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DBA_SCHEDULER_JOB_LOG

Posted by Kamran Agayev A. on 10th June 2009

The dba_scheduler_job_log view can be used to view log entries for previously executed jobs. This view displays log information for all dbms_scheduler jobs in the database. When creating a job, we define log_history parameter and logs in that view are available for number of days as it specified in log_history parameter (default is 30)

To read full article, refer to this link

Posted in Administration | 2 Comments »

Tracking & auditing changes to your init.ora parameters

Posted by Kamran Agayev A. on 10th June 2009

A very important auditing task for any production database is the ability to track changes to the powerful initialization parameters. Many of these parameters are “silver bullets”, single parameters that have a profound impact on system-wide behavior. This is especially true for SQL optimizer changes

To read full article, refer to this link

Posted in Administration | No Comments »

Create Database Manually – Step by Step instruction

Posted by Kamran Agayev A. on 31st May 2009

Today, I’ll show you how we can create a Database without Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA). We’re going to create the database manually, using CREATE DATABASE statement. Sometimes, we are not able to use GUI in order to create a database. For this, we should know syntax of database creation from SQL*Plus. To create database manually, follow below steps:    

1. Firstly, export Environment Variables. To export EV automatically for every session, do below changes to /home/oracle/.bashrc file:

 export ORACLE_SID=kamran

export ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/lib

 manual_1

 

2. Create parameter file and modify it by setting minimum required parameters:

*.db_name=kamran

*.db_block_size=8192

*.sga_target=1677721600

*.undo_management=’AUTO’

*.control_files = (‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/control01.ctl’)

*.user_dump_dest=’/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/udump’

*.background_dump_dest=’/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/bdump’

*.core_dump_dest=’/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/cdump’

After creation of this parameter file, create below folders in /home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/ directory. Three of them are dump folders (needed for trace files and alert.log file). We’re going to keep Control Files and DataFiles in oradata folder.

–          oradata

–          udump

–          bdump

–          cdump

manual_2

 

 3. Create Server parameter file (SPFILE) using this parameter file and STARTUP the instance in NOMOUNT mode.

 CREATE SPFILE FROM PFILE=’/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/init.ora’;

STARTUP NOMOUNT

 manual_3 

Now our instance started, SGA allocated and background processes started

 

4. To create a new database, use the CREATE DATABASE statement. As a result, below files will be created:

–          Redo Log files

–          system.dbf and sysaux.dbf (files for SYSTEM tablespace)

–          undo01.dbf file (for UNDO tablespace)

–          temp_tbs.dbf file (for TEMPORARY tablespace)

–          users.dbf (for DEFAULT PERMANENT tablespace)

 

//######## Database Creation Code ####### 

CREATE DATABASE kamran

    USER SYS IDENTIFIED BY kamran

    USER SYSTEM IDENTIFIED BY kamran

LOGFILE GROUP 1 (‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/redo01.log’) SIZE 50 m,

    GROUP 2 (‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/redo02.log’) SIZE 50 m,

    GROUP 3 (‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/redo03.log’) SIZE 50 m

    MAXLOGFILES 5

    MAXLOGMEMBERS 5

    MAXLOGHISTORY 1

   MAXDATAFILES 100

   MAXINSTANCES 1

   CHARACTER SET us7ascii

   NATIONAL CHARACTER SET al16utf16

   DATAFILE ‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/system01.dbf’ SIZE 325 m REUSE EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL

   SYSAUX DATAFILE ‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/sysaux.dbf’ SIZE 400 m REUSE

    DEFAULT TABLESPACE tbs_1 DATAFILE ‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/users.dbf’ SIZE 200m REUSE AUTOEXTEND ON MAXSIZE UNLIMITED

    DEFAULT TEMPORARY TABLESPACE tempts1 TEMPFILE ‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/temp_tbs.dbf’ SIZE 20m REUSE

    undo TABLESPACE undotbs DATAFILE ‘/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/oradata/undo01.dbf’ SIZE 200m REUSE AUTOEXTEND ON MAXSIZE UNLIMITED

 

manual_4 

 5. Run the scripts necessary to build views, synonyms, and PL/SQL packages

CONNECT / AS SYSDBA

SQL>@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catalog.sql

SQL>@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catproc.sql

 

6. Shutdown the instance and startup the database. Your database is ready for use!

 manual_5

Posted in Administration, Oracle on Linux | 66 Comments »

Step by Step Installing Oracle Database 10g Release 2 on Linux (CentOS) and AUTOMATE the installation using Linux Shell Script

Posted by Kamran Agayev A. on 1st May 2009

Note: Before reading the post, you can have a look to my latest VIDEO instruction on Installing OEL and Oracle 10gR2

 

In order to use Oracle Database, first of all we need to setup Oracle Software. Installation of Oracle Database on Windows is very easy. By running setup.exe from installation CD of Oracle for Windows, we can invoke a setup and by clicking NEXT buttons we can install Oracle Software and Database without any problem. We don’t need any prerequisite actions before installation. But in Linux it’s different. If we want to install Oracle Database on Linux OS, we should follow some prerequisite actions.

Today, we’re going to install Oracle Database on CentOS. To do it, we use last version of CentOS (the latest release for now) – “CentOS-5.2” and mostly used release of Oracle Database – “Oracle Database 10g Release 2”. And we’re going to practice this whole project on VMware 6.0.0

Before starting, we need to install VMware. Then, we need to install CentOS on VMware. After that, we are going to install Oracle Database. You should refer to my previous posts in order to install VMware and Centos

Step by step installing VMware

Step by Step Installing CentOS on VMware

But there’s one thing we should keep in mind. During installation of CentOS, on the “package lists” page, we should behave differently. It will be discussed in the next paragraphs.  

This project covers following steps:

  1. Checking minimum hardware requirements
  2. Installing rpm packages which are required for Oracle installation
  3. Configuring kernel parameters
  4. Creating groups and user for Oracle Installation
  5. Installing Oracle Software
  6. Creating an Oracle Database
  7. Connecting to Database with Enterprise Manager
  8. AUTOMATING all processes and steps of installation Oracle 10g R2 on Centos using Shell Script

As you see from the list above, in order to setup Oracle Database, we need to change some parameters in the system. Changing these parameters each time could lead to mistakes and waste of time. The main purpose of our article is to automate all these processes and save your time. For this purpose we’re going to use “Shell Script”

Now I’m going to explain above mentioned steps one by one

1. Checking minimum hardware requirements

At least, your system should meet the following requirements:

–           1GB RAM 

–           Requirement for swap space in Oracle installation is as follows:

                Available RAM                                      Swap Space Required

                Between 1 GB and 2 GB        1.5 times the size of RAM

                Between 2 GB and 8 GB       Equal to the size of RAM

                More than 8 GB                     .75 times the size of RAM

–           400MB free space in /tmp directory

–           Depending on type of the installation, 1.5-3.5 GB free space for Oracle Software

–           1.5GB free space if new Oracle Database is created

Getting familiar with requirements mentioned above, we need to get hardware information of our system. To check the size of RAM, Swap space and tmp directory, we run these commands:

–           To check the size of physical memory, execute                             grep MemTotal     /proc/meminfo

–           To check the size of swap space, execute                                          grep SwapTotal     /proc/meminfo

–           To check the space in  /tmp directory, execute                            df –h /tmp

2. Installing rpm packages which are required for Oracle installation

While installing CentOS, we have to install some rpm packages. During the installation, on the installation window you get list of packages. Here, we select “Customize” choice

oracle_install1

On “Customized” window, we check required packages and uncheck packages that are not required for Oracle Installation

oracle_install2

In the packages list, check following packages. Uncheck all packages that are not in the list below

