About 8 month ago I upgraded the OS and VMWare server started to “complain”, specially the graphical interface, it was discontinued and almost dead, so I decided to move to VirtualBox, I also updated the OS to Oracle Linux 6.

I’m surprised on how complete VirtualBox is and the multiple configuration options available, the graphical interface just doesn’t make justice to the product.

I started creating virtual machines to test my new toy and I realized that when the virtual machines are started from the graphical interface (I use gnome) they have a “collateral” impact on the host performance, having that GUI interface sitting there cost cpu and memory, after that I understood the importance on correctly setting the “VRDE” (Virtual Box Remote Desktop Extension), let me tell you something, it really rocks.
VRDE allows you to connect to your machines, linux, windows or whatever, using your normal Windows remote desktop connection, is a true console that works even if the virtual machine you are connecting to have no network.

I want to share with you a script that I developed using bash shell scripting to control machines on VirtualBox 4, I call it vbctl (VirtualBox control), and it really helps controlling the machines states (startup, pause,shutdown ,save state, etc).

Features
- It will scan the virtual machines in the system and list them (screenshot 1).
- It will allow you to perform operations on them (screenshot 2).
- Designed for headless machines, it will only start headless machines and it will show the RDC port (VRDE Port) in the listing (screenshot 1).
- VRDE activation, if you start a machine with VRDE disabled it will enable it and ask for a port number (between 5000 and 5050).

I want to state that this is not an intelligent script, it will do whatever you ask it to do (with some minor exceptions), for example, it will allow you to shut down a machine that’s already down.

Installation instructions:
- Create a directory (with the virtualbox administrator user).
- Save the script as vbctl.sh
- chmod 740 vbctl.sh
- edit your .bash_profile and create an alias (optional)
alias vbctl=’/<path>/vbctl.sh’

Screenshot 1 - Click to enlarge

screenshot2 - Click to enlarge

One last thing, if you improve this script please share it back!

Enjoy!

Update:

Well, the OperSource spirit arrived sooner than I expected.

In less than two weeks I received the first important improvement!

• V1.3  can now be downloaded from here

Mr. João Figueiredo improved the visual presentation and added colors! he also fixed minor problem when Virtual machine names have spaces.

Please visit his website for screenshots and details or download the script directly from his website.

Version 1.2 is still available for download.

Also it comes in the the Unbreakable Linux media, but if you are not subscribed to ULN and you are not using Unbreakable Linux then most people go to the OTN, where you have to select your Linux flavor and then navigate to the correct file according to the linux kernel and then download the 3 files one by one.

I’m going to explain here how easy is to get it from Oracle’s public YUM repository (how to configure the public YUM repository?)

Once you have the public YUM enabled do as root:

yum install oracleasm-support oracleasmlib oracleasm-`uname -r`

ET VOILA!!! it will take just one minute to complete!.

Here is an example on a CentOS 5.4

[root@scen503 yum.repos.d]# yum install oracleasm-support oracleasmlib oracleasm-`uname -r`
..
..   skipping a bunch of things...
..
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5.x86_64 0:2.0.5-1.el5 set to be updated
---> Package oracleasm-support.x86_64 0:2.1.4-1.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
Package                      Arch       Version          Repository       Size
================================================================================
Installing:
oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5     x86_64     2.0.5-1.el5      el5_u5_base      25 k
oracleasm-support            x86_64     2.1.4-1.el5      ol5_u6_base      87 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install       2 Package(s)
Upgrade       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 113 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5-2.0.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm   |  25 kB     00:00
(2/2): oracleasm-support-2.1.4-1.el5.x86_64.rpm          |  87 kB     00:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                           133 kB/s | 113 kB     00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing     : oracleasm-support                                        1/2
Installing     : oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5                                 2/2

Installed:
oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5.x86_64 0:2.0.5-1.el5
oracleasm-support.x86_64 0:2.1.4-1.el5

Complete!

Then just follow the installation guide…here are some quick steps to configure ASMLIB:

[root@scen503]# oracleasm configure -i
Configuring the Oracle ASM library driver.

This will configure the on-boot properties of the Oracle ASM library
driver.  The following questions will determine whether the driver is
loaded on boot and what permissions it will have.  The current values
will be shown in brackets ('[]').  Hitting <ENTER> without typing an
answer will keep that current value.  Ctrl-C will abort.

