OCISessionBegin: ORA-24327

Anon

Hello,

i'm running php 4.0.5 on a redhat server (7.0) and connecting to an oracle 7.3.4 database (on a Digital Unix 5 server) using OCI 8.
Randomly, when i connect to oracle using OciPlogon i have the following error :

"OCISessionBegin: ORA-24327: need explicit attach before authenticating a user"

Why?

Anon

I'm not certain, but from the sounds of the error message, I'd say that it relates to how OCIPLogon() works. OCIPLogon() attempts to reuse database connections which have already been established to the Oracle database. It appears that PHP believes the connection is still available for reuse to start a session, while Oracle believes the connection has been dropped.

This could potentially happen if the database was stopped and restarted without PHP knowing about it, or if a previous PHP script had caused the connection to be terminated abnormally on the Oracle database side.

To test the first option, write a PHP script to establish persistent connections (OCIPLogon()) to a test database and run a simple query like "SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'YYYY-MON-DD HH24:MI:SS');". Run this a few times, then have your Oracle DBA do a "SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE" then a "STARTUP" on the test database. Now see if the script fails. Also try re-running this test using "SHUTDOWN ABORT". If these recreate the error, then either you need better uptime on your database, or will have to fall back to OCILogon(), or will have to tolerate occassional connection problems.

To get some real information about the error will probably require spending some money with Oracle. If you have paid for support, have your Oracle DBA check MetaLink for bug reports and to see if it has more detailed information than TechNet. If MetaLink doesn't turn up anything, try logging a TAR to get more information on the error.

-- Michael
Darkstreak - Computing & Innovations
www.darkstreak.com

Anon

The problem is that it occurs when i refresh 3 to 5 time the page. And there is no database shutdown between each refrech...
And the result with OCILogon is the same as with OCIPLogon...

Anon

It is sounding more and more like a bug in how PHP handles connections and sessions.

When you are doing the refreshes:
1) Do you let the page completely load before clicking the refresh button?
2) Do any other errors occur during those refreshes?
3) When running with OCILogon() (not OCIPLogon()) are you sure that you are not getting a cached copy of the OCIPLogon() script?
4) Does a simple script (OCILogon() followed by and OCIClose()) yield the same error message on multiple refreshes?
5) Does #4 using OCIPLogon() do the same thing?
6) Are there any patterns to when it occurs?

The reason I ask those questions is to try to begin the debugging process. #1 and #2 would imply problems with how PHP handles terminated client connections. #4 and #5 check for basic functionality. #3 and #6 are just good debugging questions. :-)

-- Michael
Darkstreak - Computing & Innovations
www.darkstreak.com

Anon

Hello,

I was using an oracle 8.1.7 client on my linux server when i had those problem and i've just installed an oracle 8.0.5 client.

And with the 8.0.5 version i could not reproduce the problem, it works perfectly. So i think that the problem has something to do with the 8.1.7 version.

Would you like that i go back to the 8.1.7 version and try to answer to your questions?

Regards.

Anon

If you have the time and system resources to spare, doing the #4 and #5 tests could help determine where the probably really is. Turning on some of the PHP debugging options would probably also help in tracking the problem down.

If you come up with anything, be sure to log it in the PHP bug database.

-- Michael
Darkstreak - Computing & Innovations
www.darkstreak.com

Anon

I have det same problem.

i am running a oracle 8.1.6 clinet (with 32-64 bit's lib in it)
The oracle server is 8.1.7.

My error is:
Warning: OCISessionBegin: ORA-24327: need explicit attach before authenticating a user

and

Supplied argument is not a valid OCI8-Connection resource

regard Jan Arve

Anon

How about posting some source code?

-- Michael
Darkstreak Computing & Innovations
www.darkstreak.com

Anon

Hi all,

my team had the same problem. It started 2 weeks ago, though the application has worked on the same server for about 3 months.
Yesterday our Telco team put the server to another IP circle and the error messages got cut. Nothing else was changed. The whole problem dissappeared in a second. This tells us it was a telecommunication problem indeed, but noone knows exactly what caused it.