SQLPLUS and ORA-0134 error message

[nontrad]

HELP HELP! I believe I'm logging into Oracle OK but can't get to SQLPLUS. A copy of my screen is below with certain elements X'd out for privacy/security


SunOS 5.8

login: XXXXXXXXX
Password:
Last login: Wed Jan 10 11:21:36 from XXXXXX
[2] Done DISPLAY=XXXXX
bash-2.03$ ora (GETS ME TO THE ORACLE DIR)
bash-2.03$ sqlplus

SQL*Plus: Release 8.1.6.0.0 - Production on Wed Jan 10 11:30:06 2001

(c) Copyright 1999 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter user-name: XXXXXX
Enter password:
ERROR:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available


The manual at technet.oracle.com says to contact the DBA when this happens. HOWEVER, I am a college student working P/T at this place and I AM the DBA! The previous person left (with very little instruction) and there is no experienced person here.
Enter user-name:

 

[karluk]

Probably the first thing to do is check your alert log to find out if there is anything wrong with your database. Ora-1034 is telling you that your database is down. If that's true you'll have to find out why and take corrective action. The alert log should be in the directory specified by the initialization parameter "background_dump_dest". Check the end of this file for error messages or anything that doesn't look like normal operations.

 

[nontrad]

I don't see any file names alert.log. Do you have an idea where the file would be located? The directory names on his system seem to be the ones suggested by Oracle.

 

[karluk]

The file name is a little different than you're expecting. It should be {SID}ALRT.LOG, where {SID} is your instance name.

Do you know where your initialization parameter file is? It should contain the BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST parameter, which determines the location of the alert log.

 

[nontrad]

I found the init files (3 different DB) and the BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST. None of them indicated any problem.

 

[karluk]

That's very good news. There's no obvious problem that needs correcting.

I would next attempt to start the instance. To do this using server manager type (from an OS prompt)

svrmgrl
(server manager should start)
connect internal@sid
(where sid is your instance name. You will need to know the internal password)
startup pfile=full path name of your initialization file

With any luck your database is just down because it hasn't been started yet. If the above process doesn't work please post the error messages you get.

 

[nontrad]

Yep. The DB's were down. When I came in today, one person in the office said that it was discovered this morning and spent a few hours restarting them.

Evidently about 2 weeks ago there was a power failure. They brought the Oracle server back up and thought that the DB's started automatically. Of course, no one told me. I gave them the reason why it need personal intervention (recovery,rollback, etc) and doesn't just start up on its own.

Now the problem is getting logged in. I'm getting

login: XXXX
Password:
Last login: Wed Jan 10 15:32:47 from XXXXXXXX
[2] Done DISPLAY=XXXXXXXXXX
bash-2.03$ ora
bash-2.03$ sqlplus

SQL*Plus: Release 8.1.6.0.0 - Production on Thu Jan 11 13:37:17 2001

(c) Copyright 1999 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter user-name: XXXXX
Enter password:
ERROR:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

My guess is the people who brought up the DB didn't do it correctly because I can't get on even with the administrator pwd.

Can the pfile line be used now or must I shut down & restart the DB instances?

 

[THoey]

Another thing to look for is the Listener service (I know there is one for Unix and NT, I would think Sun would have one)

Hope that gives you something else to look for...

Terry M. Hoey
th3856@txmail.sbc.com

Ever notice that by the time that you realize that you ran a truncate script on the wrong instance, it is too late to stop it?

 

[karluk]

I'm not sure if your database is up or down. I don't think that an id with SYSDBA privileges gets the Ora-1034 error, so you if you are trying to connect as internal you may just be having problems because you haven't found the right password.

Check your alert log again. It should tell you whether the startup efforts this morning were successful.

If your database is still not open you can start it with the server manager commands mentioned in my earlier post. However I'm afraid that you won't be able to do a thing until you get the right password.

 

[nontrad]

The Database is now up. It took a while to find the initialization file names but the startup pfile= was a great help.

Now how do I get the listener started?

 

[DBAwhosaysNIE]

lsnrctl start (at least w/ 8.1.6 on Solaris)

also, you may want to consider investing in an alpha pager and setting up crontab entries to check at least the following (& page if not):

1) instance is running

2) listener is running

3) ORA- in alert file

4) bdump/udump files

5) file system utilization for ARCHIVE_LOG_DEST

you probably also want to add additional tests for your application but those five should be checked every fifteen minutes at a minimum.

 

[MikeLacey]

start the listener like this:

lsnrctl start

if that complains about not being able to find the command you don't have an oracle environment set -- I would guess that your 'ora' script does that

oh -- and you have to login as 'oracle' as well
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com

 

[nontrad]

Listener is started and we're back online.

Today, I used LS to get a list of ALL the file names of the files associated with the DB's I'm in charge of maintaining. I will put a hard copy in a notebook that I'll use to start generating documentation - "typical" shop - nothing's written down!


The help I got in this thread made the difference!!! Thanks!