In this snippet, 4KB of memory was trying to be allocated in subpool 6, but for some reason, this could not be accomplished. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to reduce the likelihood of receiving the dreaded 4031 error.

As with resolving shared pool latch contention, one solution to 4031 errors is to flush the shared pool. While no DBA wants to admit to periodically flushing a shared pool,4 this still works. Depending on the Oracle release, the amount of allocated shared pool memory, and the application's unique memory usage pattern, it may be your best bet. This is especially true for pre-Oracle 9i systems.

Increasing shared pool memory conceptually provides Oracle with more flexibility in satisfying memory requests. However, along with the benefits, there is always a cost when shifting computing resources. In most cases, the benefits actually do outweigh the costs, so if the operating system has the memory available, or if you can shift memory from other Oracle caches to the shared pool, increasing shared pool memory is highly likely to reduce 4031 errors.