Inbound connection timed out (ORA-3136)

miloluo

Today, I am going with a fellow to monthly check the DB.
An error found in alert log many times, "Inbound connection timed out (ORA-3136)". I think it's good to know what will cause this problem, so googling for a while.

Found this post in eygle site:
http://www.eygle.com/archives/2006/07/sqlnet_inbound_connect_timeout.html

SQLNET.INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT
Purpose
Use the SQLNET.INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT parameter to specify the time, in seconds, for a client to connect with the database server and provide the necessary authentication information.

If the client fails to establish a connection and complete authentication in the time specified, then the database server terminates the connection. In addition, the database server logs the IP address of the client and an ORA-12170: TNS:Connect timeout occurred error message to the sqlnet.log file. The client receives either an ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact or an ORA-12637: Packet receive failed error message.

Without this parameter, a client connection to the database server can stay open indefinitely without authentication. Connections without authentication can introduce possible denial-of-service attacks, whereby malicious clients attempt to flood database servers with connect requests that consume resources.

To protect both the database server and the listener, Oracle Corporation recommends setting this parameter in combination with the INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_listener_name parameter in the listener.ora file. When specifying values for these parameters, consider the following recommendations:

Set both parameters to an initial low value.
Set the value of the INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_listener_name parameter to a lower value than the SQLNET.INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT parameter.
For example, you can set INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_listener_name to 2 seconds and INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT parameter to 3 seconds. If clients are unable to complete connections within the specified time due to system or network delays that are normal for the particular environment, then increment the time as needed.

See Also:
Oracle9i Net Services Administrator's Guide for information about configuring these parameters

Default
None

Example
SQLNET.INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=3

Very important to know that, it's about db security.