How to resolve ORA-011033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress - database

Question

When trying to connect to an ORACLE user via TOAD (Quest Software) or any other means (Oracle Enterprise Manager) I get this error:
ORA-011033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress

Answer 1

After some googling, I found the advice to do the following, and it worked:
SQL> startup mount
ORACLE Instance started
SQL> recover database
Media recovery complete
SQL> alter database open;
Database altered

Answer 2

Here is my solution to this issue:
SQL> Startup mount
ORA-01081: cannot start already-running ORACLE - shut it down first
SQL> shutdown abort
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL>
SQL> startup mount
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1904054272 bytes
Fixed Size 2404024 bytes
Variable Size 570425672 bytes
Database Buffers 1325400064 bytes
Redo Buffers 5824512 bytes
Database mounted.
SQL> Show parameter control_files
NAME TYPE VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
control_files string C:\APP\USER\ORADATA\ORACLEDB\C
ONTROL01.CTL, C:\APP\USER\FAST
_RECOVERY_AREA\ORACLEDB\CONTRO
L02.CTL
SQL> select a.member,a.group#,b.status from v$logfile a ,v$log b where a.group#=
b.group# and b.status='CURRENT'
2
SQL> select a.member,a.group#,b.status from v$logfile a ,v$log b where a.group#=
b.group# and b.status='CURRENT';
MEMBER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GROUP# STATUS
---------- ----------------
C:\APP\USER\ORADATA\ORACLEDB\REDO03.LOG
3 CURRENT
SQL> shutdown abort
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup mount
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1904054272 bytes
Fixed Size 2404024 bytes
Variable Size 570425672 bytes
Database Buffers 1325400064 bytes
Redo Buffers 5824512 bytes
Database mounted.
SQL> recover database using backup controlfile until cancel;
ORA-00279: change 4234808 generated at 01/21/2014 18:31:05 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion :
C:\APP\USER\FAST_RECOVERY_AREA\ORACLEDB\ARCHIVELOG\2014_01_22\O1_MF_1_108_%U_.AR
C
ORA-00280: change 4234808 for thread 1 is in sequence #108
Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}
C:\APP\USER\ORADATA\ORACLEDB\REDO03.LOG
Log applied.
Media recovery complete.
SQL> alter database open resetlogs;
Database altered.
And it worked:

Answer 3

I had a similar problem when I had installed the 12c database as per Oracle's tutorial . The instruction instructs reader to create a PLUGGABLE DATABASE (pdb).
The problem
sqlplus hr/hr#pdborcl would result in ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress.
The solution
Login as SYSDBA to the dabase :
sqlplus SYS/Oracle_1#pdborcl AS SYSDBA
Alter database:
alter pluggable database pdborcl open read write;
Login again:
sqlplus hr/hr#pdborcl
That worked for me
Some documentation here

Answer 4

This error can also occur in the normal situation when a database is starting or stopping. Normally on startup you can wait until the startup completes, then connect as usual. If the error persists, the service (on a Windows box) may be started without the database being started. This may be due to startup issues, or because the service is not configured to automatically start the database. In this case you will have to connect as sysdba and physically start the database using the "startup" command.

Answer 5

I used a combination of the answers from rohancragg, Mukul Goel, and NullSoulException from above. However I had an additional error:
ORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file string - see DBWR trace file
To which I found the answer here: http://nimishgarg.blogspot.com/2014/01/ora-01157-cannot-identifylock-data-file.html
Incase the above post gets deleted I am including the commands here as well.
C:\>sqlplus sys/sys as sysdba
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.3.0 Production on Tue Apr 30 19:07:16 2013
Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 778387456 bytes
Fixed Size 1384856 bytes
Variable Size 520097384 bytes
Database Buffers 251658240 bytes
Redo Buffers 5246976 bytes
Database mounted.
ORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file 11 – see DBWR trace file
ORA-01110: data file 16: 'E:\oracle\app\nimish.garg\oradata\orcl\test_ts.dbf'
SQL> select NAME from v$datafile where file#=16;
NAME
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E:\ORACLE\APP\NIMISH.GARG\ORADATA\ORCL\TEST_TS.DBF
SQL> alter database datafile 16 OFFLINE DROP;
Database altered.
SQL> alter database open;
Database altered.
Thanks everyone you saved my day!
Fissh

Answer 6

The issue can also be due to lack of hard drive space. The installation will succeed but on startup, oracle won't be able to create the required files and will fail with the same above error message.

Answer 7

I hope this will help somebody, I solved the problem like this
There was a problem because the database was not open.
Command startup opens the database.
This you can solve with command alter database open
in some case with alter database open resetlogs
$ sqlplus / sysdba
SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1073741824 bytes
Fixed Size 8628936 bytes
Variable Size 624952632 bytes
Database Buffers 436207616 bytes
Redo Buffers 3952640 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL> conn user/pass123
Connected.

Answer 8

I faced the same problem. I restarted the oracle service for that DB instance and the error is gone.

Answer 9

What worked for me is that i hadn't set the local_listener, to see if the local listener is set login to sqlplus / as sysdba, make sure the database is open and run the following command
show parameter local_listener, if the value is empty, then you will have to set the local_listener with the following SQL command ALTER SYSTEM SET LOCAL_LISTENER='<LISTENER_NAME_GOES_HERE>'