Oracle Network Products Troubleshooting Guide

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Sorting Out Networking Error Messages

Error messages may originate from many sources, especially in distributed applications in which many components interact. Applications such as SQL*Plus, SQL*Forms, or Pro*C applications, which depend on network services from network applications such as SQL*Net, display a single message for errors encountered. This concise error message is often insufficient to identify the specific cause of a network error. A network error may originate at any of several different layers within the TNS products, but the user application reports only the highest level error. The actual cause of the error can be found in the error stack produced by all the layers of Oracle network products such as SQL*Net and Oracle Protocol Adapters.

Error Stacks

The relationships among Oracle network products as they might appear in an error stack is shown in Figure 1 - 1:

Figure 1 - 1. Network Products and Error Stack Components

The layers shown in this figure have the following meanings:

OSN SQL*Net Interface Layer
NR Network Routing (MultiProtocol Interchange)
NN Network Naming (Oracle Names)
NS Network Session (main and secondary layers)
NA Native Services includes Network Authentication (NAU) and Network Encryption (NAE)
NT Network Transport (main, secondary, and operating system layers)
Note: Your network may not include all of these components.

When a network error occurs, each layer contributes to the error stack. Layers that know nothing about the error report nothing, while other layers report what they know about the error. For example, suppose that a user of a client application tries to establish a connection with a database server using SQL*Net version 2 and TCP/IP, and the user enters: 

sqlplus scott/tiger@hrserver.world

After the banner of SQL*Plus appears on the screen, the following error is displayed: 

ORA-12203: TNS:Unable to connect to destination

This message indicates that the error message file on the Oracle server could not be opened, because the connection to the server failed. However, although the application displays only a one-line error message, an error stack that is much more informative is recorded in the log file by the network layer, if it is able to locate the appropriate message files on the client machine. This error stack can also be captured in trace files by invoking the trace facility and trying the connection again.

In the client-side log output file, SQLNET.LOG, an error stack corresponding to the SQL*Plus ORA-12203 error contains the following message: 

***********************************************************
Fatal OSN connect error 12203, connecting to:
 (DESCRIPTION=(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=trace)(CID=(PROGRAM=)
   (HOST=lala)(USER=sviavant)))(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=
   (PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=trace))(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)
   (HOST=lala)(PORT=1521))))

VERSION INFORMATION:
	TNS for SunOS: Version 2.1.3.0.0 - 
	Oracle Bequeath NT Protocol Adapter for SunOS: Version
    2.1.3.0.0
	Unix Domain Socket IPC NT Protocol Adaptor for SunOS:
    Version 2.1.3.0.0 - 
	TCP/IP NT Protocol Adapter for SunOS: Version 2.1.3.0.0
  Time: 07-FEB-94 17:36:38
  Tracing to file: /home/sviavant/trace_admin.trc
  Tns error struct:
    nr err code: 12203
    TNS-12203: TNS:unable to connect to destination
    ns main err code: 12541
    TNS-12541: TNS:no listener
    ns secondary err code: 12560
    nt main err code: 511
    TNS-00511: No listener
    nt secondary err code: 61
    nt OS err code: 0

Each of the six middle layers shown in Figure 1-1 contributes an error status to the error stack. In this example, the actual cause of the error is introduced and reported at the "nt main" layer. When the error number 511 is propagated to the upper layers, the same error is interpreted by the ns secondary, ns main, and nr layers to be errors 12560, 12541, and 12203 respectively. These error messages are all listed[*] of this guide, along with a cause and suggested corrective action for each.

Oracle Networking Error Prefixes

Oracle network product error messages are identified by the following prefixes:

      TNS-00103: Parameter file initialization error.

      ORA-12203: TNS: Unable to connect to destination

      NMC-00010:  Resource file cannot be opened  

      NNO-00052:  invalid domain description list

Error Ranges

Oracle network product error messages are listed in Chapter 6 through Chapter 10. All error messages are identified by error message numbers. The error messages are organized in ascending numerical order and are separated into sections based on the error message prefix. Within each section, the error messages are organized into subsections based on the component that reported the error. The prefixes, error message numbers, and the product components where they are generated are shown in Table 1-1:

Table 1 - 1. Error Message Prefix, Numbers, and Components

Prefix Error Number Component Type of Error
TNS 1 to 500 NR (routing) MultiProtocol Interchange
TNS 501 to 1000 NT (transport) Protocol Adapter
TNS 1001 to 2500 Listener Control Program Listener Control Program
TNS 2501 to 3500 NA Internal Messages NAU (Authentication) and NAE (Encryption)
ORA/TNS 12150 to 12195 SQL*Net Oracle SQL*Net
ORA/TNS 12196 to 12285 NR (routing) TNS
ORA/TNS 12500 to 12530 Listener Listener to client
ORA/TNS 12531 to 12629 NS (session) TNS
ORA/TNS 12630 to 12699 NA (Native Services) Native Services (Authentication and Encryption)
NMC 00001 to 11000 Network Manager Oracle Network Manager
NMO 01001 to 01300 Object Layer Oracle Network Manager Object Store
NMR 00001 to 00500 Resource Layer Oracle Network Manager
NNO 00050 to 00711 NN (Network Naming) Oracle Names Server
NNC 00001 to 00501 NN (Network Naming) Oracle Names client and server
NNL 00001 to 01073 NN (Network Naming) Oracle Names Control Utility
NMP 00001 to 00011 NMP (Network Management Protocol) Oracle Names client and server
NPL 00100 to 00420 NPL (Network Presentation Layer) Network Presentation Layer
NMS 00001 to 00275 NMS (Oracle SNMP Support) Oracle SNMP Support
NNF 00001 to 04999 NNF (Native Naming Adapters) Native Naming Adapters

Error Messages and Documentation

Error messages you may encounter while using Oracle network products fall into the categories shown in Table 1-2:

Table 1 - 2. Error Messages and Related Documentation

Type of Error Message Where to Find Information
Application Application reference manual
Operating system Operating system documentation
Network protocol Protocol-specific documentation
Oracle network software This guide
SQL*Net Version 2.x
MultiProtocol Interchange
TNS
Secure Network Services
Oracle Protocol Adapters
Network Manager
Oracle Names
SNMP Support This guide
Native Naming

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