oracle@weblogic28 $sqlplus / as sysdba SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Fri Nov 30 16:02:32 2012 Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All Rights Reserved. Connected. SQL> startup nomount; ORA-01081: cannot start already-running ORACLE - shut it down first SQL> shutdown immediate; ORA-24324: service handle not initialized ORA-24323: value not allowed ORA-01089: immediate shutdown in progress - no operations are permitted SQL> shutdown abort; ORA-01031: insufficient privileges SQL> exit Disconnected oracle@hostname $sqlplus / as sysdba SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Fri Nov 30 16:05:57 2012 Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All Rights Reserved. Connected. SQL> shutdown abort ORACLE instance shut down. SQL> exit Disconnected oracle@hostname $sqlplus / as sysdba SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Fri Nov 30 16:06:17 2012 Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All Rights Reserved. Connected to an idle instance. SQL> startup nomount; ORACLE instance started. Total System Global Area 595591168 bytes Fixed Size 2073064 bytes Variable Size 213913112 bytes Database Buffers 373293056 bytes Redo Buffers 6311936 bytes