ORA-01012: job fails when placed in crontab

Question:  I have a job to refresh a materialized view and it runs great in SQL*Plus.  However, when I try to run the job from a UNIX crontab, the cron returns this error:

ORA-02068: following severe error from EAISPL1_TO_CLARITY
ORA-01012: not logged on  

How do I get an Oracle job to run from a cron?

Answer: There are serious limitations to scheduling jobs with UNIX/Linux crontab files, especially when the server is down when a shell script is set to execute, the job will be "missed".  If you used dbms_scheduler, it would ?remember? the missed jobs.     

Also, a crontab uses the privileges and environmental settings of the UNIX user that invokes the crontab . . .  

You start by using the oerr utility to display the text of the ORA-01012 error:

ORA-01012: not logged on  

Cause: A host language program issued an Oracle call, other than OLON or OLOGON, without being logged on to Oracle. This can occur when a user process attempts to access the database after the instance it is connected to terminates, forcing the process to disconnect.  

Action: Log on to Oracle, by calling OLON or OLOGON, before issuing any Oracle calls. When the instance has been restarted, retry the action

Here we see that the crontab invocation of the Oracle job fails because you are not using the same user ID that you did inside SQL*Plus.  

There are three solutions to the ORA-01012 error:

1. signon within the job
2. use external authentication
3. remove the crontab and use dbms_scheduler

Let's examine these options for fixing a broken crontab:

• Have the crontab submit a shell script that signs-on to Oracle as the same user ID you used in SQL*Plus:
  
  #!/bin/ksh
    
  # First, we must set the environment . . . .
  ORACLE_SID=mon1
  export ORACLE_SID
  ORACLE_HOME=`cat /etc/oratab|grep ^$ORACLE_SID:|cut -f2 -d':'`
  export ORACLE_HOME
  PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
  export PATH
   
  $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus myuserid/mypass<<!
  spool myfile.txt
  select * from v\$database;
  exit
  !

• If you are in a secure, closed environment, you can use external authentication and have the cron use the UNIX user to get the privileges.

• Abandon the crontab and schedule the job within Oracle using dbms_scheduler.

 For examples, see the great book ?Oracle Shell Scripting?. 

If you want pre-written and tested crontab scripts, get the Oracle script download.

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