SRVCTL: CRS-2678, CRS-0267, CRS-5802: Unable to start the agent process

We had the following problem with some customer:

srvctl start database -db dbname was failing on one of the cluster nodes with the following error:

[oracle@node1 ~]$ srvctl start database -db dbname
PRCR-1079 : Failed to start resource ora.dbname.db
CRS-2674: Start of ‘ora.dbname.db’ on ‘rac1’ failed
CRS-2678: ‘ora.dbname.db’ on ‘rac1’ has experienced an unrecoverable failure
CRS-0267: Human intervention required to resume its availability.
CRS-5802: Unable to start the agent process

But during that time we were able to startup database using sqlplus:

[oracle@rac1 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> startup

ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 1577058304 bytes
Fixed Size 8621136 bytes
Variable Size 805307312 bytes
Database Buffers 754974720 bytes
Redo Buffers 8155136 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.

It was strange and took a lot of time for me to troubleshoot this issue.

I tried many things:
* removed srvctl config using srvctl remove database -db orcl
* readded it again srvctl add database -db orcl
* readded instances
* also tried to restart crs and even the servers
but with no luck.

Then I found the following documentation Doc ID 1957360.1 on Oracle site and tried to reproduce the same problem on my lab servers and I did it.

I tried to change the ownership for the file on my test cluster on only one node:

[root@rac1 ~]# ll /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracleOUT.trc
-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 1085 Sep 5 20:17 /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracleOUT.trc
[root@rac1 ~]# ll /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracle.pid
-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 6 Sep 5 20:17 /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracle.pid
[root@rac1 ~]# chown root:root /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracle.pid
[root@rac1 ~]# chown root:root /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracleOUT.trc

I tried to startup instance using sqlplus and it was successful:

[oracle@rac1 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> startup

ORACLE instance started
Database mounted.
Database opened.

Stopped the database and tried with srvctl :

After a long wait it failed:

[oracle@rac1 ~]$ srvctl start database -db orcl
PRCR-1079 : Failed to start resource ora.orcl.db
CRS-2674: Start of ‘ora.orcl.db’ on ‘rac1’ failed
CRS-2678: ‘ora.orcl.db’ on ‘rac1’ has experienced an unrecoverable failure
CRS-0267: Human intervention required to resume its availability.
CRS-5802: Unable to start the agent process

I also checked customer logs and found that files crsd_oraagent_oracle.pid, crsd_oraagent_oracleOUT.trc were not updated for a long time, they were older than other files.

So to solve such problem you need to assign correct owner, group and access permission for the above two files and you will be able to start database using srvctl.

[root@rac1 ~]# chown oracle:oinstall /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracle.pid
[root@rac1 ~]# chown oracle:oinstall /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracleOUT.trc
[root@rac1 ~]# chown 644 /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracle.pid
[root@rac1 ~]# chown 644 /u01/app/grid/crsdata/rac1/output/crsd_oraagent_oracleOUT.trc

You may never have such errors but if you have you know how to solve.