Re: Oracle won't release locks - ever!

Leonard F Clark apparently said,on my timestamp of 4/07/2004 2:02 AM:

> I actually bounced because most of the locks are file locks and the
> problem was caused by a rogue anti-virus application locking up the
> machine: I was worried that OS file locks were preventing oracle from
> preventing the indicated tasks (e.g. acquiring another extent)

Relax, Leonard. Oracle will hold MANY locks while operating normally. MR locks as someone else explained are held as soon as it starts and stay that way until it stops. Nothing wrong with that. There are many, many locks that are held by Oracle at all times, that is the way it works and you should not worry about that.

> Does anyone know why Oracle should hold a redo thread for over a week
> when there are no other clients (no transactions) on the instance?

Why not? It's supposed to hold a redo thread at ALL times. Otherwise redo won't work when you need it.

> Does anyone know why Oracle would hold a Temporary Segment lock on the
> same basis?

As soon as you use a temp segment, the lock will be there. Nothing wrong with that.

> Can anyone suggest a plausible explanation why all data files should
> be held in Media Recovery for over a week (the offending process
> lasted about 8 hours), and there be no aparant activity on the
> instance?

They are not held in media recovery, there is simply a MR lock on the files. There is a difference. The presence of a lock does not mean the operation of that lock is in progress.

> And I can't resolve any of that until Monday. I *do* have access to
> Metalink and I have researched the ORA-600 messages there (which point
> straight back to these locks), but that access doesn't allow me to
> raise a TAR.

Your 600 error needs to go into Metalink. If you have access to their site, you can search the type of error there. If not, then just open a tar and be done with it. It most likely has nothing to do with the locks you observed.

-- 
Cheers
Nuno Souto
wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam