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After performing an in-place Oracle linux upgrade I could realize that the oracle service was unusable.

I would like to share with you the reason and how to resolve it.

Problem description

After in-place Oracle linux upgrade from el7 to el8, I could see that the oracle service was not working any more. This service is used to automatically start and stop the databases during server reboot according to the entry in the /etc/oratab.

Here is the initial script:

[root@SRV ~]# cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/oracle.service
[Unit]
Description=Oracle Database Service
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
LimitMEMLOCK=infinity
LimitNOFILE=65535
Type=simple
RemainAfterExit=yes
User=oracle
Group=oinstall
ExecStart=/rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh start
ExecStop=/rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh stop
TimeoutStartSec=200s
TimeoutStopSec=200s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

As we can see the service goes in error when running start and stop:

[root@SRV ~]# systemctl stop oracle.service
[root@SRV ~]# systemctl status oracle.service
● oracle.service - Oracle Database Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/oracle.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2026-06-18 10:52:43 CEST; 2s ago
  Process: 33420 ExecStop=/rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh stop (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
 Main PID: 1949 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Jun 18 09:43:29 SRV.INT.custname.CH service_start_stop.ksh[8220]: 2026-06-18_09:43:29::database.ksh::SetOraEnv            ::INFO ==> Environment: DB6 (/rdbms/u01/app/oracle/product/19.>
Jun 18 09:43:29 SRV.INT.custname.CH service_start_stop.ksh[8221]: ls: cannot access '/rdbms/u01/app/oracle/admin/DB6/dmk/pdbs/': No such file or directory
Jun 18 09:43:29 SRV.INT.custname.CH service_start_stop.ksh[8229]: 2026-06-18_09:43:29::database.ksh::ProcessAllDB         ::INFO ==> START database DB6
Jun 18 09:43:29 SRV.INT.custname.CH service_start_stop.ksh[8237]: 2026-06-18_09:43:29::database.ksh::ProcessAllDB         ::INFO ==> Database DB6 not started as the ORATAB flag is "N"
Jun 18 09:43:31 SRV.INT.custname.CH service_start_stop.ksh[9889]: 2026-06-18_09:43:31::service_start_stop.ksh::ExecScripts ::INFO ==> Return Code : 0
Jun 18 09:43:31 SRV.INT.custname.CH service_start_stop.ksh[9897]: 2026-06-18_09:43:31::service_start_stop.ksh::CleanExit  ::INFO ==> Program exited with ExitCode : 0
Jun 18 10:52:43 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[1]: Stopping Oracle Database Service...
Jun 18 10:52:43 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[1]: oracle.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=203
Jun 18 10:52:43 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[1]: oracle.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jun 18 10:52:43 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[1]: Stopped Oracle Database Service.

[root@SRV ~]# systemctl start oracle.service
[root@SRV ~]# systemctl status oracle.service
● oracle.service - Oracle Database Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/oracle.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2026-06-18 10:53:06 CEST; 1s ago
  Process: 33420 ExecStop=/rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh stop (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
  Process: 33428 ExecStart=/rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh start (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
 Main PID: 33428 (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)

Jun 18 10:53:06 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[1]: Started Oracle Database Service.
Jun 18 10:53:06 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[1]: oracle.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=203/EXEC
Jun 18 10:53:06 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[1]: oracle.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
[root@SRV ~]#

Analyzing the problem

Checking the output of journalctl command I could see following permission issue.

[root@SRV ~]# journalctl -xe
Jun 02 15:30:25 SRV.INT.custname.CH su[20823]: (to root) oracle on pts/0
Jun 02 15:30:25 SRV.INT.custname.CH su[20823]: pam_unix(su-l:session): session opened for user root by oracle(uid=54321)
Jun 02 15:30:29 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[1]: Started Oracle Database Service.
-- Subject: Unit oracle.service has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://support.oracle.com
--
-- Unit oracle.service has finished starting up.
--
-- The start-up result is done.
Jun 02 15:30:29 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[20852]: oracle.service: Failed to execute command: Permission denied
Jun 02 15:30:29 SRV.INT.custname.CH systemd[20852]: oracle.service: Failed at step EXEC spawning /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh: Permiss>
-- Subject: Process /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh could not be executed

This problem comes from SELinux, where under el8 only binaries are authorized in the service and not shell script any more.

Solution

The solution is to add /bin/bash into both start and stop lines.

[root@SRV ~]# vi /usr/lib/systemd/system/oracle.service

[root@SRV ~]# cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/oracle.service
[Unit]
Description=Oracle Database Service
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
LimitMEMLOCK=infinity
LimitNOFILE=65535
Type=simple
RemainAfterExit=yes
User=oracle
Group=oinstall
ExecStart=/bin/bash /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh start
ExecStop=/bin/bash /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh stop
TimeoutStartSec=200s
TimeoutStopSec=200s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
[root@SRV ~]#

And then the service could be successfully started and stopped again.

[root@SRV ~]# systemctl start oracle.service

[root@SRV ~]# systemctl status oracle.service
● oracle.service - Oracle Database Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/oracle.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2026-06-18 10:54:52 CEST; 4s ago
 Main PID: 33585 (bash)
    Tasks: 52 (limit: 3295056)
   Memory: 127.8M
   CGroup: /system.slice/oracle.service
           ├─33585 /bin/bash /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh start
           ├─33698 /bin/bash /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/local/dmk/bin/service_start_stop.ksh start
           ├─33855 /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/product/19.30.260120/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER_DB1 -inherit
           ├─34041 /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/product/19.30.260120/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER_DB2 -inherit
           ├─34227 /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/product/19.30.260120/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER_DG -inherit
           ├─34413 /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/product/19.30.260120/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER_DB3 -inherit
           ├─34599 /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/product/19.30.260120/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER_DB4 -inherit
           ├─34825 /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/product/19.30.260120_MX/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER_DB5 -inherit
           ├─35051 /rdbms/u01/app/oracle/product/19.30.260120_MX/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER_DB6 -inherit
...
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To wrap up…

I took a lot of time to understand what could happen here, moreover it was working without any problem under el7. This is why I think it is good to know and decided to share it. I thank my collegue, Jérôme Witt, who could face this problem earlier and shared this good tips with me.

Post Views: 6

Oracle database linux service not working properly after Oracle Linux upgrade

Problem description

Analyzing the problem

Solution

To wrap up…

Marc Wagner

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Problem description

Analyzing the problem

Solution

To wrap up…

Marc Wagner

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