Max DB Files

I'm a DBA who's also filling in for another DBA on extended leave. On this other system, I've run into a problem when trying to add a database file. The max value was set to 30 (db_files = 30) in the init.ora file. I increased it to 40, shutdown and restarted the database. When I tried to add the datafile, I got Oracle error 1118:

01118, 00000, "cannot add any more database files: limit of 30 exceeded"
// *Cause: Obvious
// *Action:

If I look at v$parameter, I see that db_files is now set to 40. I know that, if worse comes to worse, I can "collapse" some of the index files by dropping and then rebuilding the indexes. But if I could add an index file it would be easier and, anyway, I want to know why this isn't working. Does anyone have any ideas? The database is running on a Sun SPARC 2 (Sun OS). It's version 7.0.15.6.

Thanks.

Beverly Zygmunt
Oak Ridge National Lab Received on Mon Aug 05 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST