18.1 General Troubleshooting Methodology

Follow this systematic approach when diagnosing Oracle Deep Data Security (Deep Sec) issues.

Prerequisite: Deep Sec is available on Oracle AI Database version 23.26.2 and later. Confirm that your database instance meets this minimum requirement before you begin.

1. Define the problem clearly
   • Identify the impacted users, schemas, or applications, and gather all observable symptoms.
2. Isolate error messages
   • Note specific error codes (for example, ORA-xxxxx errors) returned in application logs or SQL*Plus output. Consult the Oracle Database Error Messages reference for initial guidance and troubleshooting steps.
3. Review session configuration
   • Examine the end-user security contexts, data roles, and context attributes to ensure the user session is correctly configured. See End-User Security Context Issues and Context Attribute Definition or Usage Issues.
4. Validate user and role privileges
   • Check data grants and data role assignments to verify they align with the expected level of database access. See Access and Privilege Issues.
5. Generate and review audit logs

   Use Oracle Unified Auditing to track Deep Sec operations and identify misconfigurations.

   • Set up audit policies to capture operations such as end user and data role management, data grant changes, and security context activity.
   • Query the UNIFIED_AUDIT_TRAIL dictionary view for Deep Sec operations. Focus on failed access attempts as these typically indicate misconfigured data grants, missing role assignments, or incorrect security context attributes.

   See Audit Oracle Deep Data Security Operations.

6. Use trace files to troubleshoot
   • Generate Deep Sec trace files at either the system or session level. Ensure that you set the tracing level to high. This increases the granularity of diagnostic information recorded for Deep Sec operations during your session. See Enable Diagnostic Tracing.
7. Consult the knowledge base
   • Review official Oracle documentation and My Oracle Support (MOS) for known issues, workarounds, or applicable patches.
8. Escalate to Oracle Support
   • For persistent or critical issues, compile reproducible test cases, trace files, and audit logs before logging a Service Request (SR) with Oracle Support. See Escalate to Oracle Support.

Tip:

Always test configuration changes in a non-production environment before applying them to production systems. Document every change and follow your organization’s change management protocols.