See detailed pointers on analysis of these errors in the following note Note 390293.1 Introduction to 600/7445 Internal Error Analysis

5.  If assistance is required from Oracle
If it becomes necessary to get assistance from Oracle Support on an ORA-600 problem, please provide at a minimum, the
o Alert log
o Associated tracefile(s) or incident package at 11g
o Patch level information
o Information about changes in configuration and/or application prior to issues
o RDA report or Oracle Configuration Manager information

• Oracle Configuration Manager Quick Start Guide
• Note 548815.1 My Oracle Support Configuration Management FAQ
• Note 414966.1 RDA Documentation Index

o If error is reproducible, a self-contained reproducible testcase: Note.232963.1 How to Build a Testcase for Oracle Data Server Support to Reproduce ORA-600 and ORA-7445 Errors

Common Issues

The following internal errors are ORA-600 "top searches" in our Knowledge Base recently along with a direct link to the reference note for that error:
ORA-600 17281 Note 39361.1 ORA-600 [17281] "Error closing all cursors for an instantiation"
ORA-600 12333 Note 35928.1 ORA-600 [12333] "Fatal Two-Task Protocol Violation"
ORA-600 729 Note 755270.1 ORA-00600 [729], [40], [space leak]
Memory Corruption ORA-600 [kghxxx] and ORA-600 [17xxx] Note 429380.1 FAQ Memory Corruption

***For reference to the content in this blog, refer to Note.1092832.1 Master Note for Diagnosing ORA-600