Re: Bounce the database?

From: Howard J. Rogers <howardjr_at_www.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 15:44:41 +1100
Message-ID: <3a4c16a9@news.iprimus.com.au>

"Denise Loving" <snakelady_at_home.com> wrote in message
news:cj0o4tkqnuimd9q1jaq62h8e0d25h5aq8s_at_4ax.com... I'm studying the Oracle OCP preparation material on CD, and in the simulations I've encountered the term "bounce the database." For example, "you must bounce the database before the change to SHARED_POOL_SIZE takes effect."

A classic error. You can't bounce your database -not unless you remove the hard disks from the server, and throw them vigorously onto a rubberised server room floor. The "database" is the physical component of an Oracle RDBMS, and disk files can no more be bounced than I can say "no" to another slice of Christmas Pudding.

What they *meant* to say was "bounce your instance" -in other words, dismantle it from memory, and re-construct it from scratch. A quick way to do this is to locate the wall-socket into which your server is plugged, and remove the power cord, and then re-insert it.

A rather more recommended way to do this is to issue the "shutdown immediate" command, and when the Instance has been shut down, issue the 'startup' command.

"Startup Force" combines the shutdown with the startup, all in one
command -however, it does a "shutdown abort" as part of the shutdown procedure -which is no cleaner than if you took the first approach of pulling the plug on the entire server.

In any event: All they are getting at is that great swathes of the init.ora can only ever be read once, at the point of startup. You can go and edit the text file (which is all init.ora actually is) to your heart's content -but since the Instance has already been built using the old version of the file, your changes will have zilch effect... until the NEXT time you start up.

Regards
HJR

What, precisely, does it mean to bounce a database? I can't find bounce in any of my books, and it hasn't been in the CDs that I've studied so far. Not too surprising, considering that the organization of the material leaves something to be desired, not to mention the clarity and even the correctness at times.

TIA! Denise Received on Thu Dec 28 2000 - 22:44:41 CST