Thursday, November 27, 2025

ORA-12545: Connect failed because target host or object does not exist

Fixing ORA-12545: When Your Oracle Binary Goes Missing

Recently, while connecting to one of my test database instances, I ran into a frustrating error:

ORA-12545: Connect failed because target host or object does not exist

At first glance, this looks like a typical network issue — host unreachable, wrong IP, DNS mismatch, etc. But in my case, the root cause was completely different.

Digging Into the Error

After searching across a few forums and documents, I landed on the Oracle Support Note KB167814 – Troubleshooting guide for ORA-12545 / TNS-12545.
This document outlines three common problem categories along with causes and solutions.

From those, one scenario matched my situation exactly.

The Actual Problem

Problem:
You are trying to connect locally on the server without using the listener (using BEQ protocol). Such connections can fail with ORA-12545.

Cause:
The Oracle binary is missing from the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory.

Diagnosis

To verify, I ran a quick check:


$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ls -l oracle

The result confirmed the problem — the oracle binary was missing.

And without this binary, the database simply cannot function.

What You Lose Without the Oracle Binary

You cannot start the database
You cannot mount or open the DB
You cannot connect as SYSDBA locally
You cannot use sqlplus / as sysdba

Why?

Because the oracle binary is the actual database engine. Without it, the entire Oracle stack becomes unusable.

Resolution Options

At this point, I had three practical solutions:

Raise an SR with Oracle Support and involve the DB Install team
Reinstall the Oracle Home (only the software, not the database)
Copy the oracle binary from another server

I chose the 3rd option, but with extreme caution.

Copying the Oracle Binary: Not as Simple as It Sounds

The oracle executable is not a simple file that you can copy from any system.
It relies on:

✔ Exact OS version
✔ Exact Kernel version
✔ Exact glibc & system libraries
✔ Exact Oracle patch level (RU/RUR)
✔ Identical ORACLE_HOME structure
✔ Identical linking options used during installation

If any of these differ, the copied binary will fail — or worse, cause unpredictable issues.

Fortunately, in my case, the source server matched my environment exactly.
I copied the binary, set the correct permissions, and—good news—my database started successfully.

Conclusion

The ORA-12545 error is often mistaken as just a networking issue. But sometimes the cause lies deeper inside the Oracle Home itself.
If you're connecting using BEQ and getting ORA-12545, don't forget to check whether your oracle binary actually exists.

A missing binary is rare, but when it happens, knowing the right direction saves enormous troubleshooting time.

Thanks & Regards,

Chandan Tanwani

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

How to Transfer Files Between an OCI VM (Compute Instance) and Object Storage (Part - 3)

Check out Part -1 - Install OCI CLI, pre-requisite

Check out Part -2 - Upload files to Object storage

In this article, let’s take the reverse approach:

downloading a file from an OCI Object Storage bucket into a VM that lives in a private subnet.

This is a common scenario — your production VMs are usually in private subnets with no public IP, and you still need to move files in and out efficiently.

Let me explain the simplest way to do it.

🔹 Key Challenge

A private-subnet VM cannot reach the internet directly.

But the good news,

👉 OCI CLI works perfectly inside private subnets via the Service Gateway, as long as it's properly configured.

If your subnet is connected to:

✔️ Service Gateway

AND

✔️ Object Storage Public Endpoint allowed

…you can directly download objects from Object Storage using CLI.

If your subnet isn't configured this way, you can still use the OCI Bastion Service to connect securely and run CLI commands.

Step 1: Confirm Network Access to Object Storage

From the private VM, run:

#> oci os ns get

If you get a valid namespace response, you're connected to Object Storage.

If it fails, ensure:

-> Subnet has Service Gateway attached

-> Route table has: 0.0.0.0/0 → Service Gateway

-> No overly restrictive security lists

Step 2: Download a File from Object Storage

Use the oci os object get command.

Basic Download Command

oci os object get \

--bucket-name <bucket_name> \

--name <object_name> \

--file <output_file_name>

Example

Download db_backup.tar.gz from bucket my-backup-bucket:

oci os object get \

--bucket-name my-backup-bucket \

--name db_backup.tar.gz \

--file db_backup.tar.gz

This saves the file in your current working directory.

Download Large Files

If you're dealing with multi-GB backups:

oci os object get \

--bucket-name my-backup-bucket \

--name largefile.gz \

--file largefile.gz \

--multipart-download-threshold 64 \

--part-size 64

Step 3: Verify the File

After download:

ls -lh

and optionally check checksum:

md5sum db_backup.tar.gz

If SSH is disabled or restricted, Access Private VM via OCI Bastion

Click here to know more how to access Private VM via OCI Bastion service

Once you're inside the bastion session, the exact same download commands work.

