Oracle 9i , what starts the server process

Question

I'm reading the documentation about the server process which communicates with the client process eg sqlplus. But I'm not sure about how the server process is started. Imagine a server where the instance is not running . I log in via sqlplus /nolog , connect as sysdba and execute the startup command. According to the documentation it is the server process which starts the instance , but what starts the server process. Perhaps it is the sqlplus process. And if i log in using sqlplus over the network , I communicate with the listner, in this case is it the listener which starts the server process. ?
George

Answer 1

Hi,
Take a look:
"... Some user processes cannot communicate with the dispatcher, so the network listener process cannot connect them to a dispatcher. In this case, or if the user process requests a dedicated server, the listener creates a dedicated server and establishes an appropriate connection."
Oracle® Database Concepts 10g Release 2 (10.2)
Process Architecture
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14220/process.htm#i21918
How Do Listeners Respond to Connection Requests
The listener can spawn a new process and pass control of the client session to the process. In a dedicated server environment, every client connection is serviced by its own server-side process. Server-side processes are not shared among clients. Depending on the capabilities of the operating system, two types of dedicated server connections are possible: bequeath connections and redirect connections. Each results in a separate process that handles client processing, but the mechanics of the actual connection initiation process are different.
Cheers