NTP configuration in Database servers caused issues

We know that NTP has to be configured in servers for time synchronization. So, in our production environment, we had done the time synch using NTP protocol in OAM, OID and DB servers. Earlier, the time was set manually in all the servers.

Though none of the other configurations were changed, the Oracle Internet Directory and OC4J services were not coming up properly. Some of the errors in all logs are given below:

Error1:

[gsdsiConnect] ORA-0,
Could not connect to the Database.

Error2:

oracle.security.sso.server.conf.ConfigurationException: Invalid SSO DB schema information

Error3:

Orion Launcher In class, DatabaseConfigReader: Could not get the DB connection
Wed Dec 29 12:46:12 IST 2010 [ERROR] Orion Launcher SSO Server initialization failed. Check the DB availability and restart SSO Server
Wed Dec 29 12:46:12 IST 2010 [ERROR] Orion Launcher Initializing the encryption/decryption objects failed
oracle.security.sso.server.conf.ConfigurationException: Invalid SSO DB schema information

Error4:

java.sql.SQLException: Listener refused the connection with the following error:
ORA-12514, TNS:listener does not currently know of service requested in connect descriptor

Resolution:

When the NTP configuration was removed from the DB servers, it started working fine. One more behavior seen after configuring NTP in DB servers is that db services were getting restarted unknowingly.

About the Author Mahendra

I am engulfed in Oracle Identity & Access Management domain. I have expertise on providing the optimized solutions for user provisioning, web access management, Single Sign-On and federation capabilities etc., I am also well versed with complex integrations within Identity Management and other product domains. I have expertise on building demos and implementation experience on products Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Adaptive Access Manager, Oracle Entitlement Server, Oracle Virtual Directory, Oracle Internet Directory etc., Look @ my blog: http://talkidentity.blogspot.com

Leave a Comment:

5 comments

Vijay Chinnasamy says December 30, 2010

Interesting.

NTP is an ideal way of configuring Time Synchronization. I am not sure how this configuration cause a problem of this magnitude.

I think you should contact Oracle. It could be a bug.

Second, I will try to reproduce this in a Test Environment (and have more investigation).

Regards
Vijay Chinnasamy

Atul Kumar says December 31, 2010

@ Vijay,
I agree with you that NTP is ideal way of configuring time sync (We use NTP in our SSO/DB servers).

My view is that either NTP was not configured properly or it was not configured in all servers part of SSO configuration (partner applications, sso engine, database…)

Mahendra says December 31, 2010

Vijay,

I have no answer to say for the qn ” NTP was not configured properly” as it was done by other team. For 2nd qn, why would the DB servers should get rebooted automatically? I have heard other servers (where Portal-DB) also had same issue and when they removed NTP from DB servers, it started working fine.

-Mahendra.

Yaseendba says April 13, 2011

What Impact will happen NTP only implemented in
core Database Server , We are not using any SSO , Portal etc .

Front End We have some application like temenous , etc .

Please reply me

Regards
Yaseen AR

Mahendra says April 13, 2011

Yaseena,

I did not witness issues from SSO front if just DB alone is NTP configured. However, the recommended procedure followed by all customers is to do NTP for all servers in the environment.

You may or may not see a issue down the line if you don’t do it.

Hope this helps.

-Mahendra.

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