SDE Tech Note 103: Troubleshooting installation of SDE for Oracle on Windows NT

Last Update: 9/2/98

There is a chapter in the README file discussing startup problems. Other reference to specific errors are found elsewhere in this document.

There is a known problemsde with Oracle service on NT where it reports to service control manager that it is up and running before it has finished initialization process. Hence, SDE service fails when it tries to connect to oracle server.

Workaround:

Make the SDE service a manual service and wait for oracle to complete its initialization process after reboot and then manually start the service. Contact technical support for the update on a possible patch from oracle.

Is there any way to test an Oracle installation to be sure it is setup properly. I was at a client site showing them how to load layers into Oracle and continue to get a compatibility Error 406 and layer cannot be put into normal io mode. Is this a SDE caused error or an underlying Oracle problem?

Error 406 says:

oerr ora 406
00406, 00000, "COMPATIBLE parameter needs to be %s or greater"
// *Cause: The COMPATIBLE initialization parameter is not high
// enough to allow the operation. Allowing the command would make
// the database incompatible with the release specified by the
// current COMPATIBLE parameter.
// *Action: Shutdown and startup with a higher compatibility setting.

There's a COMPATIBLE in your init*.ora files that may need to be set differently or perhaps commented out.

Mine looks like

compatible = 7.3.0.0

The username/password combination used was invalid. For some commands, like "sdemon -o start -p password", the username is assumed to be the RDBMS user "SDE".

The SDE Oracle user: MUST exist before starting SDE. (This user will own the VERSION and LAYERS tables.) MUST be named "SDE". (SDE software hard-codes this username.) MUST be granted CONNECT and RESOURCE. Should have its own private tablespace.

Question: Why does SDE fail to start with error 1019:

% sdemon -o start
Please enter SDE DBA password:

-------------------------------------------------------
ESRI SDE I/O Manager - Version 3.0 Thu Jul 31 13:53:34 PDT 1997
-------------------------------------------------------
init_DB DB_connect error: -51
DBMS error code: 1019
ORACLE error: code is 1019, func is not used
ORA-01019: unable to allocate memory in the user side

Could not start SDE -- Check Network, $SDEHOME disk and DBMS.

Answer:
In Unixsde, you can encounter the 1019 error when ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID environment variables are not set for the SDE Unixsde account.

Ensure your $SDEHOME/etc/dbinit.sde is set correctly. This is a file you create yourself, so it may not exist. Typically it looks like this:

According to "C:\Program Files\DevStudio\VC\include\WINERROR.H"
error 1060 means:
//
// MessageId: ERROR_SERVICE_DOES_NOT_EXIST
//
// MessageText:
//
// The specified service does not exist as an installed service.
//
#define ERROR_SERVICE_DOES_NOT_EXIST 1060L

1068 Dependency service not running

Dependency check is unreliable ...

...I've done the SDE for SQL Server on several NT machines, and determined that the dependency check makes the setup script unreliable. In other words, some times after the install when you try to start the SDE Service the service control manager will immediately return error 1068, "Dependency ... not runningsde". As a work around, I use sdeservic, which always works...

Could not start the SDE service (esri_sde) service on \\sabre
Error 1068 - The dependency service or group failed to start.

The Event Viewer indicates that the SDE service did not start because the Net Logon service did not start.

Attempting to start the Net Logon service from the Services panel got something like this message...

Could not start the Net Logon service on \\sabre.
3095 - This Windows NT computer is configured as a member of
a workgroup, not as a member of a domain. The Net Logon service
does not need to be ruin in this configuration.

The user has installed and started SDE for NT before, but using Beta 1 or 2. This is his first "final" release
installation.

Spoke to development, who suggested changing the start-up parameters for the SDE Service to the SDE user (from System.) This made no difference, unfortunately.

I had received some e-mail suggesting that the service logon for the SDE Service be set to System. This did not help.

