Starting instance in idle mode (10gR2 on Windows Vista)

Question

Hi!
I was wondering how I can initially start an Oracle instance in idle mode. Currently, I can only open the database, then connect as sys with sqlplus and shutdown the database.
Here's what I do:
1.) Start the TNS Windows service.
2.) Start the "OracleService<SID>" Windows service. Otherwise I can't even connect with sqlplus, but starting this service buts the database in open mode already.
3.) Connect with sqlplus and execute shutdown.
Is there a way to start the "OracleService<SID>" Windows service but keeping the instance in idle mode directly?
Thanks for your help,
Marcus
Edited by: MMarcus on Nov 20, 2008 10:16 AM

Answer 1

Hi Marcus
Please be informed of that (source is from the great Burleson site, thanks guys!)
check the Win service:
Open the registry with regedit. Always back up the registry before making changes. Navigate to the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\oracle_home_name.
There will be a key called:
ORA_SID_AUTOSTART. SID is your database SID.
This key should be set to TRUE. If not the server starts but does not start the database. There is also an ORA_SID_SHUTDOWN which you want to be TRUE so that if the server is shut down the service will shutdown the database.
If you want to manually start the database set ORA_SID_AUTOSTART to FALSE. The service will start but not the database.
You can manage the windows service with oradim
Please read that for much more information :
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/win.102/b14304/create.htm#i1006533
Hope this helps you.