Firewall BLACKOUT and JDBC connections with Oracle Applications 11i and 12 (Doc ID 276557.1)

Last updated on AUGUST 11, 2024

Applies to:

Symptoms

This problem was initially reported during 11.5.9, but could effect any version of the E-Business Suite, including Release 12.

It is common in the advanced topologies to isolate the web tier(s) from the database tier(s) using one or more firewalls.  A potential problem is that firewalls are typically configured to time out unused connections after one hour.  With an E-Business suite instance, this can result in JDBC connections being disconnected without warning to the application.  At this point, the connection is blacked out.

After the blackout has occurred, further JDBC activity causes an error to the application.  The only recovery is to bounce iAS.  The error seen from the user perspective can be any kind of error, but basically implies that there is no connection to the database. 

Some examples:

Example 1

Proxy Error
The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server.
The proxy server could not handle the request GET /oa_servlets/AppsLogin.
Reason: Document contains no data

Example 2

FND-9930

Example 3

Exception Details.
oracle.apps.fnd.framework.OAException:
System Error - The JRAD runtime context cannot be found. Please login again, and report this to your system administrator.

Changes

Addition of firewalls between web tier(s) and database tier(s).

Decrease in firewall timeout value.

Decrease in user activity or wild fluctuation in user load. 

Cause