Oracle Monitoring Sporadically Failing

Question

Last week I setup some very simple database availability testing for oracle.  I installed the client and configured the monitoring without issue.  My NOC has reported that these monitors sporadically change to unknown.  I was able to catch them while unknown and I show a very interesting message.

The Oracle Client software must be properly installed to use the Oracle QA Monitor.
Component uses following Oracle Client Driver: ODP_NET. This particular Oracle Client software can be downloaded from the Oracle ODP.Net webpage.
Underlying exception message is: 'Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. (Inner exception message is: The type initializer for 'Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleClientFactory' threw an exception.).'.

It's as if the client isn't installed.  Like I said the monitor does work but we appear to get this error at random.  This morning all my Oracle monitors failed around 7:30 and returned to normal around 8:50 (while posting this message).  I can find nothing in any of the logs pointing me to the problem and nothing has changed on this server.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I'm on the following versions.

Orion Core 2011.2.2, SAM 5.0.1, IPAM 3.0, IPSLAMGR 3.5.1, NCM 7.0.2, NPM 10.2.2, SEUM 1.5.1, UDT 1.0.1

aLTeReGo · Answer

You can download Oracle's official client connectors from the URL below.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/index.html

Also our Configuring and Integrating Oracle document provides instructions on where to download the Oracle client and how to install it starting on page 5.

http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/apm/docs/Configuring_and_Integrating_Oracle.pdf

mdriskell · Answer

Thanks I will look for another client as I am using the one from the Additional Components section.

aLTeReGo · Answer

The error here is that the Oracle client itself has thrown an exception for some unknown reason. A quick Google search indicates that this isn't that uncommon of an issue. I'm not an Oracle Expert, but I play one here on Thwack. 
 My suggestion is to use the Oracle client available under the Additional Components section of your SolarWinds customer portal. Failing that, you may want to thumb through the Google search results linked above, or have a conversation with your Oracle DBA. They may be able to point you towards a more stable Oracle client to use.