Opatch: LsInventorySession failed: OracleHomeInventory gets null oracleHomeInfo : OPatch failed with error code 73

Opatch: LsInventorySession failed: OracleHomeInventory gets null oracleHomeInfo : OPatch failed with error code 73
Problem
While running opatch lsinventory, command fails with the below error:

Inventory load failed... OPatch cannot load inventory for the given Oracle Home.
Possible causes are:
   Oracle Home dir. path does not exist in Central Inventory
   Oracle Home is a symbolic link
   Oracle Home inventory is corrupted
LsInventorySession failed: OracleHomeInventory gets null oracleHomeInfo

OPatch failed with error code 73


Solution
Attach the Oracle Home to the Central Inventory:

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin
$ ./attachHome.sh

Now check, command should work fine.

$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch lsinventory

How to move the central Inventory (oraInventory) to another location.

Solution On Unix:

Find the current location of the central inventory (normally $ORACLE_BASE/oraInventory):

For example:

find /home/oracle -name oraInventory -print

 /u01/app/oracle/oraInventory

Open the oraInst.loc file in /var/opt/oracle and check the value of inventory_loc

cat /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc

inventory_loc=/u01/app/oracle/oraInventory inst_group=oinstall

Remark: The oraInst.loc file is simply a pointer to the location of the central inventory (oraInventory)

Copy the oraInventory directory to the destination directory

cp -Rp /home/oracle/oraInventory /app/oracle

Edit the oraInst.loc file to point to the new location

For example:

vi /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc

inventory_loc=/app/oracle/oraInventory inst_group=dba