startStandby.txt
09-08-2001 Bikle
-------------------

This file demonstrates a few simple commands used to start the BBIKLE standby database.

$
$ BBIKLE.csh
sf49er.bikle.com 1 % sqi

SQL*Plus: Release 8.1.7.0.0 - Production on Sat Sep 8 22:17:28 2001

(c) Copyright 2000 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Connected to an idle instance.

22:17:28 SQL> startup nomount
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area  186908832 bytes
Fixed Size		      73888 bytes
Variable Size		   75399168 bytes
Database Buffers	  100933632 bytes
Redo Buffers		   10502144 bytes
22:22:38 SQL> ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE;
ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01990: error opening password file '/u2/oracle/BBIKLE/dbs/orapw'


22:23:00 SQL> !orapwd file=/u2/oracle/BBIKLE/dbs/orapwBBIKLE password=boracle entries=11

22:25:26 SQL> shutdown abort
ORACLE instance shut down.
22:25:36 SQL> startup nomount
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area  186908832 bytes
Fixed Size		      73888 bytes
Variable Size		   75399168 bytes
Database Buffers	  100933632 bytes
Redo Buffers		   10502144 bytes
22:25:44 SQL> ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE;

Database altered.

22:26:06 SQL> 

Notice that in the above screen dump, I was forced to create an Oracle
password file.  I did not find mention of this in any of the Oracle
documents.  Fortunately I had bumped into a similar situation during
my attempts to install Oracle from an ORACLE_HOME tar ball.  So now,
whenever I see the error: "ORA-01990: error opening password file",
my natural response is to create an Oracle password file.  As we can see,
my judgement was on target.

So that is the main point of this file.  We needed to do three things
to mount the standby database:

-STARTUP NOMOUNT
-orapwd file=/u2/oracle/BBIKLE/dbs/orapwBBIKLE password=boracle entries=11
-ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE





If the reader is curious about how we solved a strange problem related
to the third step, he/she is urged to read further.

Speaking of errors, now is a good time to mention a problem I solved after
a bit of experimentation.

A copy of the error message is displayed below:

17:02:03 SQL> ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE;
ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01102: cannot mount database in EXCLUSIVE mode


I had bumped into the above error during my first attempt to run:
ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE;

I then used the oerr  utility to dig deeper into the problem:

sf49er.bikle.com 2 % oerr ora 1102
01102, 00000, "cannot mount database in EXCLUSIVE mode"
// *Cause:  Some other instance has the database mounted exclusive or shared.
// *Action: Shutdown other instance or mount in a compatible mode.
sf49er.bikle.com 3 % 

My impulse at this point was to change the DB_NAME parameter in
initBBIKLE.ora.  I made this change (along with the assumption that
the Oracle documentation contained an error): 
DB_NAME=ABIKLE -> DB_NAME=BBIKLE

Here is how Oracle responded:

17:14:39 SQL> ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE;
ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01103: database name 'ABIKLE' in controlfile is not 'BBIKLE'

So, it looks like the Oracle documentation was correct on this point.

I asked, "Why does this BBIKLE instance of Oracle think this database
is being used by the ABIKLE instance?"

Possible reason: "An instance will place a lock file in
$ORACLE_HOME/dbs to prevent other instances from mounting the
currently mounted database."

The above reason may apply to me because both ABIKLE and BBIKLE are using the same
tree of oracle software: /u2/oracle/817

We may have lock-file contention in the directory: /u2/oracle/817/dbs/

I took this approach to test my theory:

-rm the softlink /u2/oracle/BBIKLE->/u2/oracle/817

-mkdir /u2/oracle/BBIKLE

-copy all the software from /u2/oracle/817 into /u2/oracle/BBIKLE
 cd /u2/oracle/817
 tar cf - .|(cd /u2/oracle/BBIKLE;tar xf -)
 chmod 6751 /u2/oracle/BBIKLE/bin/oracle

-Remove all files which contain the name ABIKLE in the file name:
 /bin/find /u2/oracle/BBIKLE -type f -name '*ABIKLE*' -print|xargs /bin/rm

-Edit all files which contain the string ABIKLE and change the string to BBIKLE
 /bin/find /u2/oracle/BBIKLE -type f -print|xargs grep -l ABIKLE|xargs perl -e 's/ABIKLE/BBIKLE/g' -p -i.bak

Simply said, I created a separate tree of software for the BBIKLE
database.  Once I did this, my problems with the the ORA-01103 error
went away and I validated that my theory about lock-file contention in
$ORACLE_HOME/dbs.