ORACLE DATABASE

 Connecting to the ARS Recovery Catalog with RMAN When using Oracle Autonomous Recovery Service (ARS / DBRS) for database backups, the connection to the recovery catalog is secured via an auto-generated Oracle Wallet and configured TNS alias. To run manual RMAN operations (such as maintenance, reporting, or manual validation), you need to point your environment to the directory containing the ARS wallet/TNS configuration and connect via the catalog alias. Step 1: Locate and Set the TNS_ADMIN Directory First, identify the directory where your ARS configuration files ( tnsnames.ora , sqlnet.ora , and wallet files like cwallet.sso ) reside. On OCI Database environments (such as Base Database Service or Exadata), these are typically stored under the database cluster file system (ACFS) path. Export the TNS_ADMIN environment variable so RMAN knows where to look for network configuration and credential artifacts: # Verify the directory path containing your ARS credentials [oracle@dev-f...

  A real-world troubleshooting log detailing root-cause investigations, Oracle Support escalations, and clean-up workarounds on Oracle Database@AWS. Migrating and managing Oracle workloads on Oracle Database@AWS (OCI Exadata Database Service on AWS) brings native cloud elasticity to enterprise-grade database hardware. However, when working with cross-cloud automation, Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), and managed backup workflows, hitting automation edge cases is part of the journey. Recently, our team worked through a complex database restore scenario via the "Create Database from Backup" feature. Along the way, we navigated multiple failure points across TDE wallet handling, OCI/AWS object storage media managers, and metadata synchronization between the web console and the OS layer. Here is the step-by-step breakdown of the errors encountered, the mitigations applied, and key takeaways for cloud DBAs. Failure 1: The Null TDE Wallet Password Bug Our initial attempt was st...

Automation in the Oracle ecosystem is a double-edged sword. When systems like Autonomous Recovery Service (ARS)  work, they are absolute lifesavers - offloading heavy background lifting, ensuring zero-data-loss protection, and preventing manual human error. However, when an automated mechanism hits a database restore failure issue, an unhandled corner case, or a misconfigured VCN/policy, it can quietly stall, block recovery pipelines, or trigger subtle background wait event spikes. Issue 1: During a database restore from backup, the creation process failed with: the password of TDE wallet cannot be null . The root cause turned out to be a UI/orchestration gap: the console failed to prompt for the TDE wallet password during setup, causing the automated restore job to immediately fail when attempting to open the wallet. The Root Cause: A Identity Crisis Between Oracle Wallet and AWS KMS So, what actually went wrong behind the scenes? As part of an infrastructure modernization effor...