Real Time Operational Business Intelligence with GoldenGate

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Oracle Corporation’ (ORCL) acquisition of Golden Gate Software on July of 2009 was a big step for Oracle in its quest to build a open and heterogeneous product line that will be more appealing to enterprise customers with complex OLTP and data warehouse environments. You can find a detailed presentation of the considerations that were taken into consideration regarding this acquisition here. In the data warehousing space this is a welcome addition to the earlier acquisition of Sunopsis (now Oracle Data Integrator) a Extract-Load-Transform alternative to traditional ETL tools such as Informatica and IBM Information Server (DataStage) that plays nice in heterogeneous database environments and is significantly easier to use, and more stable than the displaced Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB). Key areas where Golden Gate can be of use in a heterogeneous database environment:

  • Simplifying disaster recovery by maintaining near-real time copies of transactional databases
  • Change Data Capture and extraction and staging for data warehouse environments
  • Real-Time operational business intelligence by means of a message queue and a Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) or Business Process Management (BPM) solution

Under the last scenario events can be fed into real time alerts or dashboard Key Performance Indicator’s in real time in addition to triggering additional events when the event is orchestrated via an enterprise bus. Here’s a link to a step by step installation and configuration demo at Oracle Technology Network (OTN). Stay tunned for additional product reviews and OBIEE tips and tricks that are coming soon and check my review of Oracle Data Integrator here..

Informatica being replaced by ODI in Oracle BI Apps 7.9.5.2

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In a long anticipated move among both Fusion Intelligence and Oracle BI Apps customers, Oracle has released the first versions of its packaged business intelligence solution that replaces the third party tools of previous versions (IBM DataStage or Informatica Power Center) with Oracle Data Integrator as the back end ETL tool. You can find detailed install and configuration instructions in the Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 7.9.5.2 Documentation Library. It is important to note that this is a controlled availability release that mainly means the only data source supported is Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10, marts available in this release are:

  • Financial Analytics
  • HR Analytics
  • SCM and Order Managment Analytics
  • Procurement and Spend Analytics

Limitations notwithstanding, this is a key move that signals a long term strategy for BI Apps that will require customers and partners to develop additional skills and an important upgrade consideration for EBS customers. I personally hope that we will see Oracle implement Golden Gate at some point down the road in order to provide real time operational intelligence for a limited set of KPIs that lend themselves to be used in BAM applications.

Upgrading the Oracle Web Tier to version 11.1.1.5.0 by applying Patchset 1

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This post will very briefly describe the steps required to upgrade Oracle Web Tier 11.1.1.2.0 to version 11.1.1.5.0. This is the recommended procedure to deploy Oracle Web Tier 11.1.1.5.0 per the Fusion Middleware Documentation. If you find this post useful please  or Share our site!

 

Downloading Oracle Web Tier 11g Patch Set 1

 

  • Check out the guide on installing Oracle Web Tier 11.1.1.2.0
  • Log in to http://support.oracle.com
  • Navigate to Patches and Updates and search for you operating system’s version of patch 12395115
  • Download and unpack the patch file on your hard disk

 

Upgrade Process

 

  • Click next on the welcome screen

    Click next onthe Welcome Screen

  • Point the installer to the location of your middleware home and enter the name of the Web Tier home to be patched

    Point the installer to the location of your middleware home and enter the name of the Web Tier home to be patched

  • Review the information on the configuration summary screen for correctness and click install when ready to begin the patching process

    Review the information on the configuration summary screen for correctness and click install when ready to begin the patching process

  • Review the progress summary and click next when complete

    Review the progress summary and click next when complete

  • Review the install summary screen and click finish to complete the software upgrade process

    Review the install summary screen and click finish to complete the software upgrade process

  • You will need to redeploy the OHS and WebCache components on each of your cluster nodes using opmnctl before any further configuration

 

 

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How To: Download, install, configure and verify you have the latest version of Opatch

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On this post we will discuss all the steps necessary to ensure you have the correct version of the OPatch patching utility for oracle software running on your system. If you find this post useful please  or Share our site!

