Cloning: Listener won't start after cloning

This article is a companion article to our previous cloning series:

• Simplify Cloning by Using Hosts File
• Cloning Issue—IPv4 vs. IPv6 
• ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel
• Cloning Issue—What If Host Name(s) Are Stored in the Database
• ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
• Using rsync to Clone Local and Remote Systems
• ORA-00313: open failed for members of log group 1 of thread 1 
• Simplify Cloning by Using Hosts File

As pointed out in the previous articles, there are limitations and issues with cloning (either of an application or a database). This article describes one of the new issues.

TNS-00525: Insufficient privilege for operation

After cloning our OATS server to a new server, we have seen the following listener error when we restarted OATS' database on the new server:

### Starting tns listener ###

LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on 10-JUN-2014 19:48:43
Copyright (c) 1991, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Starting /scratch/aime1/app/aime1/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/bin/tnslsnr: please wait...
TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production

System parameter file is /scratch/aime1/app/aime1/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/network/admin/listener.ora

Log messages written to /scratch/aime1/app/aime1/diag/tnslsnr/myOatsServer/listener/alert/log.xml

Error listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1521)))
TNS-12555: TNS:permission denied
 TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error
  TNS-00525: Insufficient privilege for operation
   Linux Error: 1: Operation not permitted

The Solution

After trying tool such as truss or strace on Linux, it didn't help much.  Then, I have found articles [3,4] which have helped me solve the issue:

bash-3.2$cd /var/tmp

bash-3.2$ ls -la .oracle
total 12
drwxrwxrwt 2 root   root 4096 Mar 17 11:38 .
drwxrwxrwt 3 root   root 4096 Jun 10 18:28 ..
srwxrwxrwx 1 oracle lock    0 Mar 17 11:38 s#16150.1
srwxrwxrwx 1 oracle lock    0 Mar 17 11:38 s#16150.2
srwxrwxrwx 1 oracle lock    0 Feb 24 10:17 s#32488.1
srwxrwxrwx 1 oracle lock    0 Feb 24 10:17 s#32488.2
srwxrwxrwx 1 oracle lock    0 Mar 17 11:38 sEXTPROC1521

As shown above, our new server has an existing folder named .oracle under /var/tmp, which was owned by a different user (i.e. oracle).  After we have backed up our original .oracle folder, we have changed the owner of /var/tmp/.oracle to be aime1 and removed the files within it.  After restarting our listener, here are the new files generated in it:

.oracle:

total 0
srwxrwxrwx 1 aime1 svrtech 0 Jun 18 07:50 s#30309.1
srwxrwxrwx 1 aime1 svrtech 0 Jun 18 07:50 s#30309.2
srwxrwxrwx 1 aime1 svrtech 0 Jun 18 07:50 sEXTPROC1521

References

1. truss(1) equivalent in Linux ?
2. 5 simple ways to troubleshoot using Strace
3. Can't start listener for XE on Redhat Enterprise Linux 5.3 
4. Listener not starting with TNS-00525: Insufficient privilege for operation
5. Oracle Products: What Patching, Migration, and Upgrade Mean? (Xml and More)