Zu Chao wrote: maybe not many people use MTS recently due to nearly-free RAM. But when connection# goes real high, you still have to, and we are such a user. Kevin Closson replied: just out of curiosity, what is "real high" in terms of connect count? And another (maybe irrelevant) point: when there is a mid-tier shared connection pool, that can also act as a concentrator/multiplexer (eg I have LoadRunner tested 2000 "users" executing a realistic high volume workload with (iirc) only 100-200 real Oracle connections). Yes, I know 2000 is not "real high" :) but you can scale out this approach. MTS and app server shared pool have different strengths and weaknesses (for the benefit of the BAAG party - or just to stimulate more informed replies - I'll refrain from proving my ignorance by guessing what they are :-). Regards Nigel