Tns listener with 10g grid control

Question

i have a primary database on site A and a standby database on site B. yesterday the relationship between the 2 was alright with logs being shipped and applied. now my standby is down(probably due to a power failure) and each time i try to start it up i get the following:
Error: ORA-12505: TNS:listener does not currently know of SID given in connect descriptor
This is oracle database 10g rel2 and grid control 10g rel2 sitting on windows xp. I have checked all the listener.ora and tnsnames.ora and do not seem to find anything amiss.
what i need to know is:
1 - are there any issues relating to installing rel2 on win xp?
2 - when enterprise manager looks at the listener, is it the listener on the server with the primary or standby database?
3 - has anybody ever had this issue, if so, what was the resolution?
sincerely
simba

Answer 1

1 There are no more issues compared to other platforms
2 It looks at the listener on the host you specify in tnsnames.ora
3 Look: it is quite simple: too many people post here about common errors they can't seem to resolve themselves, because they don't use already available resources. If you would have simply searched this forum for ora-12505 you would already have read the solution.
Typically, there is no need to ask around whether someone already ran into this. You are not unique, you are not the only one with this problem, and there are FAQs.
ORA-12505 simply means in your tnsnames.ora you are using a SID which doesn't occur in listener.ora
And you would have known this if you would have simply looked up the error in the online documentation. But alas: most people around here never use the documentation, though the Forums Etiquette post (also no one reads) recommends otherwise.
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA