32 Bit ORACLE_HOME Client Libraries Hang

Question

Hello All,
I have a 64 bit Redhat Oracle installation -->
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.2.0 - Production on Wed Feb 6 10:37:37 2008
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Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning and Data Mining options
I've created a database in the usual manner. I then exported (with exp) a database from a 32 bit Solaris system and imported it (imp) to the 64 bit database. The data and the import looked fine.
Our application is 32 bit, and uses Pro/C. The application resides on the Oracle server machine, so I'm using these two libraries from $ORACLE_HOME/lib32 :
---> /oracle/product/10.2.0/lib32/libclntsh.so.10.1
---> /oracle/product/10.2.0/lib32/libnnz10.so
With 32 bit compilation, the "EXEC SQL CONNECT :connectString ; "
will block and hang, and the process STAT column from the 'ps' command shows a 'D' , which means "Uninterruptible sleep (usually IO)". These processes cannot be killed (even by root with kill -9). The listener.log file appears to show a valid connection--->
06-FEB-2008 10:23:41 * (CONNECT_DATA=(SERVER=DEDICATED)(SID=NSS)(CID=(PROGRAM=ins)(HOST=rtnslinuxqaa)(USER=rtns))) * (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=172.26.16.18)(PORT=38233)) * establish * NSS * 0
However, sqlnet.log shows a TNS timeout error:
Fatal NI connect error 12170.
VERSION INFORMATION:
     TNS for Linux: Version 10.2.0.2.0 - Production
     Oracle Bequeath NT Protocol Adapter for Linux: Version 10.2.0.2.0 - Production
     TCP/IP NT Protocol Adapter for Linux: Version 10.2.0.2.0 - Production
Time: 06-FEB-2008 10:24:41
Tracing not turned on.
Tns error struct:
ns main err code: 12535
TNS-12535: TNS:operation timed out
ns secondary err code: 12606
nt main err code: 0
nt secondary err code: 0
nt OS err code: 0
Client address: (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=172.26.16.18)(PORT=38233))
With 64 bit compilation, all is fine and the connect statement succeeds.
When I run a small Pro/C test program to connect, my ORACLE_HOME is /oracle/product/10.2.0 and my LD_LIBRARY_PATH specifies the $ORACLE_HOME/lib32 directory.
Questions:
Are there any options or control or parameters that need to be specified when creating a database to support connections from the 32 bit client libraries?
Does anyone have any insight into solving this?
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advanced..
Joe

Answer 1

Are there any options or control or parameters that need to be specified when creating a database to support connections from the 32 bit client libraries?
No, there are not. Nor are they required. One of the strenghts of Oracle has always been interoperability without almost other platforms and versions.
My gut feeling tells this is being caused by excluding the 64-bit libraries from the LD_LIBRARY_PATH. I would try setting it to $ORACLE_HOME/lib:$ORACLE_HOME/lib32
Other than that, you may want to consider to set up a different, fully 32-bit Oracle_home, with only the client and Pro*C installed.
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA