How can I increase my Oracle max processes?

Using an oracle "system" user, see your max process setting via:

select * from V$RESOURCE_LIMIT where resource_name = 'processes';

INITIAL_ALLOCATION is the value you're looking for.

To increase, execute something like this:

alter system set processes=1000 scope=spfile;

Finally, restart your oracle. If you execute the select again, you should see the increased process max value.

NOTE - this doesn't work on 18 XE ... the command doesn't seem to actually update the max processes. However, we also don't seem to run out of processes when installing/running on 18, so the entire topic is moot.