Database not open and needs recovery

I have a the Oracle database (10gR2) hooked up to a Learning Management System. Today I received an error for the database that sends me through a loop of errors.

One error is the "ORA-01109: Database not open" error. When I tried the "alter database open;" command, it told me it couldn't because one of my files needed media recovery. Looking at the Enterprise Manager, it is giving me the message "ORA-01033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress." Through the Windows Server 2003 "Services" I restarted all Oracle services and still received the error.

I also tried recovering the file the system is telling me needs recovery. But, then I get the 1109 error telling me the recover failed because the database is not open.

Is there anyway to stop the cycle of errors without just deleting the database and reinstalling it and all the tables?

how are you trying to recover the file

Davey,

First, thanks for replying. I am by no means a certified database administrator, and I can honestly I got the job because I held the right security clearance. Other than that, this is all me learning on the job, I have never had an Oracle class.

That said, I tried recovery using the Enterprise Manager.

In the Enterprise manager on the Oracle server, there was an option for "recovery." I tried that two separate ways: first, to recover the whole database; secondly, I tried to go by a single database item (five separate files came up with check-boxes... and I chose the one related to the file (system01.dbf) that appeared in the error.

I also tried identifying the file that needed recovery by using the SQL code:

SQL> select name, status from v$datafile where status not in ('ONLINE', 'SYSTEM');

I used that before and got a list with the file that needed recovery, but this time the response was something like "no files".

Thank you again for responding so quickly.

--do u have a valid backup of ur database and all archivelogs from the time u took the backup?
--If yes, check whether it is a hardware failure. If no, then go as follows:
create an RMAN session as follows:
c:\> rman target 'sys/password@service_name as sysdba'

if u r using recovery catalog with RMAN, then create RMAN as follows:
c:\> rman target 'sys/password@service_name as sysdba' catalog
'rman_user/password@service_name'

then;
RMAN> run
{
startup mount;
alter datafile offline;
restore datafile ;
recover datafile ;
alter database open;
}


if it is a hardware failure, then go as follows:

create an RMAN session as follows:
c:\> rman target 'sys/password@service_name as sysdba'

if u r using recovery catalog with RMAN, then create RMAN as follows:
c:\> rman target 'sys/password@service_name as sysdba' catalog
'rman_user/password@service_name'

then;

RMAN> run
{
startup mount;
alter datafile offline;
rename datafile to ;
restore datafile ;
switch datafile all;
recover datafile ;
alter database open;
}

once u have taken datafile offline, u can open the rest of database. The above one was just an example..

Mahaj,

That didn't work for me. When I tried to get to RMAN, I got another error. There were such a compilations of errors that I just gave up and deleted the database and rebuilt it. I lost all the information on it, of course, but I found out that it had corrupted information, the backup was only good for a short time (which had expired), etc.

Thank you for your time, though. I appreciate your response and will keep that coding for when I need it again.

Thanks again and sorry you went to the trouble.

Steve M.