 

Environment Variables:

Set your ORACLE_INSTANCE path to a valid OBIEE 11g instance

Set your ORACLE_HOME path to the OBIEE 11g home (Oracle_BI1)

 

Validating Your Environment:

OPatch is installed by default, locate it go to the ORACLE_HOME path for your OBIEE installation:

\Oracle_BI1\OPatch

To verify your current session is correctly configured verify the installed version by running the following command:

opatch version

 

Minimum Required Versions:

OBIEE 11.1.1.5.0 -> OPatch version 11.1.0.8.3 or higher (do NOT use OPatch 12.x)

OBIEE 11.1.1.6.0 -> No OPatch packages available as of March 12, 2012

 

Downloading a Newer Version of OPatch:

To find and download the appropriate version of OPatch for yor system please go to ORacle Support and find the knoledge base article below:

Note 224346.1 – Opatch – Where Can I Find the Latest Version of Opatch?

 

Installing OPatch:

To install OPatch once you have downloaded the appropriate version follow the steps below:

  1. Rename your current OPatch directory (ORACLE_HOME\OPatch)
  2. Copy the zip file to your ORACLE_HOME
  3. Unzip the zip file
  4. Verify that the upgrade succeeded

    cd OPatch
    opatch version

File System Access:

OPatch will update the local Oracle Inventory so the user account running OPatch must have acces to the location of the OUI Inventory, to verify this you can run the following command:

opatch -lsinventory

 

Patch Directory Location (PATCH_TOP):

If you have a centralized location where you store code / releases it is a good idea to create a directory called PATCH_TOP to store patches as they are applied to each environment (DEV, QA, STAGE, PRD).

 

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How to stop / start individual OBIEE 11g System Components from the OPMN

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Sometimes I have a configuration change to make or need to restart a specific system component in one of my servers, here is a list of stop / start commands for each of the system components:

 

BI Service:

opmnctl stopproc ias-component=coreapplication_obis1

opmnctl startproc ias-component=coreapplication_obis1

 

Javahost:

opmnctl stopproc ias-component=coreapplication_obijh1

opmnctl startproc ias-component=coreapplication_obijh1

 

Presentation Service:

opmnctl stopproc ias-component=coreapplication_obips1

opmnctl startproc ias-component=coreapplication_obips1

 

Scheduler Service:

opmnctl stopproc ias-component=coreapplication_obisch1

opmnctl startproc ias-component=coreapplication_obisch1

 

Cluster Service:

opmnctl startproc ias-component=coreapplication_obiccs1

opmnctl stopproc ias-component=coreapplication_obiccs1

 

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Issue with invalid or corrupted repository joins

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Symptom:

The following error message is displayed:

[NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: HY000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. [nQSError: 46043] Internal error: No matching table for expr D_OPER_UNIT_XL.OPER_UNIT_SID, File .\Src\SQOSPSimplifyJoin.cpp, line 118.

Cause:

This symptom is associated with corrupted physical layer join relationships. The best way to test for a root cause is to isolate the dimention and fact combination that result on this error message.

Resolution:

Once the fact and dimension table relationship that is corrupted is isolated proceed to delete this physical join and the associated logical join. Once both physical and logical joins have been deleted proceed to recreate them and perform regression testing for your solution.

 

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How to: Install the Oracle Web Tier / Oracle HTTP Server

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This post will guide you through the steps to deploy Oracle Web Tier 11.1.1.2.0. This instance will later be upgraded to 11.1.1.5.0 by applying PatchSet 1 (12395155) and configured to serve as a front end for WebLogic as part of an Oracle Business Intelligence environment. If you find this post useful please or Share it!

 

Pre-Install Tasks

 

 

Implementation

 

  • Run the setup.exe file to start your installation
  • Click next on the welcome screen

    Click next on the welcome screen

  • Select the Install and Configure option and click next

    Select the Install and Configure option and click next

  • Verify that all pre-requisite tests are successfull and click next

    Verify that all pre-requisite tests are successfull and click next

  • Specify the location of your oracle middleware home and the name of your new web tier oracle home directory

    Specify the location of your oracle middleware home and the name of your new web tier oracle home directory

    Note: The WebLogic server must already be installed in the same middleware home you specify.

