java.sql.SQLRecoverableException: I/O Exception: Connection reset

I was recently struggling with this exact same problem. I opened a ticket with Oracle and this is what they told me.

java.security.SecureRandom is a standard API provided by sun. Among various methods offered by this class void

nextBytes(byte[])

is one. This method is used for generating random bytes. Oracle 11g JDBC drivers use this API to generate random number during

login. Users using Linux have been encountering SQLException("Io exception: Connection

reset").

The problem is two fold

1. The JVM tries to list all the files in the /tmp (or alternate tmp directory set by -Djava.io.tmpdir) when

SecureRandom.nextBytes(byte[]) is invoked. If the number of files is large the

method takes a long time to respond and hence cause the server to timeout

2. The method void nextBytes(byte[]) uses /dev/random on Linux and on some machines which lack the random

number generating hardware the operation slows down to the extent of bringing the whole login process to

a halt. Ultimately the the user encounters SQLException("Io exception: Connection reset")

Users upgrading to 11g can encounter this issue if the underlying OS is Linux which is running on a faulty hardware.

Cause

The cause of this has not yet been determined exactly. It could either be a problem in

your hardware or the fact

that for some reason the software cannot read from dev/random

Solution 

Change the setup for your application, so you add the next parameter to the java command:

-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/../dev/urandom

We made this change in our java.security file and it has gotten rid of the error.