You are here means you are facing “ora-01033 oracle initialization or shutdown in progress” error while trying to login into the Oracle database. A few days ago I faced the same issue and here are the steps that I have followed to troubleshoot which helped me login into the database successfully.
This article will help you understand the error message, possible causes, and their solutions. So without wasting time, let’s start digging into the error message.
What does “ora-01033 oracle initialization or shutdown in progress” error mean?
The error message is very clear and explains that the Oracle initialization or shutdown process is in progress, hence we cannot perform any other action on the database till initialization/shutdown is in progress. After completion of either initialization or shutdown, you will be able to perform the required action on the database.
There are following five reasons that may result in the error message and the steps you need to follow in order to fix the error.
1. The database is in the middle of starting or shutdown process
Reason:
If you have just started or shut down the database and executed a new command then you may end up receiving “ora-01033 oracle initialization or shutdown in progress” error message as already some process is going on and you are trying to execute a new command.
Solution:
Wait for the process to complete. Sometimes starting or shutdown down the database may take some time due to system performance or some processes are used in another application. If you still facing the same error after some time, then check out the below point.
2. An issue with the database services
Reason:
There may be some issues with the database services. Either database services are stopped or getting issues while starting. Many users have observed that they faced an issue while starting the database service due to updated security settings. Due to security settings, users may face port or access-related issues.
Solution:
Restart the database services. Check if database services are up and running. There is a possibility of the database service got hung and in that case, restarting the Oracle services will solve the issue. Here are the steps to do so.
- Got to search bar, type Services and select Services app.
- Restart Oracle Service and then Oracle Listener Service as shown below.
3. Forced shutdown or incomplete shutdown of database
Reason:
When you execute a command to shut down the database, database software internally executes some stepwise procedures to shut down the database. And it may take a few minutes. If you forcefully close the database service or shut down the system due to a power cut issue in between the database shutdown process then it may result in a complete shutdown of the database. Which can cause the above error message while login into the database again.
Solution:
Shut down and start the database. If there is any issue during the shutdown and startup process then try shutting down the database forcefully and start again using the below steps.
- Open command prompt and log in as sysdba using the following command
sqlplus / as sysdba
- Enter the following command to forcefully shutdown database
shutdown abort;
- Execute the below command to startup the database again
startup;
Now try to login into the database and you should be able to log in without any error message. If you are still getting the error then try the next step.
4. The database is not mounted or opened
Reason:
If the database is not mounted properly, while starting the database then it can result in the error message “ora-01033 oracle initialization or shutdown in progress“. If the database is mounted then it’s available for the database administrators only. Normal users can’t access a database that is mounted but not opened.
Solution:
Try to mount and open the database using the following steps and it should fix the error.
If the database is mounted but not open then you may end up getting the error as well. To check whether the database is MOUNTED or OPEN or neither of those, you can execute points #4 and #6 to understand the current status.
Note: If STATUS is MOUNTED then it means the database is mounted but not opened.
- Open command prompt and log in to database as sysdba.
sqlplus / as sysdba
- Forcefully shutdown database.
shutdown abort;
- Mount the database.
startup mount;
- Check whether the database is mounted or not.
select status, database_status from v$instance;
- Open the database.
alter database open;
- Check whether the database is open or not.
select status, database_status from v$instance;
5. Corrupted database files
Some intentional or unintentional invalid activity may damage some database files. If DBF, CTL, or ORA files are corrupted then it can cause the error “ora-01033 oracle initialization or shutdown in progress”.
If all the above steps do not work and you are still getting the same error message, then uninstall the database software and install it again. Before uninstalling the DB, make sure you take a backup of the data.
Create a new database instance and try to import the previous database files if you have taken the backup of the running instance.
Note: It’s highly recommended to take a backup of the database from time to time. If you come across such issues where it cannot be resolved, then restoring the DB to a previous stage is easy or else you will end up losing all the data.
Final thoughts:
We hope you are able to get rid of the “ora-01033 oracle initialization or shutdown in progress” error using the above steps. Let us know in the comments which steps helped you fix the error. If you are still having challenges, do mention them in the comment section and we would be happy to help you.
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I had installed Oracle 11g on windows 07,everything was working fine.But today it is giving me an error saaying ORA-01033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress . I followed the steps mentioned in the different communities but unable to solve the error. After connecting as sqlplus sys/sys as sysdba. and executing below statement,i got following error. How to solve this error?
SQL> recover database;
ORA-00283: recovery session canceled due to errors
ORA-01110: data file 9: 'C:\APP\MKHATAL\ORADATA\ORCL\VELODBDATA.DBF'
ORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file 9 - see DBWR trace file
ORA-01110: data file 9: 'C:\APP\MKHATAL\ORADATA\ORCL\VELODBDATA.DBF'
Thanks in advance!!
asked Jun 27, 2013 at 7:26
2
First, check your ALERT.LOG file typically located in D:\app\oracle\diag\rdbms\DBNAME\SID\trace\.
The latest entries in your ALERT.LOG should give you an indication on what is going on. Is the database starting? Shutting down?
Should the database be stuck in the shutdown process, you can try to kill the oracle.exe process and then restart the database via Windows Service.
