Starting/Stopping a Pluggable Database

From Root Container:

To change the open mode of a pluggable database from the root container, do as follows:

$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> alter pluggable database salespdb open;

You can also start a pluggable database in a particular state, such as read-only:

SQL> startup pluggable database salespdb open read only;

To close a pluggable database, you can specify the name of the pluggable database:

SQL> alter pluggable database salespdb close immediate;

You can also open or close all pluggable databases while connected to the root container as SYS:

SQL> alter pluggable database all open;

SQL> alter pluggable database all close immediate;

From Pluggable: 

To open/start a pluggable database, connect to the pluggable database as SYS:

$ sqlplus sys/foo@salespdb as sysdba

SQL> startup;

To shut down the database, issue the following command:

SQL> shutdown immediate;