Recently, I was required by our company to solve an important task related to subscriber payments. 
The subscribers transfer their payment through some post offices. Despite the fact that these post offices use our online payment transfer system, however some of them use their own programs to make payments. In order to view the list of our subscribers and from time to time to update list of subscribers, they need to add new subscribers to their database system. We were also asked to send newly created subscriber codes automatically to these post offices. To put this into practice I followed the steps mentioned below

Firstly, I decided that, I have to:

1. Provide SQL script to prepare subscribers list
2. To make daily schedule
3. To make schedule to run the above mentioned SQL script and write it to a file
4. When prepared, make this file zipped and mailed automatically to relevant person

On the end of this task we’ll be familiar with
1. Creating a file based on SQL script using Oracle UTL_FILE built in Package
2. Creating shell script which runs Sql procedure
3. Sending e-mail with attachment using Oracle UTL_SMTP built in Package
4. Using cron to schedule a job in Linux
5. Combine all together and automate them

Lets implement above mentioned steps by explaining them one by one

1. First of all we create SQL script and get the list of subscriber codes.  As it is not permissible to view our main table’s structure online, we create virtual code table and use it during this process

CREATE TABLE subscriber_list (kod VARCHAR2(5))
/
INSERT INTO subscriber_list VALUES(‘11111’)
/
INSERT INTO subscriber_list VALUES(‘65498’)
/
INSERT INTO subscriber_list VALUES(‘78946’)
/
INSERT INTO subscriber_list VALUES(‘55666’)
/
INSERT INTO subscriber_list VALUES(‘46667’)
/
COMMIT

Our SQL script will be as simple as our table

SELECT * FROM subscriber_list;

2. Each time when this SQL script is called, its output should be written to file and file name should bear today’s date

In order to create this file we use UTL_FILE package and create a procedure. To create the file in a proper directory, we need to create a directory object

CREATE DIRECTORY export_dir AS ‘/home/oracle/export’;

And create the following procedure to create the file:

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE proc_export_file AS
        CURSOR cur_kod IS
                SELECT kod from subscriber_list;

        CURSOR cur_date IS
                SELECT sysdate FROM dual;

rec1 cur_kod%ROWTYPE;
rec2 cur_date%ROWTYPE;
created_file_name VARCHAR2(100);
file_name UTL_FILE.FILE_TYPE;

BEGIN
 –Here, we open cur_date cursor, get today’s date and set it to created_file_name variable
 OPEN cur_date;
       
 LOOP
                FETCH cur_date INTO rec2;
                EXIT WHEN cur_date%NOTFOUND;
                created_file_name:=rec2.sysdate;
 
  –We send parameter ‘w’ (to create the file), file name and directory name to UTL_FILE.FOPEN function to create this file with .exp extention
       
         file_name:=UTL_FILE.FOPEN(‘EXPORT_DIR’,created_file_name||’.exp’,’W’);
                OPEN cur_kod;
                LOOP

   –We open our mail cursor and get all rows and put it to our file line by line
                 FETCH cur_kod INTO rec1;
                        EXIT WHEN cur_kod%NOTFOUND;
                        UTL_FILE.PUTF(file_name,’%s\n’,rec1.kod);
                END LOOP;
                UTL_FILE.FCLOSE(file_name);
        END LOOP;

CLOSE cur_kod;

CLOSE cur_date;
END proc_export_file;
/

Here, we declared 2 cursors. One of them set today’s date to a variable called created_file_name. Then we create a file using UTL_FILE.FOPEN and ‘w’ parameter, give it a name which we have obtained from the first cursor (today’s date) and then open our second cursor to get all rows from subscriber table and insert them to file with .exp extension

3. In this step we create a shell script which calls above mentioned procedure. Its name will be export_code.sh. We give it execute permission to make it executable

[oracle@localhost ~]

# We move to /home/oracle directory
cd /home/oracle  

#Create new directory to save file that will be created using proc_export_file procedure
mkdir export

#Give it permission
chmod 755 export

#Change directory
cd export

#Create export_code.sh file
touch export_code.sh

#Give it executable permission
chmod 755 export_code.sh

#Open it in order to change its source
vi export_code.sh

4. Shell Script’s source is as follows (Don’t forget to change your ORACLE_SID value in this script)

###################### Shell Script to create file using procedure, zip and send it as an attachment to relevant address ####################
#!/bin/sh