🎉 That's It!

Thanks & Regards,

Chandan Tanwani

How to Transfer Files Between an OCI VM (Compute Instance) and Object Storage (Part - 2)

Transferring a file from an OCI Compute Instance (VM) to Object Storage is one of the simplest and most reliable ways to store, archive, or share data.

Once your OCI CLI is installed and configured (as explained in Part - 1), you're ready for the next step.

Step 1: Verify You Have Access to the Bucket

Before uploading anything, check that:

- The bucket exists

- You have the right permissions (via IAM policy)

- Your CLI is configured for the correct region

- List the buckets in your compartment:

oci os bucket list --compartment-id <compartment_ocid>

If the bucket you want appears, you're good to go.

Step 2: Upload a File

Use the oci os object put command to upload a file.

Basic Upload Command

oci os object put \

--bucket-name <bucket_name> \

--file <local_file_path>

Example

Suppose your file is /u01/backups/db_backup.tar.gz and your bucket is my-backup-bucket:

oci os object put \

--bucket-name my-backup-bucket \

--file /u01/backups/db_backup.tar.gz

What Happens Here?

-> OCI CLI uploads the file

-> The object appears inside the bucket with the same filename

-> If the object already exists, it will be overwritten unless you disable overwrite

If you want to specify a different object name:

Example:

oci os object put \

--bucket-name my-backup-bucket \

--file db_backup.tar.gz \

--name MY_Backup_26Nov2025.tar.gz

Bulk Upload files using below command

Example:

oci os object bulk-upload \

-bn my-backup-bucket \

--src-dir /u01/RMANBackup26Nov2025 \

--include "*.bkp" \

--prefix rman/

Upload Large Files

For large files (GBs or TB-scale), use the --part-size option.

Example:

oci os object put \

--bucket-name my-backup-bucket \

--file db_backup.tar.gz \

--part-size 64

Step 3: Verify Upload

List objects inside the bucket:

oci os object list --bucket-name my-backup-bucket

To confirm size or metadata:

oci os object head \

--bucket-name my-backup-bucket \

--name db_backup.tar.gz

🎉 That's It!

You’ve now successfully uploaded files from a VM to Object Storage using OCI CLI.

This is the method I use daily for backups and log transfers.

In the next article, we will go the opposite direction — downloading files from Object Storage to a private subnet VM, even when it has no public internet access.

Thanks & Regards,

Chandan Tanwani

How to Transfer Files Between an OCI VM (Compute Instance) and Object Storage (Part - 1)

I’m writing a small series of articles where I walk you through one of the most common tasks we perform on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI):

moving files between a VM and an Object Storage bucket.

Whether you want to upload backups from your VM or download files into a private subnet, the process becomes extremely simple once your OCI CLI is set up correctly.

In this article, I’ll cover three clear steps, just the way I explain it to anyone who asks me:

1) Install and configure OCI CLI - (This only)

2) Upload files from a Public-Subnet VM to Object Storage

3) Download files from Object Storage to a Private-Subnet VM

Let’s begin!

1) Installing and Configuring OCI CLI

The very first prerequisite is simple:

👉 Your VM must have OCI CLI installed.

I personally logged in using the oracle user (which was created during VM setup), and ran the installation from there.

Step 1: Install the OCI CLI

Run the following command:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/oci-cli/master/scripts/install/install.sh | bash

This script handles everything—from downloading the CLI to setting up environment variables.

[oracle@vm-test-1 ~]$ curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/oci-cli/master/scripts/install/install.sh | bash

% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current

Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed

100 17155 100 17155 0 0 186k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 188k

WARNING: Some interactive prompts may not function correctly if this script is piped into bash (e.g. 'curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/oci-cli/master/scripts/install/install.sh" | bash)'

WARNING: Script should either be downloaded and invoked directly, or be run with the following command: bash -c "$(curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/oci-cli/master/scripts/install/install.sh)"

******************************************************************************

You have started the OCI CLI Installer in interactive mode. If you do not wish

to run this in interactive mode, please include the --accept-all-defaults option.

If you have the script locally and would like to know more about

input options for this script, then you can run:

./install.sh -h

If you would like to know more about input options for this script, refer to:

https://github.com/oracle/oci-cli/blob/master/scripts/install/README.rst

******************************************************************************

Downloading Oracle Cloud Infrastructure CLI install script from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/oci-cli/v3.68.1/scripts/install/install.py to /tmp/oci_cli_install_tmp_zdp8.

######################################################################## 100.0%

Running install script.

python3 /tmp/oci_cli_install_tmp_zdp8

-- Verifying Python version.

