Important alert for Oracle Database and GI RU 19.18.0 on Linux

Some of you may have seen the alert already released yesterday. And thanks to Peter Lehmann again for alerting me. When you logon to MyOracle Support, you will find it simply in the alert section to the left. On Jan 25, 2023, this Important alert for Oracle Database and GI RU 19.18.0 on Linux has been released.

Photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash

What is the situation?

Due to an issue described in MOS Note: 2923428.1 – LMON trace file with repeated entries of “Submitting asynchronized dump request” the Release Updates (RU) 19.18.0 for the Oracle Database and Grid Infrastructure on Linux have been removed from the download section temporarily. As of yesterday, Jan 26, the MOS note has been precised quite a bit. So please read it to get more information.

You can find this information in MOS Note: 19202301.9 – Oracle Database 19c Release Update & Release Update Revision January 2023 Known Issues where it says:

The issue is known as Bug 35001966 – LMON TRACE FILE WITH REPEATED ENTRIES OF “SUBMITTING ASYNCHRONIZED DUMP REQUEST”.

This will affect only customers with GI, RAC and ASM since LMON does not run on non-RAC systems (thanks Anil for the clarification). And it has happened on Linux only since the bundles on other platforms weren’t released by the time this got discovered.

What you will find is LMON trace files being written with this information:

2023-01-25 13:11:12.039656 :kjzddmp(): Submitting asynchronized dump request 
[1c]. summary=[ges process stack dump (kjfcTask_chkCloud)].

Some people reported already massive trace file generation on each node of their RACs.

Download the Patch Bundle?

When you tried to download the patch bundles for 19.18.0 on Linux from Jan 25-30 it was not available.

Reason: We removed it and recut it with the fix included.

As of Jan 31, 2023, the RU 19.18.0 for Linux is available.

Fix available?

The re-release of the RU 19.18.0 on Linux is planned to happen on Tuesday, Jan 31, 2023. It should be available on MOS then again. For those of you who installed 19.18.0 already, a one-off patch will be available and accessible via MOS Note: 2923428.1. And of course, you can also go on with the below workaround.

Workaround available?

At first, from all I read and understand, this issue hits you only when you are working with RAC/GI/ASM – which will be a significant number of you certainly. But as far as my understanding goes, in case you use a standard single instance setup like I have it in our Hands-On Lab environment, I won’t be affected.

Furthermore, MOS Note: 2923428.1 – LMON trace file with repeated entries of “Submitting asynchronized dump request” describes clear workarounds.

Either execute on all instances:

alter system set events='trace[KJZD] { process: pname=LMON } disk=disable' ;
alter system set events='trace_suppress[+] { process: pname=DIAG } regexp="kjdg.*_cb.*"' ;

or place this event and the below underscore directly into your init.ora/spfile on all instances:

event='trace[KJZD] { process: pname=LMON } disk=disable'
event='trace_suppress[+] { process: pname=DIAG } regexp="kjdg.*_cb.*"'
_diag_dump_request_debug_level=0

The idea of rebooting the node before 48 days are reached may be not realistic I’d guess.

Do you have to download it again?

Now a few people asked whether they still can use the original cut of 19.18.0 on Linux in case they have no RAC/GI/ASM. Clear answer: Yes, of course – since the issue being delivered with the original RU does not affect you. You don’t need the one-off patch either in this case.

Further Links and Information

• MOS Note: 2923428.1 – LMON trace file with repeated entries of “Submitting asynchronized dump request”
• MOS Note: 19202301.9 – Oracle Database 19c Release Update & Release Update Revision January 2023 Known Issues
• Bug 35001966 – LMON TRACE FILE WITH REPEATED ENTRIES OF “SUBMITTING ASYNCHRONIZED DUMP REQUEST”.

–Mike