He has found new log files in SDEHOME\etc: sdelic.log and giomgr.log. He is e-mailing these to me.
...
I've solved the problem. Basically, what had happened was that the old ArcInfo 7.1.2 license manager was taking precidence over the new SDE/7.2 license manager.sde When I added the Feature SDEServer and Feature SDEClient lines to the license.dat file in c:\arcexe71\sysgen and rebooted the machine, it worked. I still have the issue of the SDE installation corrupting my ArcInfo installation...

The SDE Service user is an NT user who installed SDE and who was specified in the installation dialogue as that user. Are you logged in as the SDE Service user? Does the SDE Service user have NT administration privileges? In the Services panel, is the SDE Services user specified under "Startup..." as the "Log on as..." user? (If this system resolves usernames through a domain, and this user is a domain user, then the domain name must be included, e.g. "domain\username". Also, double-check the password specified in the "Startup..." dialogue.

1072 ("Registry was busy ...") generally means something is happening in the registry regarding the SDE Service entry (e.g., "sdeservice -o delete" was run, regedt32 is doing operations, etc.)

Ran sdemon -o start

got the error messages:

"Couldn't start esri_sdeservice(1075)
Error starting esri_sde service(1075)
Could not start SDE -- Check Network, $SDEHOME disk and DBMS"

DESCRIPTION "SDE Service(esri_sde)"
LICENSE_SERVER "@gauss"
SDE_DBA_PASSWORD a5 3f 18 b1 8a 54 13 c2 69 10 8d 38 4e 00
SDEHOME "c:\sde301\oraexe\sdeexe30"

10) My hostname is gauss (gauss.hnit.is)
11) I have Oracle Server 7.3.3 installed.

Delete the service and try the following:

sdeservice -o create -p sde -l gauss -d ORACLE,ORCL

Where "ORCL" is the oracle sid.

Good thinking. This solved the problem and sde started successfully with sdemon -o start!.

We had switched the "-d" option on sdeservice to optional, allowing TWO_TASK operation. But it's not optional in a non-TWO_TASK installation. sdeWe will update the documentation and modify the command to produce a useful error message.

Product: SDE 3.0.1
Platform: Windows NT

Question: Why am I getting a 2140 "Internal windows NT ..." error?

Cause:

1.) According to the README:

iv. 2140 ("Internal windows NT ..." ) might mean
- that your service user password isn't correct
- the SDE service (i.e., giomgr) wasn't able to
complete the connection processsde (e.g., cannot
create tables, talk to the license manager, etc.).
See the SDEHOME\etc\*.logs for more info.

Also, you have to watch the usernamesde you use when you ran setup. If you
are on a domain you will need to use the syntax DOMAIN\user (the domain
name in upper case, and the username as you normally log in)

2.) The 2140 error generally means that the service, SDE, was launched by the
Service Control Manager and the giomgr process tried to check its
environment, and make a connection to the database. If this is the first
connection, then it will try to create the "version" and "layers"
tables.

Some place during the connection process the giomgr had tried, but had
troubles (e.g. privileges to the database, SDEHOME is bogus, etc.).

The sde.errlog or the giomgr.log sdecan sometimes indicate problems like
this.

Unless the 'sde' password that you gave when using sdeservice was bogus,
this problem is unlikely related to creating the SDE service.

Check your 'sde' priv's in Oracle and any configuration issues (e.g.
TWO_TASK, instance, etc.).

3.) Another cause of Error 2140: "An internal Windows NT error occurred.", is
that ORACLE_SID might not be set correctly in the registrysde. The place to
look in the registry is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Software
Oracle -> ORACLE_SID

Check this value and see what it is.

(Additional comment from user)
It looks like the %ORACLE_SID% variable has no affect on the SDE server.
We set this varable to a lot of different values (include some random
values) without any change in the server behavior or different error
message. The only way to solve this problem is to go into the
registration of ORACLE (view regedit) and to set the default SID to the
sid we wanted. The default SID was Null as soon as we set it to a valid
SID the server was connected.

4.) There is a known-limit SDBsn64250
which says:

SDE 3.0.1 NT server has a limitation in the maximum path length (32
characters) that can be set for SDEHOME.

You would notice problem due to this limitation when you see a message in
the event log indicating that SDEHOME location was not found even though
your sdehome location in registry had a valid entry.