-- Python version 3.6.8 okay.

===> In what directory would you like to place the install? (leave blank to use '/home/oracle/lib/oracle-cli'):

-- Creating directory '/home/oracle/lib/oracle-cli'.

-- We will install at '/home/oracle/lib/oracle-cli'.

===> In what directory would you like to place the 'oci' executable? (leave blank to use '/home/oracle/bin'):

-- Creating directory '/home/oracle/bin'.

-- The executable will be in '/home/oracle/bin'.

===> In what directory would you like to place the OCI scripts? (leave blank to use '/home/oracle/bin/oci-cli-scripts'):

-- Creating directory '/home/oracle/bin/oci-cli-scripts'.

-- The scripts will be in '/home/oracle/bin/oci-cli-scripts'.

===> Currently supported optional packages are: ['db (will install cx_Oracle)']

What optional CLI packages would you like to be installed (comma separated names; press enter if you don't need any optional packages)?:

-- The optional packages installed will be ''.

-- Trying to use python3 venv.

-- Executing: ['/bin/python3', '-m', 'venv', '/home/oracle/lib/oracle-cli']

-- Executing: ['/home/oracle/lib/oracle-cli/bin/pip', 'install', '--upgrade', 'pip']

Collecting pip

Downloading https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/a4/6d/6463d49a933f547439d6b5b98b46af8742cc03ae83543e4d7688c2420f8b/pip-21.3.1-py3-none-any.whl (1.7MB)

100% |████████████████████████████████| 1.7MB 1.1MB/s

Installing collected packages: pip

Found existing installation: pip 9.0.3

Uninstalling pip-9.0.3:

Successfully uninstalled pip-9.0.3

Successfully installed pip-21.3.1

You are using pip version 21.3.1, however version 25.3 is available.

You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.

-- Executing: ['/home/oracle/lib/oracle-cli/bin/pip', 'install', '--cache-dir', '/tmp/tmpr32ini5k', 'wheel', '--upgrade']

Collecting wheel

Downloading wheel-0.37.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (35 kB)

Installing collected packages: wheel

Successfully installed wheel-0.37.1

-- Executing: ['/home/oracle/lib/oracle-cli/bin/pip', 'install', '--cache-dir', '/tmp/tmpr32ini5k', 'oci_cli', '--upgrade']

Collecting oci_cli

Downloading oci_cli-3.71.0-py3-none-any.whl (25.2 MB)

|████████████████████████████████| 25.2 MB 40.6 MB/s

Collecting six>=1.15.0

Downloading six-1.17.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (11 kB)

Collecting click==8.0.4

Downloading click-8.0.4-py3-none-any.whl (97 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 97 kB 13.4 MB/s

Collecting jmespath==0.10.0

Downloading jmespath-0.10.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (24 kB)

Collecting certifi>=2025.1.31

Downloading certifi-2025.4.26-py3-none-any.whl (159 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 159 kB 97.5 MB/s

Collecting pyOpenSSL<=25.1.0,>=17.5.0

Downloading pyOpenSSL-23.2.0-py3-none-any.whl (59 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 59 kB 13.1 MB/s

Collecting arrow>=1.0.0

Downloading arrow-1.2.3-py3-none-any.whl (66 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 66 kB 10.9 MB/s

Collecting pytz>=2016.10

Downloading pytz-2025.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (509 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 509 kB 87.1 MB/s

Collecting terminaltables==3.1.10

Downloading terminaltables-3.1.10-py2.py3-none-any.whl (15 kB)

Collecting oci==2.164.0

Downloading oci-2.164.0-py3-none-any.whl (33.0 MB)

|████████████████████████████████| 33.0 MB 86.1 MB/s

Collecting prompt-toolkit==3.0.29

Downloading prompt_toolkit-3.0.29-py3-none-any.whl (381 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 381 kB 36.3 MB/s

Collecting cryptography<46.0.0,>=3.2.1

Downloading cryptography-40.0.2-cp36-abi3-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (3.7 MB)

|████████████████████████████████| 3.7 MB 83.2 MB/s

Collecting PyYAML<=6.0.2,>=5.4

Downloading PyYAML-6.0.1-cp36-cp36m-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (677 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 677 kB 90.0 MB/s

Collecting python-dateutil<3.0.0,>=2.5.3

Downloading python_dateutil-2.9.0.post0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (229 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 229 kB 94.4 MB/s

Collecting importlib-metadata

Downloading importlib_metadata-4.8.3-py3-none-any.whl (17 kB)

Collecting circuitbreaker<2.0.0,>=1.3.1

Downloading circuitbreaker-1.4.0.tar.gz (9.7 kB)

