Re: shutdown in svrmgrl is hanging

In article <396DFEA3.66958B9F_at_naweb.com>,   Steve Parker <steve_at_naweb.com> wrote:
> hello...
>
> After issuing the shutdown command in svrmgrl, it just hangs forever
> (since last night).... Just before that, I shut down a smaller DB
> just fine...
>
> Does anyone have any idea what would cause the shutdown process to
> totally hang??
>
> Thanks,
> steve
>
>

The most probable cause for this is a normal shutdown with sessions still connected to the instance. A normal shutdown will wait until the sessions disconnect from the server before completing. A shutdown immediate will terminate all active sessions prior to executing the shutdown, in most cases eliminating the behavior you have experienced. Kill the sessions or log into another terminal and execute a 'shutdown abort' (definitely NOT the recommended way to shutdown the instance, but in this case you may have no other choice).

Another cause of this behavior is disconnected, or orphan, processes in the instance. These occur with client/server applications where the process is taking longer than the user thinks is reasonable or the network is extremely slow to respond. Usually the user kills the local application or re-boots the PC, however this can also occur when the network connection 'dies' without the user's intervention. This kills the session but leaves the process (or processes) grinding away at the instance. Since there are no sessions associated with these processes Oracle is waiting until they complete (which may be never) before actually shutting down the instance. In this case you will need to perform a 'shutdown abort' from another terminal.

In ALL cases after a 'shutdown abort' restart the instance and closely monitor the feedback from svrmgrl. When no other avenue is available I will 'shutdown abort' an instance, immediately start it up and, should no errors be found execute a 'shutdown immediate' followed by a 'startup' to ensure that nothing was missed by Oracle in the whole operation. I have yet to have an unexpected instance failure due to a 'shutdown abort' that went awry.

--
David Fitzjarrell
Oracle Certified DBA


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.