ORA-00028: your session has been killed

Products

• CA Release Automation - Release Operations Center (Nolio)
• CA Release Automation - DataManagement Server (Nolio)

Issue/Introduction

NAC reports a "session has been killed" error.  The NAC's nolio_dm_all.log files then capture the following errors:

WARN  (org.hibernate.engine.jdbc.spi.SqlExceptionHelper:143) - SQL Error: 28, SQLState: 08006

ERROR (org.hibernate.engine.jdbc.spi.SqlExceptionHelper:144) - ORA-00028: your session has been killed

ERROR (com.nolio.platform.server.dataservices.services.hibernate.NolioHibernateTemplate:203) - Caught hibernate exception.org.hibernate.exception.JDBCConnectionException: ORA-00028: your session has been killed

Environment

Any Release Automation environment running with Oracle database.

Cause

The group of errors above occur when Oracle database generates an ORA-00028 error.  There are several possible causes for Oracle to return this error to Release Automation.  ORA-00028 usually indicates a privileged user (such as a DBA) has manually killed the session.  This can happen if database maintenance tasks are being performed at the time of the error or if the database user has decided to identify and kill that session for some reason.

There are other possible causes for this error, including:

• Manually killed session by privileged database user. 
• Database timeout.
• Database deadlock.
• Oracle specific bug in the database.
• Firewall or other network problem.

Resolution

After identifying which of the possible causes above is at play, solutions follow, respectively:

• In the most likely case of a privileged user manually killing the session, you should consult your Oracle DBA for further details.
• A timeout or deadlock may require a database restart to resolve.
• Check with Oracle for any known defects that may result in ORA-00028, as patches may be available. 
• Check for any firewall or network issues.  An example: If the host name of the NAC is changed, and the firewall is not adjusted accordingly, an ORA-00028 error may be reported as a result. 

Additional Information

For more information regarding ORA-00028, there are many online resources outside of CA worth consulting.  Oracle provides their own Oracle Technology Network community that provides a number of resources for finding more detailed information on this and other ORA errors.