RMAN Backup doesn't start

[Christian Marquardt_1]

Hi Admins,
I've a problem running my rman backup script.
We've to database machines. On one the cronjob for taking hourly archivelog rman backups running fine on the other it returns the error "ORA-07217: sltln: environment variable cannot be evaluated".
Here's the crontab entry (identical on both machines):
0 * * * * su - crime92 -c "/oracle/admin/CRIME92/bin/db2fs_ar.scr" 1>/dev/null 2>&1

The ORACLE_SID Variable is set by the .profile of the crime92 user.

Has anyone a idea where's the problem?

regards
Christian

[Christian Marquardt_1]

PS: If I copy the crontab entry in my shell window and starting it runs fine. If the job is running automatically by crontab the error occurs.

[Adisuria Wangsadinata_1]

Hi,

Check the thread below :

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=869774

Hope this information can help you.

Cheers,
AW

[Muthukumar_5 · Accepted solution]

crontab execution to some other with su -c will not read .profile of that specific user. You have to just export ORACLE_SID variable explicitly.

hth.

[Christian Marquardt_1]

Hi,
I understand that the su -c isn't reading the .profile because on the other machine it works fine. The scripts and the crontab entries are identical on both machines.

Christian

[Eric Antunes]

Hi Christian,

Just to test, try again after adding ORACLE_SID in the oracle/admin/CRIME92/bin/db2fs_ar.scr script...

Best Regards,

Eric Antunes

[Christian Marquardt_1]

Hi Eric,
adding the "export ORACLE_SID" command to the script works fine. But my problem is that there's a machine who's working without setting the ORACLE_SID in the script and another machine doesn't. I've no idea what configuration was done on the "good" machine.

regards
Christian

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi christian,

it could be that ORACLE_SID and other environment variables are already set in the user's profile or /etc/profile

check this out!

regards
yogeeraj

[Eric Antunes]

Or you can have in "/oracle/admin/CRIME92/bin/db2fs_ar.scr something like this:

export ORA_ENVFILE="/.../oracle/product/.../.env"

And this /.../oracle/product/.../.env has the export ORACLE_SID=""

Best Regards,

Eric

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi again,

in our environment, we only have the following three line in the Oracle user account's .profile:

export ORACLE_SID=
export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7
export CLASSPATH=/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/jre:/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/jlib:.


and the crontab has an entry as follows:
00 01 * * * echo "/app/backup/rman.sh" | su - oracle 1>/dev/null 2>&1


good luck

regards
yogeeraj

[Jean-Luc Oudart]

Christian,


the problem sometimes with "su - " is that .profile may be interactive then the script won't work.

Therefore, the best way is to have a dedicated cron.profile that set the environment for the script.
Also, you can use a script wrapper that will call the cron.profile before starting the script.
It works for us.

Regards
Jean-Luc

[Christian Marquardt_1]

Hi Jean-Luc,
I dont know what the cron.profile is. It is a dedicated .profile for the execution of cronjobs?
If yes I cant use this .profile because I run many backup jobs for different databases with different sid's.

regards
Christian

[Jean-Luc Oudart]

Christian,

to summarise the cron.profile is like your .profile but trimmed down.
Removes all interactive aspects.

The wrapper script will call the cron.profile to initialise the environement variables PATH, SHLIB_PATH, ORACLE_HOME, ...
but obviously some specific parameters will not be set in the cron.profile or (your choice) will be overwritten in you wrapper script

e.g.
#!/bin/sh

# wrapper script : cron<scriptname>.sh

. /home/oracle/cron.profile
export ORACLE_SID=
/oracle/admin/scripts/<scriptname>.sh > /oracle/admin/reports/<scriptname>.out

Regards
Jean-Luc

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi again,

below a quote from man crontab


cron supplies a default environment for every shell, defining:

HOME=user's-home-directory
LOGNAME=user's-login-id
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:.
SHELL=/usr/bin/sh

Users who desire to have their .profile executed must explicitly do so in the crontab entry or in a script called by the entry.


which is in line with what jean-luc is describing you above.

kind regards
yogeeraj

[SLIMANI_1]

Hi
Please note that when executing some script from the cron , it doesnt execute the .profile, so environneement variable are not set.
try to insert the "set environnement variable" from . profile in the script executed by the cron.

good luck