#Export Oracle Environment Variables
export ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/OraHome_1
export ORACLE_SID=#######
export PATH=/home/oracle/OraHome_1/bin:$PATH

#Open sqlplus and connect as sys user with sysdba privilege
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus /nolog <<EOF
connect / as sysdba

#Run proc_export_file procedure to create file
exec proc_export_file;
exit;
EOF

#Change directory to /home/oracle/export
cd /home/oracle/export

#Find newly created .exp file, take its name, zip it by using its name with tar utility
tar -cvf “$(ls *.exp).tar” “$(ls *.exp)”

#Remove original .exp file,
rm -rf *.exp

#Get list of tar file in /home/oracle/export directory. As there’s only one file, the file name will be set to tar_file variable
tar_file=’/home/oracle/export/*.tar’

#Here we connect to sqlplus and use email_files procedure to send mail
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus /nolog <<EOF
connect / as sysdba
exec email_files(from_name=>’kamran.agayev@bes.az’,to_names=>’kamran.agayev@bes.az’, subject=> ‘Subscriber codes’,filename1=>’$(printf $tar_file)’, filetype1=> ‘application/x-tar’);
exit
EOF

#Remove .tar file, because we’ve just sent it as an attachment
rm -rf /home/oracle/export/*.tar

######################### Shell Script to create file using procedure, zip and send it as an attachment to relevant address ##########################

Let’s examine this script step by step

In the first three lines, we set Oracle environment variables to their proper values to use sqlplus and connect to our database. Then we call SqlPlus with nolog option. The code that between <<EOF and EOF,  will be used by SqlPlus. Firstly, we connect to our database as sys user and call our newly created procedure named proc_export_file to create a file with subscriber codes and then exit SqlPlus

Then we switch to the directory where our file have been created and zip it. As our file is created with .exp extension and it is only one file in this directory with such extension, we list it and get its name by “$(ls *.exp)” command. By using tar command with cvf parameter and “($ls *.exp).tar” command, we find the file with .exp extension and zip it using its own name and by adding tar extension

Then, as we’ve obtained zipped format of .exp file, we delete original .exp file with rm -rf *.exp command

In the next step, we create variable tar_file and get the name of only one newly created tar file from /home/oracle/export directory and set it to this variable

Then again, we connect to SqlPlus with sys user and run email_files procedure. This procedure, is used to send mail with attachment to defined recipient. In the from_name parameter we write our mail, in the to_name parameter we write recipient mail, in the subject parameter we write mail’s subject, in the message parameter, we write mail’s text and in the filename1 parameter, we write newly created zipped file’s name. As we’ve set its name to tar_file variable, we can use this variable inside our script, using $(printf $tar_file) command

In order to create email_files procedure, we use below mentioned code. The v_smtp_server and v_smtp_server_port variables which we use in this procedure, are our SMPT Server’s IP address and Port number. Change it and make it to be correct values to be able to send mail

———– This procedure used to send file as attachment using UTL_SMTP package ————

create or replace procedure email_files(from_name varchar2,
                      to_names varchar2,
                      subject varchar2,
                      message varchar2 default null,
                      html_message varchar2 default null,
                      cc_names varchar2 default null,
                      bcc_names varchar2 default null,
                      filename1 varchar2 default null,
                      filetype1 varchar2 default ‘text/plain’,
                      filename2 varchar2 default null,
                      filetype2 varchar2 default ‘text/plain’,
                      filename3 varchar2 default null,
                      filetype3 varchar2 default ‘text/plain’)
is

   — Change the SMTP host name and port number below to your own values,
   — if not localhost on port 25:

   smtp_host          varchar2(256) := ‘####################’;
   smtp_port          number := 25;

   boundary           constant varchar2(256) := ‘CES.Boundary.DACA587499938898’;

   recipients         varchar2(32767);
   directory_path     varchar2(256);
   file_name          varchar2(256);
   crlf               varchar2(2):= chr(13) || chr(10);
   mesg               varchar2(32767);
   conn               UTL_SMTP.CONNECTION;
   type varchar2_table is table of varchar2(256) index by binary_integer;
   file_array         varchar2_table;
   type_array         varchar2_table;
   i                  binary_integer;

   PROCEDURE split_path_name(file_path IN VARCHAR2, directory_path OUT VARCHAR2,
      file_name OUT VARCHAR2) IS

      pos number;

   begin

      — Separate the filename from the directory name

      pos := instr(file_path,’/’,-1);
      if pos = 0 then
         pos := instr(file_path,’\’,-1);
      end if;
      if pos = 0 then
         directory_path := null;
      else
         directory_path := substr(file_path,1,pos – 1);
      end if;
      file_name := substr(file_path,pos + 1);

   end;

   — Procedure to append a file’s contents to the e-mail

   PROCEDURE append_file(directory_path IN VARCHAR2, file_name IN VARCHAR2,
      file_type IN VARCHAR2, conn IN OUT UTL_SMTP.CONNECTION) IS

      generated_name  varchar2(30) := ‘CESDIR’ || to_char(sysdate,’HH24MISS’);
      directory_name  varchar2(30);
      file_handle     utl_file.file_type;
      bfile_handle    bfile;
      bfile_len       number;
      pos             number;
      read_bytes      number;
      line            varchar2(1000);
      data            raw(200);
      my_code         number;
      my_errm         varchar2(32767);

   begin

      begin

         — Grant access to the directory, unless already defined, and open
         — the file (as a bfile for a binary file, otherwise as a text file).
   
         begin
            line := directory_path;
            select dd.directory_name into directory_name from dba_directories dd
               where dd.directory_path = line and rownum = 1;
         exception
            when no_data_found then
               directory_name := generated_name;
         end;
         if directory_name = generated_name then
            execute immediate ‘create or replace directory ‘ || directory_name ||
               ‘ as ”’ || directory_path || ””;
            execute immediate ‘grant read on directory ‘ || directory_name ||
               ‘ to public’;
         end if;
         if substr(file_type,1,4) != ‘text’ then
            bfile_handle := bfilename(directory_name,file_name);
            bfile_len := dbms_lob.getlength(bfile_handle);
            pos := 1;
            dbms_lob.open(bfile_handle,dbms_lob.lob_readonly);
         else
            file_handle := utl_file.fopen(directory_name,file_name,’r’);
         end if;
   
         — Append the file contents to the end of the message
   
         loop
   
            — If it is a binary file, process it 57 bytes at a time,
            — reading them in with a LOB read, encoding them in BASE64,
            — and writing out the encoded binary string as raw data
   
            if substr(file_type,1,4) != ‘text’ then
               if pos + 57 – 1 > bfile_len then
                  read_bytes := bfile_len – pos + 1;
               else
                  read_bytes := 57;
               end if;
               dbms_lob.read(bfile_handle,read_bytes,pos,data);
               utl_smtp.write_raw_data(conn,utl_encode.base64_encode(data));
               pos := pos + 57;
               if pos > bfile_len then
                  exit;
               end if;
   
            — If it is a text file, get the next line of text, append a
            — carriage return / line feed to it, and write it out
   
            else
               utl_file.get_line(file_handle,line);
               utl_smtp.write_data(conn,line || crlf);
            end if;
     
         end loop;
   
      — Output any errors, except at end when no more data is found
   
      exception
         when no_data_found then
            null;
         when others then
            my_code := SQLCODE;
            my_errm := SQLERRM;
            dbms_output.put_line(‘Error code ‘ || my_code || ‘: ‘ ||
               my_errm);
      end;

      — Close the file (binary or text)

      if substr(file_type,1,4) != ‘text’ then
         dbms_lob.close(bfile_handle);
      else
         utl_file.fclose(file_handle);
      end if;
      if directory_name = generated_name then
         execute immediate ‘drop directory ‘ || directory_name;
      end if;

   end;

begin

   — Load the three filenames and file (mime) types into an array for
   — easier handling later

   file_array(1) := filename1;
   type_array(1) := filetype1;
   — Open the SMTP connection and set the From and To e-mail addresses

   conn := utl_smtp.open_connection(smtp_host,smtp_port);
   utl_smtp.helo(conn,smtp_host);
   recipients := from_name;
   utl_smtp.mail(conn,recipients);
   recipients := to_names;
   utl_smtp.rcpt(conn,recipients);
   utl_smtp.open_data(conn);

