Automating Shutdown and Startup Oracle DB (6 Steps)

Oracle recommends that you configure the system to automatically start Oracle Database when the system starts, and to automatically shut it down when the system shuts down. Automating database startup and shutdown guards against incorrect database shutdown.

To automate database startup and shutdown, use the dbstart and dbshut scripts, which are located in the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory. The scripts refer to the same entries in the oratab file, which are applied on the same set of databases. You cannot, for example, have the dbstart script automatically start sid1, sid2, and sid3, and have the dbshut script shut down only sid1. However, you can specify that the dbshut script shuts down a set of databases while the dbstart script is not used at all. To do this, include a dbshut entry in the system shutdown file, but do not include the dbstart entry from the system startup files.


Automating Database Startup and Shutdown on Other Operating Systems

To automate database startup and shutdown by using the dbstart and dbshut scripts:

1. Log in as the root user.

2. Edit the oratab file for the platform.

To open the file, use one of the following commands:

On Solaris:

   # vi /var/opt/oracle/oratab

On AIX, HP-UX, and Linux:

   # vi /etc/oratab

Database entries in the oratab file are displayed in the following format:

    SID:ORACLE_HOME:{Y|N|W}

In this example, the values Y and N specify whether you want the scripts to start or shut down the database, respectively. For each database for which you want to automate shutdown and startup, first determine the instance identifier (SID) for that database, which is identified by the SID in the first field. Then, change the last field for each to Y.

You can set dbstart to autostart a single-instance database that uses an Automatic Storage Management installation that is auto-started by Oracle Clusterware. This is the default behavior for an Automatic Storage Management cluster. If you want to do this, then you must change the oratab entry of the database and the Automatic Storage Management installation to use a third field with the value W and N, respectively. These values specify that dbstart auto-starts the database only after the Automatic Storage Management instance is started.

3. Change directory to one of the following depending on the operating system:

Platform	Initialization File Directory
AIX	/etc
Linux and Solaris	/etc/init.d
HP-UX	/sbin/init.d

4. Create a file called dbora, and copy the following lines into this file:

#! /bin/sh  -x
#
# Change the value of ORACLE_HOME to specify the correct Oracle home
# directory for your installation.

ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/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 $1 ORA_DB
      if [ "$PLATFORM" = "Linux" ] ; then
          touch /var/lock/subsys/dbora
      fi
      exit
   fi
fi
#
case $1 in
'start')
        $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart $ORACLE_HOME &
        ;;
'stop')
        $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut $ORACLE_HOME &
        ;;
*)
        echo "usage: $0 {start|stop}"
        exit
        ;;
esac
#
exit

Note:
This script can only stop Oracle Net listener for which a password has not been set. In addition, if the listener name is not the default name, LISTENER, then you must specify the listener name in the stop and start commands:

$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl {start|stop} listener_name

5. Change the group of the dbora file to the OSDBA group (typically dba), and set the permissions to 750:

# chgrp dba dbora
# chmod 750 dbora

6. Create symbolic links to the dbora script in the appropriate run-level script directories as follows.

Create symbolic links to the dbora script in the appropriate run-level script directories as follows.

Platform	Symbolic Links Commands
AIX	# ln -s /etc/dbora /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S99dbora # ln -s /etc/dbora /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/K01dbora
HP-UX	# ln -s /sbin/init.d/dbora /sbin/rc3.d/S990dbora # ln -s /sbin/init.d/dbora /sbin/rc0.d/K001dbora
Linux	# ln -s /etc/init.d/dbora /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K01dbora # ln -s /etc/init.d/dbora /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S99dbora # ln -s /etc/init.d/dbora /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S99dbora
Solaris	# ln -s /etc/init.d/dbora /etc/rc0.d/K01dbora # ln -s /etc/init.d/dbora /etc/rc3.d/S99dbora