Written by: ilmarkerm

Category: Blog entry

Published: May 20, 2016

Oracle EE 11.2.0.4 on Linux x86-64.

I got a really surprising error message today when setting up a new data guard standby database.
I created a standby controlfile as usual and placed it on a common NFS share accessible also to the new data guard host:

SQL> alter database create standby controlfile as '/nfs/install/oemdb/cf2.f';

Database altered.

Now, on a new node I tried to restore that controlfile, but got a really surprising RMAN-06172: no AUTOBACKUP found or specified handle is not a valid copy or piece. This shouldn’t happen, it is just stored on a common NFS share, file should not be damaged.

RMAN> restore controlfile from '/nfs/install/oemdb/cf2.f';

Starting restore at 20-MAY-16
using channel ORA_DISK_1

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 05/20/2016 12:58:33
RMAN-06172: no AUTOBACKUP found or specified handle is not a valid copy or piece

Although the error message does not say it, but I remembered that I had mounted the NFS using SOFT mount option and when trying to restore datafiles from soft mounted NFS shared you will usually get ORA-27054: NFS file system not mounted with correct options, unless you have turned on Direct-NFS on the database kernel. So I just wondered, maybe this is the real error message in this case also.
After turning on Direct NFS, restoring the control file worked as expected:

[production|oracle@vdb0005.mlt.unibet.com oemdb]$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
[production|oracle@vdb0005.mlt.unibet.com lib]$ make -f ins_rdbms.mk dnfs_on
rm -f /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/db/lib/libodm11.so; cp /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/db/lib/libnfsodm11.so /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/db/lib/libodm11.so
[production|oracle@vdb0005.mlt.unibet.com lib]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.4.0 Production on Fri May 20 13:01:56 2016

Copyright (c) 1982, 2013, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to an idle instance.

SQL> startup nomount
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 9620525056 bytes
Fixed Size                  2261368 bytes
Variable Size            2449477256 bytes
Database Buffers         7147094016 bytes
Redo Buffers               21692416 bytes
SQL> Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
[production|oracle@vdb0005.mlt.unibet.com lib]$ rman target /

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.4.0 - Production on Fri May 20 13:02:14 2016

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database: OEM (not mounted)

RMAN> restore controlfile from '/nfs/install/oemdb/cf2.f';

Starting restore at 20-MAY-16
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=474 device type=DISK

channel ORA_DISK_1: copied control file copy
output file name=+DATA/oem/controlfile/current.257.912344539
Finished restore at 20-MAY-16

The NFS share was mounted using options:
type nfs (rw,bg,soft,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,tcp,nfsvers=3,timeo=600,addr=10.10.10.10)