   — Build the start of the mail message

   mesg := ‘Date: ‘ || TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,’dd Mon yy hh24:mi:ss’) || crlf ||
      ‘From: ‘ || from_name || crlf ||
      ‘Subject: ‘ || subject || crlf ||
      ‘To: ‘ || to_names || crlf;
   mesg := mesg || ‘Mime-Version: 1.0’ || crlf ||
      ‘Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=”‘ || boundary || ‘”‘ ||
      crlf || crlf ||
      ‘This is a Mime message, which your current mail reader may not’ || crlf ||
      ‘understand. Parts of the message will appear as text. If the remainder’ || crlf ||
      ‘appears as random characters in the message body, instead of as’ || crlf ||
      ‘attachments, then you”ll have to extract these parts and decode them’ || crlf ||
      ‘manually.’ || crlf || crlf;
   utl_smtp.write_data(conn,mesg);

   — Write the text message or message file, if any

   if message is not null then
      mesg := ‘–‘ || boundary || crlf ||
         ‘Content-Type: text/plain; name=”message.txt”; charset=US-ASCII’ ||
          crlf ||
         ‘Content-Disposition: inline; filename=”message.txt”‘ || crlf ||
         ‘Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit’ || crlf || crlf;
      utl_smtp.write_data(conn,mesg);
      if substr(message,1,1) = ‘/’ then
         split_path_name(message,directory_path,file_name);
         append_file(directory_path,file_name,’text’,conn);
         utl_smtp.write_data(conn,crlf);
      else
         utl_smtp.write_data(conn,message || crlf);
      end if;
   end if;

   — Append the files
      if file_array(1) is not null then

         split_path_name(file_array(1),directory_path,file_name);

         — Generate the MIME boundary line according to the file (mime) type
         — specified.

         mesg := crlf || ‘–‘ || boundary || crlf;
         if substr(type_array(1),1,4) != ‘text’ then
            mesg := mesg || ‘Content-Type: ‘ || type_array(1) ||
               ‘; name=”‘ || file_name || ‘”‘ || crlf ||
               ‘Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=”‘ ||
               file_name || ‘”‘ || crlf ||
               ‘Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64’ || crlf || crlf ;
         else
            mesg := mesg || ‘Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=”‘ ||
               file_name || ‘”‘ || crlf ||
               ‘Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=”‘ ||
               file_name || ‘”‘ || crlf ||
               ‘Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit’ || crlf || crlf ;
         end if;
         utl_smtp.write_data(conn,mesg);

         — Append the file contents to the end of the message

         append_file(directory_path,file_name,type_array(1),conn);
         utl_smtp.write_data(conn,crlf);

      end if;
  

   — Append the final boundary line

   mesg := crlf || ‘–‘ || boundary || ‘–‘ || crlf;
   utl_smtp.write_data(conn,mesg);

   — Close the SMTP connection

   utl_smtp.close_data(conn);
   utl_smtp.quit(conn);

end;
/

———– This procedure used to send file as attachment using UTL_SMTP package ————

5. Finaly we have SQL script, procedure that writes its result to file, shell script that runs this procedure, zips and sends the file as attachment to required mail

In the end, we need to create schedule to automatically implement it independently. In Linux we can do it with cron. We need to create cron, make it run within time interval

In Linux system, we need to follow below mentioned steps to create a cron with any username

[oracle@localhost ~] crontab /etc/crontab
With this command we make /etc/crontab file as oracle user’s default cron file. Based on the text of this file, crond service defines the processes and their run times

No we change this crontab’s text and make it to run our shell script in our desired time. To change this file’s text, run:

[oracle@localhost ~]crontab -e

We have to note that, when you run crontab -e command, standard editor vi is opening. In order to change the file opened with this editor, type “i” and change the file

To make shell script run every night, we add this line into our cron file

0 0 * * * /home/oracle/export/export_code.sh

When changes made, type “:wq” to save these changes and exit

To create a specific cron setting you need to understand a bit about the way a command is written for cron. The best way to help you understand is to show you some examples.

