Oracle startup with Windows

Question

We have Oracle 10g (x64) installed on a Windows XP Pro x64 computer, along with ASM. When the computer reboots, both instances start up, but the database instance doesn't actually open the database on startup. So far, I've checked some registry settings (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\KEY_OraDb10g_home2) to make sure that autostart was set to true (which it was). I don't know of anything else to check or change to get the database to actually fully start with Windows. We're having this problem with several computers and I'm hoping somebody can help.

Answer 1

jbo5112 wrote:
We have Oracle 10g (x64) installed on a Windows XP Pro x64 computer, along with ASM. When the computer reboots, both instances start up, but the database instance doesn't actually open the database on startup. So far, I've checked some registry settings (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\KEY_OraDb10g_home2) to make sure that autostart was set to true (which it was). I don't know of anything else to check or change to get the database to actually fully start with Windows. We're having this problem with several computers and I'm hoping somebody can help.My word you've had some interesting answers. Oracle provides the ORADIM utility as mentioned already to manage oracle database services on windows. You can see the syntax by issuing the command on it's own in a cmd window - eg
ORADIM: <command> [options].  Refer to manual.
Enter one of the following command:
Create an instance by specifying the following options:
     -NEW -SID sid | -SRVC srvc | -ASMSID sid | -ASMSRVC srvc [-SYSPWD pass]
[-STARTMODE auto|manual] [-SRVCSTART system|demand] [-PFILE file | -SPFILE]
[-SHUTMODE normal|immediate|abort] [-TIMEOUT secs] [-RUNAS osusr/ospass]
Edit an instance by specifying the following options:
     -EDIT -SID sid | -ASMSID sid [-SYSPWD pass]
[-STARTMODE auto|manual] [-SRVCSTART system|demand] [-PFILE file | -SPFILE]
[-SHUTMODE normal|immediate|abort] [-SHUTTYPE srvc|inst] [-RUNAS osusr/ospass]
Delete instances by specifying the following options:
     -DELETE -SID sid | -ASMSID sid | -SRVC srvc | -ASMSRVC srvc
Startup services and instance by specifying the following options:
     -STARTUP -SID sid | -ASMSID sid [-SYSPWD pass]
[-STARTTYPE srvc|inst|srvc,inst] [-PFILE filename | -SPFILE]
Shutdown service and instance by specifying the following options:
     -SHUTDOWN -SID sid | -ASMSID sid [-SYSPWD pass]
[-SHUTTYPE srvc|inst|srvc,inst] [-SHUTMODE normal|immediate|abort]
Query for help by specifying the following parameters: -? | -h | -helpThe above from a 10.2 database install gives you the clue that
1) You don't need to delete and recreate, you'll be able to edit the service.
2) The current parameter for the password for sysdba access is -SYSPWD though in older versions it was -INTPWD.
In addition you should certainly check the Oracle alert log for errors on attempted startup, and the oradim.log for errors encountered when the database itself is started by oardim (you'll find this in %ORACLE_HOME%\database . If I were guessing then I'd hazard a guess that the ASM instance was not fully open before the database was started. The alert log will tell you that.
If you do find it's the ASM problem then a couple of solutions present themselves.
1) don't rely on automatic start, but set the services to manual and then schedule a shell script at startup that starts the services using "net start servicename"
2) Edit the OracleServiceSID to make it dependent on the ASM service using the procedure in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193888
Niall Litchfield
http://www.orawin.info/