Encountered file error when copying listeners from home

When try to create new databse using dbca, you can get below error
'Encountered file error when copying listeners from home=/u01/app/oracle/prodouct/

Problem1 :

The problem does not occur

If the $TNS_ADMIN is set.
If the ORACLE_HOME and the ASM_HOME are owned by the same user.

Issue:
In this case the ORACLE_HOME & ASM_HOME were owned by different users.
From the dbca log file residing in the $ORACLE_HOME/cfgtoollogs/dbca directory

file `/home/oracle/oracle/product/11.0/asm/network/admin/listener.ora': Permission denied 

Solution:

Ensure that you have write permission to the network/admin directory under the asm home.
chmod 775 /home/oracle/oracle/product/11.0/asm/network/admin/
Rerun dbca.


Problem 2:

Issue:

Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) fails to create database at 0% of the "Copying database files" stage.

Pop-up shows:

Encountered file error when copying listeners from home=/home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/asm_1
                                               [OK]
After clicking on the OK button, DBCA goes back to the last page before it attempted to create the database (Database Configuration Assistant, Step 16 of 16 : Creation Options).

11g by default creates DBCA trace. The DBCA trace file ought to be under the directory $ORACLE_BASE/cfgtoollogs/dbca/<database_name>.

[Thread-240] [17:51:28:709] [NativeSystem.rununixcmd:929] NativeSystem.rununixcmd: RetString 0|scp: /home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/db_1/network/admin/listener.ora: No such file or directory :failed
[Thread-240] [17:51:28:709] [CopyCommand.execute:79] CopyCommand.execute: native copyFile returns `0|scp: /home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/db_1/network/admin/listener.ora: No such file or directory :failed'
[Thread-240] [17:51:28:710] [NativeResult.<init>:88] NativeResult: The String obtained is0|scp: /home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/db_1/network/admin/listener.ora: No such file or directory :failed
[Thread-240] [17:51:28:710] [NativeResult.<init>:96] The status string is: 0

Solution:

The problem was caused by a missing soft link used to link listener.ora in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory used by the DBCA session to the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora used by the node's Oracle listener.

Example, On node1
(where DBCA was launched):

[oracle@test1] /home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/db_1/network/admin> ls -ltr 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 64 Jan 12 17:37 listener.ora -> /home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/asm_1/network/admin/listener.ora 

Example, On node2 (same $ORACLE_HOME used by DBCA on node1 but that is on node2) :

[oracle@test2] /home/oracle/oracle/product/db_1/network/admin> ls -ltr 
<no listing for a soft link>

Do not use soft links to link Oracle NET configuration files (listener.ora, etc). Instead, configure TNS_ADMIN to point the DBCA session to the proper directory where these configuration files reside:

Example:

1) If your home where you will launch DBCA is '/home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/db_1', then
2) If the server's listener run from home '/home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/asm_1', then
3) From the session that will launch DBCA, set its TNS_ADMIN variable to point to the home where the listener runs of:
   $ export TNS_ADMIN=/home/oracle/oracle/product/11.1/asm_1/network/admin
4) Start up DBCA and database creation should now successfuly complete.