Shutting Down the Oracle Database System (SAP Library - SAP Database Guide: Oracle (BC-DB-ORA-DBA))

Shutting Down the Oracle Database System

Use

You can use SAPDBA for Oracle to shut down the database system.

Prerequisites

You have configured and started SAPDBA. Refer to Getting Started with SAPDBA.

You can perform some of the options below from the command line:

Shutdown normal is equivalent to sapdba –shutdown .

Shutdown abort is equivalent to sapdba –shutdown_abort .

For more information, see sapdba -shutdown(_abort).

Procedure

Choose Startup/Shutdown instance ® Shutdown in SAPDBA.

Check the status information.

Choose the mode required to shut down the database:

Shutdown normal

Choose this option to shut down the database system normally. To use this option, make sure that only one process is connected to the database instance, Connected Programs: 1. This means that SAPDBA is the only user process.

Use this option whenever possible.

Shutdown immediate

When more than one process is logged on to the database instance, you can use this option to close the database instance.

SAPDBA does not shut down the database when:

User sapr3 is still linked to the database system, that is, the SAP System is still running.

Database contents are currently being backed up, that is, BRBACKUP is currently running.

If the database system is currently archiving online redo log files to the archiving directory – that is, process ARCH is backing up an online redo log file – the shutdown process might take several minutes.

If you use Shutdown immediate to close the database instance, the links to all database users are terminated as soon as their current commands have been processed. The Oracle database system makes sure all open transactions are terminated and rolled back.

Note

When the database instance has been shut down (with shutdown normal or shutdown immediate), the state of the database instance is consistent. As a result, when you continue using the database system at a later time, no recovery procedures are required.

Shutting down the SAP System before the database system shuts down the background processes that are part of the SAP System. To find out whether background processes from other database instance users exist, enter the following command (the syntax varies according to the operating system; here is a UNIX example):

OS> ps -eaf | grep ora

When the database system has been shut down, no "ora*" processes should appear. If background processes are still active, shut them down to avoid problems during reorganization and other operations (for example, using the UNIX command kill <process number> ).

Note

During the shutdown procedure, SAPDBA carries out an ALTER TABLESPACE END BACKUP command for all the tablespaces involved. This command guarantees that every tablespace is closed in a consistent status. This can be necessary if the tablespace was prepared for saving with ALTER TABLESPACE BEGIN BACKUP but was not released with END BACKUP . Otherwise, the database system would require you to restore the tablespace in question during the next system startup.

Shutdown immediate force

Choose this option to forcibly disconnect SAPR3 users connected to the database. Use this option with care.

Shutdown abort

Choose Shutdown abort in the following cases:

You could not close the database instance with shutdown normal or shutdown immediate.
You know that a problem has occurred and that you must therefore close the database instance with shutdown abort.

Caution

Always attempt to shut down the database first with shutdown immediate before you use shutdown abort. In general, shutdown abort is only used for serious problems, such as data loss in connection with a volume or other volume-related problems.

When shutdown abort is used, the database instance is stopped immediately, with no regard for active transactions. Therefore, the stopped database system has an inconsistent status.

Do not use shutdown abort to attempt to "kill" the database instance quickly if you can use shutdown immediate instead. After shutdown abort, there is an immediate automatic recovery of the Oracle instance (instance recovery) at the next startup. Data changed after successful completion of a transaction is recovered automatically, but data changed by terminated transactions is lost.

Automatic instance recovery can significantly slow down the next startup operation. The overall time taken to stop and start the database instance is then significantly greater than with shutdown immediate and database instance startup.

Result

You have shut down the database. To start it up, see Starting Up the Oracle Database System.