DB:: ORA-00210: Cannot Open the Specified Control File

Recently I had an issue, while starting Oracle database post database instance/host machine failure.

Error:

ORA-00210: cannot open the specified control file
ORA-00202: control file: '/oracle/data/ora01/app/oracle/oradata/ORA12C/control01.ctl'
ORA-27086: unable to lock file - already in use
Linux-x86_64 Error: 11: Resource temporarily unavailable

Cause:

Typically it happens with NFS mounts. In my case, it happened as VM rebooted without shutting down the database properly. As database was not brought down properly, the file descriptor(s) are left open on the storage side, causing this error. To verify the issue, check the type of file system where control file resides.

$mount | grep oracle

Fix:

We can resolve this issue in two ways.

1. System/Storage Administrator has to release/clear the lock on files (Refer 145194.1)

2. Rename the existing file and create a copy to create a new file descriptor at storage side. And it will allow database to start.

mv /oracle/data/ora01/app/oracle/oradata/ORA12C/control01.ctl /oracle/data/ora01/app/oracle/oradata/ORA12C/control01.ctl.orig

cp /oracle/data/ora01/app/oracle/oradata/ORA12C/control01.ctl.orig /oracle/data/ora01/app/oracle/oradata/ORA12C/control01.ctl