How to start an Oracle database at boot time

Introduction

A database administrator must always work towards simplicity and automation in daily activities.  Though a server restart is not considered a 'daily activity', one should automate startup of Oracle databases whenever possible if the host server is using a Unix or Linux platform.  This will avoid the system administrator working on the server maintenance activity to page or call the Oracle DBA for a manual startup of Oracle databases.

Oracle solution

Oracle already offers solutions to achieve such an automatic startup of the database. Available methods include creating a script under the init.d initialization directory or the 11g R2 Oracle Restart feature. In this post, I will discuss about a simpler alternative to these methods.

Detailed steps

a) Create a root owned shell script in a system directory such as /usr/bin with the below contents. Let it be named as oracle_startup_boot.sh. The /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1 is the $ORACLE_HOME environment variable value.  

su  -  oracle  /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/bin/dbstart   /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1

b) Update /etc/oratab with the databases that must be started when the above dbstart command is executed. For example, let FINDB and HRDB be the two databases.

FINDB:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1:Y

HRDB:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1:Y

c) Edit the root operating system user's crontab and add the below line

@reboot  /usr/bin/oracle_startup_boot.sh

d) Provide execute privileges for root operating system user to the  /usr/bin/oracle_startup_boot.sh file

e) Optionally, update the lsnrctl command in the  /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/bin/dbstart program with any customer listener name that need to be started automatically along with the above two databases.

Conclusion

The 11g R2 Oracle Restart feature is worth considering if one is already having 11g R2 databases.  However, if one has databases from several Oracle versions on the same server and wants a quicker solution , then the @reboot command is a worthy alternative.  A automatic restart solution is a must have in organizations having hundreds of Oracle databases, especially on development and test servers, where such restarts are frequently needed.