Ora 27040 file create error unable to create file

by Mohamed Azar on April 27, 2010

Always check out the original article at http://www.oraclequirks.com for latest comments, fixes and updates.

It’s not the first time i write about the stack of errors returned by data pump operations and ORA-31641 in particular, however the error messages may vary slightly with the operating system. For instance the following error stack is returned on XE running on top of Ubuntu, whereas the previously linked page refers to an error condition occurring on XE for Windows.

expdp user/pwd directory=EXPDIR dumpfile=dump.dp tables=emp,dept nologfile=Y
ORA-39001: invalid argument value
ORA-39000: bad dump file specification
ORA-31641: unable to create dump file "/home/flavio/documents/dump.dp"
ORA-27040: file create error, unable to create file
Linux Error: 13: Permission denied

The problem is caused by the missing privileges of user oracle on the directory pointed to by EXPDIR.
EXPDIR is pointing to /home/flavio/documents.

ls -ld /home/flavio/documents
drwxr-xr-x 4 flavio flavio 4096 2009-04-10 19:00 /home/flavio/documents/

As you see the directory belongs to user flavio, group flavio, moreover no write privileges are granted other than to the directory owner. Now, as Oracle processes are running under the user oracle, in order to be able to dump a file in this directory we have two possibilities:

1. to change the other group permissions on the directory i.e. by executing chmod o+w documents.
   
2. to add user oracle to group flavio and grant write permissions on documents to group flavio by executing sudo usermod -a -G flavio oracle; chmod g+w documents.

Note that option #1 will work instantly while option #2 requires a db restart. If you do not restart the db, you will still get the permission denied error. In either case, the db user must have READ and WRITE permissions on EXPDIR or hold CREATE ANY DIRECTORY privilege.

Whether the optimal solution is either of the two options above it really depends on the application security requirements.
In the end may be it’s better to create a public directory where everybody can dump files freely or create a shared directory EXPDIR where only oracle can create files and users belonging to a datapump group can read them. This approach avoids tampering with the existing permissions on user’s private folders and it doesn’t require a db restart.

Final notes: while looking for the Optimal Flexible Architecture document, i realized that dpdump is nowhere to be found in the installation documents through version 11gR1. This directory is created at time of installation and it is an OFA directory, no matter what the books say or don’t. Directory object DATA_PUMP_DIR, which is the default directory for data pump operations, indeed maps to dpdump.
If i remember correctly in 10gR2 the directory object is automatically created at installation time whilst in 10gR1 you need to create it manually.

See message translations for ORA-27040 and search additional resources.

ORA-19870, ORA-19504 and ORA-27040 Errors in RMAN | Oracle Database

ORA-19870 ORA-19504 ORA-27040 Oracle Errors

While creating DR Site from my 2 Node RAC Primary, I was trying to restore the controlfile from the standby controlfile backup file which I had created from Primary database via RMAN prompt using the below mentioned command,

RMAN> backup current controlfile for standby format ‘/backup/stdb_cntl_%U.bkp’;

But after running the restore command, I got the below mentioned error,

$ rman target /

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.4.0 — Production on Fri Oct 13 06:43:27 2017

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database: IFSPROD (not mounted)

RMAN> restore standby controlfile from ‘/home/oracle/stdb_cntl_ldsgu14m_1_1.bkp’;

Starting restore at 13-OCT-17

using target database control file instead of recovery catalog

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1

channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=1982 device type=DISK

channel ORA_DISK_1: restoring control file

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================

RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================

RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 10/13/2017 06:45:44

ORA-19870: error while restoring backup piece /home/oracle/stdb_cntl_ldsgu14m_1_1.bkp

ORA-19504: failed to create file «/data/drtesterp/control01.ctl»

ORA-27040: file create error, unable to create file

IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 2: No such file or directory

Additional information: 1

Resolution:

Again if you check the complete error description, you’ll see «IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 2: No such file or directory» which simply indicated that the directory where I was trying to restore the controlfile was

1. Either not created

2. Was not acessible — Privilege|permissions Issue

I checked for the reason and it was found that the directory was not available where I was trying to perform the restore. I created the same and provided the proper permissions to Oracle User. Once done, the restore was easily completed.

I hope this helps !!

Error: «ORA-01119,» «ORA-27040,» or «OSD-04002» when adding a datafile to a tablespace