Desktop Environments

                                                  GNOME Desktop Environment  

Applications

                                                  Graphical Internet

Development

                                                  Development Libraries

                                                  Development Tools

                                                  GNOME Software Development

                                                  Java Development

                                                  Legacy Software Development

                                                  X Software Development

Servers

                                                  Server Configuration Tools

                                                  Web Server

                                                  Windows File Server

Base System

                                                  Administration Tools

                                                  Base

                                                  Java

                                                  Legacy Software Support

                                                  System Tools

                                                  X Window System

Furthermore, after installation of CentOS, we have manually to install these four rpm packages. Surely, you can select them (except libaio-devel package) from the package list during setup, for many people who don’t want to find these packages in the package list, installing it manually after system installation is the best option. These are packages which should be installed before Oracle installation

–           compat-db-4.2.52-5.1.i386.rpm

–           sysstat-7.0.2-1.el5.i386.rpm

–           libaio-devel-0.3.106-3.2.i386.rpm

–           libXp-1.0.0-8.1.el5.i386.rpm

In order to install these packages, you can use rpm –Uvh command by changing directory to CentOS directory inside the CD (DVD) of CentOS installation as shown below

oracle_install3

3. Changes to be made to Kernel parameters

After installing above mentioned packages, we need to change some Kernel parameters and make them match to Oracle requirements. Parameters which should be changed are shown below

shmmax 2147483648
shmmni 4096
shmall 2097152
shmmin 1
semmsl 250
semmns 32000
semopm 100
semmni 128
file-max 65536
ip_local_port_range 1024   65000
rmem_default 1048576
rmem_max 1048576
wmem_default 262144
wmem_max 262144

 

We do all these changes in the /etc/sysctl.conf file by adding these lines to that file:

kernel.shmmax = 2147483648

kernel.shmall = 2097152

kernel.shmmni=4096

kernel.sem=250 32000 100 128

fs.file-max=65536

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range=1024 65000

net.core.rmem_default=1048576

net.core.rmem_max=1048576

net.core.wmem_default=262144

net.core.wmem_max=262144

After appending those lines we save that file and run the following command to make these changes effective immediately in the running system

/sbin/sysctl –p

oracle_install4

Setting Shell limits for the Oracle UserTo improve the performance of the software on Linux systems, you must increase the following shell limits for the oracle user:

1. Add the following lines to /etc/security/limits.conf file

oracle              soft    nproc   2047

oracle              hard    nproc   16384

oracle              soft    nofile  1024

oracle              hard    nofile  65536

2. Add the following lines to /etc/pam.d/login file

session    required     /lib/security/pam_limits.so

session    required     pam_limits.so

3. In order to use Oracle Software, we need to make a change in “oracle” user’s buffer size and number of opened file descriptors. In order to do it, we add below lines to /etc/profile file

if [ $USER = “oracle” ]; then

        if [ $SHELL = “/bin/ksh” ]; then

              ulimit -p 16384

              ulimit -n 65536

        else

              ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536

        fi

fi

4. Changing redhat-release file

One of the first checks performed by the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) is to determine if the host platform is supported. The OUI uses the file /etc/redhat-release to determine the platform. For the case of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Database 10g Release 2 expects either RHEL 3 or RHEL/OEL 4.

The easiest way to get around this error is to modify the /etc/redhat-release file replacing the current release information (CentOS release 5 (Final)) with the following:

redhat-4

Before modifying /etc/redhat-release, make a backup copy of the file and ensure to replace the original one after the Oracle installation and patch process has been completed.

cp /etc/redhat-release /etc/redhat-release.original

echo “redhat-4” > /etc/redhat-release

After all these configurations, you should get this result:

oracle_install5

4. Create groups and user for Oracle Installation

In this step, we create “oinstall” and “dba” groups and “oracle” user to install Oracle Software, and create new Database  

groupadd  oinstall

groupadd  dba

useradd -m -g oinstall -G dba -d /home/oracle -s /bin/bash -c “Oracle Software Owner” oracle

passwd oracle

oracle_install6

5. Installing Oracle Database 10g Release 2

First of all, we need to download Oracle Database 10g R2. To download it, use this link:

http://download.oracle.com/otn/linux/oracle10g/10201/10201_database_linux32.zip

After download finish, we need to copy this file to the Virtual Machine. To copy it, we have two choices:

