Calculation - Number of Semaphores per set Calculated on a Unix platforms

Example :

Unix kernel parameters:
 
SEMMNI = 100   # semaphore identifiers
SEMMSL = 50      # max semaphores per id or set
SEMMNS = 500  # semaphores in system

Oracle parameter:

PROCESSES=150

If the maximum number of semaphores in a set is less than (processes+4), Oracle will try to allocate at most (processes+4)/2 semaphores per set, even less if that's still too large.

Basically, the server tries to allocate a set of processes+4 semaphores, and if this fails, it divides the number by 2 and tries again, until it succeeds, and that's the number per set it will use.

Next, it subtracts 4 from this number (for internal use) and the remainder is what can be used for process semaphores.

So processes+4 makes 154 divided by 2 makes 77.

77 > 50 so we need to divide it again by 2 which makes 38 which is < 50 so 38 is OK. 

Next, we substract 4 from this number (for internal use) which makes 34.

Now, we need 150 semaphores, this makes 5 sets of 34 semaphores each. 
(5 sets makes 170, 4 sets is not enough because it only makes 136 < 150)
 

At the end we do not need sets of 34 but 38 (34 + 4) which makes 5 sets of 38.

With the above settings, Oracle will create 5 sets of 38 semaphores each