Your SDEHOME path could have too many characters. Try a "simple" SDEHOME
path like C:\prog\oraexe\sdeexe30

5.) (Other comments from users)
The installation paper ask to create SDE tablespace of 25Mb. The initial
is 16Mb. When the server started it create the VERSION table and takes
16Mb then it have 9 Mb left and it can not create the LAYERS table.sde We
made the initial much smaller. Check the DBTUNE.SDE file for intial
extents on objects being created.

Related Documents:

C:\sde301\oraexe\sdeexe30\Readme.wri - Monday, January 26, 1998 3:53:26 PM

(from the 3.0.2 readme)
check your hardware key. It may not be seated correctly or is not plugged in. This error is also returned for general license manager problems. After checking the hardware key, refer to the tools provided with the license manager and to the license manager documentation.

SDE 3.0.1 NT server has a limitation in the maximum path length (32 characters) that can be set for SDEHOME. Unfortunately we couldn't catch it before 3.0.1 final and apologize for any inconvenience. This problem has been fixed for future releases.

You would notice problem due to this limitation when you see a message in the event log indicating that SDEHOME location was not found even though your sdehome location in registry had a valid entry.

LM_LICENSE_FILE is required and shouldn't be

Project: keycode
Revision: 3.0
Command name: SDEMON
Platform: N/A
Version of OS: 2.5.1 Important.Unix needs LM_LICENCE_FILE.
Problem severity: 3
Submitted: 970611
Status: Resolved
Status Change: 970611
Development Priority: 3

Enclosures:

========== Description ==========

If you try and start sdemon without the variable LM_LICENSE_FILE you get the following error:

starlifter[sde]: sdemon -o start -p sde
-------------------------------------------------------
ESRI SDE I/O Manager - Version 3.0 (Pre-Release) Thu May 29 01:02:31 PDT 1997
-------------------------------------------------------

SDE Servers do not appear to be licensed.

Licensing failure, unable to continue.
Could not start SDE -- Check Network, $SDEHOME disk and DBMS.
starlifter[sde]:

Simply by setting LM_LICENSE_FILE it then works

LM_LICENSE_FILE should not be required, we should be able to just copy the license.dat into $SDEHOME/sysgen (which is what I did).

Product: SDE 3.0

Platform: all <---- THIS IS NOT TRUE. UNIX ONLY IN THIS CASE

Question: Why does SDEMON fail to start with the following error:

SDE Servers do not appear to be licensed.

Licensing failure, unable to continue.
Could not start SDE -- Check Network, $SDEHOME disk and DBMS.

Cause:

Answer: Set LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable.

Notes: The documentation for this is a bit obscure, its in the CD booklet Installation Guide

Related Documents: See SDBsn56505 and SDBsn55711

SDE 3.0.1 Pre-release
WinNT
Oracle 7.3? Local RDBMS
sdemon -o start -p .....

could not start
Event Viewer: Licensing failure, unable to continue...

Wandered through his system. Found LM_LICENSE_FILE in system
environment. (User has both ArcInfo and ArcView installed.) Removed
LM_LICENSE_FILE variable and rebooted. SDE Service started. Checked
to be sure ArcView and ArcInfo both would still start. They did.

[From README.WRI]

1.0 IMPORTANT.Using domain users in setup.exe

The SDE setup program will query you for a service user name. If the user is a domain user, then use the <domain>\<username> syntax to install the SDE service correctly. Otherwise, you may get a message about not having Administrator's access.

Product: SDE 3.0
Platform: all

Question: Why does SDEMON fail to start with the following error?

Unable to initialize subprogram handling, error = -1
Could not start SDE -- Check Network, $SDEHOME disk and DBMS.

Answer: There are 3 possible problem scenarios:

1.) They don't have access to their tmp directory (/tmp or defined in giomgr.defs)

2.) The tmp directory is full.

3.) They don't have pthread library on that machine or not
included in their lib_path. Make sure they set
LD_LIBRARY_PATH or its equivalent (explained in install
guide) correctly. Also, they shouldn't have dce thread
library path before the pthread one.

