Database startup can be done using SQL*Plus or the Enterprise Manager. We'll Use SQL*Plus. There are a variety of ways to login to SQL*Plus, but the one we'll use is the best, specifying the username and password on the command line make it visible using system tools like ps.
bash-2.05$ export ORACLE_SID=test bash-2.05$ sqlplus /nolog SQL*Plus: Release 10.1.0.2.0 - Production on Tue Oct 5 17:14:46 2004 Copyright (c) 1982, 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved. SQL> CONNECT sys/passwd AS SYSDBA Connected to an idle instance. SQL> STARTUP ORACLE instance started. Total System Global Area 184549376 bytes Fixed Size 1300928 bytes Variable Size 157820480 bytes Database Buffers 25165824 bytes Redo Buffers 262144 bytes Database mounted. Database opened. SQL> SQL> quit Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options bash-2.05$ ps -ef | grep -i test oracle 1624 1 0 17:16:20 ? 0:00 ora_qmnc_test oracle 1612 1 1 17:16:08 ? 0:01 ora_cjq0_test .......
There are a wide range of additional startup arguments that can be made rather than just STARTUP, such as to keep the database from mounting (NOMOUNT) or to force it to start (FORCE).
Once startup completes the database should be open, mounted and in read/write mode.