Oracle 8I Fails to Start

[Jack Trachtman]

We've just had another instance where Oracle failed to start, implying it couldn't get the memory it wanted (sorry I don't have a copy of the exact msg). What's frustrating is that this occured during a normal boot (which includes the Oracle startup) so it was the only thing trying to get memory. And when we manually tried, it started w/o a problem! (We are not using Reserved Memory.)

Oracle hasn't been much help with this.

Can anyone provide insight into what Oracle is requesting from VMS at startup (contiguous pages, etc.)? Thx

[Uwe Zessin]

It's possible that the STARTUP process did not have enough quotas as it does not get them from SYSUAF. In that case I'd use $SUBMIT/USER= within SYSTARTUP_VMS.

[Peter Quodling]

Didn't get a copy of the error message...

This does tend to have some bearing on the fix. When you put your car in for service, do you tell the mechanic what's wrong, or just tell him "something ain't right, and it might be the transmission".

1. Get the error message - it does have an impact on the speed and accuracy of diagnosis

2. review the 8i VMS Installation manual, and ensure that you meet the requirements for installation.

It can be found at http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/pdf/A86708_01.pdf (registration required)

q

[Jack Trachtman]

Below is an example of the startup err msg.

SVRMGR> startup
ORA-27125: unable to create shared memory segment

I have re-examined the VMS Install guide but didn't see the ref to setting any VMS parameters that might cause this problem.

[Anthony Magana]

Did you look to see if there anything logged to the alert log or if a trc file was created? That should give you more info on what caused the failure.

[Robert Walker_8 · Accepted solution]

Hi,


We get this occasionally - probably need to up gblpages (as of V7 it is dynamic) otherwise you need a reboot :)

This happens if Oracle is allowed to retune itself based on usage throught the period it is up and upon restart it just grabs more resources.

Hope this helps.

Robert.

[John Gillings]

SVRMGR> startup
ORA-27125: unable to create shared memory segment

Jack,

Is there a secondary message giving a real OpenVMS condition code? There are many reasons Oracle might faile to create shared memory. VMS would have told them why, if they've thrown away vital clues, the it's back to them to solve it!

Purely guessing... it might have to do with a shortage of contiguous global pages. check F$GETSYI("CONTIG_GBLPAGES") and F$GETSYI("FREE_GBLPAGES")

If you're V7.3 or higher, you can increase GBLPAGES dynamically:

SYSGEN> USE ACTIVE
SYSGEN> SET GBLPAGES new-value
SYSGEN> WRITE ACTIVE

The Oracle installation guide should give you a way to calculate the requirements, but there is only a small penalty for over allocation.

Also keep in mind that it may take time for a deleted global section to be freed up for reuse. Granted this shouldn't be an issue during startup, but if you wish to be able to stop and restart Oracle, you should probably work out the operating values and multiply by three.

One other issue... the STARTUP process has very low, hardcoded quotas. It could be that you're hitting one of them. Maybe put the Oracle startup into a batch job, triggered by the startup, as suggested by Uwe. That way you have complete control over the entire environment, including quotas.

[Volker Halle]

Jack,

there is an ORACLE note: 69301.1 which discusses various reasons for these kinds of ORACLE startup problems.

You can find it in the INFO-VAX archives, e.g. on:

http://mvb.saic.com/freeware/info-vax/2002_183.txt

Search for 69301.1 on that page and read the article.

Volker.

[Marc Van den Broeck]

Jack,

how do you start Oracle when booting?
You 'should' do it by submitting a startup job as the user Oracle (this is the user when installing Oracle and creating instances).
It is important that ALL Oracle processes run as user Oracle.
Calculations of system parameters you can find in the VMS instal guide, but if you succeeded to install and startup the instance previously I think they are sufficient (at least to start the instance).

Rgds
Marc

[Volker Halle]

Jack,

if you're not using Reserved Memory for your ORACLE SGA, then the only reason for this error should be:

%SYSTEM-F-INSFLPGS, insufficient Fluid Pages available

This is described as Problem 3 in the article pointed to by my previous answer.

ORACLE is using SYS$CRMPSC_GDZRO_64 to create the memory-resident global demand zero section. You may need an ORACLE patch, if the secondary OpenVMS system service status is NOT being displayed.

Volker.

[Marc Van den Broeck]

Jack,

also check your alert.log file. It will give more detailed information about what went wrong.

Regards
Marc

[Jan van den Ende]

Hi all,

as I see it, the most important part of the original post was the FAILURE to start automatically upon boot, and after that, the SUCCESSFULL manual startup.

This pretty much excludes SYSGEN causes!

Jack,

what is the _EXACT_ syntax of startup of Oracle in the bootstrap sequence?

My current guess (based upon insufficient info, so indeed: a guess) would be to agree with Marc.
Your first check should be to verify that the Orcale startup sequence is indeed executed by user Oracle.
If that is Ok, we will take it from there.

hth

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Marc Van den Broeck]

Jack,

any news on this case?

Rgds
Marc

[Steven_101]

Have you resolved your issue of Oracle failing to start ?

[Jack Trachtman]

Unfortuntately, we have been unable to get the down time required for testing, so I'm
closing this thread for now. If I get
more info in the future, I'll reopen this
or start a related case. Thanks all.