  • Select to configure instances of Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle Web Cache, also select to associate these components with your weblogic domain

    Select to configure instances of Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle Web Cache, also select to associate these components with your weblogic domain

  • Enter the host name and port of your weblogic domain and then enter the domain’s admnistrator credentials

    Enter the host name and port of your weblogic domain and then enter the domain's admnistrator credentials

  • Confirm the instance name, location and component names and click next

    Confirm the instance name, location

  • Enter a password for the administrator of your new web cache instance

    Enter a password for the administrator of your new web cache instance

  • Allow the installer to perform automatic port configuration using the default port numbers for services

    Allow the installer to perform automatic port configuration using the default port numbers for services

  • Provide your Oracle Support credentials, this will register this instance so that it will be available for support and, if specified, allow you to receive security updates via e-Mail

    Provide your Oracle Support credentials, this will register this instance so that it will be available for support and, if specified, allow you to receive security updates via e-Mail

  • Review theconfiguration presented in the summary screen is correct and click Install to begin the process.

    Review the configuration presented in the summary screen is correct and click Install to begin the process.

  • Review the information on the completed install progress screen, make a note of the install log location and click next.

    Review the information on the final summary screen, make a note of the install log location and click next.

  • Review the information presented in the final summary screen, make a note of component urls and click finish to finalize the initial install and configuration process

    Review the information presented in the final summary screen, make a note of component urls and click finish to finalize the initial install and configuration process

Configuring OBIEE to run as a Windows Service

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Introduction

One key step to configuring an enterprise deployment of Oracle Business Intelligence is to be setup your services to run in the background as Windows services and start automatically with your server.  By default the installer will create windows services for Oracle Process Manager (OPMN) and the Weblogic Node Manager, this leaves us with the need to configure services for the Weblogic AdminServer and the BI Managed Server.

 

Pre-requisites

 

  • Verify boot.properties files exist for both Weblogic Servers

    AdminServer:
    %mw_home%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\security\boot.properties

    BI Managed Server:
    %mw_home%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\bi_server1\security\boot.properties

  • Define the MW_HOME Variable
  • Edit %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd to redirect standard output to a file and to set the service name prefix to “Oracle_”

    Log Syntax:
    -log:”%MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\%SERVER_NAME%-stdout.txt”

    Example Customization:

    set MW_HOME=%WL_HOME%\..\

    rem *** Install the service”
    %WL_HOME%\server\bin\beasvc” -install -svcname:”Oracle_%DOMAIN_NAME%_%SERVER_NAME%” -javahome:”%JAVA_HOME%” -execdir:”%USERDOMAIN_HOME%” -maxconnectretries:”%MAX_CONNECT_RETRIES%” -host:”%HOST%” -port:”%PORT%” -extrapath:”%EXTRAPATH%” -password:”%WLS_PW%” -cmdline:%CMDLINE% -log:”%MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\%SERVER_NAME%-stdout.txt”

    Note: Make sure you replace beasvc and the subsequent space with Oracle_ on the section for -svcname

  • Change the environment script

    %MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin\setOBIDomainEnv.cmd

  • Edit %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd to ensure the correct Java memory arguments are utilized by your windows service

    Old Code:
    call “%WL_HOME%\common\bin\commEnv.cmd”
    New Code:
    call “%WL_HOME%\..\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin\setOBIDomainEnv.cmd”

  • Edit %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd to implement a workaround for the Windows limitation of the maximum length of the command line being 2KB
    • Locate the two instances where the script sets the value of the CMDLINE variable
    • Add the code below before each instance, this code will output the current value of CLASSPATH to a text file

      REM -
      REM output the class path to text file and change reference to file on CMDLINE variable
      REM this is a workaround to a limit on windows command line to 2KB
      echo %CLASSPATH% > %WL_HOME%\server\bin\classpath.txt

    • Replace the class path variable reference \”%CLASSPATH%\” with @%WL_HOME%\server\bin\classpath.txt as depicted in the example below

      set CMDLINE=”%JAVA_VM% %MEM_ARGS% %JAVA_OPTIONS% -classpath @%WL_HOME%\server\bin\classpath.txt -Dweblogic.Name=%SERVER_NAME% -Dweblogic.management.username=%WLS_USER% -Dweblogic.ProductionModeEnabled=%PRODUCTION_MODE% -Djava.security.policy=\”%WL_HOME%\server\lib\weblogic.policy\” weblogic.Server”

