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Database open but no processes? Ghost instance?

713555May 8 2012 — edited May 8 2012
10.2.0.3.0 RH 5

customer had been doing some SAN work and caused a database problem, listener wouldnt start. Got called to look at it.

ok, lsnrctl status shows its up, I logged into database as sysdba query v$instance, all open and good.
SQL> select * from v$instance;

INSTANCE_NUMBER INSTANCE_NAME
--------------- ----------------
HOST_NAME
----------------------------------------------------------------
VERSION           STARTUP_T STATUS       PAR    THREAD# ARCHIVE LOG_SWITCH_WAIT
----------------- --------- ------------ --- ---------- ------- ---------------
LOGINS     SHU DATABASE_STATUS   INSTANCE_ROLE      ACTIVE_ST BLO
---------- --- ----------------- ------------------ --------- ---
              1 DWH01
DWHBOX
10.2.0.3.0        08-MAY-12 OPEN         NO           1 STOPPED
ALLOWED    NO  ACTIVE            PRIMARY_INSTANCE   NORMAL    NO


SQL>
ok, whats the problem? user cant login with a TNS 12530 error, thats strange lets look at the alert log, (this is a test datawarehouse instance with no arc log mode) ... nothing in it since last night some time.

ok, lets see what oracle processes are running. whats that? No oracle processes!

>

[root@DWHBOX ~]# ps -ef | grep pmon
[root@DWHBOX ~]#
>

no, that cant be right, I just logged on to the database, lets have a look at all oracle processes

>
ps -ef | grep ora
root 5067 4933 0 14:45 pts/4 00:00:00 su - oracle
oracle 5068 5067 0 14:45 pts/4 00:00:00 -bash
oracle 5090 5068 0 14:46 pts/4 00:00:00 sqlplus as sysdba
oracle 5091 5090 0 14:46 ? 00:00:00 oracleDWH01 (DESCRIPTION=(LOCAL=YES)(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=beq)))
root 5113 3065 0 14:46 pts/3 00:00:00 grep ora
root 15237 3823 0 Apr27 ? 00:00:04 sshd: oracle [priv]
oracle 15281 15237 0 Apr27 ? 00:00:06 sshd: oracle@pts/0
oracle 15282 15281 0 Apr27 pts/0 00:00:00 -bash
[root@DWHBOX ~]#

>

woooh, hold on, NO oracle processes at all except for the listener. I must have a typo, stop the listener and do an lsof | grep oracle to see what open files there are, if I can query v$instance then at least the controlfile must be open. (sits on /u01)

>
[root@DWHBOX ~]# lsof | grep oracle
[root@DWHBOX ~]#

>

nothing! I now officially have a ghost database. /shudder/

I know, lets go look at the v$process


>

oracle@DWHBOX ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production on Tue May 8 14:46:04 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production

SQL>
SQL>
SQL> desc v$process
Name Null? Type
----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
ADDR RAW(4)
PID NUMBER
SPID VARCHAR2(12)
USERNAME VARCHAR2(15)
SERIAL# NUMBER
TERMINAL VARCHAR2(30)
PROGRAM VARCHAR2(48)
TRACEID VARCHAR2(255)
BACKGROUND VARCHAR2(1)
LATCHWAIT VARCHAR2(8)
LATCHSPIN VARCHAR2(8)
PGA_USED_MEM NUMBER
PGA_ALLOC_MEM NUMBER
PGA_FREEABLE_MEM NUMBER
PGA_MAX_MEM NUMBER

SQL> select addr, program from v$process;

ADDR PROGRAM
-------- ------------------------------------------------
7F2B2758 PSEUDO
7F2B2D10 oracle@DWHBOX (PMON)
7F2B32C8 oracle@DWHBOX (PSP0)
7F2B3880 oracle@DWHBOX (MMAN)
7F2B3E38 oracle@DWHBOX (DBW0)
7F2B43F0 oracle@DWHBOX (LGWR)
7F2B49A8 oracle@DWHBOX (CKPT)
7F2B4F60 oracle@DWHBOX (SMON)
7F2B5518 oracle@DWHBOX (RECO)
7F2B5AD0 oracle@DWHBOX (CJQ0)
7F2B6088 oracle@DWHBOX (MMON)

ADDR PROGRAM
-------- ------------------------------------------------
7F2B6640 oracle@DWHBOX (MMNL)
7F2B6BF8 oracle@DWHBOX (D000)
7F2B71B0 oracle@DWHBOX (S000)
7F2B7768 oracle@DWHBOX (q000)
7F2B7D20 oracle@DWHBOX (QMNC)
7F2B82D8 oracle@DWHBOX (q001)
7F2B8890 oracle@DWHBOX (J000)
7F2B8E48 oracle@DWHBOX (TNS V1-V3)


>

theres the pmon, lets get the PID of pmon and track that down on the OS

>

SQL> select pid, program from v$process;
select pid, program from v$process
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel


SQL>

>

Ouch, so trying to get the OS PID crashed my session, lets disconnect, sqlplus back in, but now Im on a dead database, so it looks like trying to query the PID killed whatever ghost instance was there

>
SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production
[oracle@DWHBOX ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production on Tue May 8 14:47:35 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.

Connected to an idle instance.

SQL>

>

startup as normal and we're open for business and pmon an all other processes are up.

Can anyone explain that?

Edited by: deebee_eh on May 8, 2012 3:31 PM
Corrected typo: ora 12530 was the original error reported, not 12503.
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