spfile stored in OCR is not used if one exists in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs location (Doc ID 1373622.1)

Last updated on OCTOBER 13, 2016

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 11.2.0.1 to 11.2.0.4 [Release 11.2]
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Symptoms

The purpose of this document is to show if spfile<SID>.ora exists in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs location, it could be used when using srvctl or crsctl commands to start the database/instances.

The following configuration show the spfile is stored in ASM diskgroup:

$ srvctl config database -d A1 -a
Database unique name: A1
Database name: A1
Oracle home: /u01/app/oradb1/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
Oracle user: oradb1
Spfile: +DATA112/A1/spfileA1.ora
Domain:
Start options: open
Stop options: immediate
Database role: PRIMARY
Management policy: AUTOMATIC
Server pools: A1
Database instances: A11,A12
Disk Groups: DATA112,FRA112
Mount point paths:
Services: a1_test
Type: RAC
Database is enabled
Database is administrator managed



When the database is started with the spfile stored in ASM/diskgroup, it should show:

$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Fri Nov 4 08:37:41 2011

Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle. All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP,
Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> show parameter spfile

NAME TYPE VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
spfile string +DATA112/a1/spfilea1.ora
SQL>



Now, if a spfile is created in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory:

$ ls -l $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/spfile*
-rw-r----- 1 oradb1 oinstall 4608 Sep 20 15:31 /u01/app/oradb1/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/dbs/spfileA11.ora


stop and restart the instance with srvctl command:

$ srvctl stop instance -d A1 -i A11
$ srvctl start instance -d A1 -i A11
$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Fri Nov 4 08:48:13 2011

Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle. All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP,
Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> show parameter spfile

NAME TYPE VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
spfile string /u01/app/oradb1/product/11.2.0
/dbhome_1/dbs/spfileA11.ora
SQL>


Note: the spfile is pointed to $ORACLE_HOME/dbs, instead of ASM diskgroup

Possible error may return if another instance is started with a parameter set differently.

$ srvctl start instance -d A1 -i A11
PRCR-1013 : Failed to start resource ora.a1.db
PRCR-1064 : Failed to start resource ora.a1.db on node host01
CRS-5017: The resource action "ora.a1.db start" encountered the following error:
ORA-01105: mount is incompatible with mounts by other instances
ORA-19808: recovery destination parameter mismatch


CRS-2674: Start of 'ora.a1.db' on 'host01' failed



Cause

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