srvctl -p option

I’m still hopeful that someone can point out where I’ve gone wrong with this, but I think I’ve covered all bases… “srvctl -p spfile_path” doesn’t work as documented.

UPDATE: This issue has turned out to be the result of default permissions not accommodating the 2 user approach of “oracle” (for database) and “grid” (for Cluster Infrastructure) – More details here.

The Oracle documentation makes is pretty clear that you can specify a non-default location for an spfile by using the “-p spfile_path” option to either srvctl add database or srvctl modify database:
Starting Up with SRVCTL with a Non-Default Server Parameter File
srvctl add database
srvctl modify database

I started having problems when adding a freshly cloned (using Grid Control) database to Oracle Restart. I wanted to put the spfile into ASM so used the following to get it there:

SQL> create pfile from spfile;

File created.

SQL> create spfile='+DATA/gg01/spfilegg01.ora' from pfile;

File created.

SQL>

I then added the database to Oracle Restart using:

[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl add database -d gg01 -o $ORACLE_HOME -n gg01 -p +DATA/gg01/spfilegg01.ora -a DATA

Interestingly Oracle Restart didn’t know the state of the database as show below:

[oracle@gg01 admin]$ srvctl status database -d gg01
Database is not running.

So I stopped the database via SQL*Plus and attempted to start it using srvctl when I hit an error:

[oracle@gg01 dbs]$ srvctl start database -d gg01
PRCR-1079 : Failed to start resource ora.gg01.db
CRS-2674: Start of 'ora.gg01.db' on 'gg01' failed

After playing around and getting frustrated with the fact that setting SRVM_TRACE=TRUE didn’t give me anything to go on, I finally got srvctl to start my database from the spfile in ASM…

One important thing to note is that the method I used to get the spfile into ASM left me with a pfile and an spfile in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs. This meant that as soon as I cleared the spfile from the srvctl configuration as shown below the database could be started:

[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl modify database -d gg01 -p ' '
[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl config database -d gg01
Database unique name: gg01
Database name:
Oracle home: /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1
Oracle user: grid
Spfile:
Domain:
Start options: open
Stop options: immediate
Database role: PRIMARY
Management policy: AUTOMATIC
Disk Groups:
Services:
[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl start database -d gg01

* Note that you have to specify quoted whitespace (any amount will do) to clear the spfile from the configuration otherwise you’ll get an error:

[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl modify database -d gg01 -p
PRKO-2388 : Command line option -p should be followed by a value.
[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl modify database -d gg01 -p ''
PRKO-2003 : Invalid command line option value:
[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl modify database -d gg01 -p '     '

Using SRVM_TRACE you can see that the whitespace is removed to give an empty string:

[main] [ 2009-12-20 17:28:44.455 EST ] [CRSNative.register:1141]  	Name: 'SPFILE', Value: ''

It’s also interesting to note you can set SRVM_TRACE to anything you like, TRUE/FALSE/X all seem to give the same result and therefore you must use unset SRVM_TRACE to disable the tracing.

From looking at another 11.2 Oracle Restart database, created with DBCA, I found that there was an init.ora file in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs that had the SPFILE=<path to spfile> point to the spfile file alias in ASM, i.e.:

[oracle@gg01 ~]$ cat $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initgg01.ora
SPFILE='+DATA/gg01/spfilegg01.ora'

Clearly having a pfile that points to an spfile in ASM isn’t anything new, but without it using srvctl -p doesn’t seem to work!

With no spfile set via srvctl and no pfile or spfile in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs

[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl start database -d gg01
PRCR-1079 : Failed to start resource ora.gg01.db
ORA-01078: failure in processing system parameters
CRS-2674: Start of 'ora.gg01.db' on 'gg01' failed

With spfile set via srvctl and no pfile or spfile in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs

[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl modify database -d gg01 -p +DATA/gg01/spfilegg01.ora
[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl start database -d gg01
PRCR-1079 : Failed to start resource ora.gg01.db
CRS-2674: Start of 'ora.gg01.db' on 'gg01' failed

With spfile set via srvctl and pfile point to the spfile in ASM

[oracle@gg01 ~]$ cat $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initgg01.ora
SPFILE='+DATA/gg01/spfilegg01.ora'
[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl start database -d gg01

But, what if I remove the spfile from the srvctl configuration…

[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl modify database -d gg01 -p ' '
[oracle@gg01 ~]$ srvctl start database -d gg01

It still starts, so what’s the point in adding it to the srvctl configuration?

Any suggestions/comments gratefully received…