Autoconfig - ERROR: Could not retrieve mount point for product top

While running autoconfig on my 11.5.10 eBusiness environment I found following error message.

        Using Context file          : <File Path>.........
Context Value Management will now update the Context file
ERROR: Could not retrieve mount point for product top - <Custom Top Path>

Checking that all, I found that our custom top (for which this was failing) was added to context file with other product tops.

<COMMON_TOP oa_var="s_com">.......path..........</COMMON_TOP>
         <CUSTOM_TOP oa_var="s_hcttop" oa_type="PROD_TOP" oa_enabled="FALSE">........path...</CUSTOM_TOP>
     

Solution:-

I simply removed the CUSTOM TOP entry from context file and tried running autoconfig again. And yes it worked.

ORA-39181: Only partial table data may be exported due to fine grain access control

While running datapump on some of the schemas I faced following error.

ORA-39181: Only partial table data may be exported due to fine grain access control on <owner>.<table>.
A direct hit Oracle Note "422480.1" says it is caused if an unprivileged user who tries to export a table with a fine grain access control policy applied.
I have been using SYSTEM for export, and that doesn't look under privilege user.

But for such case, whatever the user we are using to run export/import.

SQL> Grant Exempt Access Policy to <User>;

In my case it was 

SQL> Grant Exempt Access Policy to System; 

Do the export/import task and again do not forget to 

SQL> Revoke Exempt Access Policy from <User>; 

It's usually not advisable to keep it granted, until unless you have a specific admin user for import - export.

"ORA-00245: control file backup failed; target is likely on a local file system" Backup fails on oracle 11.2 RAC database

On a multi node RAC database we were occasionally facing issue with RMAN backup.

RMAN> 2> 3> 4> 5>
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of allocate command at 04/25/2013 04:00:30
RMAN-03014: implicit resync of recovery catalog failed
RMAN-03009: failure of full resync command on default channel at 04/25/2013 04:00:30
ORA-00245: control file backup failed; target is likely on a local file system


The issue is intermittent and does not appear every time, and so we are not sure if this is actually some issue with configuration.

Reason:-

Oracle [Support Note ID 1472171.1] says that snapshot control file should be on shared location.

Solution:-

I logged into RMAN from each instance and checked the configuration

RMAN> show all;

RMAN> .
.
.
CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '<oracle_home_dbs>/snapcf_DB01.f'; # default

Thus in different instances I found the value is different as snapcf_DB01.f/snapcf_DB02.f etc, also noticed "#default" at the end.

Though we did not have a shared location for oracle home, the path is similar on our servers, thus making rest of the path same except the DB01.f part.

So at the place of making it on shared location we just gave it a common name, by just giving following command from any one node.

RMAN> CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '<oracle_home_dbs>/snapcf_<SID>.f';

And running at one place makes the change working at all the instances. (its only default that can come different or else it should be same if you have common control files for all the instances).
Now not having the shared snapshot controlfile, but a same name is making it work and issue resolved.