I'm using node-oracle module with the following code (from the node-oracle documentation):

var oracle = require("oracle");

oracle.connect({ "hostname": "192.168.1.120/orcl", "user": "USER", "password": "PASS" }, function(err, connection) {
  if(err){ console.log("Connect err:" + err); }
  if(connection){ console.log("Connection:" + connection); }

  // selecting rows
connection.execute("SELECT nickname FROM users WHERE nickname = :1", ['luc'], function(err, results) {
  console.log("execution");
  console.log("RESULTS:" + results);
  console.log("Err:" + err);
});

connection.setAutoCommit(true);

connection.commit(function(err) {
  console.log("commiting");
  // transaction committed
});

connection.rollback(function(err) {
  console.log("rollback");
  // transaction rolledback
});

connection.close(); // call this when you are done with the connection
});

This gives me different error messages :

$ node test_node_oracle.js 
Connection:[object Connection]
rollback
commiting
execution
RESULTS:undefined
Err:Error: ORA-24324: service handle not initialized

Sometimes it also gives:

$ node test_node_oracle.js 
Connection:[object Connection]
Segmentation fault

or also:

$ node test_node_oracle.js 
Connection:[object Connection]
commiting
rollback
execution
RESULTS:undefined
Err:Error: ORA-32102: invalid OCI handle

sqlplus access works fine though:

$ sqlplus USER/[email protected]/orcl

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.3.0 Production on Mon Mar 12 15:18:18 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL>

connection.close(); // call this when you are done with the connection

I believe this get's called too soon, because all statements are non-blocking in node.js(event-loop). You should probably wrap it in proper callback(s) inside commit and rollback. You should also wrap all your code inside of connection callback

oracle.connect({ "hostname": "192.168.1.120/orcl", "user": "USER", "password": "PASS" }, function(err, connection) {
// wrap all your code inside of this.
}