How to troubleshoot C runtime error in OBIEE when connecting from Tableau, Power BI, or Qlik using BI Connector

Issue Description:

When you connecting to OBIEE from Tableau/Power BI/Qlik using BI Connector, reports/queries/data source that extract or query around a million records are intermittently failing with C-runtime error occurred (std::bad_alloc).

You intermittently receive the follower error in Tableau/Power BI/Qlik and also in BI Connector log file.

Error
A C-runtime error occurred (std::bad_alloc)

• This error is due to OBIEE running out of resources to execute your query.  It is not a BI Connector issue.  
• The error may sometimes go away when when you reduce the number of rows or columns that you are fetching
• The error may go away when you restart the OBIEE Presentation Server.
• The error at times seems random or intermittent.
• The error may or could occur under a heavy concurrent user load.

This document suggests some methods to correct or prevent this issue.  We also recommend that you consult your linux system administrator + documentation + file a service request with Oracle.

Please refer the folol article on minimizing c-runtime error using filters in Tableau Visualization tool: How to apply filter using BI Connector

Also refer the following article on how to apply row data filter using BI Connector: How to increase/decrease the number of rows fetched from OBIEE into Tableau or Power BI or Qlik Sense using BI Connector? 

Solution 1:

Increase the OBIEE Presentation Server cache entries in the instanceconfig.xml. 

Increase the memory cache so new threads are not required so often for BI Server requests

<ServerInstance>
......

<!-- Increasing the memory cache so new threads are not required so often for BI Server requests -->

<!-- Increase the maximum age of the cache so that it does not need to refresh as often consuming a thread. -->

<!-- MaxAgeMinutes default="0" -->

<!-- Remove from the cache every thing older than N minutes -->

<Cache>

<CatalogXml>

<!-- Remove from the cache everything older than N minutes -->

<MaxAgeMinutes>240</MaxAgeMinutes>

<MaxLastAccessedSeconds>14400</MaxLastAccessedSeconds>

</CatalogXml>

<Query>

<MaxEntries>20000</MaxEntries>

<AbsoluteMaxEntries>80000</AbsoluteMaxEntries>

<CruiseEntries>10000</CruiseEntries>

<ForceLRU>true</ForceLRU>

</Query>

</Cache>

.....

</ServerInstance>

Decrease the client expiration time in the instanceconfig.xml.

<Cache>

<MaxAgeMinutes>60</MaxAgeMinutes>

</Cache>

Solution 2:

Increase virtual memory map

As 'root' user:

Temporary change: /sbin/sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144

Permanent change: add to /etc/sysctl.conf

Finally, as suggested earlier, please consult your linux system administrator + documentation + file a service request with Oracle.

Source & thanks to: http://obieetroubleshooting.blogspot.com/2018/04/c-runtime-error-in-obiee-12c.html