Oracle Listener keeps crashing and getting unresponsive

Question

We have a restful web-service that uses hibernate and Glassfish to access an Oracle database. However, after a few simple transactions (a few simple queries and retrieving some data), the Oracle Listener becomes unresponsive with the following error:

ORA-12519, TNS:no appropriate service handler found
org.hibernate.exception.GenericJDBCException: Cannot open connection
at org.hibernate.exception.SQLStateConverter.handledNonSpecificException(SQLStateConverter.java:91)
at org.hibernate.exception.SQLStateConverter.convert(SQLStateConverter.java:79)
at org.hibernate.exception.JDBCExceptionHelper.convert(JDBCExceptionHelper.java:43)
at org.hibernate.exception.JDBCExceptionHelper.convert(JDBCExceptionHelper.java:29)
at org.hibernate.jdbc.ConnectionManager.openConnection(ConnectionManager.java:363)
at org.hibernate.jdbc.ConnectionManager.getConnection(ConnectionManager.java:122)
at org.hibernate.jdbc.JDBCContext.connection(JDBCContext.java:125)
at org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransaction.begin(JDBCTransaction.java:57)
at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.beginTransaction(SessionImpl.java:1308)
at data.CommonUnitOfWork.<init>(CommonUnitOfWork.java:29)
at data.UnitOfWorkFactory.createCommonUnitOfWork(UnitOfWorkFactory.java:14)
at controller.UserController.getUser(UserController.java:97)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.JavaMethodInvokerFactory$1.invoke(JavaMethodInvokerFactory.java:60)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.model.method.dispatch.AbstractResourceMethodDispatchProvider$TypeOutInvoker._dispatch(AbstractResourceMethodDispatchProvider.java:185)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.model.method.dispatch.ResourceJavaMethodDispatcher.dispatch(ResourceJavaMethodDispatcher.java:75)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.HttpMethodRule.accept(HttpMethodRule.java:288)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.RightHandPathRule.accept(RightHandPathRule.java:147)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.ResourceClassRule.accept(ResourceClassRule.java:108)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.RightHandPathRule.accept(RightHandPathRule.java:147)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.RootResourceClassesRule.accept(RootResourceClassesRule.java:84)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl._handleRequest(WebApplicationImpl.java:1469)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl._handleRequest(WebApplicationImpl.java:1400)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.handleRequest(WebApplicationImpl.java:1349)
at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.handleRequest(WebApplicationImpl.java:1339)
at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.WebComponent.service(WebComponent.java:416)
at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:537)
at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:708)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:770)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.service(StandardWrapper.java:1550)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:281)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:175)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:655)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:595)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:161)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.doService(CoyoteAdapter.java:331)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:231)
at com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl.ContainerMapper$AdapterCallable.call(ContainerMapper.java:317)
at com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl.ContainerMapper.service(ContainerMapper.java:195)
at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.invokeAdapter(ProcessorTask.java:860)
at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.doProcess(ProcessorTask.java:757)
at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.process(ProcessorTask.java:1056)
at com.sun.grizzly.http.DefaultProtocolFilter.execute(DefaultProtocolFilter.java:229)
at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.executeProtocolFilter(DefaultProtocolChain.java:137)
at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.execute(DefaultProtocolChain.java:104)
at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.execute(DefaultProtocolChain.java:90)
at com.sun.grizzly.http.HttpProtocolChain.execute(HttpProtocolChain.java:79)
at com.sun.grizzly.ProtocolChainContextTask.doCall(ProtocolChainContextTask.java:54)
at com.sun.grizzly.SelectionKeyContextTask.call(SelectionKeyContextTask.java:59)
at com.sun.grizzly.ContextTask.run(ContextTask.java:71)
at com.sun.grizzly.util.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.doWork(AbstractThreadPool.java:532)
at com.sun.grizzly.util.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.run(AbstractThreadPool.java:513)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)


Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: Listener refused the connection with the following error:
ORA-12519, TNS:no appropriate service handler found
at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.throwSqlException(DatabaseError.java:113)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.throwSqlException(DatabaseError.java:263)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CConnection.logon(T4CConnection.java:389)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.PhysicalConnection.<init>(PhysicalConnection.java:454)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CConnection.<init>(T4CConnection.java:165)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CDriverExtension.getConnection(T4CDriverExtension.java:35)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.connect(OracleDriver.java:802)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:579)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:190)
at org.hibernate.connection.DriverManagerConnectionProvider.getConnection(DriverManagerConnectionProvider.java:110)
at org.hibernate.jdbc.ConnectionManager.openConnection(ConnectionManager.java:360)
... 51 more

And the only solution to get the service running again is by restarting the Listener.

Thank you for your help in advance.

EDIT: The Oracle version is 11g, the restful web-service is in java. The listener becomes unresponsive after a few minutes of work which consists of running a small number of queries (like 4 or 5) to retrieve less than 5 rows of a table in the database (which consists of about 10 columns); the work is not that heavy at all. The database consists of about 20 tables. In some of the queries, joins are being made using hibernate's criteria between 2 or 3 tables, which are not that complicated and shouldn't be considered as "heavy loads".

EDIT 2: The model uses some kind of a UnitOfWorkFactory to implement the repository pattern. For each request (e.g. creating a new object, editing an existing object or searching) the model creates a unitOfWork, in which a hibernate session will be created, do the job and then close the session.

Answer 1

Be sure to use a connection pool. This prevents a lot of unneeded and very expensive re-connects to the database. For an example check here and page down to "First create a JDBC Connection Pool" Creating connections to the database is a very time consuming task that greatly reduces your overall systems performance. This is because it is a serialization process.

By using the connection pool, you make sure that there are always sessions available for your application to use, even when the listener itself is down for a short period.