sqlplus error on select from external table: ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPEN callout

Question

I have setup a simple Oracle external table test that I (alongside a DBA and Unix admin) can\'t get to work.

The following is based on Oracle\'s External Tables Conc

Answer 1

Keep in mind that it's the user that is running the oracle database that must have write permissions to the /defaultdir directory, not the user logged into oracle. Typically you're running the database as the user "Oracle". It's not the same user (necessarily) that you created the external table with.

Check your directory permissions, too.

Answer 2

Our version of Oracle is running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We experimented with several different types of group permissions to no avail. The /defaultdir directory had a group that was a secondary group for the oracle user. When we updated the /defaultdir directory to have a group of "oinstall" (oracle's primary group), I was able to select from the external tables underneath that directory with no problem.

So, for others that come along and might have this issue, make the directory have oracle's primary group as the group and it might resolve it for you as it did us. We were able to set the permissions to 770 on the directory and files and selecting on the external tables works fine now.

Answer 3

When you want to create an external_table, all field's name must be written in UPPERCASE.

Done.

Answer 4

We had this error on Oracle RAC 11g on Windows, and the solution was to create the same OS directory tree and external file on both nodes.

Answer 5

We faced the same problem:

ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPEN callout
ORA-29400: data cartridge error error opening file /fs01/app/rms01/external/logs/SH_EXT_TAB_VGAG_DELIV_SCHED.log

In our case we had a RAC with 2 nodes. After giving write permission on the log directory, on both sides, everything worked fine.