Re:Migrating from Oracle 7 to 8 (Score 1)

Crock! There I've said it. If oracle is confused about which init file it's reading then it's the environment thats hosed, not oracle. I've run multiple versions of software on the same box for years without any trouble. And YES I've gotten support from them. If you've seen problems, then it was a bug, and oracle will definately support you. Unless of course you set up your environment incorrectly which isn't oracle's fault. Try to watch your path/oracle_home/oracle_sid and possibly two_task vars a bit closer. I'll bet this is where your problems were. Pay close attention to OFA (or something as well structured) 'cause this is also an area for concern.

Each oracle instance gets it's own shared memory segment once started, completely independant of any other instance(s) started. Even a listener can be shared between version (same port). You just tell it where it's oracle home is for each instance. I've done it for years with no problems.