  • Read the Microsoft Support article on specifying the startup order of Windows Services

  • Using regedit, add the one group for each of the OBIEE processes to be started at the end of the list entry at:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ServiceGroupOrder

    Example groups:

    OBI Node Manager
    OBI AdminServer
    OBI Managed Server
    OBI OPMN

    This will sequence the startup of your services based on group

  • Note down the names of the OPMN and Node Manager Services from the registry

    Registry Location:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\

    Sample Service Names:

    OracleProcessManager_instance1
    Oracle WebLogic NodeManager (d_obi_mw_wlserver_10.3)

  • For each of the two services above add a string value (right click the registry folder and follow New > String Value) named Group and provide the corresponding group value for each service (ie. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Oracle WebLogic NodeManager (d_obi_mw_wlserver_10.3)\Group=OBI Node Manager).

    This will work along with the ServiceGroupOrder configuration to ensure the startup order of your services

 

Implementation


AdminServer Service

  • Create a new script named %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installAdminServer_svc.cmd and using the code below:

    SETLOCAL
    @echo off
    set MW_HOME=d:\obi_mw
    set DOMAIN_NAME=bifoundation_domain
    set USERDOMAIN_HOME=%MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\%DOMAIN_NAME%
    set SERVER_NAME=AdminServer
    set PRODUCTION_MODE=true
    call “%MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd”
    ENDLOCAL

  • Run the installAdminServer_svc.cmd script
  • Using regedit, verify that a service named Oracle_bifoundation_domain_AdminServer now exists under the following location

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\

  • Right click your service folder and follow the context menus New > String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value Group and double click on it to add OBI AdminServer as a value. This will work in tandem with the ServiceGroupOrder configuration to ensure the startup order of your services.
  • Right click your service folder and follow the context menus New > Multi-String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value DependOnService and double click on it to add the node manager service as a dependency, the node manager service must match the service listing you noted down as part of the pre-requisite preparation steps (ie. Oracle WebLogic NodeManager (d_obi_mw_wlserver_10.3)). Using this dependency value will cause Windows to verify that dependent services have been started before attempting to start this service.

BI Managed Server Service

  • Create a new script named %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installbi_server1_svc.cmd and using the code below:

    SETLOCAL
    @echo off
    set MW_HOME=d:\obi_mw
    set DOMAIN_NAME=bifoundation_domain
    set USERDOMAIN_HOME=%MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\%DOMAIN_NAME%
    set SERVER_NAME=bi_server1
    set PRODUCTION_MODE=true
    set ADMIN_URL=http://localhost:7001
    call “%MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd”
    ENDLOCAL

  • Run the installbi_server1_svc.cmd script
  • Using regedit, verify that a service named Oracle_bifoundation_domain_bi_server1 now exists under the following location

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\

  • Right click your service folder and follow the context menus New > String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value Group and double click on it to add OBI Managed Server as a value. This will work in tandem with the ServiceGroupOrder configuration to ensure the startup order of your services.
  • Right click your service folder and follow the context menus New > Multi-String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value DependOnService and double click on it to add the node manager service and Weblogic AdminServer services as a dependencies (ie. Oracle_bifoundation_domain_AdminServer ). Using this dependency value will cause Windows to verify that dependent services have been started before attempting to start this service.
  • Right click the service folder for OPMN and follow the context menus New > Multi-String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value DependOnService and double click on it to add the node manager service and Weblogic AdminServer  and your new BI Managed Server services as a dependencies (ie. Oracle_bifoundation_domain_bi_server1). Using this dependency value will cause Windows to verify that dependent services have been started before attempting to start this service.
  • On the Administration Tools > Services application verify that all of the following services are configured to start automatically and, optionally, configure what actions are taking on failure starting each service.

