Joe, Don't bother with DBCA. An ASM instance is just processes, dump directories and a pfile. If you create an init.ora and set it up with bdump, udump, cdump, etc. all you do to create the instance is start it up like a database instance. The instance_type=asm parameter magically makes it start up an ASM instance instead of a database instance. Here is an example ASM init file: background_dump_dest=/opt/app/oracle/admin/asm/bdump core_dump_dest=/opt/app/oracle/admin/asm/cdump user_dump_dest=/opt/app/oracle/admin/asm/udump instance_type=asm compatible=10.1.0.4.0 large_pool_size=12M -- Jeremiah Wilton ORA-600 Consulting http://www.ora-600.net -----Original Message----- From: Joe Smith Is there a way to see what oracle does to create as ASM instance without actually creating it? With the DBCA you can create just the scripts to create the instance without executing the scripts at that moment. I tried using the DBCA but it wants to create the ASM instance immediately. Is there a way around this? -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l