Program Global Area

A Program Global Area (PGA) is a memory region that contains data and control information for a server process. It is nonshared memory created by Oracle Database when a server process is started. Access to the PGA is exclusive to the server process. There is one PGA for each server process. Background processes also allocate their own PGAs. The total PGA memory allocated for all background and server processes attached to an Oracle Database instance is referred to as the total instance PGA memory, and the collection of all individual PGAs is referred to as the total instance PGA, or just instance PGA.

The amount of PGA memory used and the contents of the PGA depend on whether the instance is running in dedicated server or shared server mode.

The PGA is used to process SQL statements and to hold logon and other session information. A large part of the PGA is dedicated to SQL work areas, which are working memory areas for sorts and other SQL operations.

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