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Tracing ORA 01031

The author was getting sporadic ORA-01031 errors when connecting locally as SYSDBA to an Oracle 11g database. By enabling error stack tracing for the ORA-01031 error, the trace file revealed that the TNS_ADMIN variable was pointing to a directory containing an improperly configured sqlnet.ora file, which was causing the issue. Error stack tracing helped pinpoint the root cause of the error. The author concludes that error stack tracing can be useful for diagnosing other common errors like ORA-00942 where the specific missing permission is not obvious.

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Dhoom Machale
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116 views3 pages

Tracing ORA 01031

The author was getting sporadic ORA-01031 errors when connecting locally as SYSDBA to an Oracle 11g database. By enabling error stack tracing for the ORA-01031 error, the trace file revealed that the TNS_ADMIN variable was pointing to a directory containing an improperly configured sqlnet.ora file, which was causing the issue. Error stack tracing helped pinpoint the root cause of the error. The author concludes that error stack tracing can be useful for diagnosing other common errors like ORA-00942 where the specific missing permission is not obvious.

Uploaded by

Dhoom Machale
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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4/5/2015

Oracle|dbaportal.eu|Page2

Tracing ORA01031
NOV 2

Posted by alesk

Several months ago I got a brand new Lenovo Think Centre workstation at workplace with Windows 7
Enterprise Edition (x64). Of course, the first thing I always do is to install a bunch of Oracle software that
serves as a playground. So, I installed 10gR2 and 11gR2 and created test databases for both versions. In
addition to RDBMS I installed several other tools that I use more or less on a daily basis, or that I need
while reproducing end user errors.
Everything worked as expected. At least at the beginning. After awhile, I noticed unsuspected error while
connecting locally as sysdba on 11g instance.
I could successfully connect / as sysdba for two or three times in a row after fresh OS reboot, then
when I tried to connect for third or forth time in a row as sysdba, I got ORA01031 error out of the blue
sky:

Being a member of ORA_DBA OS group, having SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES = (NTS) in SQLNET.ORA,


not having any issues with 10g database, just with a 11g, having the same issue while being a standalone
machine as well as being a domain member workstation
I soon run out explanation other than: it must be something about BEQ protocol in 11g and/or some OS
specific issue, Ill troubleshoot later. Well, a lot later :).
Today, I noticed Miladin Modrakovic recently wrote a blog post about errorstack tracing. Hmmcould this
help me resolve my sporadic ORA1031 errors while trying to connect locally as sysdba.
First, I issued:
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SQL>altersystemsetevents'1031tracenameerrorstacklevel3;namelibrary_cachelevel10';

and then I was trying to connect without a password:

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4/5/2015

Oracle|dbaportal.eu|Page2

Now, I should have a trace file generated for the ORA01031 error, so I looked in alert.log for trace file:
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...
WedNov0214:42:432011
ErrorsinfileE:\ORACLE\diag\rdbms\test11\test11\trace\test11_ora_1936.trc:
ORA01031:insufficientprivileges

It took me some time glimpsing through file test11_ora_1936.trc as it was about 38MB in size.
When I saw tnsManager entry in error stack, I knew something weird is going on

What the heck is tnsManager* doing in the trace file, if Im not using this service at all in my 11g
installment.
It turned out that I somehow forgot that I setup TNS_ADMIN variable system wide pointing to the
tnsManager home directory. In that directory sqlnet.ora file was not setup properly (NTS was turned off),
dont have a clue why 10g worked despite that and why 11g worked sometimes. The bottom line is that
thanks to error stack trace I was able to pinpoint the problem.
Finally, I disabled tracing with:
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sql>altersystemsetevents'1031tracenameerrorstackoff;namelibrary_cacheoff';

As Miladin pointed out in his blog, errostack tracing is useful also for other common errors, such as ORA
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00942, where Oracle reports error and then its up to you to pinpoint which permission is missing and this
is more often than not a pain in the *ss.
Side note*: if youre not familiar with tnsManager then you dont know what youre missing, its a great little
gem.

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