Unable to start oracle. Errors reference the control files

Products

• CA eHealth

Issue/Introduction

 

 

Title: 

Unable to start oracle. Errors reference the control files

 

Description:

            Oracle wont start.

We are seeing errors about the control (.ctl) files being in use or unavailable.

"ORA-00205: error in identifying control file, check alert log for more info"

ORA-00210: cannot open the specified control file

ORA-00202: control file: '/path-to-database/oradata/EHEALTH/CONTROL02.ctl'

 

 

 

RESOLUTION FIELD:

Issue:

After a vmotion, or hard reboot of a vm, oracle won’t start and we are seeing these errors.

ORA-00210: cannot open the specified control file

ORA-00202: control file: '/ path-to-database/oradata/EHEALTH/CONTROL03.ctl'

ORA-27086: unable to lock file - already in use

ORA-00205: error in identifying control file, check alert log for more info

 

And we are seeing a different error for CONTROL02.ctl:

ORA-00210: cannot open the specified control file

ORA-00202: control file: '/path-to-database/oradata/EHEALTH/CONTROL02.ctl'

 

 

 

Environment: 

EHealth 6.3.2.x

Windows or Linux.

Cause:

We have seen issues where a bad drive, or an unavailable drive, such as a Linux mount or a SAN drive can't be accessed when oracle needs the control file.

We have also seen this happen with an incomplete vmotion.

 

Resolution

The oracle database in eHealth requires 3 control files to run.

CONTROL01.ctl, CONTROL02.ctl, CONTROL03.ctl

If one of these files is missing or corrupted, then oracle cannot start.

First you need to be sure there are no oracle process that are hung.

1. Stop eHealth.

a. nhServer stop

2. Stop the database.

a. nhStopDb immediate

3. Stop the web.

a. nhHttpd stop

4. Check for hung processes. If eHealth and Oracle were shut down properly, the only things that should display should be the queries.

a. ps -aef | grep -I nhi

b. ps -aef | grep -I ora

 

then delete replace any missing control files by copying one of the good ones.

And change the name.

E.g.

cp CONTROL01.ctl CONTROL02.ctl

Then restart all services.

 

 

            

Environment

Release:
Component: EHORA