Ok so I'm finishing up with the experimentation for 11g Data guard, 11.1.0.7 on solaris right now, not RAC. Here is what I want to do but can't seem to get to work: using tnsnames.ora, I want to put both the standby and primary database in a single entry to do so connect time failover, try testdg1 (its normally the primary), if it fails(let's assume we had to do a switchover), then try testdg2 on different host. Sounds straightforward right? So I thought, what appears to be happening is since the standby is mounted, sqlnet won't return back a failure so i just end up with this error: ORA-01033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress Process ID: 0 Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 Why because its trying to connect to what is now the standby but its FIRST in the entries for addresses, here is my tnsnames entries TESTDG = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST= (FAILOVER=ON) (LOAD_BALANCE=OFF) (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = unixtest06)(PORT = 1526)) (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = unixtest02)(PORT = 1526)) ) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = testdg1) (FAILOVER_MODE = (BACKUP=testdg2)(type=session)(method=basic)(retries=12)(delay=5)) ) ) primary is on unixtest02 and standby is on unixtest06, so I put 06 first on purpose for testing. But it appears sqlnet is NOT returning a failure just what you see above. I got to be missing something simple here but I just don't see it. The whole reason for this exercise is during a switchover/failover I don't want to have to make changes to OID/tnsnames.ora for app server to reconnect, if they always connect to testdg, we'd be good. Someone please enlighten me in the error of my ways. thanks, joe _______________________________________ Joe Testa, Oracle Certified Professional (Work) 614-677-1668 (Cell) 614-312-6715 Interested in helping out your marriage? Ask me about "Weekend to Remember" Dec 11-13, 2009 here in Columbus.