    Oracle WebLogic NodeManager
    Oracle_bifoundation_domain_AdminServer
    Oracle_bifoundation_domain_bi_server1
    Oracle Process Manager (instance 1)

 

Setup Validation

 

  • Restart your windows server and monitor the order in which services are started
  • If you see issues with OPMN starting at the same time as your WebLogic servers you might need to try setting the AdminServer, BI Managed Server and OPMN  services to start manually and using the code below to create batch command file that is executed by a scheduled task each time the computer starts:

    net start Oracle_bifoundation_domain_AdminServer
    timeout 300
    net start Oracle_bifoundation_domain_bi_server1
    timeout 300
    net start OracleProcessManager_instance1

    This script would use the timeout DOS command to institute a five minute wait between each of the OBI services being started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sunopsis seven years after it’s acquisition

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On October of 2006 Oracle acquired Sunopsisa sofware company whose flagship product was one of the up-and-coming players in the datata warehousing arena. Sunopsis for easy integration in environments with multiple database systems and differentiated itself by adopting an Extract-Load-Transform architecture that decreased the learning curve for database developers that were immediately able to create transformation using familiar SQL syntax. By utilizing the computing power in the target database Sunopsis’ ELT architecture potentially decreased the need for additional computing power in a dedicated ETL server. Fast forward five years and Sunopsis is now Oracle Data Integrator, it is a key component of the Fusion Middleware Data Integration product line and it’s looking good, a few features that large enterprise customers will find interesting are:

  • SOA enabled an can deploy and consume web services for data transformation and integration
  • Integrates well into your data cleansing (names, addresses) and Master Data Management framework
  • Out of the box CDC functionality with a Publish-and-Subscribe model implemented either via triggers or log mining (Oracle and DB2)
  • As previously stated, by utilizing the source and target database’s computing power ODI decreases it Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

It seems as if the merging of Oracle Warehouse Builder and Sunopsis’ functionalities has been beneficial to the end product and, in general, to the enterprise customer. Now it remains to be seen how aggressively Oracle”s sales force can take market share from ODI’s top competitors IBM Information Server and Informatica PowerCenter. Stay tunned for additional product reviews and, of course, OBIEE and Business Intelligence updates…

How To: Manage your Oracle patch deployment life cycle using Oracle Support Patch Plans

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Introduction

As part of my writing I often try to document and share best practices I develop on my day to day work, this one relates to formalizing the patch deployment process for your oracle environments. This approach is developed for organizations that have formal release cycles and have established procedures to take patches through test life cycles that; at a minimum, begin in a develop environment, followed by integration testing in a QA and culminate when patches are promoted to production.

I will try to keep this post brief so, at a high level, I have found that the best way to manage patches is to use the Oracle support portal patch & upgrades functionality to create a patch plan for each environment in the life cycle for either each major release or at least each quarter. This process is always initiated by the need to apply a patch so whenever no patches are necessary during a release or quarter no patch plans are created.

The two main benefits of this approach is (1) that it brings transparency into which patches have been approved for each environment, (2) it is a straight forward process that does not carry a lot of overhead. The way patches make it to a patch plan is when a project manager requests a patch to be applied or promoted to each environment in your life cycle, this in turn is monitored using standard project management mechanisms such as issue, task and test management.

 

Implementation

Creating your first patch plan is very simple, just take your first requested patch through the process outlined below.

  1. Login to http://support.oracle.com
  2. Click on the Patches & Updates tab
  3. Locate the appropriate version of your patch by specifying a patch number and operating system on the patch search interface

    Locate the appropriate version of your patch by specifying a patch number and operating system on the patch search interface

  4. Locate your patch on the search results screen and click on Add to Plan > Add to new …

    Locate your patch on the search results screen and click on Add to Plan > Add to new ...

  5. Locate the a valid target application server or host name using the search box
  6. Provide a patch plan name using your company’s naming standard and click create plan

    An example naming convention I have used in the past, this particular one allows system administrators to sort by date and to manage patch plans by product:

    – - – approved patches

    Provide a patch plan name using your company's naming standard and click create plan

  7. To add any additional requested patches to your plan go back to Patches & Updates and select your plan from the Plans list and click on the Add Patch… button.

Having this patching plan makes it easy to manage patch deployment through your environments. As for the actual deployment of each patch, I am a command line geek and like the ability to make sure that each individual patch deployment works correctly by running OPatch for each individual package.

