Instance terminated by CKPT, pid = 944,What can I do? What is "pid=944"

Question

Tue Mar 12 22:11:36 2013
********************* ATTENTION: ********************
The controlfile header block returned by the OS
has a sequence number that is too old.
The controlfile might be corrupted.
PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO START UP THE INSTANCE
without following the steps below.
RE-STARTING THE INSTANCE CAN CAUSE SERIOUS DAMAGE
TO THE DATABASE, if the controlfile is truly corrupted.
In order to re-start the instance safely,
please do the following:
(1) Save all copies of the controlfile for later
analysis and contact your OS vendor and Oracle support.
(2) Mount the instance and issue:
ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE TO TRACE;
(3) Unmount the instance.
(4) Use the script in the trace file to
RE-CREATE THE CONTROLFILE and open the database.
Instance terminated by CKPT, pid = 944

Answer 1

Eddie Essex wrote:
What you need to do is documented in the steps above your error message.
pid=944 is just showing you the process ID of the checkpoint process. The PID is just an identifier used by Oracle. The V$PROCESS view will show you the pid of the database processes.Not to be pedantic, but the process won't exist in the instance now that the instance was restarted.
Ultimately, that doesn't matter anyway, as you said, though, what you need to do is documented in the error message. Be thankful that you got such a helpful message instead of the usual 'ORA-HAHAH: Instance terminated for no discernible reason - please learn hex and review the trace files'...:)