Default user to own the driver interface []: oracle
Default group to own the driver interface []: dba
Start Oracle ASM library driver on boot (y/n) [n]: y
Scan for Oracle ASM disks on boot (y/n) [y]:
Writing Oracle ASM library driver configuration: done

[root@scen503]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm init
Creating /dev/oracleasm mount point: /dev/oracleasm
Loading module "oracleasm": oracleasm
Mounting ASMlib driver filesystem: /dev/oracleasm

Then we need to create all disks, change ASMLIBDISK1 according to your naming conventions:

/usr/sbin/oracleasm createdisk ASMLIBDISK1 /dev/sdb1
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done

and finally scan and list the disks

/usr/sbin/oracleasm scandisks

/usr/sbin/oracleasm listdisks

Find more of ASM here.

Good luck!

Oracle 11.2 XE (beta) is available for download here, for Windows 32bit and Linux 64bit.

You can find the documentation here.

Download size for Linux 64bit is 271MB

The limitations are:

• Only one instance can be installed per server.
• It will use only one of the available processors.
• It will support up to 11B of data (not including system data).
• It will use up to 1GB of available RAM.

These and other limitations like features not included can be found here.

About a year ago I couln’t find a thing about the XE roadmap, I was a little bit worried about how old the 10.2 XE was and it even came to my mind that they were going to let it die, so these are very good news!

I’m writing these impressions without talking too much about the specs, they are everywhere, some links here.

Basically, Exadata’s architecture splits processing in two different layers, Database servers (compute processing) and the Storage servers called “Storage Cells” (data processing). Each Storage Cell consist of servers with 12 internal disks each (the numbers of servers will vary from Quarter, Mid or Full rack configurations), when a request arrives, the storage evaluates and filters out unneeded rows, Oracle explains that its common to send 10x less data to the database servers, this translate into improved IO and smaller SGAs, on top of that the servers have dual ported cards 40Gb/sec InfiniBand.

Other things that Exadata can offload to the storage side is the filtering for the incremental backups and the processing power for the encryption.

Note that joins, aggregations and other complex query processing is done on the database servers, not the storage.

Also, the storage can create indexes that maintain summary of the data in memory, like MIN and MAX values, this way Oracle knows if a block contains data within the range of the where condition and skip those that don’t, storage indexes are completely automatic and transparent.

Exadata also offers two types of compression, Query (speed optimized) and Archive (size optimized), 2 levels each (HIGH and LOW), the compression is built on “Hybrid Columnar Compression Technology” meaning that the data is organized and compressed by column.

Reading compressed tables is also faster, reducing the IO in a proportion similar to the compression ratio. I saw compression ratios from 1.6 (OLTP Low) to 54.7 (Archive High), companies can save a lot on storage while speeding up the IO.

In addition to the disks, Exadata can use Flash cards, yes, that’s right, no SAS or SATA interfaces but internal cards, it can be used as CACHE which will speed up the access, specially OLTP databases, the flash memory can also be configured as ASM diskgroups.

Oracle is also marketing Exadata for database consolidation, so it includes some features as a resource manager for the IO (IORM – programmed directly on the cells) and the database caging (limit the number of CPUs a database can use) allowing companies to mix and consolidate databases while maintaining priorities.

I also noticed that Exadata relies a lot of its processing on parallelism, Enterprise manager allows to see the parallel degree of the queries and some other important values: Database time, real time and also how much processing is being offloaded on the storage side (cool!).

The way I see it, Exadata is such a beast because:

1. - Two layers of processing – database nodes and storage cells working together. Database servers dedicated to compute data, offloading to the storage row-filtering, compression, encryption,etc.
2. - Brute and modular force, Powerful servers, plenty of memory and ultra fast networking, fast storage, all of them coordinating tasks to make things faster, simply put – less bottlenecks.

Please notice that I just experienced all this in a workshop, not the “real world”, I do consider that the architecture is robust and intelligent, it provides brute force and speed “bumper to bumper”, so far, I love it!

The benefits of the NOLOGGING option are:

• Will save disk space when the archive option is enabled.
• Will largely reduce I/O on the redologs.
• Will reduce the time it takes to complete the operation.

Please note that NOLOGGING operations will only reduce -not eliminate- the logging.

