Oracle ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel Oracle Consulting Tips by Burleson

Question:  I am running a distributed query using a db_link and I get this ORA-03113 error when I run the query:

 ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel

 How do I fix this ORA-03113 error?

Answer:  Use the oerr utility to get the details for the ORA-03113 error:

ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel

Cause: The connection between Client and Server process was broken.

Action: There was a communication error that requires further investigation.  

• First, check for network problems and troubleshoot SQL*Net connnectivity.

• Also, look in the alert.log file for any errors.

• Finally, test to see whether the server process is dead and whether a trace file was generated at failure time.

The ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel error is a generic error.  The ORA-03113 error when connecting suggests that the connection was established, but lost later, like a timeout. 

Note: Windows users report ORA-03113 errors from non-Oracle issues like Windows logs becoming full.

There are many possible causes for the ORA-03113 error.  It is a "catch-all" type error which means "I cannot communication with the Oracle shadow process."  This usually happens when the Oracle server process has died for some reason. 

See MOSC for more than 800 notes on resolving the ORA-03113 error!  For generic troubleshooting, see MOSC Note 17613.1 titled "ORA-03113" and Troubleshooting ORA-03113 (MOSC ID 1506805.1)

For example, ORA-03113 could be signaled for any of these scenarios:

• Server machine crashed

• Your server process was killed at O/S level

• Network problems

• Oracle internal errors / aborts on the server

• Client incorrectly handling multiple connections

• etc.. etc.. etc.. - a lot of possible causes !!

It goes on to note that the ORA-03113 End-Of-File error often has additional messages:

It is common for this error to be accompanied by other errors such as:

• ORA-01041 internal error. hostdef extension doesn't exist

• ORA-03114 not connected to ORACLE

• ORA-01012 not logged on  

Oracle support will likely need more information to determine what caused the error.

 The most useful items are:

1.  Does this occur when trying to (a) make a connection to the database or
   (b) on an established connection ?
   
2.  Check for a trace file from the failed session in USER_DUMP_DEST and BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST directories.
   
3.  Does a particular statement reproduce this problem or is it random ? Use SQL_TRACE on the session to find the problem statement.

The "ORA-03113 is received when running catpatch after applying the 9.2.0.5 or 9.2.0.6 patchset".

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