[nQSError: 17003] Oracle gateway error: OCIEnvNlsCreate or OCIEnvInit failed to initialize environment.

 

Happened to get this error out of the blue on a working OBIEE box.  Reason: somebody somehow messed up with the database client HOME path.

The exact error message:

[nQSError: 17003] Oracle gateway error: OCIEnvNlsCreate or OCIEnvInit failed to  initialize environment. Please check your Oracle Client installation and make sure the correct version of OCI libraries are in the library path.

1. If you are getting this error when you are testing a test/production OBIEE box, check the oracle database home path is correctly set.
2. If you are connecting through database client, check if the OCI client libraries path is  set.
3. If you are using the BIAdmin Tool and trying to import  metadata using a connection pool, check the OCI library path is correctly set. If it is, then check if the BIAdmin tool was correctly initialized during startup. this script is called bi-init.cmd located in $INSTANCE_HOME\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\coreapplication\setup

In my case it was because of the BIAdmin tool, initialization. you can manually run the initialization script in a Command Window and then start the BIAdmin tool from that Command windows –> like this:

C:\OBIEE11g_Home\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin>C:\OBIEE11g_Home\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\cor
eapplication\setup\bi-init.cmd

C:\OBIEE11g_Home\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin>admintool.exe

After this,  the problem disappears and you can import the meta data using the connection pool in the RPD using the BI Admin Tool.

If you don’t want to initialize BI Admin tool manually every time, On Windows systems jut make sure that the shortcut to BIAdmin tool is configured like this in the “Target” part.

C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe "/cC:\OBIEE11G_HOME\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\coreapplication\setup\bi-init.cmd coreapplication_obis1 2 && C:\OBIEE11G_HOME\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin\AdminTool.exe"