ORA-01102: cannot mount database in EXCLUSIVE mode

Problem Description:

====================

You are trying to startup the database and you receive the following error:

ORA-01102: cannot mount database in EXCLUSIVE mode

Cause: Some other instance has the database mounted exclusive
or shared.

Action: Shutdown other instance or mount in a compatible mode.

Problem Explanation:

====================

A database is started in EXCLUSIVE mode by default. Therefore, the
ORA-01102 error is misleading and may have occurred due to one of the
following reasons:

- there is still an "sgadef<sid>.dbf" file in the "ORACLE_HOME/dbs" 
directory

- the processes for Oracle (pmon, smon, lgwr and dbwr) still exist

- shared memory segments and semaphores still exist even though the

database has been shutdown

- there is a "ORACLE_HOME/dbs/lk<sid>" file

Search Words:

=============

ORA-1102, crash, immediate, abort, fail, fails, migration

Solution Description:

=====================

Verify that the database was shutdown cleanly by doing the following:

1. Verify that there is not a "sgadef<sid>.dbf" file in the directory
"ORACLE_HOME/dbs".

        % ls $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/sgadef<sid>.dbf 
If this file does exist, remove it.

        % rm $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/sgadef<sid>.dbf

2. Verify that there are no background processes owned by "oracle"

       % ps -ef | grep ora_ | grep $ORACLE_SID

If background processes exist, remove them by using the Unix

command "kill". For example:

     % kill -9 <rocess_ID_Number>

3. Verify that no shared memory segments and semaphores that are owned
by "oracle" still exist

% ipcs -b

If there are shared memory segments and semaphores owned by "oracle",
remove the shared memory segments

        % ipcrm -m <Shared_Memory_ID_Number>

and remove the semaphores

       % ipcrm -s <Semaphore_ID_Number>

NOTE: The example shown above assumes that you only have one

database on this machine. If you have more than one

database, you will need to shutdown all other databases

before proceeding with Step 4.

4. Verify that the "$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/lk<sid>" file does not exist


5. Startup the instance


Solution Explanation:

=====================

The "lk<sid>" and "sgadef<sid>.dbf" files are used for locking shared memory. It seems that even though no memory is allocated, Oracle thinks memory is still locked. By removing the "sgadef" and "lk" files you
remove any knowledge oracle has of shared memory that is in use. Now the database can start