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OPatch Error 73 – LsInventorySession failed: RawInventory gets null OracleHomeInfo

HenriqueBy 3 Mins Read

This post is also available in: Português (Portuguese (Brazil))

Running opatch lsinv produces the following output:

LsInventorySession failed: RawInventory gets null OracleHomeInfo

OPatch failed with error code 73

OPatch lists every other Oracle Home on the system just fine, but chokes when it tries to process the current home — the one set in $ORACLE_HOME. Until this is fixed, no patching operations can run against that home.

💡 Real-world context This error shows up most often after an out-of-place patch cycle — you clone the Oracle Home to a new directory, apply the RU, then switch $ORACLE_HOME to point to it. The software is there and works, but OUI never registered the new path in the Central Inventory. Same thing happens after manual cp/rsync clones or filesystem restores done without also restoring the inventory.

Why This Happens

OPatch reads the Central Inventory (typically /u01/app/oraInventory, as defined in oraInst.loc) to build metadata for each Oracle Home before performing any operation. When a home exists on disk but has no entry in the Central Inventory, OPatch can’t construct the OracleHomeInfo object — it gets null back and bails with error code 73.

Common root causes:

  • Oracle Home cloned via cp, rsync, or storage snapshot without running attachHome.sh
  • Out-of-place upgrade or patching to a new directory without re-registering the home
  • Filesystem restore without a matching inventory restore
  • Accidental corruption or deletion of inventory.xml

Diagnosis

Before applying the fix, confirm the home is actually missing from the inventory.

1. Check the Central Inventory for the failing home:

grep -i "OraDB19Home" /u01/app/oraInventory/ContentsXML/inventory.xml

If $ORACLE_HOME doesn’t appear — or appears with REMOVED="T" — the diagnosis is confirmed.

2. Verify which home is active:

echo $ORACLE_HOME

Cross-reference this path against the inventory.xml entries. The home OPatch finds on disk but can’t locate in the inventory is the one causing the failure.

Fix — Register the Oracle Home in the Central Inventory

Run attachHome.sh from inside the failing Oracle Home:

cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin
./attachHome.sh

Expected output:

Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking swap space: must be greater than 500 MB.   Actual 19889 MB    Passed
The inventory pointer is located at /etc/oraInst.loc
You can find the log of this install session at:
 /u01/app/oraInventory/logs/AttachHome2024-04-11_11-42-20AM.log
'AttachHome' was successful.

Validate the fix:

grep "$ORACLE_HOME" /u01/app/oraInventory/ContentsXML/inventory.xml

$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch lsinv

opatch lsinv should now return the list of installed patches without errors.

Quick Reference

echo $ORACLE_HOME

grep "$ORACLE_HOME" /u01/app/oraInventory/ContentsXML/inventory.xml

cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin && ./attachHome.sh

$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch lsinv

References

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