I can answer my own question (or rather Metalink can). The problem looks like bug 5917099 "V$SQLAREA.USERS_OPENING keeps increasing" > I can focus my earlier question somewhat. The continuously climbing value > of sum(250*users_opening) over time is because of a small number of very > large and increasing values of v$sqlarea.users_opening... regrets, Mark -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l