Lets see an example -

--   First: we create an empty table with the nologging clause
SQL>  create table logging_example nologging as select * from dba_objects where 1=2;

Table created.

--Now let's enable the statistics and perform a couple of tests:

SQL> set autotrace on statistics
SQL> set timing on

-- insert the records the traditional way
SQL> alter system flush buffer_cache;  --clean the cache to compare the speeds in equal conditions

System altered.

Elapsed: 00:00:01.49

SQL> insert into logging_example select * from dba_objects;

50864 rows created.

Elapsed: 00:00:01.59

Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
 0  recursive calls
 5250  db block gets
 6766  consistent gets
 982  physical reads
5636712  redo size --without the APPEND hint
 670  bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
 586  bytes received via SQL*Net from client
 3  SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
 1  sorts (memory)
 0  sorts (disk)
 50864  rows processed

-- insert the records with the APPEND hint (nologging)
SQL> alter system flush buffer_cache;  --clean the cache to compare the speeds in equal conditions

System altered.

Elapsed: 00:00:01.06

SQL> insert /*+ append */  into logging_example select * from dba_objects;

50864 rows created.

Elapsed: 00:00:00.59

Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
 0  recursive calls
 743  db block gets
 5374  consistent gets
 944  physical reads
2200  redo size --with the APPEND hint
 654  bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
 604  bytes received via SQL*Net from client
 3  SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
 1  sorts (memory)
 0  sorts (disk)
 50864  rows processed

We can see that there is a big difference on the redo size generated by each insert, there are many post and articles on the internet  that show the speed benefits when using the NOLOGGING option, but here I mainly want to clarify that a regular insert (no APPEND hint) will still generate redologs even if the table have been created with the NOLOGGING option.

What happens to the data after a restore when a nologging operation was performed on it?

I will present some scenarios to show the consequences when we need to perform a restore after a nologging transaction, this way we will know what to expect and we can better prepare ourselves in case of a disaster.

I took a full database backup, now I will create several tables with different options to see what happens after a restore, you might see some surprises here!

Scenarios:

• Table “create as select” with the nologging option (table_ctas_nologging).
• Regular table “create as select” (table_ctas_logging)
• A nologging table created empty, and a regular (logging) insert (table_ctas_nologging_insert)
• Table created with nologging, then two inserts, one with and one without logging (table_insert_mixed)
• Regular logging table, with a nologging index (table_ctas_index_nologging)

SQL> create table table_ctas_nologging nologging as select * from dba_objects;

Table created.

SQL> create table table_ctas_logging as select * from dba_objects;

Table created.

SQL> create table table_ctas_nologging_insert nologging as select * from dba_objects where 1=2;

Table created.

SQL>  insert into table_ctas_nologging_insert  select * from dba_objects;

50864 rows created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> create table table_insert_mixed nologging as select * from dba_objects where 1=2;

Table created.

SQL> insert into table_insert_mixed select * from dba_objects;

50866 rows created.

SQL> insert into table_insert_mixed select /*+ append */ * from dba_objects;

50866 rows created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select count(*) from table_insert_mixed;

 COUNT(*)
----------
 101732

SQL> create table table_ctas_index_nologging as select * from dba_objects;

Table created.

SQL> create index IDXNOLOG  on  table_ctas_index_nologging (object_id)  nologging;

Index created.

Now I will shutdown the database and restore the tablespace from the backup.
Next is an extract from RMAN

rman target /

Recovery Manager: Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production on Wed Aug 25 17:32:20 2010

Copyright (c) 1982, 2007, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database: ORCL (DBID=1247573001)

RMAN> shutdown immediate

using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
database closed
database dismounted
Oracle instance shut down

RMAN> startup mount;

Oracle instance started
database mounted

Total System Global Area     285212672 bytes

Fixed Size                     1267068 bytes
Variable Size                155191940 bytes
Database Buffers             125829120 bytes
Redo Buffers                   2924544 bytes

RMAN> restore tablespace users;

