You won't make 9 nines with shutdown abort Seconds in a year select 365 *24 *60 * 60 from dual; 365*24*60*60 ------------ 31536000 Amount of downtime allowed for 9 nines 1* select 31536000 - (31536000 * .999999999) from dual SQL> / 31536000-(31536000*.999999999) ------------------------------ .031536 And remember it's supposed to include scheudled maintenance down times. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Robert Freeman Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 1:55 PM To: Jared Still; Joel.Patterson@xxxxxxxxxxx Cc: andrew.kerber@xxxxxxxxx; oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Query Database while shutdown in progress And there is a *very* good point made in that page. If you work in an environment where 9 nines is the target, shutdown a -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l