Resolving ORA-39126: Worker unexpected fatal error in KUPW$WORKER.PROCESS_TABLE_EXISTS_ACTION

I was running an export to get an estimate of the size of the dump file for the data in a list of tables. The parameter file contained the below options:

job_name=dean_expdp_data
estimate_only=yes
CONTENT=DATA_ONLY
DIRECTORY=DEAN_DATA_PUMP
PARALLEL=4
exclude=statistics
exclude=DB_LINK
exclude=tablespace
exclude=DIRECTORY
schemas=SCHEMA1,SCHEMA2,SCHEMA3
exclude=table:"IN('BIG_TABLE_01','BIG_TABLE_02')"
LOGFILE=dean_expdp_data.log

Ran the command

expdp \'/ as sysdba \' parfile=dean_expdp_data.par

and got error

[oracle@pdcigusprdb1 datapump]$ expdp \'/ as sysdba \' parfile=dean_expdp_data.par

Export: Release 12.1.0.2.0 - Production on Fri Nov 17 19:01:54 2017

Copyright (c) 1982, 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

Connected to: Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Advanced Analytics and Real Application Testing options
Starting "SYS"."DEAN_EXPDP_DATA":  "/******** AS SYSDBA" parfile=dean_expdp_data.par 
Estimate in progress using BLOCKS method...
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE_DATA
ORA-39126: Worker unexpected fatal error in KUPW$WORKER.PROCESS_TABLE_EXISTS_ACTION [TABLE_DATA:"SCHEMA"."TABLE_NAME"] 
ORA-31600: invalid input value  for parameter TABLE_EXISTS_ACTION in function KUPW$WORKER.PROCESS_TABLE_EXISTS_ACTION

ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SYS_ERROR", line 95
ORA-06512: at "SYS.KUPW$WORKER", line 11259

----- PL/SQL Call Stack -----
  object      line  object
  handle    number  name
0x75a5a7aa0     27116  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0     11286  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0     20583  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0     15739  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0     10613  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0     13357  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0     17209  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0      5235  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0     12091  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x75a5a7aa0      2081  package body SYS.KUPW$WORKER
0x7174e4340         2  anonymous block

KUPC$QUEUE_INT.SEND
KUPC$QUEUE_INT.SEND
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE_DATA
In procedure CREATE_TABLE_DATA_OBJECT_ROWS
In function GATHER_PARSE_ITEMS
In function CHECK_FOR_REMAP_NETWORK
Nothing to remap
In procedure BUILD_OBJECT_STRINGS
In function PROCESS_TABLE_EXISTS_ACTION
In procedure DETERMINE_FATAL_ERROR with ORA-31600: invalid input value  for parameter TABLE_EXISTS_ACTION in function KUPW$WORKER.PROCESS_TABLE_EXISTS_ACTION
Job "SYS"."DEAN_EXPDP_DATA" stopped due to fatal error at Fri Nov 17 19:01:56 2017 elapsed 0 00:00:02

According to Oracle Support “DataPump Export (EXPDP) Fails With Errors ORA-39126 ORA-31600 (Doc ID 1508068.1)

use CONTENT=ALL instead of CONTENT=DATA_ONLY when using ESTIMATE_ONLY=Y parameter

I changed parameter file and ran the export and got the error

Export: Release 12.1.0.2.0 - Production on Fri Nov 17 19:42:50 2017

Copyright (c) 1982, 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

Connected to: Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Advanced Analytics and Real Application Testing options
ORA-31626: job does not exist
ORA-31633: "SYS.DEAN_EXPDP_DATA"
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SYS_ERROR", line 95
ORA-06512: at "SYS.KUPV$FT", line 1048
ORA-00955: name is already used by an existing object

As the previous export had failed, I had to clean up dba_datapump_jobs:

SQL> SELECT owner_name, job_name, operation, job_mode, 
  2     state, attached_sessions 
  3     FROM dba_datapump_jobs 
   where owner_name='SYS' and state='NOT RUNNING'
ORDER BY 1,2; 

  4    5  
OWNER_NAME JOB_NAME         OPERATION  JOB_MODE STATE         ATTACHED_SESSIONS
SYS        DEAN_EXPDP_DATA  EXPORT     SCHEMA   NOT RUNNING                   0

Drop the table:

SQL> drop table DEAN_EXPDP_DATA;

Table dropped.

SQL> 

Reran the export and got the estimate. However, it sort of defeated the purpose as CONTENT=ALL includes the meta data in the size of the export.

Total estimation using BLOCKS method: 596.3 MB
Job "SYS"."DEAN_EXPDP_DATA" successfully completed at Fri Nov 17 19:47:31 2017 elapsed 0 00:00:02

Author: Dean Capps

Database consultant at Amazon Web Services.