Starting restore at 25-AUG-10
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=152 devtype=DISK

channel ORA_DISK_1: starting datafile backupset restore
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) to restore from backup set
restoring datafile 00004 to +DATA/orcl/datafile/users.259.719792191
channel ORA_DISK_1: reading from backup piece +DATA/orcl/backupset/2010_08_25/nnndf0_tag20100825t171657_0.272.727982219
channel ORA_DISK_1: restored backup piece 1
piece handle=+DATA/orcl/backupset/2010_08_25/nnndf0_tag20100825t171657_0.272.727982219 tag=TAG20100825T171657
channel ORA_DISK_1: restore complete, elapsed time: 00:00:05
Finished restore at 25-AUG-10

RMAN> recover tablespace users;

Starting recover at 25-AUG-10
using channel ORA_DISK_1

starting media recovery
media recovery complete, elapsed time: 00:00:05

Finished recover at 25-AUG-10

RMAN> alter database open;

database opened

Now lets see the status of the tables:

SQL> select count(*) from table_ctas_nologging ;
 select count(*) from table_ctas_nologging
 *
 ERROR at line 1:
 ORA-01578: ORACLE data block corrupted (file # 4, block # 404)
 ORA-01110: data file 4: '+DATA/orcl/datafile/users.259.719792191'
 ORA-26040: Data block was loaded using the NOLOGGING option

That doesn’t look good, lets see the next table

SQL> select count(*) from table_ctas_logging ;

COUNT(*)
----------
50863

Good, no problem here, the next scenario is more interesting, the table was created with the NOLOGGING option, but the inserts were done without the APPEND hint

SQL> select count (*) from table_ctas_nologging_insert;

COUNT(*)
----------
50864

Good, no problem here, now let’s see our table with half data inserted with logging and half with nologging

SQL> select count(*) from table_insert_mixed;
select count(*) from table_insert_mixed
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01578: ORACLE data block corrupted (file # 4, block # 4363)
ORA-01110: data file 4: '+DATA/orcl/datafile/users.259.719792191'
ORA-26040: Data block was loaded using the NOLOGGING option

Wow, the whole table is unredable!

Now lets see the table with the NOLOGGING  index .

<pre>SQL> select  count(*) from table_ctas_index_nologging;

COUNT(*)
----------
50865

Ok, thats nice, the table is accessible, but what happend if we try to use the index?

SQL>  select object_id from table_ctas_index_nologging  where object_id=1;
select object_id from table_ctas_index_nologging  where object_id=1
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01578: ORACLE data block corrupted (file # 4, block # 2821)
ORA-01110: data file 4: '+DATA/orcl/datafile/users.259.719792191'
ORA-26040: Data block was loaded using the NOLOGGING option

I tried to rebuil the index but I was still getting the same error message, at the end I was forced to drop it and recreate it.

Conclusions:

• Use the NOLOGGING option only on temporary/working/staging tables.
• Always perform a backup after a NOLOGGING operation.
• Unless explicitly indicated, DDLs like CTAS and DMLs like inserts will log all operations.

FROM ORACLE DOCUMENTATION:

NOLOGGING is supported in only a subset of the locations that support LOGGING. Only the following operations support the NOLOGGING mode:

DML:

• Direct-path INSERT (serial or parallel) resulting either from an INSERT or a MERGE statement. NOLOGGING is not applicable to any UPDATE operations resulting from the MERGE statement.
• Direct Loader (SQL*Loader)

DDL:

• CREATE TABLE … AS SELECT
• CREATE TABLE … LOB_storage_clause … LOB_parameters … NOCACHE | CACHE READS
• ALTER TABLE … LOB_storage_clause … LOB_parameters … NOCACHE | CACHE READS (to specify logging of newly created LOB columns)
• ALTER TABLE … modify_LOB_storage_clause … modify_LOB_parameters … NOCACHE | CACHE READS (to change logging of existing LOB columns)
• ALTER TABLE … MOVE
• ALTER TABLE … (all partition operations that involve data movement)
  • ALTER TABLE … ADD PARTITION (hash partition only)
  • ALTER TABLE … MERGE PARTITIONS
  • ALTER TABLE … SPLIT PARTITION
  • ALTER TABLE … MOVE PARTITION
  • ALTER TABLE … MODIFY PARTITION … ADD SUBPARTITION
  • ALTER TABLE … MODIFY PARTITION … COALESCE SUBPARTITION
• CREATE INDEX
• ALTER INDEX … REBUILD
• ALTER INDEX … REBUILD [SUB]PARTITION
• ALTER INDEX … SPLIT PARTITION

For objects other than LOBs, if you omit this clause, then the logging attribute of the object defaults to the logging attribute of the tablespace in which it resides.

