Can't create database using ASM (SOLVED)

Question

Hi all
I'm trying to use ASM for the first time, on Oracle 10.2.0.1 on Solaris x64.
I have installed the ASM instance into /opt/oracle/asm/10.2.0 and created disk groups. I have cssd running OK. I am able to start and stop the ASM instance without problems, and I can select from v$asm_diskgroup to confirm that disks are mounted OK.
I have then installed Oracle EE separately into /opt/oracle/server/10.2.0. I first did a software only install, and now I am trying to create a DB.
The problems come when I try to use this ASM instance to host a new database. I first tried to use DBCA to create a new database, but on database creation I got the following errors:
ORA-00200: control file could not be created
ORA-00202: control file: '+DBLIVE1'
ORA-17502: ksfdcre:4 Failed to create file +DBLIVE1
ORA-15001: diskgroup "DBLIVE1" does not exist or is not mounted
ORA-15055: Message 15055 not found; No message file for product=RDBMS, facility=ORA
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
I then told DBCA just to create the DB creation scripts, and I tried manually running these with SQL*Plus.
When doing it with SQL*PLus, I initially got the same error as shown above. But then something changed (sorry, not sure what), and now the error I get is:
CREATE DATABASE "NEONREL1"
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01501: CREATE DATABASE failed
ORA-00349: failure obtaining block size for '+DBLIVE1'
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
I've put some debug info below, showing me succesfully connecting to the ASM instance and then attempting to create the DB using the db creation scripts, showing the error at the end. You can see that the oracle OS user is able to connect fine to ASM, then I swithc ORACLE_SID and ORACLE_HOME to the EE install and try to create the DB, at which point it apparently can't connect to ASM any more.
I've tried the DB creation many times, and in between attempts I completely empty $ORACLE_HOME/admin/<dbname> and delete the files related to the attempted install from $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/ . I've also stopping/starting ASM, rebooting, and I've done the install of ASM and EE a couple of times over in case I made any mistakes in my earlier attempts.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Tom
##### CHECKING ASM
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ uname -a
SunOS neonrcom-db1 5.10 Generic_127128-11 i86pc i386 i86pc
# css is running
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ ps -ef | grep css
oracle 498 1 0 21:46:40 ? 0:01 /opt/oracle/asm/10.2.0/bin/ocssd.bin
# listener is running in the ASM instance
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ ps -ef | grep tnsl
oracle 1332 1 0 21:49:59 ? 0:00 /opt/oracle/asm/10.2.0/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER -inherit
# ASM is only entry in /var/opt/oracle/oratab
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ grep -v "^#" /var/opt/oracle/oratab
+ASM:/opt/oracle/asm/10.2.0:N
# I can connect to ASM fine, and it has diskgroups mounted.
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/asm/10.2.0
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ export ORACLE_SID='+ASM'
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ sqlplus "sys as sysdba"
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Mon Jul 21 20:53:10 2008
Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Enter password:
Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options
SQL> set line 150
SQL> select name, block_size, state, type, total_mb, free_mb from v$asm_diskgroup;
NAME BLOCK_SIZE STATE TYPE TOTAL_MB FREE_MB
DBARCH1 4096 MOUNTED EXTERN 2096856 2096784
DBLIVE1 4096 MOUNTED EXTERN 4193904 4193812
#### Contents of init.ora for new DB
db_create_file_dest=+DBLIVE1
db_recovery_file_dest=+DBARCH1
db_recovery_file_dest_size=2147483648
##### DB INSTALLATION ATTEMPT
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/server/10.2.0
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ export ORACLE_SID='NEONREL1'
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
oracle@neonrcom-db1:~$ /opt/oracle/server/10.2.0/admin/NEONREL1/scripts/NEONREL1.sh
You should Add this entry in the /var/opt/oracle/oratab: NEONREL1:/opt/oracle/server/10.2.0:Y
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Mon Jul 21 22:10:54 2008
Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.
specify a password for sys as parameter 1
Enter value for 1: xxx
specify a password for system as parameter 2
Enter value for 2: xxx
specify a password for sysman as parameter 3
Enter value for 3: xxx
specify a password for dbsnmp as parameter 4
Enter value for 4: xxx
specify ASM SYS user password as parameter 6
Enter value for 6: xxx
Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> spool /opt/oracle/server/10.2.0/admin/NEONREL1/scripts/CreateDB.log
SQL> startup nomount pfile="/opt/oracle/server/10.2.0/admin/NEONREL1/scripts/init.ora";
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1.9294E+10 bytes
Fixed Size 2054976 bytes
Variable Size 2264925376 bytes
Database Buffers 1.7012E+10 bytes
Redo Buffers 14721024 bytes
SQL> CREATE DATABASE "NEONREL1"
2 MAXINSTANCES 8
3 MAXLOGHISTORY 1
4 MAXLOGFILES 16
5 MAXLOGMEMBERS 3
6 MAXDATAFILES 100
7 DATAFILE SIZE 300M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 10240K MAXSIZE UNLIMITED
8 EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL
9 SYSAUX DATAFILE SIZE 120M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 10240K MAXSIZE UNLIMITED
10 SMALLFILE DEFAULT TEMPORARY TABLESPACE TEMP TEMPFILE SIZE 20M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 640K MAXSIZE UNLIMITED
11 SMALLFILE UNDO TABLESPACE "UNDOTBS1" DATAFILE SIZE 200M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 5120K MAXSIZE UNLIMITED
12 CHARACTER SET AL32UTF8
13 NATIONAL CHARACTER SET UTF8
14 LOGFILE GROUP 1 SIZE 51200K,
15 GROUP 2 SIZE 51200K,
16 GROUP 3 SIZE 51200K
17 USER SYS IDENTIFIED BY "&&sysPassword" USER SYSTEM IDENTIFIED BY "&&systemPassword";
CREATE DATABASE "NEONREL1"
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01501: CREATE DATABASE failed
ORA-00349: failure obtaining block size for '+DBLIVE1'
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
Message was edited by:
tjobbins

Answer 1

Update: I've worked out the difference between the two sets of errors I get.
The basic error is this:
ORA-00200: control file could not be created
ORA-00202: control file: '+DBLIVE1'
ORA-17502: ksfdcre:4 Failed to create file +DBLIVE1
ORA-15001: diskgroup "DBLIVE1" does not exist or is not mounted
ORA-15055: Message 15055 not found; No message file for product=RDBMS, facility=ORA
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
However if my init.ora contains the line:
control_files=/opt/oracle/server/10.2.0/dbs/cntrlNEONREL1.dbf
then I instead get the second error:
CREATE DATABASE "NEONREL1"
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01501: CREATE DATABASE failed
ORA-00349: failure obtaining block size for '+DBLIVE1'
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
So basically these must be the same error, just in the second case I'm not trying to put the control file on the ASM so it fails at a different point.
But both errors must be because of the same cause, I suppose.