Rename an Oracle instance

In this document I’m renaming the instance name “TEST” as “DEV”:

1. Check the instance name before we rename

              SQL>Select instance_name from v$instance;

                       instance_name

                     --------------------

                        TEST

2. Shutdown the instance which we desired to rename.

              SQL>shutdown immediate

              Note: Database must be shutdown with SHUTDOWN NORMAL or SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE.

3. Modify the files profile, oratab, tnsnames.ora, listener.ora with the new ORACLE_SID.
4. Go to cd $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/ and modify the initDEV.ora with the new instance_name.

             vi initDEV.ora

                 Instance_name=DEV

5. Recreate the password file with the new sid.

               $Orapwd file=$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapwDEV password=xxx

6. Export ORACLE_SID=DEV
6. Start up the database and verify that it works.

               SQL>startup

7. When the instance is started, the control file is updated with the new ORACLE_SID i.e. "DEV".

               SQL>Select instance_name from v$instance;

                     instance_name

                     --------------------

                        DEV