For LOBs, if you omit this clause, then:

• If you specify CACHE, then LOGGING is used (because you cannot have CACHE NOLOGGING).
• If you specify NOCACHE or CACHE READS, then the logging attribute defaults to the logging attribute of the tablespace in which it resides.

NOLOGGING does not apply to LOBs that are stored internally (in the table with row data). If you specify NOLOGGING for LOBs with values less than 4000 bytes and you have not disabled STORAGE IN ROW, then Oracle ignores the NOLOGGING specification and treats the LOB data the same as other table data.

This article will explain about locks on rows and on objects in ORACLE.

Locks on rows can cause performance problems or even impede a transaction from finishing, when there are processes running for long time we need to validate that they are not waiting on a row(s).

When there is a lock on a row there is also a lock on the dependent objects, if we want to perform a DDL on a locked object we will get an ORA-00054 error.

Scenario 1:

Terminal A is locking a row and Terminal B is waiting on it:

–TERMINAL A

SQL> update map1 set col2='MYLOCK' where col1=300;

1 row updated.

SQL>
(..no commit here..)

–TERMINAL B

SQL> update map1 set col2='NEWVAL2' where col1=300;
(..waiting..)

Now, lets create a session as a DBA User to monitor the system, this query will tell the locking and waiting SIDs.

SELECT vh.sid locking_sid,
 vs.status status,
 vs.program program_holding,
 vw.sid waiter_sid,
 vsw.program program_waiting
FROM v$lock vh,
 v$lock vw,
 v$session vs,
 v$session vsw
WHERE     (vh.id1, vh.id2) IN (SELECT id1, id2
 FROM v$lock
 WHERE request = 0
 INTERSECT
 SELECT id1, id2
 FROM v$lock
 WHERE lmode = 0)
 AND vh.id1 = vw.id1
 AND vh.id2 = vw.id2
 AND vh.request = 0
 AND vw.lmode = 0
 AND vh.sid = vs.sid
 AND vw.sid = vsw.sid;

LOCKING_SID STATUS   PROGRAM_HOLDING                WAITER_SID PROGRAM_WAITING
----------- -------- ------------------------------ ---------- ------------------------------
 144        ACTIVE   sqlplus@rh4_node1.fadeserver.n        131 sqlplus@rh4_node1.fadeserver.n
                     et (TNS V1-V3)                            et (TNS V1-V3)

Here is an expanded version of the same query, it also includes jobs information.

SELECT vs.username,
 vs.osuser,
 vh.sid locking_sid,
 vs.status status,
 vs.module module,
 vs.program program_holding,
 jrh.job_name,
 vsw.username,
 vsw.osuser,
 vw.sid waiter_sid,
 vsw.program program_waiting,
 jrw.job_name,
 'alter system kill session ' || ''''|| vh.sid || ',' || vs.serial# || ''';'  "Kill_Command"
FROM v$lock vh,
 v$lock vw,
 v$session vs,
 v$session vsw,
 dba_scheduler_running_jobs jrh,
 dba_scheduler_running_jobs jrw
WHERE     (vh.id1, vh.id2) IN (SELECT id1, id2
 FROM v$lock
 WHERE request = 0
 INTERSECT
 SELECT id1, id2
 FROM v$lock
 WHERE lmode = 0)
 AND vh.id1 = vw.id1
 AND vh.id2 = vw.id2
 AND vh.request = 0
 AND vw.lmode = 0
 AND vh.sid = vs.sid
 AND vw.sid = vsw.sid
 AND vh.sid = jrh.session_id(+)
 AND vw.sid = jrw.session_id(+);

USERNAME OSUSER  LOCKING_SID STATUS   MODULE  PROGRAM_HO JOB_N USERNAME OSUSER  WAITER_SID PROGRAM_WA JOB_N Kill_
-------- ------- ----------- -------- ------- ---------- ----- -------- ------- ---------- ---------- ----- -----
CACOSTA  oracle          144 ACTIVE   SQL*Plu sqlplus@rh       CACOSTA  oracle         131 sqlplus@rh       alter
                                      s       4_node1.fa                                   4_node1.fa        syst
                                              deserver.n                                   deserver.n       em ki
                                              et (TNS V1                                   et (TNS V1       ll se
                                              -V3)                                         -V3)             ssion
                                                                                                            '144
                                                                                                            ,3897
                                                                                                            3';

We can see that the user CACOSTA, sid 144 is locking the session 131.

