One of the most fundamental operations in database administration is the ability to shut down and start up the database. However, this operation is considerably more involved than two simple commands. It is important to understand what happens "under the hood" during the process of starting and stopping an Oracle instance.
To comprehend the startup process for the database, it is important to first understand the state of the database before it is started. Currently, our database has been started and is open—we've used it to run several queries in the previous chapters. This is because, at some point, either during the creation of the database using DBCA, or by Windows services, a startup
command was issued to the database. However, before that command is issued, the database is in an inert state that is referred to as cold
. In this state, we should understand several points about the instance and database. First...