Re: Intermittent Oracle client errors

bdbafh wrote:

>3. host-based firewalls may be in the picture, I know that I run
>ipfilter on my linux boxes, blocking almost all ports beneath 1024
>(tcp). perhaps your sysadmin has done the same, although this would not
>cause intermittent failures, unless he has only opened a subset of the
>high tcp ports for dedicated server processes (can check this with
>sysctl on Linux, I'm not sure how to check this on Solaris).

I've seen a similar problem to this coming simply from using random ports - if you have two apps doing it (or one app increasing), they (rarely) collide.

While better tracing is in 9, there is tracing in 8, see http://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showFrameDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=219968.1 for an intro.

If it is a network issue, you might be able to force it with a ping storm - I don't recall if solaris has that option on ping, but talk to your sysadmin. Also watch the ports with netstat -a, you might see odd things happening with FIN_WAITS - some apps don't clean up correctly, clogging up ports, and you must decrease tcp timeouts to let the listener grab them. And trace your routing - maybe something is indeed going through the firewall, especially if you have people messing around with stuff for special situations.

Sybrand wrote:

>all machines are behind a firewall
>so it is a firewall issue as sqlnet assigns random ports.

If they are all behind the firewall, why is it an issue? Doesn't the issue only occur when you are trying to go _through_ a firewall?

jg

--
@home.com is bogus.  "I was called 20 minutes before the official
announcement. The chair of the Nobel committee phoned and said, 'You
have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.' I remained silent
and then said, 'I'm speechless.' "  -Harold Pinter