How is this done ? At 17:11, my sqlplus session was connected to instance 3 in the RAC cluster. At 17:53, the session is on instance 1. No explicit commands issued from the client. Disclaimer : In this case I am a *user* not the DBA. SQL> set time on 17:11:44 SQL> select sys_context('USERENV','INSTANCE') from dual; SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','INSTANCE') ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 3 1 row selected. 17:11:47 SQL> select sys_context('USERENV','SID') from dual; SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','SID') ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 3118 1 row selected. 17:11:49 SQL> select sys_context('USERENV','INSTANCE') from dual; SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','INSTANCE') ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 1 1 row selected. 17:53:38 SQL> select sys_context('USERENV','SID') from dual; SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','SID') ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 1272 1 row selected. 17:53:42 SQL> -- Hemant K Chitale http://hemantoracledba.blogspot.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l