F Troubleshooting the Oracle Database Installation

F.1 Verifying Requirements

Before you try any of the troubleshooting steps in this appendix, do the following:

• Check Chapter 2, "Oracle Database Preinstallation Requirements" to make sure that the system meets the requirements and that you have completed all of the preinstallation tasks.

• Read the release notes for the product on your platform before installing it. The release notes are available on the Oracle Database installation media. You can find the latest version of the release notes on the Oracle Technology Network Web site:

  http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html
  

F.2 Encountering Installation Errors

If you encounter an error during installation:

• Do not exit Oracle Universal Installer.

• If you clicked Next after you entered incorrect information about one of the installation windows, click Back to return to the window and correct the information.

• If you encounter an error while Oracle Universal Installer is copying or linking files, see "Reviewing the Log of an Installation Session" for interactive installations or "Silent or Noninteractive Installation Response File Error Handling" for more information.

• If you encounter an error while a configuration assistant is running, see the "Troubleshooting Configuration Assistants" section.

• If you cannot resolve the problem, remove the failed installation by following the steps listed in the "Cleaning Up After a Failed Installation" section.

F.3 Reviewing the Log of an Installation Session

During an installation, Oracle Universal Installer records all the actions that it performs in a log file. If you encounter problems during the installation, review the log file for information about possible causes of the problem. By default, the log files are located in the following directory:

SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\logs

Log filenames from interactive installations take the form:

installActionsdate_time.log

For example, if an interactive installation occurred at 9:00:56 a.m. on October 14, 2005, the log file would be named:

installActions2006-10-14_09-00-56AM.log

F.4 Silent or Noninteractive Installation Response File Error Handling

To determine whether a silent or noninteractive installation succeeds or fails, check the silentInstallActionsdate_time.log file, located in DRIVE_LETTER:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\logs.

If necessary, see the previous section for information about determining the location of the Inventory directory.

A silent or noninteractive installation fails if:

• You do not specify a response file.

• You specify an incorrect or incomplete response file.

  For example, a common problem is that while all the product-specific data is filled out correctly, the staging area location may be incorrect. If this is the case, check the FROM_LOCATION variable and make sure that it points to the products.xml file in the installation media. In the installation media, this products.xml is in database\stage.

• Oracle Universal Installer encounters an error, such as insufficient disk space.

Oracle Universal Installer or a configuration assistant validates the response file at runtime. If the validation fails, the silent or noninteractive installation or configuration process ends. Oracle Universal Installer treats values for parameters that are of the wrong context, format, or type as if no value was specified in the file.

F.5 Troubleshooting Hostname Changes and CSS

If you change the hostname for ASM, then the Oracle CSS daemon will not start. In order to counter this problem, use the following steps:

• Log in as the root user.

• Run localconfig delete to deconfigure CSS. This will remove any configuration related files on the system that referenced the old hostname.

• Run localconfig add to reconfigure CSS using the new hostname.

  For example:

  C:\> ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\bin\localconfig [add] [delete]
  [reset destination_Oracle_home] [-silent] 
  [-paramfile Complete_path_of_file_specifying_parameter_values]
  

F.6 Troubleshooting Oracle Configuration Manager

This section lists some of the errors that may occur while using Oracle Configuration Manager and provides tips to troubleshoot these errors.

• Insufficient Privileges While Running installCCRSQL collectconfig

  When you run the installCCRSQL.exe script, it creates the ORACLE_OCM user and sets up a job to collect database configuration information. The ORACLE_OCM user requires EXECUTE privileges on UTL_FILE and DBMS_SCHEDULER for database versions 10g or later, and on the DBMS_JOB for pre-10g databases. If these privileges are granted to PUBLIC, the ORACLE_OCM user inherits these privileges, otherwise these privileges are explicitly granted when the installCCRSQL.exe script is executed. If the inherited privileges are revoked, the following errors indicating the lack of privileges will be logged in the alert_log:

  ORA-12012: error on auto execute of job 52
  ORA-04068: existing state of packages has been discarded
  ORA-04063: package body "ORACLE_OCM.package_name" has errors
  ORA-06508: PL/SQL: could not find program unit being called
  
  

  To resolve these errors, you must grant the missing EXECUTE privilege to the ORACLE_OCM user.

  • For database versions 10g and later, grant EXECUTE privileges on the UTL_FILE and DBMS_SCHEDULER packages to the ORACLE_OCM user by entering the following SQL*PLUS commands:

    SQL> grant execute on UTL_FILE to oracle_ocm;
    SQL> grant execute on DBMS_SCHEDULER to oracle_ocm;
    SQL> ALTER PACKAGE oracle_ocm.MGMT_DB_LL_METRICS compile;
    SQL> ALTER PACKAGE oracle_ocm.mgmt_config compile;
    
    

  • For pre-10g databases, grant EXECUTE privileges on the DBMS_JOB package to the ORACLE_OCM user by entering the following SQL*PLUS commands:

    SQL> grant execute on UTL_FILE to oracle_ocm;
    SQL> grant execute on DBMS_JOB to oracle_ocm;
    SQL> ALTER PACKAGE oracle_ocm.MGMT_DB_LL_METRICS compile;
    SQL> ALTER PACKAGE oracle_ocm.mgmt_config compile;
    
    

• ORA-04021 Error

  There may be cases when the ORACLE_OCM user needs to be granted the required privileges during installation. While granting the privileges, the following error may occur in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\ccr\log\collectconfigSID.log:

  ORA-04021: timeout occurred while waiting to lock object SYS.<package like UTL_FILE>
  
  

  This error may occur if another procedure is using the package for which the privileges are being granted. To resolve this error, retry the install when the package is not being used. This error may occur while granting privileges on UTL_FILE, DBMS_SCHEDULER, or DBMS_JOB.