  • Copy it using USB Flash Drive
  • Copy it using Samba service
  • Create an image file (.iso) from zipped installation and mount it to Virtual Machine

Here, we’re going to copy the zipped file using second technique. With any ISO creator program, create .iso file from zipped installation file of Oracle Database. And then mount it to the Virtual Machine as shown below:

oracle_install7

Now switch to the desktop of CentOS, right click on DVD of CentOS installation on the desktop and click “Eject” as shown below:

oracle_install8

Now enter to “Computer” and double click on “CD-ROM” icon.

oracle_install9

Installation file of Oracle Database will be opened:

oracle_install10

Now, create install folder on the /tmp directory,  change owner of this folder to “oracle”, copy this file into /tmp/install directory

Then unzip this file and begin installation as follows:

oracle_install11

After unzip completes, installation will begin automatically

oracle_install12

Oracle Database 10g Installation

oracle_install13

If you want to create new database after software installation, check “Create Starter Database” checkbox and enter database name and password, then click Next

oracle_install14

Specify Inventory directory (keep it as default) and click Next

oracle_install15

Here we see that all Prerequisite Checks succeeded.

oracle_install16

Click Install to begin installation

oracle_install17

Now, we’re installing Oracle 10g Software.

6.  Creating an Oracle Database

As we’ve checked “Create Starter Database” at the first page of the installation, new database will be created automatically after software installation

oracle_install18

After database created, you’ll get information about your database, Enterprise Manager and Spfile

oracle_install19

Click Ok. In the below window, you’ll get location for two scripts which you should run as a root user to complete last configurations. Open new Terminal window and run those two scripts:

oracle_install20

Installation of Oracle Database 10g completed successfully! Congratulations!

Now reboot your server and login as oracle user and start newly created database.  

oracle_install21

If we want to login to our database, we run sqlplus. But before it, we need to set Environment Variables. We can do it automatically by adding them to .bashrc file in the /home/oracle directory as below:

export ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/lib

export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

alias database =’export ORACLE_SID=kamran;sqlplus “/ as sysdba”‘

oracle_install22

Now, let’s open new terminal and try again

oracle_install23

As you see, after setting Environment Variables to their correct values, I was able to login to SQL*Plus using two ways.

7.   Connecting to Database with Enterprise Manager

Now, let’s start Oracle Enterprise Manager. In order to use EM, we should firstly start listener. In production environment, you need automate database, listener and EM startup. To automate them, please refer to one of my previous blogs – Automatically StartUp and Shutdown an Oracle Database in Linux OS

Start the listener

oracle_install24

Then, start Enterprise Manager

oracle_install25

Now, we can login to EM page to administer our database using above given address:

http://localhost.localdomain:1158/em/

oracle_install26

Enter user sys and its password, then select “SYSDBA” as a role and click Login

oracle_install27

Using Enterprise Manager, you can administer your database in very easy steps

That’s all!! Our Database and EM is ready for use! Congratulations!!!

By following above mentioned steps we were able to install Oracle 10g R2 on CentOS 5. But if we carry out frequent tests and as a result of these tests each time we are to install Oracle Database, then we need to automate installation of Oracle Database. I would suggest two options to overcome this problem:

  1. To install CentOS+Oracle on VMware and copy image of VMware to elsewhere, then each time use this image to get fresh copy of Oracle Database
  2. To automate installation of Oracle Database by using Shell Script

Let’s explain each option in details: 

  1. Firstly, I usually create new Virtual Machine with 10GB size. Then, I install CentOS on it and create an Oracle Database with all its configurations. Then I shut down Virtual Machine and copy all the folders to another directory. Usually, I create two copies of the Virtual Machine. Then I do all my tests on the first Virtual Machine. When it becomes useless, I shut down and delete it as a whole folder, open second Virtual Machine which I’ve copied and continue my tests.
  2. Second way is the best method of approach to the problem. For this, I create a shell script and write all steps and do all configuration changes from this script. By running this script once, all configurations needed for Oracle Installation will be changed automatically and we will only be asked for new oracle user’s password and next we’ll see installation page open.

