NW2004s MCOD install not detecting existing Oracle instance

Question

We are attempting to perform a distributed database installation for
NW2004s AS-JAVA. We wish to use an existing SAP/Oracle database
called "JB1" running on Oracle/HP-UX using MCOD. The JB1 database instance
already contains a functioning NW2004s SAP AS-JAVA system.
We execute sapinst on the UNIX database host and
choose a Distributed Oracle DB installation. We enter the SAP SID
as "PD2" and the database SID as "JB1". However, it appears that
sapinst is not recognizing that the JB1 instance is already in
existence.
In our first attempt, sapinst removed all the redo logs and re-created
them, then attempted to perform a "CREATE DATABASE" command. This did
not seem to be the behavior we wanted for simply adding another schema
for the PD2 system. We restored the JB1 database from backup and are
now trying to run sapinst again.
I am seeing entries in the sapinst_dev.log that indicate:
"Oracle database exist: false"
Also, it appears from the ora_sql_results.log file that sapinst is not
correctly connecting to JB1 as sqlplus returns "connected to an idle
instance".  It appears the subsequent SQL script which selects from V$INSTANCE comes back with no entries which then causes sapinst to think there is no existing JB1 instance.
The JB1 database is running when we start sapinst and we are able to
connect as sysdba from the orajb1 account.
My assumption is that sapinst should not be trying to re-create the JB1
database and that it is simply unable to detect that it already exists
and should be doing an MCOD install. Can anyone assist in determining why
sapinst cannot connect with sqlplus?
Regards,
Mike Tarr

Answer 1

I have determined that if the JB1 database is shut down when I start
sapinst, then sapinst will attempt to start it and detects the instance
successfully. Should the existing database not be running when SAPINST is started for an MCOD install? It seems that there is still a problem with SAPINST connecting to the running JB1 instance.