URGENT - VB.Net and Oracle Client, 'random' error

[Freebeerboy]

Hi, it would be fantastic if anyone could suggest a solution to this
problem.

I've written an ASP.Net (VB) application which uses stored procedures
in Oracle. All seems fine, except occasionally I get the error below:

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an
object.]
System.Data.OracleClient.OciHandle.op_Implicit(OciHandle x) +23
System.Data.OracleClient.TracedNativeMethods.OCIAttrGet(OciHandle
trgthndlp, Int32& attributep, Int32& sizep, ATTR attrtype, OciHandle
errhp) +59
System.Data.OracleClient.OciHandle.GetAttribute(ATTR attribute,
Int32& value, OciHandle errorHandle) +37
System.Data.OracleClient.OracleCommand.ExecuteNonQueryInternal(Boolean
needRowid, OciHandle& rowidDescriptor) +171
System.Data.OracleClient.OracleCommand.ExecuteNonQuery() +57
SAMI.cls_User.Load() in
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SAMI\Classes\cls_User.vb:123
SAMI.LoginControl.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SAMI\default.aspx.vb:43
System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e) +0
System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +67
System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +35
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +725

This error seems to ocur inside the OracleClient DLL. The database is
9i.

I haven't posted and code because all the code works 99% of the time.
Also the error doesn't occur on one particular procedure call - it can
occur on any one of them...it all seems a bit arbitary.

This is live, and embarrassing.

Any ideas??

Rich.

 

[Ken Cox [Microsoft MVP]]

Can you check the number of connections that Oracle is using? Does it happen
when there are a large number of users?

We found that Oracle was running out of connections at times. I think you
need to be careful to pool or reuse connections. I can't help much more than
that because I wasn't the DBA at that place, just the Web developer.

 

[Freebeerboy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I would probably expect a 'proper' Oracle
error in that situation, but I'll look into it anyway to be sure.

Cheers
Rich.