Summary
A DPX block backup of an Oracle database can fail because it has an incorrect path for the location of the RMAN binary
Symptoms
An Oracle block level backup job log shows the following error:
10.10.71.91 5/6/2017 8:37:18 am SNBOCL_031E There has been some problem in RMAN cataloging for database (dwhprod), reason java.lang.Exception: RMAN cataloging failed for (dwhprod))
Prior to this error, you see:
10.10.71.91 5/6/2017 8:37:18 am SNBOCL_033J Doing RMAN cataloging for database (dwhprod), cmd /u01/app/oracle/admin/agent11g/bin/rman TARGET "sys/*@DWHPROD" CMDFILE "'/opt/DPX/logs/rmancmd_1494039601.dwhprod.txt'" LOG
"'/opt/DPX/logs/rmanlog_1494039601.dwhprod.txt'")
And you note that the path given above to rman is incorrect.
Resolution
The issue is that the ORACLE_HOME defined in the Oracle oratab file is incorrect. The oratab file can be found under /etc or /var/opt/oracle. A sample file looks similar to this:
oelpro:/u01/app/11.2.0/oracle:N
It can have multiple entries, one for each database present on the server. In the above example, 'oelpro' is the database SID, /u01/app/11.2.0/oracle defines ORACLE_HOME and the last parameter controls whether or not the instance should be automatically started at boot up.
In this specific backup job, the entry in oratab was incorrect and that was reflected in the path for rman in the job log. Once corrected, the backup was successful.