ora-08177 can not serialize transaction

[newbie5]

The following insert statement causeing an error:
Oct 24 11:33:54: SQLState: 72000; Message: ORA-08177: can't serialize access for this transaction; ErrorCode:8177

insert into chTransmissionBPO(vtoid,bpState,numTransitions,timeEntered,timeCreated,Content,ContentRefFlag,Format Type,Content997,ContentTA1,TPRSender,TPRReciever,tempCountForA14Model,tempCountForA13Model,Transmiss ionId,TransmissionDetails$,TransmissionDetails$validCount,f$$17$2,f$$17$3,f$$17$4,f$$17$5,f$$17$6,Co mmunication$,f$$18$1,f$$18$2,f$$18$3,f$$18$4,Communication$receiptDate,Communication$responseObject, Communication$userid,Communication$password,XMLResult,TransactionType,SendOutgoing997Flag,Transmissi onFormat,TransmissionVersion,AuditLogContent,gsSender,gsReceiver,processingStatus,XMLEditReport) values (? ,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?)

Does anyone know what is the problem and how to fix this?

[slimdave]

Well, super genius, have you tried looking up the meaning of the error message?

[newbie5]

The error message is worthless does not tell me anything... It is happening in the businessware which we have no control.. I believe this a bogus message thrown up by oracle while in reality something else is the cause.. such as memory or space..

Now... do you have anything to say?

[slimdave]

Oh yes, plenty.

In a manner similar to many other software applications, you'll find that Oracle comes complete with many pages of what we professionals call "documentation".

This "documentation" is used by professionals to help them with technical issues. One of the documents is called "Oracle9i Database Error Messages" -- you'll find an HTML version here, and is used to provide further information on error messages such as "ORA-08177: can't serialize access for this transaction", and also to take some of the intuition and guesswork out of the analytical process.

Long story short, your application provider has chosen to use a form of transaction control that ensures that a record cannot be modified if it was modified by another session since your transaction started, and furthermore has chosen not to provide any graceful handling of this situation.

I suggest that you raise the issue with them, because this is a well documented and entirely predictable side-effect of a transaction control strategy that they chose to adopt.