Preparing metadata (setup.py) ... done

Collecting wcwidth

Downloading wcwidth-0.2.14-py2.py3-none-any.whl (37 kB)

Collecting typing-extensions

Downloading typing_extensions-4.1.1-py3-none-any.whl (26 kB)

Collecting cffi>=1.12

Downloading cffi-1.15.1-cp36-cp36m-manylinux_2_5_x86_64.manylinux1_x86_64.whl (402 kB)

|████████████████████████████████| 402 kB 81.5 MB/s

Collecting pycparser

Downloading pycparser-2.21-py2.py3-none-any.whl (118 kB)

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Collecting zipp>=0.5

Downloading zipp-3.6.0-py3-none-any.whl (5.3 kB)

Building wheels for collected packages: circuitbreaker

Building wheel for circuitbreaker (setup.py) ... done

Created wheel for circuitbreaker: filename=circuitbreaker-1.4.0-py3-none-any.whl size=7506 sha256=7e604a258e20a46edfdfd999605faec6d0a4ed5652229a140b4bec6b07f3c2eb

Stored in directory: /tmp/tmpr32ini5k/wheels/46/17/98/db2eb826e4a98da672cffe66ec16838182cde0cf19ad2c0c70

Successfully built circuitbreaker

Installing collected packages: pycparser, cffi, zipp, typing-extensions, six, cryptography, wcwidth, pytz, python-dateutil, pyOpenSSL, importlib-metadata, circuitbreaker, certifi, terminaltables, PyYAML, prompt-toolkit, oci, jmespath, click, arrow, oci-cli

Successfully installed PyYAML-6.0.1 arrow-1.2.3 certifi-2025.4.26 cffi-1.15.1 circuitbreaker-1.4.0 click-8.0.4 cryptography-40.0.2 importlib-metadata-4.8.3 jmespath-0.10.0 oci-2.164.0 oci-cli-3.71.0 prompt-toolkit-3.0.29 pyOpenSSL-23.2.0 pycparser-2.21 python-dateutil-2.9.0.post0 pytz-2025.2 six-1.17.0 terminaltables-3.1.10 typing-extensions-4.1.1 wcwidth-0.2.14 zipp-3.6.0

===> Modify profile to update your $PATH and enable shell/tab completion now? (Y/n):

===> Enter a path to an rc file to update (file will be created if it does not exist) (leave blank to use '/home/oracle/.bashrc'):

-- Backed up '/home/oracle/.bashrc' to '/home/oracle/.bashrc.backup'

-- Tab completion set up complete.

-- If tab completion is not activated, verify that '/home/oracle/.bashrc' is sourced by your shell.

-- ** Run `exec -l $SHELL` to restart your shell. **

-- Installation successful.

Announcement

============

1. Interactive mode now available in CLI

Have you tried the new interactive features in OCI CLI yet? You can get started by typing `oci -i`.

Learn more by watching our informative video on YouTube -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX29Xw1Te54&ab_channel=OracleLearning

Also see https://docs.oracle.com/iaas/Content/API/SDKDocs/cliusing_topic-Using_Interactive_Mode.htm

============

-- Run the CLI with /home/oracle/bin/oci --help

[oracle@vm-test-1 ~]$

After installation, verify it:

oci --version

If you see the version printed, your CLI is installed successfully.

[oracle@vm-test-bl-ebs-1 ~]$ oci --version

/home/oracle/lib/oracle-cli/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/oci/_vendor/httpsig_cffi/sign.py:10: CryptographyDeprecationWarning: Python 3.6 is no longer supported by the Python core team. Therefore, support for it is deprecated in cryptography. The next release of cryptography will remove support for Python 3.6.

from cryptography.hazmat.backends import default_backend # noqa: F401

3.71.0

[oracle@vm-test-bl-ebs-1 ~]$

Step 2: Configure the OCI CLI

Next, we need to configure it with your OCI credentials.

Run: oci setup config

The CLI will ask for:

User OCID

Tenancy OCID

Region

Directory for storing API keys

Passphrase for the private key

[oracle@vm-test-1 ~]$ oci setup config

from cryptography.hazmat.backends import default_backend # noqa: F401

This command provides a walkthrough of creating a valid CLI config file.

The following links explain where to find the information required by this

script:

User API Signing Key, OCID and Tenancy OCID:

https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/Content/API/Concepts/apisigningkey.htm#Other

Region:

https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/Content/General/Concepts/regions.htm

General config documentation:

https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/Content/API/Concepts/sdkconfig.htm

Enter a location for your config [/home/oracle/.oci/config]:

Enter a user OCID: ocid1.user.oc1..aaaaaaaahtnchxxxxxxbbbbbbbccccccdddddddpumrcff4ja

Enter a tenancy OCID: ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaaaaaaq3kiaahtnchxxxxxxbbbbbbbccccccdddddddteja

Enter a region by index or name(e.g.

1: af-johannesburg-1, 2: ap-batam-1, 3: ap-chennai-1, 4: ap-chiyoda-1, 5: ap-chuncheon-1,

6: ap-chuncheon-2, 7: ap-dcc-canberra-1, 8: ap-dcc-gazipur-1, 9: ap-delhi-1, 10: ap-hyderabad-1,

11: ap-ibaraki-1, 12: ap-melbourne-1, 13: ap-mumbai-1, 14: ap-osaka-1, 15: ap-seoul-1,

16: ap-seoul-2, 17: ap-singapore-1, 18: ap-singapore-2, 19: ap-suwon-1, 20: ap-sydney-1,

21: ap-tokyo-1, 22: ca-montreal-1, 23: ca-toronto-1, 24: eu-amsterdam-1, 25: eu-budapest-1,

26: eu-crissier-1, 27: eu-dcc-dublin-1, 28: eu-dcc-dublin-2, 29: eu-dcc-milan-1, 30: eu-dcc-milan-2,

31: eu-dcc-rating-1, 32: eu-dcc-rating-2, 33: eu-dcc-zurich-1, 34: eu-frankfurt-1, 35: eu-frankfurt-2,

36: eu-jovanovac-1, 37: eu-madrid-1, 38: eu-madrid-2, 39: eu-madrid-3, 40: eu-marseille-1,

41: eu-milan-1, 42: eu-paris-1, 43: eu-stockholm-1, 44: eu-zurich-1, 45: il-jerusalem-1,

46: me-abudhabi-1, 47: me-abudhabi-2, 48: me-abudhabi-3, 49: me-abudhabi-4, 50: me-alain-1,

51: me-dcc-doha-1, 52: me-dcc-muscat-1, 53: me-dubai-1, 54: me-ibri-1, 55: me-jeddah-1,

56: me-riyadh-1, 57: mx-monterrey-1, 58: mx-queretaro-1, 59: sa-bogota-1, 60: sa-santiago-1,

61: sa-saopaulo-1, 62: sa-valparaiso-1, 63: sa-vinhedo-1, 64: uk-cardiff-1, 65: uk-gov-cardiff-1,

66: uk-gov-london-1, 67: uk-london-1, 68: us-ashburn-1, 69: us-ashburn-2, 70: us-chicago-1,

71: us-columbus-1, 72: us-gov-ashburn-1, 73: us-gov-chicago-1, 74: us-gov-phoenix-1, 75: us-langley-1,

76: us-luke-1, 77: us-newark-1, 78: us-phoenix-1, 79: us-saltlake-2, 80: us-sanjose-1,

81: us-somerset-1, 82: us-thames-1): 68

Do you want to generate a new API Signing RSA key pair? (If you decline you will be asked to supply the path to an existing key.) [Y/n]: y

Enter a directory for your keys to be created [/home/oracle/.oci]:

Enter a name for your key [oci_api_key]:

Public key written to: /home/oracle/.oci/oci_api_key_public.pem

Enter a passphrase for your private key ("N/A" for no passphrase):

Repeat for confirmation:

Private key written to: /home/oracle/.oci/oci_api_key.pem

Fingerprint: aa:3a:ff:d9:c5:10:7a:50:4f:ef:c0:f3:f4:b2:d2:72

Config written to /home/oracle/.oci/config

If you haven't already uploaded your API Signing public key through the

console, follow the instructions on the page linked below in the section

'How to upload the public key':

https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/Content/API/Concepts/apisigningkey.htm#How2

[oracle@vm-test-1 ~]$

Note:- In above code snippets I kept most of the things default. But you can change it according to your environment.

Once you enter these inputs, the CLI will generate the required keys and a config file.

Next, we need to configure it with your OCI credentials.

Step 3: Add the API Key in OCI Console

This part is important.

Now that your CLI generated a public key, you must register it in OCI:

Go to Tokens and Keys, Click on API Keys

Choose Add API Key

Upload the public key generated during the CLI setup

Once added, you will see a fingerprint — keep it noted; it confirms your key is active.

This completes the foundational setup.

Now your VM is ready to communicate with OCI Object Storage securely using the CLI.

In the next steps, I’ll show you how to upload from a public-subnet VM and download into a private-subnet VM using Bastion or direct CLI commands.

Thanks & Regards,

Chandan Tanwani