title: Why number of connections to oracle exceed the max pool size in connection string?
body: <p>We use oracle.dataacess in our code,
  We connect with a asp.net webserver (IIS 6),
  the configured connection string has these parameters (excluding DB details):</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>HA Events=TRUE;Connection Timeout=90;Max Pool Size=200;Self
    Tuning=False;Validate Connection=True</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>When we test locally in our environment,
  we cannot exceed the max pool size,
  Worst case is that we will hit a timeout if a new connection tries to open past 200.</p>
  
  <p>On another environment (production) we seem to building up connections over time, and past the max pool size (200), all the way up to 1000 +.</p>
  
  <p>Now i know there are plenty of places in the code where we can debate issues like using, disposing etc etc,
  but in all of these scenarios (when bad code is used) i would expect to try and open a new connection past the max pool size if i didnt close \ dispose everything properly, and in which case i will get a <strong>timeout</strong> for the new connection i try to open, and not actually be able to exceed the limit... which is what i am trying to understand.</p>
  
  <p><strong>We do use RAC in production, and a single server in lab! which is important to mention (I think)</strong>.</p>
  
  <p>What are common places we can look at in their environment to figure out what can cause this? in what scenario will sessions created against the oracle DB exceed this limit in the connection string?</p>
  
  <p>I know this is very abstract and general, but i am looking for a general direction, and pin point the details if needed based on following questions \ answers.</p>