 

Automating installation of Oracle Database 10g Release 2 on Centos 5 using Shell Script

To automate this job, we wrote a Shell Script. Before running this script, we should follow some steps as shown below: 

1. Firstly you should know that before running this script we should create install directory in /tmp directory and copy zipped installation file of Oracle to this directory  with this installation script

2. Before running this script we must be sure that installation DVD of CentOS has been inserted or installation DVD image of CentOS mounted to the system. You can check it by running this code:

 oracle_install28

3. After installation completes, change the following Environment Variables and alias name into proper names which you’ve used during installation in the .bashrc file

  1. ORACLE_HOME  – If it is different folder, change it to correct value
  2. ORACLE_SID – If it is different SID, change it to correct SID  
  3. As an alias, you can assign whatever you want

If everything is OK as mentioned above, we change directory to /tmp/install folder and run install.sh file. By running this shell script, all configurations needed for installation will be automatically changed and only thing asked will be oracle user’s password. After that we’ll see Oracle Database installation page. By clicking Next buttons we’ll be able to install Oracle Software and Database very easily

Now, let’s install Oracle Database 10g using this Shell Script

First of all, we need to create install folder in the /tmp directory and copy zipped installation file of Oracle Database 10g to /tmp/install directory with install.sh script and check their existence. After that we need to mount Centos DVD once more, because we’re going to install some packages that were not installed with CentOS. After getting below screen, you can start installation

oracle_install29

Here we see that

  • We have zipped installation file of Oracle Database 10g in the /tmp/install directory
  • We mounted CentOS DVD

 Now, switch to /tmp/install folder and run install.sh script

oracle_install30

oracle_install31

oracle_install32

Here, enter oracle user’s password. Then click ok. After this step, zipped file will be unzipped

oracle_install33

After it finishes unzipping, we’ll get Installation Window

oracle_install34

That’s all! After getting this page, you should follow above mentioned installation steps in which we installed Oracle Database manually.

Using automatic install script we’ve avoided of all configuration settings and got Oracle 10gR2 installer page opened successfully

The automatic installation script for Oracle Database on Linux is as follows:

 

#########———— Installing Rpm files —–########

 

#Change directory to /tmp/install

cd /tmp/install

#Install all packages that are not installed during OS installation and that are required packages for Oracle Database 10gR2

echo “Installing rpm packages …”

 

rpm -Uvh “$(find /media/ -name compat-db*)”

rpm -Uvh “$(find /media/ -name sysstat*)”

rpm -Uvh “$(find /media/ -name libaio-devel*)”

rpm -Uvh “$(find /media/ -name libXp-1*)”

 

echo “Rpm packages installed

 

#Add lines to limits.conf file

echo “Changing limits.conf file”

cat >> /etc/security/limits.conf <<EOF

oracle soft nproc 2047

oracle hard nproc 16384

oracle soft nofile 1024

oracle hard nofile 65536

EOF

echo “limits.conf file changed successfully

 

#Add lines to profile to give maximum limit for Oracle user

echo “Changing /etc/profile file ….”

cat >> /etc/profile <<EOF

if [ \$USER = “oracle” ]; then

                                                  if [ \$SHELL = “bin/ksh” ]; then

                                                                ulimit -p 16384

                                                                ulimit -n 65536

                                                  else

                                                                ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536

                                                  fi

                                                  umask 022

fi

EOF

echo “/etc/profile file changed successfully

 