SDBsn55297
If your version table doesn't exist when you start up the io manager, it is
supposed to create it. I get this error:

Error creating VERSION table. (-51)
DBMS error code: 933
ORACLE error: code is 933, func is OSQL3
ORA-00933: SQL command not properly ended

SDBsn55364
When you don't have a version table, the io manager is supposed to create
one. I get this when I try to start the iomgr without a version table:

VERSION table created...
Previous SDE Server Version 2.0.0 is not compatible with the current Version
3.0.0.

Could not start SDE -- Check Network, $SDEHOME disk and DBMS.

Here are the contents of the version table it creates:

I submit to you MORE things to look for when NT SDE 3.01 Oracle will not start:

1. If you use the Oracle Administrative Tool "Storage Manager" to set up your tablespaces be careful that even though you click on M (for Mb) you may get (k) for k. Thus your SDE tablespace may be only 25K NOT 25 Mb that you thought you set. This is too small for SDE to do its work and thus it won't start. We believe this is an Oracle interface bug. Setting the tablespace size in SQL*PLUS seems to behave right.

2. If your SDE [SDEHOME -- Ed.] is longer than 32 characters the start up command will not find it. Thus you get the SDE Error: SDE Home doesn't exist. Moving it to a "shorter pathed" place is the quick fix.

Specifically, which Services should we expect to be running on a functional NT/SDE/Oracle7 system? I see these; are the others required for SDE?

o. ESRI License Manager
o. Net Logon (required?) <- Generally required. On used when on a network. Stand alone (demo) users do not need it.
o. OracleServiceSDET (my instance name is SDET)
o. OracleStartSDET
o. OracleTNSListener<- Only required when allowing remote access to Oracle or using ODBC.
o. SDE Service(esri_sde)

Does this list of services indicate that there are 3 Oracle instances installed on my
system? (ORCL, SDE, SDET)

Yes. Note, running multiple instances of ORACLE on a system requires a large amount of memory (how much depends on the config.). You should switch the OracleService<sid> and OracleStart<sid> services to Manual if they are not in common use.

After getting the debugging output, how does the user turn off the License Manager log file? Does the user simply enter a blank name for the log file?

No clue. Never used it. Will test at some point and let you know.

If you are having problems running SDE 3.0.1 for Windows NT on a non-domain server (not connected to a network) try the following.

Open the Services Control Panel, select (one click) the SDE service, and click on the "Startup..." button. On the Service Panel, in the "Log On As:" section, click on the System Account choice. Close up the Service panel and reboot.

Product: SDE 2.x, 3.x, ArcView 3.0, ArcInfo 7.1, MapObjects 1.x

Platform: ALL

Question:

Does an SDE client, ie. ArcView, ArcInfo, or MapObjects, require additional
licenses?

Answer:

Yes. Each connection made from an SDE client (AV3,MO,etc.) to the SDE server
uses one SDE license and one Oracle license.

When a client establishes a connection, a "gsrvr" process is forked by the
"giomgr" process (sdemon) to handle the connection. This "gsrvr" process will
continue to run and use the licenses as long as the connection between the
client and SDE is established.

The "giomgr" process (sdemon) also uses one Oracle license.

You can get this message either from the license manager service or the esri_sde service when you try to start. It occurs when there are spaces in the pathname. To fix the license manager service, run regedit, go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   SYSTEM
      CurrentControlSet
         Services
            ESRI License Manager

Change key "ImagePath" from:

   C:\Progam Files\ESRI\License\lmgrd.exe

to:

   C:\Proga~1\ESRI\License\lmgrd.exe

Restart the service from Control Panel \ Services.


To fix the SDE (esri_sde) service, either 1.) run regedit, go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   SYSTEM
      CurrentControlSet
         Services
            esri_sde

Change key "ImagePath" from:

   C:\Progam Files\ESRI\Sde302\oraexe\sdeexe30\bin\giomgr.exe

to:

   C:\Proga~1\ESRI\Sde302\oraexe\sdeexe30\bin\giomgr.exe

or 2.) delete the service manually with sdeservice and create it again using the shortened path with the -H flag. Restart the service from Control Panel \ Services.