ORA-00704 : Bootstrap Process Failure - Causes and Solution

APPLIES TO:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 10.1.0.2 and later

Information in this document applies to any platform.

***Checked for relevance on 15-Dec-2016***

SYMPTOMS

 After upgrade, trying to open the database fails with

ORA-00704: bootstrap process failure
ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
 

CHANGES

 Upgrade of Database

CAUSE

1. There is a probable of this error when any unsupported operations are tried to force open the database.

2. This error can also occur when system datafile has corrupted blocks. (ORA-01578)

3. Either Bootstrap Objects are corrupted /Missing

SOLUTION

In Oracle, Bootstrap refers to loading of metadata (data dictionary) before we OPEN the database -

If ORA-00704 is accompanied with any of the below errors

A) ORA-39700: database must be opened with UPGRADE option

   Ensure that environment variables point to the correct ORACLE_HOME, PATH etc and rerun catupgrd.sql 

B) ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

    A Particular bootstrap object must be missing

    1. Shutdown (abort) the instance and clean up any OS structures used by the instance. 

    2. Cleanup if  any sharedmemory/semaphores exists
     
       Use the following commands to remove the shared memory segments and  semaphores owned by the Oracle user.

       At the unix command prompt do the following:
   
   a) ipcs -m
      This shows the memory segments owned by the oracle user. If there are some segments owned by Oracle and related to instance which is failing to start then remove 
      > ipcrm -m <segment id number>
      This removes the segment from memory so Oracle no longer has a hold on  that piece of memory

   c) ipcs -s
      Check for any semaphores - Take the segment id of the correct instance which is failing to start and remove  
      >ipcrm -s <segment id number>
    

   3. Retry the startup.

   4. If the error persists then Restore the database from a backup taken prior to the upgrade

C) If  ORA-01406: fetched column value was truncated OR any other errors,

Its possible that bootstrap objects are corrupted 
Restore the database from a backup taken prior to the upgrade

Note: If the error persists follow up on the accompanying errors