Enterprise Manager DataGuard Add Standby Database fails without showing errors at Destination Preparation phase needle haystack

Enterprise Manager DataGuard Add Standby Database fails without showing errors at Destination Preparation phase

Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 13c provides the Add Standby Database wizard to create a broker configuration that includes a primary database and one or more standby database.

This requires the Oracle Database Lifecycle Management Pack for Enterprise Manager Cloud Control.

When adding a Standby Database, after proving all the details in the wizard,  a job is executed to prepare the environment and to create the new standby database.

The job fails at phase Destination Preparation, after starting and disconnecting from the new standby instance.

There are no errors shown on screen, or in the logfiles of the agent, or in any database alert.log. Looking for a cause becomes quite a challenge.

Enterprise Manager DataGuard Add Standby Database fails without showing errors at Destination Preparation phase screenshot standbyjob 1

The cause of this problem is a setting in the $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin/glogin.sql. (See the <user>@<system> prompt in the job output log in the screenshot, the prompt is set using the glogin.sql)

Once the glogin.sql temporary has been renamed, the job can be restarted in Enterprise Manager and it finishes successful.