Remember that a cron entry is specified in the following sequence: Minute (0-59)  Hour (0-23)  Day of Month (1-31)  Month (1-12 or Jan-Dec)  Day of Week (0-6 or Sun-Sat)  Command

The line we added will run the shell script named export_code.sh file at midnight, of every month, for all days of the week. The 0 is in place of Hour and minutes, and represents midnight (0-23 of a 24 hour clock).

[oracle@localhost ~] crontab -l
By running crontab -l command, we can see connected user’s crontab file entry

Our script is ready to use. Let’s run and test it
[oracle@localhost ~] ./export_code.sh

Now, this script will run, create a file, zip it and send it as attachment to our mail

Today I would like to introduce you some articles related to advanced Linux commands. These commands will be useful when working with Oracle Database

There’re 5 articles that I would like to introduce you

Guide to Linux File Command Mastery (Sheryl Calish) 

Guide to Advanced Linux Command Mastery – part 1 (Arup Nanda)

Guide to Advanced Linux Command Mastery – part 2 (Arup Nanda)

Guide to Advanced Linux Command Mastery – part 3 (Arup Nanda)

UNIX Commands for DBAs (Tim Hall) 

   

Today, I’m going to show you, installation of CentOS on a virtual machine

First of all, we’ve to download CentOS. CentOS is a freely-available operating system that is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.  You can download the latest release (5) from its website. To download, please refer to download page of CentOS web site

http://isoredirect.centos.org/centos/5/isos/i386/

Select nearest location and begin downloading *.iso files.

After you finish downloading *.iso files, you have to mount it and let your VMware recognize it as a virtual “cd” or “dvd”. For this purpose, I prefer to download one DVD *.iso installation file. Please open VMware, double click on CD-ROM (IDE 1-0) item, select Use ISO image option and click Browse button to select your recently downloaded *.iso installation file of CentOS as shown below

 

Now you virtually inserted you installation DVD into DVD-ROM. And you’re ready to install your OS virtually.  

 

You should change your Memory to 1024 MB for your further Oracle installation. Double click on Memory item and set it to 1024

Then click Power button to start your virtual pc

  

When your virtual pc starts, you’ll see welcome screen of installation CentOS

 

 

If you’ll not be able to see this screen, then restart your virtual pc and click Esc button for Boot menu. And from this menu, select CD-ROM Drive

Click enter. The installation will tell you to begin testing of your installation cd or dvd. Select Skip button. It will skip testing your cd media and save your time

 

Then you’ll get another welcome screen, you only have to click next button on this screen

 

Select your language of installation and click Next

 

Then, select your keyboard configuration to use it for the system you’re installing and click Next

 

Then, you’ll be warned to create new partitions by erasing ALL DATA on your newly created hard drive. As there’s no information in this drive, you’ll select Yes

 

In this step, just let it remain selected and click next

 

 

Then there’ll be warning “You have chosen to remove all Linux partitions (and ALL DATA on them) on the following drives: /dev/sda   Are you sure you want to do this?” Click Yes

Then, you’ll see Network Configurations screen, as it is your test virtual pc, don’t change anything and click next. You can change whatever you want after installation, for now, let it continue in this way and click Next

 

 

From this screen, select your region and click Next

 

 

Then, you’ll be prompted to enter password for root user, enter it and click Next

  

 

To install packages, especially for working with Oracle Server, select all options except Clustering and Storage Clustering. Then select Customize now option and click Next

 

 

Then, from Base System menu, select Legacy Software Support, System Tools and click Next

 

Now, you’re ready for installation. Click next on this screen, the installation will begin

 

You’ll see how all packages are installing. After a while, your OS will be ready for use

 

After the installation is completed, click Reboot button to reboot your OS

 

After reboot, you’ll face with another Welcome screen. There’re some steps need to be completed

Click Forward button on the screen.

