Automating Database Startup and Shutdown on Linux

When using RAC or ASM under Oracle 10g Release 2 or above, the Oracle Clusterware automatically starts and stops the Oracle database instances, so the following procedures are not necessary. For all other cases, you can use the methods described below.

The "su" Command
The "rsh" Command
Known Issues

The "su" Command

The following represents the Oracle recommended method for automating database startup and shutdown of Oracle 9i instances.

Once the instance is created, edit the "/etc/oratab" file setting the restart flag for each instance to 'Y'.

TSH1:/u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0:Y

Next, create a file called "/etc/init.d/dbora" as the root user, containing the following.

#!/bin/sh
# chkconfig: 345 99 10
# description: Oracle auto start-stop script.
#
# Set ORA_HOME to be equivalent to the $ORACLE_HOME
# from which you wish to execute dbstart and dbshut;
#
# Set ORA_OWNER to the user id of the owner of the 
# Oracle database in ORA_HOME.

ORA_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0
ORA_OWNER=oracle

if [ ! -f $ORA_HOME/bin/dbstart ]
then
    echo "Oracle startup: cannot start"
    exit
fi

case "$1" in
    'start')
        # Start the Oracle databases:
        # The following command assumes that the oracle login 
        # will not prompt the user for any values
        su - $ORA_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/bin/lsnrctl start"
        su - $ORA_OWNER -c $ORA_HOME/bin/dbstart
        touch /var/lock/subsys/dbora
        ;;
    'stop')
        # Stop the Oracle databases:
        # The following command assumes that the oracle login 
        # will not prompt the user for any values
        su - $ORA_OWNER -c $ORA_HOME/bin/dbshut
        su - $ORA_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/bin/lsnrctl stop"
        rm -f /var/lock/subsys/dbora
        ;;
esac

Use the chmod command to set the privileges to 750.

chmod 750 /etc/init.d/dbora

Associate the dbora service with the appropriate run levels and set it to auto-start using the following command.

chkconfig --add dbora

The relevant instances should now startup/shutdown automatically at system startup/shutdown.

This method can still be used under Oracle 10g and 11g, provided the "ORA_HOME" variable is amended to use the correct path and this is added to the end of the dbstart and dbshut lines. The lines to start and stop the listener can be removed under Oracle 10g release 2, as the dbstart command includes an automatic start of the listener.

#!/bin/sh
# chkconfig: 345 99 10
# description: Oracle auto start-stop script.
#
# Set ORA_HOME to be equivalent to the $ORACLE_HOME
# from which you wish to execute dbstart and dbshut;
#
# Set ORA_OWNER to the user id of the owner of the 
# Oracle database in ORA_HOME.

ORA_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1
#ORA_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1
ORA_OWNER=oracle

if [ ! -f $ORA_HOME/bin/dbstart ]
then
    echo "Oracle startup: cannot start"
    exit
fi

case "$1" in
    'start')
        # Start the Oracle databases:
        # The following command assumes that the oracle login 
        # will not prompt the user for any values
        su - $ORA_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/bin/dbstart $ORA_HOME"
        touch /var/lock/subsys/dbora
        ;;
    'stop')
        # Stop the Oracle databases:
        # The following command assumes that the oracle login 
        # will not prompt the user for any values
        su - $ORA_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/bin/dbshut $ORA_HOME"
        rm -f /var/lock/subsys/dbora
        ;;
esac

The "rsh" Command

With Oracle 10g, Oracle switched from recommending the "su" command to the "rsh" command. In Oracle 10g release 2, the dbstart command includes an automatic start of the listener, so there are some differences between the two versions, but the following represents the preferred method for Oracle 10g.

Once the instance is created, edit the "/etc/oratab" file setting the restart flag for each instance to 'Y'.

TSH1:/u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0:Y

Next, create a file called "/etc/init.d/dbora" as the root user, containing the following.

#!/bin/sh
# chkconfig: 345 99 10
# description: Oracle auto start-stop script.
#
# Change the value of ORACLE_HOME to specify the correct Oracle home
# directory for your installation.

ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1
#
# Change the value of ORACLE to the login name of the
# oracle owner at your site.
#
ORACLE=oracle

PATH=${PATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
HOST=`hostname`
PLATFORM=`uname`
export ORACLE_HOME PATH
#
if [ ! "$2" = "ORA_DB" ] ; then
   if [ "$PLATFORM" = "HP-UX" ] ; then
      remsh $HOST -l $ORACLE -n "$0 $1 ORA_DB"
      exit
   else
      rsh $HOST -l $ORACLE  $0 $1 ORA_DB
      exit
   fi
fi
#
case $1 in
'start')
        $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart $ORACLE_HOME
        touch /var/lock/subsys/dbora
        ;;
'stop')
        $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut $ORACLE_HOME
        rm -f /var/lock/subsys/dbora
        ;;
*)
        echo "usage: $0 {start|stop}"
        exit
        ;;
esac
#
exit

Use the chmod command to set the privileges to 750.

chmod 750 /etc/init.d/dbora

Associate the dbora service with the appropriate run levels and set it to auto-start using the following command.

chkconfig --add dbora

The relevant instances should now startup/shutdown automatically at system startup/shutdown.

This method relies on the presence of an RSH server, which requires additional packages and configuration.

# Install the rhs and rsh-server packages from the OS CD/DVD.
rpm -Uvh --force rsh-*

# Enable rsh and rlogin.
chkconfig rsh on
chkconfig rlogin on
service xinetd reload

This can be quite problematic when attempting to use this method under FC5 and FC6, where rsh is deprecated. As a result, I prefer to use the "su" command method.

This method can also be used for 11g databases that are not using ASM or RAC.

Known Issues

When using Oracle 10g Release 2, calling dbstart might result in the following error message:

Failed to auto-start Oracle Net Listener using /ade/vikrkuma_new/oracle/bin/tnslsnr

This is due to a hard coded path in the dbstart script. To correct this, edit the "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart" script and replace the following line (approximately line 78):

ORACLE_HOME_LISTNER=/ade/vikrkuma_new/oracle

With this:

ORACLE_HOME_LISTNER=$ORACLE_HOME

The dbstart script shold now start the listener as expected.

For more information see:

Hope this helps. Regards Tim...

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