DBCA “Recovery manager failed to restore datafiles”

Hi all,

If that’s the 5th Blog Post with the same title one open, don’t close, READ THIS ONE!

This one is different.

It’s actually another case about Oracle throwing generic errors for DBCA where 99% of times it’s the same error, so all blogs are different but the same in essence, and none resolve your problem. So, let’s go by parts:

The Error from Client:

DBCA_Error

 

Generic Case (if this is the first blog you open about the subject):

  • Make sure the file $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle has privilege set to chmod 6751 in both (ASM and DB) homes. it should look like this:
[oracle@PROD01 bin]$ cd /u01/app/oracle/product/19c/db/bin
[oracle@PROD01 bin]$
[oracle@PROD01 bin]$ ls -ltr oracle*
-rwsr-s--x. 1 oracle asmadmin 441253104 Aug 27 22:29 oracle
  • If you are not sure, set it accordingly:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin && chmod 6751 oracle
  • Not yet? Check the disks assigned to ASM privileges and groups:
kfod status=TRUE asm_diskstring='/dev/asm*' disk=ALL
  • Ater all this, still not working? Go for the atypical case below:

 

Atypical Case (Exception)

After some struggle and no success, I started validating everything I could. Some piece of words before the silver bullet here:

Noticed I knew you do have ASM? How come that? Well, most likely the error below the ASM happens at the point the DBCA runs a RMAN restore to create the database base files and metadata. This most likely happens at the time the write is happening on the ASM, once this is the most unstable process involved.

By looking deeper on the installation logs I could see:

[Thread-527] [ 2020-08-27 23:50:04.942 PDT ] [RMANUtil$RMANUtilErrorListener.handleError:1386] ERROR=channel ORA_DISK_1: restoring datafile 00001 to +DATA
[Thread-527] [ 2020-08-27 23:50:04.942 PDT ] [RMANUtil$RMANUtilErrorListener.handleError:1386] ERROR=channel ORA_DISK_1: reading from backup piece /ora01/app/oracle/product/19c/db/assistants/dbca/templates/Seed_Database.dfb
[Thread-527] [ 2020-08-27 23:50:04.942 PDT ] [RMANUtil$RMANUtilErrorListener.handleError:1386] ERROR=channel ORA_DISK_1: ORA-19870: error while restoring backup piece /ora01/app/oracle/product/19c/db/assistants/dbca/templates/Seed_Database.dfb
[Thread-527] [ 2020-08-27 23:50:04.942 PDT ] [RMANUtil$RMANUtilErrorListener.handleError:1386] ERROR=ORA-19504: failed to create file "+DATA"
[Thread-527] [ 2020-08-27 23:50:04.942 PDT ] [RMANUtil$RMANUtilErrorListener.handleError:1386] ERROR=ORA-17502: ksfdcre:4 Failed to create file +DATA
[Thread-527] [ 2020-08-27 23:50:04.942 PDT ] [RMANUtil$RMANUtilErrorListener.handleError:1386] ERROR=ORA-15001: diskgroup "DATA" does not exist or is not mounted
[Thread-527] [ 2020-08-27 23:50:04.942 PDT ] [RMANUtil$RMANUtilErrorListener.handleError:1386] ERROR=ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

Bingo, so it’s a password issue?

Well, I’m creating the database and this actually matches with all the chmod 6751 thing…

What then?

Well, after a while going crazy validating passwd files and so one, realized something about the oracle user:

[oracle@PROD01 bin]$ id -a
uid=500(oracle) gid=501(oinstall) groups=501(oinstall),10(wheel),203(dba),503(asmadmin),504(asmoper),525(madhoc) context=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023
[oracle@PROD01 bin]$ grep oracle /etc/group
wheel:x:10:oracle
asmadmin:x:503:oracle
asmoper:x:504:oracle
madhoc:x:525:oracle

Can you see the oracle user is part of the oinstall group but not really appearing on /etc/group? Also not in osusergroup dba.

Well, let’s force it?

[oracle@PROD01 bin]$ sudo su -
Last login: Fri Aug 28 14:13:21 PDT 2020 on pts/3
[root@DMSDB1PA ~]# usermod -g oinstall -G oinstall,dba,asmadmin,asmoper,madhoc oracle
[root@PROD01 ~]# id oracle
uid=500(oracle) gid=501(oinstall) groups=501(oinstall),10(wheel),203(dba),503(asmadmin),504(asmoper),525(madhoc)
[root@PROD01 ~]# grep oracle /etc/group
wheel:x:10:oracle
dba:x:203:oracle
asmadmin:x:503:oracle
asmoper:x:504:oracle
oinstall:x:501:oracle
madhoc:x:525:oracle
[root@PROD01 ~]#

Well done!

Now try running DBCA again. That was a very tricky issue to find.

Know something else? At the point I was writing this I decided to have another look and ended up finding this MOS note: “ORA-17502 /ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied ” While Creating 19c Database (Doc ID 2545858.1). We have a bug for it: BUG:29821687 – ORA-17502 /ORA-01017: INVALID USERNAME/PASSWORD; LOGON DENIED ” WHILE CREATING 19C DATABASE

You have the workaround already though. Go champs!

Hope it helps you, cheers!