Automatically start Oracle 11g on Oracle Linux 6.2 after server reboot

Environment: Oracle database 11.2.0.3.0, Oracle Linux 6.2

Oracle 11g includes 2 scripts which can be used to start or shut down Oracle databases on Linux. Both scripts are installed in $ORACLE_HOME/bin and are called dbstart and dbshut. However, these scripts are not executed automatically after you reboot your server. I will explain here how you can configure that.

First, you need to make sure that any database instances you want to autostart are set to “Y” in the /etc/oratab file. This is how mine looks like:

#

# This file is used by ORACLE utilities.  It is created by root.sh
# and updated by either Database Configuration Assistant while creating
# a database or ASM Configuration Assistant while creating ASM instance.

# A colon, ':', is used as the field terminator.  A new line terminates
# the entry.  Lines beginning with a pound sign, '#', are comments.
#
# Entries are of the form:
#   $ORACLE_SID:$ORACLE_HOME:<N|Y>:
#
# The first and second fields are the system identifier and home
# directory of the database respectively.  The third filed indicates
# to the dbstart utility that the database should , "Y", or should not,
# "N", be brought up at system boot time.
#
# Multiple entries with the same $ORACLE_SID are not allowed.
#
#
oratst:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1:Y

The /etc/oratab file is normally created by running the root.sh script at the end of the installation. If you don’t have the file, you can always add it to your system by creating it manually (with user root!).

Next, we are going to create 2 scripts under /home/oracle/scripts: ora_start.sh and ora_stop.sh. These scripts will call dbstart and dbshut and will also allow us to add some more actions, for example the start of the Enterprise Manager database control or any other services you might have.

$ su – oracle

$ vi /home/oracle/scripts/ora_start.sh

#!/bin/bash

# script to start the Oracle database, listener and dbconsole

. ~/.bash_profile

# start the listener and the database
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart $ORACLE_HOME

# start the Enterprise Manager db console
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl start dbconsole

exit 0

$ vi /home/oracle/scripts/ora_stop.sh

#!/bin/bash

# script to stop the Oracle database, listener and dbconsole

. ~/.bash_profile

# stop the Enterprise Manager db console
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl stop dbconsole

# stop the listener and the database
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut $ORACLE_HOME

exit 0

You see that inside the scripts, we are calling the .bash_profile file of the user “oracle”. This is needed to set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable.

Next, give execute rights to the scripts:

$  chmod u+x ora_start.sh ora_stop.sh

You could now test these scripts to see if they correctly shut down and start up your Oracle database.

We will now create a wrapper script that can be used to schedule as a service.

With user root, create a file called “oracle” under /etc/init.d.

$ vi /etc/init.d/oracle

#!/bin/bash
# chkconfig: 345 99 10
# description: Oracle auto start-stop script.

# Set ORA_OWNER to the user id of the owner of the
# Oracle database in ORA_HOME.

ORA_OWNER=oracle
RETVAL=0

case "$1" in
    'start')
        # Start the Oracle databases:
        # The following command assumes that the oracle login
        # will not prompt the user for any values
        su - $ORA_OWNER -c "/home/oracle/scripts/ora_start.sh"
        touch /var/lock/subsys/oracle
        ;;
    'stop')
        # Stop the Oracle databases:
        # The following command assumes that the oracle login
        # will not prompt the user for any values
        su - $ORA_OWNER -c "/home/oracle/scripts/ora_stop.sh"
        rm -f /var/lock/subsys/oracle
        ;;
    *)
        echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
        RETVAL=1
esac
exit $RETVAL

$ chmod 750 /etc/init.d/oracle

To create a service of this script, run the following command:

$ chkconfig --add oracle

Next, check the script by running “service oracle stop” or “service oracle start” from the command line:

$ service oracle stop
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control Release 11.2.0.3.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2011 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Stopping Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control …
… Stopped.
Processing Database instance “oratst”: log file /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/shutdown.log
$ service oracle start
Processing Database instance “oratst”: log file /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/startup.log
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control Release 11.2.0.3.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2011 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Starting Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control …… started.

After this, it’s time for the final test: reboot your server and check if your Oracle database is automatically started after the reboot.

Good luck! :-)

Matthias