This brought to mind a test I ran last year. Oracle s/w & all database files reside on a Net. App. I pulled the Ethernet cable which supported the Net. App. The application simply FROZE & went unresponsive to any client I left the cable unplugged for about 5 minutes. Needless to say nothing appreared in the alert_SID.log file during this disconnection. During this period SMON terminated & no longer appeared in the process list using ps -ef After reattaching the cable to the NIC, any entry appeared with a timestamp of a couple of minutes previous declaring that SMON was terminating. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------