TDE Issue with UPDATE/SELECT statement

Question

We just implemented TDE on a table and now our import script is getting errors. The import script has not changed and has been running fine for over a year. The script failed right after applying TDE on the table.
Oracle 10g Release 2 on Solaris.
Here are the encrypted colums:
COLUMN_NAME ENCRYPTION_ALG SALT
PERSON_ID AES 192 bits key NO
PERSON_KEY AES 192 bits key NO
USERNAME AES 192 bits key NO
FIRST_NAME AES 192 bits key NO
MIDDLE_NAME AES 192 bits key NO
LAST_NAME AES 192 bits key NO
NICKNAME AES 192 bits key NO
EMAIL_ADDRESS AES 192 bits key NO
AKO_EMAIL AES 192 bits key NO
CREATION_DATE AES 192 bits key NO
Here is the UPDATE/SELECT statement that is failing:
UPDATE cslmo_framework.users a
       SET ( person_id
           , username
           , first_name
           , middle_name
           , last_name
           , suffix
           , user_status_seq
         = (
             SELECT person_id
                  , username
                  , first_name
                  , middle_name
                  , last_name
                  , suffix
                  , user_status_seq
               FROM cslmo.vw_import_employee i
              WHERE i.person_key = a.person_key
     WHERE EXISTS
               SELECT 1
                 FROM cslmo.vw_import_employee i
                WHERE i.person_key = a.person_key
                  AND (    NVL(a.person_id,0)        <> NVL(i.person_id,0)
                        OR NVL(a.username,' ')       <> NVL(i.username,' ')
                        OR NVL(a.first_name,' ')     <> NVL(i.first_name,' ')
                        OR NVL(a.middle_name,' ')    <> NVL(i.middle_name,' ')
                        OR NVL(a.last_name,' ')      <> NVL(i.last_name,' ')
                        OR NVL(a.suffix,' ')         <> NVL(i.suffix,' ')
                        OR NVL(a.user_status_seq,99) <> NVL(i.user_status_seq,99)
cslmo@awpswebj-dev> exec cslmo.pkg_acpers_import.p_users
Error importing USERS table.START p_users UPDATE
Error Message: ORA-01483: invalid length for DATE or NUMBER bind variableI rewrote the procedure using BULK COLLECT and a FORALL statement and that seems to work fine. Here is the new code:
declare
   bulk_errors EXCEPTION ;
   PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT(bulk_errors,-24381) ;
   l_idx      NUMBER ;
   l_err_msg  VARCHAR2(2000) ;
   l_err_code NUMBER ;
   l_update   NUMBER := 0 ;
   l_count    NUMBER := 0 ;
   TYPE person_key_tt
       IS
           TABLE OF cslmo_framework.users.person_key%TYPE
                INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER ;
   arr_person_key   person_key_tt ;
   TYPE person_id_tt
       IS
          TABLE OF cslmo_framework.users.person_id%TYPE
                INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER ;
   arr_person_id   person_id_tt ;
   TYPE username_tt
      IS
          TABLE OF cslmo_framework.users.username%TYPE
               INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER ;
   arr_username   username_tt ;
   TYPE first_name_tt
      IS
         TABLE OF cslmo_framework.users.first_name%TYPE
              INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER ;
   arr_first_name   first_name_tt ;
   TYPE middle_name_tt
     IS
         TABLE OF cslmo_framework.users.middle_name%TYPE
             INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER ;
   arr_middle_name   middle_name_tt ;
   TYPE last_name_tt
         IS
            TABLE OF cslmo_framework.users.last_name%TYPE
                 INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER ;
   arr_last_name   last_name_tt ;
   TYPE suffix_tt
         IS
            TABLE OF cslmo_framework.users.suffix%TYPE
                 INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER ;
   arr_suffix   suffix_tt ;
   TYPE user_status_seq_tt
         IS
            TABLE OF cslmo_framework.users.user_status_seq%TYPE
                 INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER ;
   arr_user_status_seq   user_status_seq_tt ;
   CURSOR users_upd IS
      SELECT  i.person_key
             ,i.person_id
             ,i.username
             ,i.first_name
             ,i.middle_name
             ,i.last_name
             ,i.suffix
             ,i.user_status_seq
      FROM   cslmo.vw_import_employee i ,
             cslmo_framework.users    u
      WHERE  i.person_key = u.person_key ;
begin
   OPEN users_upd ;
   LOOP
        FETCH   users_upd
         BULK
      COLLECT
         INTO    arr_person_key
               , arr_person_id
               , arr_username
               , arr_first_name
               , arr_middle_name
               , arr_last_name
               , arr_suffix
               , arr_user_status_seq
        LIMIT         100 ;
        FORALL idx IN 1 ..  arr_person_key.COUNT
            SAVE EXCEPTIONS
            UPDATE cslmo_framework.users u
              SET
                   person_id                =   arr_person_id(idx)
                 , username                 =   arr_username(idx)
                 , first_name               =   arr_first_name(idx)
                 , middle_name              =   arr_middle_name(idx)
                 , last_name                =   arr_last_name(idx)
                 , suffix                   =   arr_suffix(idx)
                 , user_status_seq          =   arr_user_status_seq(idx)
             WHERE u.person_key = arr_person_key(idx)
             AND
                   ( NVL(u.person_id,0) != NVL(arr_person_id(idx),0)
             OR
                     NVL(u.username,' ') != NVL(arr_username(idx),' ')
             OR
                     NVL(u.first_name,' ') != NVL(arr_first_name(idx),' ')
             OR
                     NVL(u.middle_name, ' ') != NVL(arr_middle_name(idx), ' ')
             OR
                     NVL(u.last_name,' ') != NVL(arr_last_name(idx),' ')
             OR
                     NVL(u.suffix,' ') != NVL(arr_suffix(idx),' ')
             OR
                     NVL(u.user_status_seq,99) != NVL(arr_user_status_seq(idx),99)
      l_count := arr_person_key.COUNT ;
      l_update := l_update + l_count ;
      EXIT WHEN users_upd%NOTFOUND ;
   END LOOP ;
   CLOSE users_upd ;
   COMMIT ;
   dbms_output.put_line('updated records: ' || l_update);
   EXCEPTION
      WHEN bulk_errors THEN
           FOR i IN 1 .. sql%BULK_EXCEPTIONS.COUNT
           LOOP
              l_err_code   :=   sql%BULK_EXCEPTIONS(i).error_code ;
              l_err_msg    :=   sqlerrm(-l_err_code) ;
              l_idx        :=   sql%BULK_EXCEPTIONS(i).error_index;
              dbms_output.put_line('error code: ' || l_err_code);
              dbms_output.put_line('error msg: ' || l_err_msg);
              dbms_output.put_line('at index: ' || l_idx);
           END LOOP ;
           ROLLBACK;
           RAISE;
end ;
cslmo@awpswebj-dev> @cslmo_users_update
updated records: 1274There are about 20 or so other procedure in the import script. I don't want to rewrite them.
Does anyone know why the UPDATE/SELECT is failing? I checked Metalink and could not find anything about this problem.

Answer 1

This is now an Oracle bug, #9182070 on Metalink.
TDE (transparent data encryption) does not work when an update/select statement references a remote database.