Often, when the database seems to hang on startup, it is actually applying REDO to get a consistent state, so pay close attention on what the ALERT.LOG tells you.
answered Jun 27, 2013 at 7:45
SimonSimon
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1
There’s more info needed to be able to solve similar issues. Questions like these are interesting to get answered:
- To what level can you start the database ? None, nomount, mount or
open (exclude the last one in this case) - What does the ALERT.LOG file show ? This from the moment the first
issue is suspected to be around - An obvious question is just : what happened ? What action were you
doing when you saw the first error message ? - Can you shutdown the database ? If yes, which methods : normal,
immediate or abort only ? Know that stopping the database with ABORT
option may make problems bigger as they are already. - Did you try rebooting the server ? This is particularly an issue on
Windows, which is your case. - Depending on how you stopped the database, do you have a cold backup
? - Depending on RMAN still working : can you take a backup ? The RECOVERY you were trying is not bad, but it could be interesting to know what is happening on OS level with that file; Is it there ? If yes, is it locked or not ? Does the OS think it’s a valid file ?
answered Dec 7, 2014 at 17:55
tvCatvCa
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Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to fix the ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress error when you connect to the Oracle Database.
Sometimes, you may encounter the following error when you connect to an Oracle pluggable database in Oracle Database 12c:
An error was encountered performing the requested operation:
ORA-01033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress
01033. 00000 - "ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress"
*Cause: An attempt was made to log on while Oracle is being started up
or shutdown.
*Action: Wait a few minutes. Then retry the operation.
Vendor code 1033
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)
To fix this issue, you use the follwing steps:
First, launch the SQL*Plus program and login to the database instance as a SYSDBA
user:
Enter user-name: ot@pdborcl as sysdba
Enter password: <password>
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)
This statement connected to the PDBORCL
database using the OT
user.
Second, issue the following statement to check the status of the current instance:
SQL> select status, database_status from v$instance;
STATUS DATABASE_STATUS
------------ -----------------
MOUNTED ACTIVE
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)
The output showed that the instance status is mounted.
Third, change the state of the Oracle Database instance to OPEN
:
SQL> alter database open;
Database altered.
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)
For more information on the Oracle Database stages, check it out the Startup Oracle Database instance tutorial.
Finally, double check the database status by using the following statement:
select status, database_status from v$instance;
STATUS DATABASE_STATUS
------------ -----------------
OPEN ACTIVE
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)
The instance status is open and available to all users for normal operations.
Now, you should be able to connect to the OT
pluggable database without any issue.
Was this tutorial helpful?
When I am trying to connect the oracle DB it throws the following error:
ORA-01033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress
I searched over the net and got few solutions but no luck. Even I restarted the database and the DB started without any error. Following are the logs:
Enter user-name: /as sysdba
Connected to:
Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Advanced Analytics and Real Application Testing options
SQL> shutdown immediate
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1.0167E+10 bytes
Fixed Size 2934888 bytes
Variable Size 1677723544 bytes
Database Buffers 8455716864 bytes
Redo Buffers 30617600 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL> exit
Enter user-name: rc532/rc532@abcdb
ERROR:
ORA-01033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress
Process ID: 0
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0
After restart I checked the following:
SQL> select status, database_status from v$instance;
STATUS DATABASE_STATUS
------------ -----------------
OPEN ACTIVE
SQL> select open_mode from v$database;
OPEN_MODE
--------------------
READ WRITE
Any help would be appreciated.
You will see this error very often during data guard setup, the main reason for this error is the password files are not copied to from primary to standby.
ORA-01033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress.
Cause: An attempt was made to log on while Oracle is being started up or shutdown.
Action: Wait a few minutes. Then retry the operation
If you don’t have any password file then create one using below command on primary and copy to standby node.
$orapwd file=orapwDG password=xxxxxx
In case of RAC, the password file might be on Primary cluster DB which was stored in ASM, but on standby you have copied the password file to $ORACLE_HOME/dbs
Run below commands to on both primary and standby
For ex:- On Primary
$ srvctl config database -d DG
Database unique name: DG
Database name: DG
Oracle home: /home/oracle/product/12.2.0.1/dbhome_1
Oracle user: oracle
Spfile: +DISK1/DG/ parameterfile/spfileDG.ora
Password file: +DISK1/DG/ parameterfile/pwdDG
For ex:- On standby
$ srvctl config database -d DG_std
Database unique name: DG_std
Database name: DG
Oracle home: /home/oracle/product/12.2.0.1/dbhome_1
Oracle user: oracle
Spfile: +DISK1/DG/ parameterfile/spfileDG.ora
Password file: /home/oracle/product/12.2.0.1/dbhome_1/dbs/orapwDG
Also users see this error on normal database. There are many possible reasons for this error.
1. You may get this error if Database might not opened
2. Startup/shutdown is in the middle and hung up.
3. If you are trying to connect to wrong database
4. Database might be in down for recovery
Please make sure you check below
1. If the database is not opened then use command “alter database open” .
2. Check target DB is in the middle of startup or shutdown as system is very busy or has some issues. You need to verity alert.log to find out the real issue.
3. Verify all environment variable are set correct and In case if DB is down startup the database
4. In case if user doing recovery and not successful and below steps will help to recover the DB
SQL> startup mount
ORACLE Instance started
SQL> recover database
Media recovery complete
SQL> alter database open;
Database altered
Regards
Satishbabu Gunukula, Oracle ACE