I have an existing ArcSDE 10.1 database on Oracle 11g, being administered via ArcGIS 10.0 and 10.1. This database is production and is working fine.
I then set up a test database to mirror the production database for testing purposes. Used the following procedures:
1.) My DBA created empty tablespace
2.) My DBA created SDE and ARCDATA users, and assigned permissions
3.) My DBA assigned permissions to the tablespace
4.) I used 10.1 GP tool "Enable Enterprise Geodatabase" to set up system tables and install stored procedures. Succeeded.
5.) I copied feature datasets and feature classes from production database to this new test database. Succeeded.
6.) I registered the appropriate feature dataset as versioned (without move edits to base because I'm using replication). Succeeded.
7.) I created new SQL Server Express geodatabase on SQL server in order to replicate. Success.
8.) I created a child replica. Success.
9.) I tested to see if I could still connect to the database, which I could.
10.) I made a test edit to a feature class on the replica using ArcGIS.
11.) I saved the edit.
12.) I synchronized changes successfully.
13.) I ran sdeversion -o describe to check to make sure the state_ID changed from 0 to some other number, which it did.
14.) I disconnected from the database in ArcCatalog to check and see if I could reconnect (THIS IS THE PROBLEM!)
15.) At this point, whenever I attempt to reconnect to ArcSDE using ArcCatalog and it crashes giving the generic ESRI crashed message. SDE logs indicate an exit status of 8, which is a lost client.
I have tried these exact steps three separate times, with three brand new instances and each time, at the moment I have a replica that has changes, I can no longer connect to ArcSDE and ArcGIS/Catalog crashes. The following are details of each of the three attempts.
The first time: My DBA exported my production database and imported it to test, using ESRI's recommended steps. That export/import contained replicas in the database, with edits. Thus, connections using Desktop crashed the software.
The second time: I started with a fresh tablespace, and followed steps 1-15 above, because I though exporting/importing with replicas and edits might be causing corruption and wanted a fresh install. However, same result - once I got everything set up and created a new replica and made an edit using the above steps, ArcGIS crashed when trying to connect.
Third time: Suspecting it had to do with replicas and edits, I again followed steps 1-15 above, focusing in on editing the replica to confirm this was where the problem lies.
ArcGIS Desktop/Catalog 10 as well as 10.1 both crash upon trying to connect.
For the longest time permissions issues were preventing me from copying the data, which to date, have ONLY BEEN RESOLVED by giving the ARCDATA user FULL dba privileges which SHOULD NOT BE, even after following the ESRI recommendations for user privileges. Now that the user has full dba privileges I can actually administer the database but I now have this crashing problem.
