"RooRoo", That's like using a sledgehammer to kill flies...even if alter session...kill returns with the "session marked for kill" (which usually means that the session couldn't be killed within one minute), you can follow up by killing the OS server process (kill -9 on *nix, orakill on Windows). Paul Baumgartel CREDIT SUISSE Information Technology DBA & Admin - NY, KIGA 1 11 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10010 USA Phone 212.538.1143 paul.baumgartel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.credit-suisse.com -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Queen Roo Roo Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 2:40 PM To: oracle-l Subject: alter system v shutdown abort Hello everyone, Can someone tell me an alter system kill session 'sid,serial#'; will kill runaway processes or long running queries as efficiently as doing a shutdown abort, startup , shutdown immediate? I have always run a job which shutdown kills all users who shouldn't be on after a specific time but the SA at my new job is skepticle because another DBA told him to use a shutdown abort, startup, shutdown immediate sequence. Thanks in advance, Ruth -- Ruth Gramolini ruth.gramolini@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:ruth.gramolini@xxxxxxxxx> ============================================================================== Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://www.credit-suisse.com/legal/en/disclaimer_email_ib.html ==============================================================================