Is listener working for every database

All oracle versions, solaris 9,10.  No ASM instance, so one 
listener/oracle_home.

Back in the day, we had a couple scripts set up that would cycle through the 
databases and log in to an account using Sqlplus.   This would tell us that the 
database was up and the listener was up and working as well.   If not, then we 
would be notified.

Today, there is EM to name one method, but I may have a short term requirement 
to manually check again, and perhaps this time without using a password that is 
plain text in any file including the script.   The script would be executed 
from cron by oracle user.

Instead of creating an oracle account with only create session privilege on 
every database:

I can cycle through the databases and log in as sys / as sysdba, and see that 
the database is up without using a password.  I can also cycle through the 
listeners using lsnrctl and I suppose check the status or something,   OR grep 
for a ps for the tnslsnr listener name - thus trying to circumvent the password 
issue.

But does that tell me the same thing as actually logging into each database 
using the listener?   Discarding the idea that a database service name could 
have been 'left out' of the listener.ora file - because these are production 
databases and that is not likely, is there a better idea?

Just checking for feedback.

Joel Patterson
Database Administrator
904 727-2546

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