RMAN-10002 ORA-00096

RMAN may fail with error RMAN-10002: ORACLE error: ORA-00096: invalid value SIGNATURE for parameter remote_dependencies_mode, must be from among NO_OVERFETCH, OVERFETCH.

The error message is confusing here as remote_dependencies_mode can only take two values: TIMESTAMP or SIGNATURE. The suggested values may be anything else from another parameter.

When running RMAN command, it tries to do an “alter session set remote_dependencies_mode=signature” but fails to do so. This most probably indicates a parameter corruption in memory.

Check current value for remote_dependencies_mode

show parameter remote_dependencies_mode
NAME                                 TYPE        VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- -----------
remote_dependencies_mode              string     TIMESTAMP

Try to change the value manually:

alter system set remote_dependencies_mode=signature;

If this is a parameter corruption issue, you will get the same error:

ORA-00096: invalid value SIGNATURE for parameter remote_dependencies_mode,must be from among NO_OVERFETCH, OVERFETCH.

In this case, the solution is to restart the database. This will fix the corruption and you will be able to run rman again.