What is "normal" behavior of the performance counters emitted from the Managed Driver?
In my Web.Config I have:
<oracle.manageddataaccess.client>
<version number="*">
<settings>
<setting name="PerformanceCounters" value="4095" />
</settings>
...
Then watching the "ODP.NET, Managed Driver" counts using Performance Monitor, I see The NumberOfActiveConnectionPools (1), NumberofActiveConnections (usually 0, but sometimes shows 1). NumberOfFreeConnections (number keeps increasing), NumberOfPooledConnections (any where from 2 to 8), SoftConnectsPerSecond and SoftDisconnectsPerSecond (usually display the same number and always fluctuating). All of the other counters stay as zero.
Most of the counters make sense - but should the NumberOfFreeConnections keep increasing? After our weekly server reboot the count is only a few hundred, but by the end of the week it will be thousands - Is this normal?