ORA-32000: write to SPFILE requested but SPFILE is not modifiable

DB Version:

11.2.0.3.0 64 Bit - Single instance/local storage

Issue:

DB was started using spfile. When I tried to modify certain parameters with scope=both/spfile clause, the following error message was received.

ERROR at line 1:
ORA-32000: write to SPFILE requested but SPFILE is not modifiable

The description of the error message gave me following information
Cause: An ALTER SYSTEM command or an internal self-tuning mechanism requested a write to the SPFILE but the SPFILE was not modifiable.
Action :Perform an in-memory parameter update only

I wanted to make the update happen in spfile and want the change to be persistent on next bounce. So planned to create pfile from spfile and add the required entries to the text file.

Steps:

SQL> create pfile from spfile;

File created.

I viewed the contents of the pfile which was just been created. It had only one line.

*.spfile=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.3.0/database/spfiledev1.ora

So I created pfile again by giving the full path as specified above

SQL> create pfile from spfile='/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.3.0/database/spfiledev1.ora';

File created.


This time the file had all the entries as required by me. I updated the pfile with additional parameters required.

SQL> startup nomount pfile='/u01/app/oracle/product/112030/dbs/initdev1.ora';

Verified that the modified parameters are available. Then created spfile again

SQL> create spfile from pfile;

File created.

SQL> shutdown immediate

SQL> startup

The final startup was with spfile and all the changes I made was available after this.