If you are on a Unix machine (Say Solaris), the lk{ORACLE_SID.ora}.ora
file is opened (locked) by the background processes, pmon, smon ,lgwr,
dbwr, ckpt, reco on instance startup.
In fact Oracle will use this file to see if an instance you are trying
to start has already been started.
So for example: if your ORACLE_SID=test
Then use fuser $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/lk{ORACLE_SID}.ora to see if the file
is being used by any processes.
If it is, then the instance is up.
But the problem is under rare circumstances, the file may be left
locked by improper shutdown and hanged processes.
regards
Srivenu
Received on Sat Aug 31 2002 - 03:06:10 CDT