 

Here, just disable your Firewall. Its only for test purpose, don’t disable your Firewall on real system! And click forward button

 

For testing purpose, it would be good to disable SELinux too

 

Then keeping Kdump disabled, click Forward

 

 

If you need, make your Date and Time configuration and click Forward

 

 

If you want to create a new user, you can fill these blanks. You can pass this step too by clicking Forward button

 

 

Then Click Finish and the system will reboot

 

 

After reboot, CentOS will be opened and you’ll be prompted to enter username (root) and password (root’s password)

 

 

 

Your Centos is ready to use! Congratulations.

 

 

In the next article, I’m going to show installation of Oracle 10g Release 2 on our Centos OS

 

Additionally, while using an operating system inside VMware, you recognize that every time you have to enter to its area and then press Ctrl+Alt buttons to leave this area and to return to your system.

To solve this issue, you should install VMware Tools.

As the VMware Tools will be installed from CD-Rom device, you should disconnect your connected CD-Rom device as shown below

 

 

Next, Select VM menu on VMware application and select Install VMware Tools menu item.

 

 

Then click Install button on this message box to Install VMware Tools

 

 

 

Then enter to My Computer and double click on CD-ROM Drive. You’ll see there two packages.

 

 

Now, double click on *.rpm file to setup   

After installation complete, copy another *.gz file to anywhere in hard drive. In our example we are coping it to tmp directory inside FileSystem, paste the file into this folder, right click on it and select Extract Here menu item

 

 

Then enter to the folder vmware-tools-distrib and double click on vmware-install.pl file and click Run in Terminal button

 

 

Then, whenever you’re asked to enter the value, just click enter

But when you’re prompted to enter value for the display size of your X, be careful to enter default value. If you want your Virtual Machine to be little size, enter 2 (800-600)

That’s all! Your VMware Tools installed. Now you can enter to VMware’s area and exit it without clicking Ctrl+Alt

P.S. If you’ll face with “VMware hgfs: HGFS is disabled in the host” error, just reboot your system

As we know, if you want to setup Oracle Server – especially for testing purpose – it would be better to setup it on your “virtual PC”, not on PC directly. For this purpose, you can use software named “VMware” to achieve this aim. In this document, firstly we discuss how we can use VMware, how we can setup it, create a new “Virtual PC”. On the next articles, we’ll discuss how to install OS (as an operating system, I’m using Centos) on this virtual machine. CentOS is a freely-available operating system that is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. Then we’ll try to setup Oracle Server (10g Release 2) on this virtual machine

In this article, let’s show how we can setup and create new VMware Virtual machine and prepare it for further OS installation

1. First of all, enter to the official site of VMware and download VMware Workstation with a 30-day free evaluation from this address:

https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=workstation-w

Currently I’m using version 6.0.0 and all these examples are compatible and tested with this version

2. After downloading VMware workstation, install it on your PC

3. Setup will open Welcome Screen

Click on Next button and choose Typical option

 

4. By clicking “Next” buttons, to begin the installation, click on Install button at the end

5. This will install VMware Workstation software on your PC, After installation complete, click on Finish button. Then restart your PC. Then open this software

 

 

6. In this step we try to create new “virtual machine”. Enter to File menu, then New-> Virtual Machine

Click on Next button, then check Typical option as below

Then click Next button, and check your OS version. In this example, as we’re going to setup Oracle server on CentOS, we’ll check Linux option and from “version” option we’ll check Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4

By clicking Next button, we’ll give a name to our virtual machine, and give directory to create this new virtual machine

 

 

Then select Use bridged networking option and click Next.

 

 

Then you’ve to define size of hard disk by entering its size. I’ll give 15 GB hard disk space and please check Allocate all disk space now option.  Although it will take longer to create new hard disk, you’ll see high performance of your virtual machine when installing new applications and adding new files. If you uncheck this option, new hard disk will be created automatically, but when you install new applications, it will impact your performance, because it will allocate space each time new files added or applications installed

That’s all. Your virtual machine is ready to use

 

 

 

Here, you can delete Sound Adapter, Floppy and USB Controller by entering “Edit virtual machine settings”. If you’re going to setup Oracle Server, please make sure you’ve increased your Memory (RAM) to 1GB

In the next article, we’ll show how to setup CentOS on this newly created virtual machine. It’s very easy, believe me J

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

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