• ORA-01925 Error While Running installCCRSQL

  This error may occur if the value of the MAX_ENABLED_ROLES initialization parameter has been exceeded. To resolve this error, you must increase the value of the MAX_ENABLED_ROLES parameter and restart the database as follows:

  1. Edit the initsid.ora file where sid is the database system identifier and increase the value of MAX_ENABLED_ROLES . If a server parameter (spfile) has been used, alter the MAX_ENABLED_ROLES parameter by using the following SQL*PLus command:

     SQL>alter system set MAX_ENABLED_ROLES=value scope=spfile

  2. Restart the database.

  Once the database has been restarted, re-run the installCCRSQL.exe script.

• Incorrectly configured hostnames are displayed on MetaLink with only the short names.

  To ensure that hostnames are displayed with their fully qualified names on OracleMetaLink, the windir\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file must contain an entry that includes both the hostname and the domain in the following format:

  IP-Address  Full-HostName  Short-HostName
  
  

  For example:

  10.10.10.10  myhost.mydomain  myhost
  
  

  If the hosts file has not been correctly configured, only the short name is displayed on OracleMetaLink.

• Oracle Configuration Manager Synchronization Messages: Oracle Configuration Manager does not allow you to run multiple commands simultaneously. If you attempt to do so, the following messages may be displayed:

  • Message: Another operation is in progress. Please wait...

    Description: There are several Oracle Configuration Manager commands that cannot run concurrently. If you try to run one of these commands while another command is in progress, the second command will not be executed until the first command is completed. A message indicating that another command is in progress is displayed. The second command will automatically be run when the first command is completed.

    Commands: emCCR collect, emCCR getupdates, emCCR update_components, and emCCR upload

    Action: Initially, take no action, the second command will be executed when the first command is completed. But if the command execution takes too long, a timeout will occur. If a timeout occurs, ensure there is no Oracle Configuration Manager activity by executing emCCR stop command. Delete the ccr/state/collector.lock file and restart the Scheduler by running the emCCR start command. If you are running the command in Disconnected mode, ensure that no collection or update is taking place and then delete the ccr/state/collector.lock file.

  • Message: Operation blocked, waiting...

    Description: You cannot run the emCCR update_components command if any other emCCR command is running. If you try to run the command, it will be blocked. You also cannot run any emCCR command while emCCR update_components is running as all other commands will be blocked.

    Commands: configCCR and most of the emCCR commands

    Action: Initially, take no action, the command will get executed when the current command is completed. If a timeout occurs, ensure that there is no Oracle Configuration Manager activity by executing emCCR stop. Delete the ccr/state/semaphore.op* and ccr/state/semaphore.update* files, and restart Oracle Configuration Manager by running emCCR start. If running the command in Disconnected mode, ensure no collection or update is taking place and delete the ccr/state/semaphore.op* and the ccr/state/semaphore.update* files.

  • Message: The Scheduler is down for upgrade.

    Description: While upgrading Oracle Configuration Manager, you cannot run any of the emCCR commands.

    Commands: All emCCR commands

    Action: Retry the commands later.

F.7 Troubleshooting Configuration Assistants

To troubleshoot an installation error that occurs when a configuration assistant is running:

• Review the installation log files listed in the "Reviewing the Log of an Installation Session" section.

• Review the specific configuration assistant log file located in the ORACLE_BASE\cfgtoollogs directory. Try to fix the issue that caused the error.

  Note:

  Make sure that there is no space in the path.

• If you see the Fatal Error. Reinstall message, look for the cause of the problem by reviewing the log files. See "Fatal Errors" for more information.

F.8 Cleaning Up After a Failed Installation

If an installation fails, you must remove files that Oracle Universal Installer created during the attempted installation and remove the Oracle home directory. Follow the instructions in "Removing Oracle Database Software" to run Oracle Universal Installer to deinstall Oracle Database, manually remove the Oracle directory, and remove Oracle from the Registry Editor keys. Afterward, reinstall the software.

F.9 Images Displaying Incorrectly in Oracle Application Express

In "Configuring Oracle HTTP Server in a New Installation" , you added an alias entry that points to the file system path where you copied the images directory. If images in Oracle Application Express do not display correctly, you may have more than one definition of the /i/ alias. To address this issue:

• If possible, rename the first instance of /i/ to a different alias name.

• Alternatively, copy the images from the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\apex\images directory to the directory defined by the first /i/ alias.

F.10 Online Help Not Working

If users are accessing Oracle Application Express through a Virtual Host, online Help will not work. Consider the following example:

• The hostname of the Oracle HTTP Server where the Oracle Application Express DAD resides is internal.server.com and the port is 7777.

• Users access Oracle Application Express through a Virtual Host. In their Web browsers, users see external.server.com and port 80.

In this example, Oracle Application Express online Help will not work if the users cannot access internal.server.com. To resolve this issue, add the following lines to the Oracle Application Express Database Access Descriptor (DAD) to override the CGI environment variables SERVER_NAME and SERVER_PORT:

PlsqlCGIEnvironmentList SERVER_NAME=external.server.com
PlsqlCGIEnvironmentList SERVER_PORT=80