Hi all, 9.2.0.5.0 on Aix 5L. Before our cold RMAN backups, we shutdown and startup the instances as foll= ows: sqlplus '/ as sysdba' <<EOD shutdown immediate startup shutdown immediate startup mount EOD Sometimes both shutdowns seem to time-out automatically (certainly while Oracle is busy rolling back some huge transactions): =3D=3D> Beginning consistent instance shutdown and mount: Thu Apr 14 01:35:02 DFT 2005 SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.5.0 - Production on Thu Apr 14 01:35:02 2005 Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. Connected to: Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.5.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options JServer Release 9.2.0.5.0 - Production SQL> ORA-01013: user requested cancel of current operation SQL> ORA-01081: cannot start already-running ORACLE - shut it down first SQL> ORA-01013: user requested cancel of current operation SQL> ORA-01081: cannot start already-running ORACLE - shut it down first SQL> Disconnected from Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.5.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options JServer Release 9.2.0.5.0 - Production =3D=3D> Ended consistent instance shutdown and mount: Thu Apr 14 03:37:55 D= FT 2005 Both "user requested cancel" aren't human actions and it seems that both shutdowns time-out after 1 hour. What might be the cause of thes time-outs giving that sql*net is not involved and that sys's profile is "default" (idle_time=3Dunlimited). I can't find any relevant time-out parameter for sqlplus (only for isqlplus). TIA, Jerome -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l