Scenario 2:
We are performing a DDL (alter somehow the object) and we get an ORA-00054 error.

I have canceled the waiting session in the example above and now I’m creating an index on the table:

SQL> create index ind2 on map1(col2);
create index ind2 on map1(col2)
 *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00054: resource busy and acquire with NOWAIT specified

If I re-run the query fromt he previous scenario it won’t return any rows, because there are no waiting sessions (I canceled the waiting update).

First we need to find out the object ID:

SQL> select object_id from dba_objects
 2  where owner='CACOSTA'
 3  and object_name='MAP1';

 OBJECT_ID
----------
 52255

Now lets see who is blocking the object 52255

SELECT c.owner,
 c.object_name,
 c.object_type,
 b.sid,
 b.serial#,
 b.status,
 b.osuser,
 b.machine
FROM v$locked_object a, v$session b, dba_objects c
WHERE b.sid = a.session_id AND a.object_id = c.object_id
and a.object_id=52255;

OWNER    OBJECT_NAME   OBJECT_TYPE                SID    SERIAL# STATUS   OSUSER  MACHINE
-------- ------------- ------------------- ---------- ---------- -------- ------- ---------------
CACOSTA  MAP1          TABLE                      144      38973 ACTIVE   oracle  rh4_node1.fades
                                                                                  erver.net

Good luck!

UDE-00008: operation generated ORACLE error 31623
ORA-31623: a job is not attached to this session via the specified handle
ORA-06512: at “SYS.DBMS_DATAPUMP”, line 2772
ORA-06512: at “SYS.DBMS_DATAPUMP”, line 3886
ORA-06512: at line 1

ORA-12805: parallel query server died unexpectedly

I found the solution in metalink, it is actually a bug and Oracle recommends to run these scripts, they will rebuild Datapump’s dictionary objects and the last one will recompile the invalid ones:

-

@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catdph.sql

@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/prvtdtde.plb

@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catdpb.sql

@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/dbmspump.sql

@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utlrp.sql

After I ran all the scripts I had to bounce the database, but at least I have my exports up and running again.
be careful with the utlrp.sql, because if there are other DDLs running you might get deadlocks

These are some of the srvctl commands I frequently use, this is not a complete reference guide.

I organized the commands as follow:

• To start a rac database
• To stop a rac database
• To check status and configurations
• To start and stop instances
• To start, stop and manage services

Start a rac database (order: nodeapps – asm – database)

srvctl start nodeapps -n nodename
srvctl start asm -n nodename
srvctl start database -d dbname
options are: srvctl start database -d dbname -o open | -o mount | -o nomount

Stop a rac database (order: database – asm – nodeapps)
srvctl stop database -d dbname -o immediate
options are: srvctl stop database -d dbname -o normal | -o transactional | -o immediate | -o abort

srvctl stop asm -n nodename
options are: srvctl stop asm -n nodename -o immediate

srvctl stop nodeapps -n nodename

To check status and configurations
Nodeapps:
srvctl status nodeapps -n nodename

srvctl config nodeapps -n nodename

ASM:
srvctl status asm -n nodename
srvctl config asm -n nodename

Database:
srvctl status database -d dbname
srvctl config database -d dbname (shows instances name, node and oracle home)

Instance:
srvctl status instance -d dbname -i instancename

Services:
srvctl status service -d dbname

To start and stop instances

srvctl start instance -d dbname -i instancename
srvctl stop instance -d dbname -i instancename

To start, stop and manage services
srvctl status service -d dbname
srvctl config service -d dbname
srvctl start service -d dbname -s servicename
srvctl stop service -d dbname -s servicename

srvctl relocate service -d dbname -s servicename -i instancename -t newinstancename [-f]

srvctl documentation for Oracle 10G R2 and 11G

We also now that major companies loves and appreciate to talk to a single company for support.

So what will be the strategy here? probably Oracle will start selling attractive “combos” or they will play with the licensing prices when using Sparc CPUs?

Register the live Webcast with Larry Ellison to learn about the strategy Oracle-Sun (on January 27)