I will agree with Mr. Bobak. Connect to test that the database is not only started but is accessible to a non-privileged username. ...this is a great thread, but it has moved more into database health than "is the instance up", which was the initial thread. So let me ask, is connecting as a non-priveledged user really good enough? So you get a session. Are the datafiles online? Can you parse a SQL statement? etc ? -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l