#Add line to /etc/pam.d/login file

echo “Changing /etc/pam.d/login file …”

cat >> /etc/pam.d/login <<EOF

session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so

EOF

echo “/etc/pam.d/login file changed successfuly

 

#Add some kernel parameters to /etc/sysctl.conf file

echo “Changing kernel parameters … “

 

cat >> /etc/sysctl.conf <<EOF

kernel.shmmax = 2147483648

kernel.shmall = 2097152

kernel.shmmni=4096

kernel.sem=250 32000 100 128

fs.file-max=65536

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range=1024 65000

net.core.rmem_default=1048576

net.core.rmem_max=1048576

net.core.wmem_default=262144

net.core.wmem_max=262144

EOF

 

echo “Kernel parameters changed successfully

#Save all new kernel parameters

 

/sbin/sysctl -p

 

#Add “redhat-4” line to /etc/redhat-release file

 

echo “Changing /etc/redhat-release file …”

cp /etc/redhat-release /etc/redhat-release.original

echo “redhat-4” > /etc/redhat-release

echo “/etc/redhat-release file changed successfully

 

#Create new groups and “oracle” user and add this user to group

echo “Creating new groups and ‘oracle’ user …”

groupadd oinstall

groupadd dba

useradd -m -g oinstall -G dba -d /home/oracle -s /bin/bash -c “Oracle Software Owner” oracle

passwd oracle

echo “Groups and user created successfully

#Adding Environment Variables

#Adding Environment Variables

cat >> /home/oracle/.bashrc <<EOF

export ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/lib

export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

alias mydb=’export ORACLE_SID=mydb;sqlplus “/ as sysdba”‘

export ORACLE_SID=mydb

EOF

EOF

 

 

#Unzip setup of Oracle

echo “Unzipping setup of Oracle 10g Release 2…. “

unzip 10201_database_linux32.zip

echo “Setup file successfully unzipped

#Enter to installation directory and run the installation …

echo “Installation begins …”

cd /tmp/install/database

chmod 755 runInstaller

chmod 755 install/.oui

chmod 755 install/unzip

xhost +

sudo -u oracle /tmp/install/database/runInstaller


Posted in Administration, DBA scripts, Oracle on Linux | 227 Comments »

Step by Step multiplexing Control File of Oracle Database by adding new hard drive to Linux

Posted by Kamran Agayev A. on 23rd March 2009

Posted in Administration, Oracle on Linux | 9 Comments »

I'm 10g OCP now!!!

Posted by Kamran Agayev A. on 6th February 2009

Hi all

Today I’ve passed 1Z0-043 Oracle Administration 2 Exam and become Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) with 95% score

You can congratulate me! :)

Now I don’t want to stop and want go further to these certifications:

Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Professional

Oracle Database 10g: Managing Oracle on Linux Certified Expert

Oracle Database: SQL Certified Expert

Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate

Oracle Forms Developer Certified Professional

Oracle Advanced PL/SQL Developer Certified Professional

I’ve registered to all these exams and Oracle University courses and my company (BakuElektrikShebeke) is ready to pay for these exams and courses :)) From here I want to thank to management of my company

Posted in Administration | 32 Comments »

Automatically StartUp and Shutdown an Oracle Database in Linux OS

Posted by Kamran Agayev A. on 22nd December 2008

Today I want to show you how we can Start-up and Shutdown an Oracle database on Linux OS automatically
In Windows, when we install an Oracle database, it creates a Windows Service which starts the database automatically as soon as OS starts. But in Linux, it’s different. You need to create your own service to start and shutdown your database when you start and shutdown your OS respectively. Now we’ll go through this example step by step to show how we can do it

1. First of all we’ve to change our /etc/oratab file. Why do we use it? Oratab file is used by Oracle utilities. It’s created by root.sh script, when we install an Oracle Server, and is updated each time by DBCA (Database Configuration Assistant) when we create a new database. After having installed a new database (in this case, our database name is mydb), entering by root user, let us see the source of this file. At the end of this file, you’ll find:

mydb:/home/oracle/product/10.1.0/Db_1:N

The first field is the name of my database (mydb), the second one is my home directory (/home/oracle/product/10.1.0/Db_1), and the third indicates to the dbstart utility whether the database should, or should not be brough up at the system boot time with “Y” or “N” parameters respectively
As a root user, we’ll change last field of this line from “N” to “Y” to let dbstart utility start this database when it runs

2. In this step, we’ll create a file with name startdb and write a small script to be run when our system starts or shuts down. If you want this file to be added as a service which starts when your OS boots, you should put it in /etc/init.d/ directory. In this script, we’ll define two variables, ORA_OWNER and ORACLE_HOME and then, we’ll start (or shutdown) our database by connecting with oracle user and running lsnrctl (Listener utility), dbstart (utility which starts the database) and dbshut (utility which shutdowns the database) utilities depending on our OS state.
This is the source of our startdb file:

ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/product/10.1.0/Db_1
ORA_OWNER=oracle

case “$1” in
 ‘start’)  #If the system is starting, then …
su – $ORA_OWNER -c “$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl start” #Start the listener
su – $ORA_OWNER -c “$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart #Start the database
  ;;

‘stop’)   #If the system is stops, that is we’re shutting down our OS, then …
  su -$ORA_OWNER -c $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut
  su -$ORA_OWNER -c “$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl stop”
  ;;
esac

3. Once you’ve saved your file into this directory, make sure that it’s executable by running:
chmod 750  startdb

4. Then you need to add the appropriate symbolic links to cause the script to be executed when the system goes down, or comes up. Create it with ln -s command.

# ln -s /etc/init.d/startdb /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/K01startdb
# ln -s /etc/init.d/startdb /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S99startdb
# ln -s /etc/init.d/startdb /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/K01startdb
# ln -s /etc/init.d/startdb /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S99startdb

Let’s analyze these commands:
The first line creates symbolic link of our script in rc3.d directory. At startup, Linux runs /etc/rc.d/rc script at the current level (normally 3 or 5). rc3.d indicates 3rd runlevel, “K” indicates OS’s shutdown (on servers shutdown, Linux calls the scripts in /etc/rc.d/rc3/K* in order)
The second line creates another symbolic link of our script, to be run at startup of our OS, indicating “S99” and the name of our script
Another two lines creates symoblic links for 5th runlevel.

That’s all. Your script and your service is ready for use. Just restart your OS and upon startup you’ll see your newly created service running. Then open new terminal, enter you database and issue :
SQL>SELECT status FROM v$instance;

You’ll see your database’s status is OPEN

P.S
In some releases, even when we create a new service, it doesn’t work. When we issue dbstart command manually from OS, we’re getting an error:
cat: /var/opt/oracle/oratab: No such file or directory

It has simple reason and solution
If the directory /var/opt/oracle exists during the Oracle installation the dbhome script will have the parameter ORATAB set to “/var/opt/oracle/oratab” instead of “/etc/oratab”. The normal DBCA process during a default installation will still add the instance entry to /etc/oratab.

It has two solutions:
1. You can either copy the original oratab file to this directory :
cp /etc/oratab /var/opt/oracle/

2. Or you can edit dbstart and dbshut scripts, find the variable ORATAB, and you’ll find that it’s addressing to  /var/opt/oracle/oratab file. Just change it to /etc/oratab

Posted in Administration, Oracle on Linux | 40 Comments »

Welcome to my Oracle Blog

Posted by Kamran Agayev A. on 24th November 2008

Hi All. Welcome to my Oracle Blog. In this blog, I’ll try to add new solutions for some problems and provide briefly examples. Moreover, I’m planning periodically to analyze some administration features of Oracle database

Posted in Administration, DBA scripts, Interview questions, Oracle on Linux, Oracle Utilities, Qafqaz University, SQL and PL/SQL | 15 Comments »