diff --git a/heartbeat/ora-common.sh b/heartbeat/ora-common.sh
index b238d12ff..6100a6636 100644
--- a/heartbeat/ora-common.sh
+++ b/heartbeat/ora-common.sh
@@ -1,88 +1,90 @@
 # ora-common.sh
 #
 # Description: Common code for oracle and oralsnr resource agents
 #
 #
 # Author:      Dejan Muhamedagic
 # Support:     users@clusterlabs.org
 # License:     GNU General Public License (GPL)
 # Copyright:   (C) 2012 Dejan Muhamedagic, SUSE/Attachmate
 #
 
 #      Gather up information about our oracle instance
 
 rmtmpfiles() {
 	rm -f $TMPFILES
 }
 
 ora_common_getconfig() {
 	ORACLE_SID=$1
 	# optional, defaults to whatever is in oratab
 	ORACLE_HOME=$2
 	# optional, defaults to the owner of ORACLE_HOME
 	ORACLE_OWNER=$3
 	# optional, defaults to $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
 	# (only the oralsnr may provide and use this one)
 	TNS_ADMIN=$4
 
 	# get ORACLE_HOME from /etc/oratab if not set
-	[ x = "x$ORACLE_HOME" ] &&
+	if [ x = "x$ORACLE_HOME" ];then
 		ORACLE_HOME=`awk -F: "/^$ORACLE_SID:/"'{print $2}' /etc/oratab`
+		if [ -f /etc/oratab ]; then
+			if  [ x = "x$ORACLE_HOME" ];then
+				handle_invalid_env $OCF_ERR_CONFIGURED "ORACLE_HOME could not be obtained from /etc/oratab. Please check the sid parameter."
+			fi
+		fi
+	fi
 
 	# there a better way to find out ORACLE_OWNER?
 	[ x = "x$ORACLE_OWNER" ] &&
 		ORACLE_OWNER=`ls -ld $ORACLE_HOME/. 2>/dev/null | awk 'NR==1{print $3}'`
 
 	# There are use-cases were users want to be able to set a custom TMS_ADMIN path.
 	# When TNS_ADMIN is not provided, use the default path.
 	[ x = "x$TNS_ADMIN" ] &&
 		TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
 
 	LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
 	LIBPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
 	PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/dbs:$PATH
 	export ORACLE_SID ORACLE_HOME ORACLE_OWNER TNS_ADMIN
 	export LD_LIBRARY_PATH LIBPATH
 
 	ORA_ENVF=`mktemp`
 	dumporaenv > $ORA_ENVF
 	chmod 644 $ORA_ENVF
 	TMPFILES="$ORA_ENVF"
 	trap "rmtmpfiles" EXIT
 }
 
 ora_common_validate_all() {
 	#	Let's make sure a few important things are set...
-	if [ x = "x$ORACLE_HOME" ]; then
-		ocf_log info "ORACLE_HOME not set"
-		return $OCF_ERR_INSTALLED
-	fi
 	if [ x = "x$ORACLE_OWNER" ]; then
 		ocf_log info "ORACLE_OWNER not set"
 		return $OCF_ERR_INSTALLED
 	fi
 
 	US=`id -u -n`
 	if [ $US != root -a $US != $ORACLE_OWNER ]
 	then
 	  ocf_exit_reason "$0 must be run as root or $ORACLE_OWNER"
 	  return $OCF_ERR_PERM
 	fi
 	return 0
 }
 
 dumporaenv() {
 cat<<EOF
 PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/dbs:$PATH
 ORACLE_SID=$ORACLE_SID
 ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_HOME
 ORACLE_OWNER=$ORACLE_OWNER
 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
 LIBPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
 TNS_ADMIN=$TNS_ADMIN
 export ORACLE_SID ORACLE_HOME ORACLE_OWNER TNS_ADMIN
 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH LIBPATH
 EOF
 }
 
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