Description of problem:
Can not activate when installed against Oracle DB backend


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
spacewalk-backend-2.5.3-123.el6sat.noarch
This was not happening 2 days ago


How reproducible:
always on 2 machines


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install disconnected 5.8.0 with external Oracle
2. # rhn-satellite-activate --manifest /root/manifest.zip


Actual results:
# rhn-satellite-activate -v --manifest /root/manifest.zip
20:31:12 HTTP_PROXY: None
20:31:12 HTTP_PROXY_USERNAME: None
20:31:12 HTTP_PROXY_PASSWORD: <password>
 
ERROR: unhandled exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/rhn-satellite-activate", line 38, in <module>
    sys.exit(abs(mod.main() or 0))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/spacewalk/satellite_tools/rhn_satellite_activate.py", line 475, in main
    cdn_activate = cdn_activation.Activation(options.manifest)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/spacewalk/cdn_tools/activation.py", line 36, in __init__
    rhnSQL.initDB()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/spacewalk/server/rhnSQL/__init__.py", line 145, in initDB
    __init__DB(backend, host, port, username, password, database, sslmode, sslrootcert)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/spacewalk/server/rhnSQL/__init__.py", line 57, in __init__DB
    __DB.connect()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/spacewalk/server/rhnSQL/driver_cx_Oracle.py", line 407, in connect
    self.dbh = self._connect()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/spacewalk/server/rhnSQL/driver_cx_Oracle.py", line 434, in _connect
    dbh = cx_Oracle.Connection(self.username, self.password, self.database)
cx_Oracle.InterfaceError: Unable to acquire Oracle environment handle


Expected results:
Should work.


Additional info:
mmraka was looking into this and we have not found what might have caused this. Also looks like once you run activation few times with pdb imported or with strace, it starts to work. This all might be just some issue with mine setup. I'll try to dig more.