Would a quick hack to code the procedure as a version of=20 declare l_alive number; begin=20 select 1 into l_alive from dual@remotedb; if l_alive =3D 1 then proc_name; end if end; /=20 make sense?=20 This might avoid ocella upgrades breaking your check, or dealing with the politics :). Alternatively you might wish to add error handling for what ever errors you get when the ocella db is down and add that to your functions and procedures... On 4/26/05, stephen booth <stephenbooth.uk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > One of our new systems (Documentum from EMC) uses a database link to a > remote database (Ocella from Ocella) for some processes. Due to > organisation politics the people managing the Ocella database don't > tell the people managing Documentum when they're taking their system > down (the joys of working in the public sector). Documentum can do > most of it's functions when Ocella is down, it just can't do certain > transactions, unfortunately it's currently not very good at dealing > with situations where the Ocella database is down. >=20 > We're looking at some way of checking if the Ocella database is up > before trying a transaction that needs it then reporting back to the > user if it's down. What we're currently thinking of is putting an > empty table in the Ocella database then querying that from a PL/SQL > function over the link and trapping the error. If we get data or 'No > Rows Returned' then we know that the database is up and the link is > working. If we get an ORA-03113 then we know that the database is > down or the link isn't working for some other reason (e.g. Network > broken again). the function returns either TRUE or FALSE depending on > whether the remote dtabase is up or not. >=20 > Does anyone have experience of a similar situation? Is there a more > elegant/reliable method? Anything I've failed to consider that will > make this all blow up? >=20 > Thanks >=20 > Stephen >=20 > --=3D20 > It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption. > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l >=20 --=20 Niall Litchfield Oracle DBA http://www.niall.litchfield.dial.pipex.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l