 

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Reference:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Customizing your DOS prompt

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Being back on a windows shop I find the DOS prompt sort of gets in my way, I have customized it so that it will display my current path and then let met type on a new line with this command:

PROMPT Ignacio’s rocking at $P$G$_

The different formatting options for the command are:

$A & (Ampersand)
$B | (pipe)
$C ( (Left parenthesis)
$D Current date
$E Escape code (ASCII code 27)
$F ) (Right parenthesis)
$G > (greater-than sign)
$H Backspace (erases previous character)
$L < (less-than sign)
$N Current drive
$P Current drive and path
$Q = (equal sign)
$S (space)
$T Current time
$V Windows XP version number
$_ Carriage return and linefeed
$$ $ (dollar sign)

To make your changes permanent go to My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables and create a new variable called PROMPT.

 

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Configuring the windows host file to correctly use the loopback adapter for Oracle product installations

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This procedure is required when installing Oracle products such at the Oracle Database or Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition on a host machine that uses DHCP.  Follow the steps to configure a loopback adapterand then:

  1. Open the host file under c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc using notepad
  2. Identify your computer’s host name by right clicking on My Computer, selecting properties and clicking on the computer name tab Identify your computers host name by right clicking on My Computer, selecting properties and clicking on the computer name tab
  3. On the first line of your host file add a link between the static IP address you assigned your loopback adapter and your computer’s host name, for example: # IP                 hostname.domain        hostname 10.10.10.35    virtualXP.acme.com virtualXP
  4. On the second line associate the same static IP with the localhost default alias, for example: 10.10.10.35 localhost.localdomain    localhost

Once you have completed these steps you can proceed with the next steps in your Oracle product installation. If you find this post useful please  or Share our site! Read the rest of Configuring the windows host file to correctly use the loopback adapter for Oracle product installations »

Error (BEA-141244) Schema validation errors while parsing %MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\config\config.xml – Invalid xsi:type qname: ‘ext:osso-identity-asserterType’ in element realm@http://xmlns.oracle.com/weblogic/domain

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CAUSE

 

The WebLogic server is unable to locate the Oracle Single Sign On (OSSO) Identity Asserter security provider.

 

SYMPTOMS

 

...
<Sep 18, 2012 2:57:47 PM MDT> <Info> <WebLogicServer> 
<BEA-000377> <Starting WebLogic Server with Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM Version 20.4-b02 from Sun Microsystems Inc.> 
<Sep 18, 2012 2:57:48 PM MDT> <Info> <Management> 
<BEA-141107> <Version: WebLogic Server 10.3.5.0  Fri Apr 1 20:20:06 PDT 2011 1398638 > 
<Sep 18, 2012 2:57:50 PM MDT> <Error> <Management> 
<BEA-141244> <Schema validation errors while parsing D:\obi_mw\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\config\config.xml - Invalid xsi:type qname: 'ext:osso-identity-asserterType' in element realm@http://xmlns.oracle.com/weblogic/domain> 
<Sep 18, 2012 2:57:50 PM MDT> <Error> <Management> 
<BEA-141244> <Schema validation errors while parsing D:\obi_mw\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\config\config.xml - d:\obi_mw\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\<unknown>:17:9: error: failed to load java type corresponding to t=osso-identity-asserterType@http://www.bea.com/ns/weblogic/90/security/extension> 
<Sep 18, 2012 2:57:50 PM MDT> <Critical> <WebLogicServer> 
<BEA-000362> <Server failed. Reason: [Management:141245]Schema Validation Error in D:\obi_mw\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\config\config.xml see log for details. Schema validation can be disabled by starting the server with the command line option: -Dweblogic.configuration.schemaValidationEnabled=false> 
<Sep 18, 2012 2:57:50 PM MDT> <Notice> <WebLogicServer> 
<BEA-000365> <Server state changed to FAILED> 
<Sep 18, 2012 2:57:50 PM MDT> <Error> <WebLogicServer> 
<BEA-000383> <A critical service failed. The server will shut itself down>
<Sep 18, 2012 2:57:50 PM MDT> <Notice> <WebLogicServer>
<BEA-000365> <Server state changed to FORCE_SHUTTING_DOWN> [Tue Sep 18 14:57:50 2012] [I] [ExitHandler] Fire (-1)[Tue Sep 18 14:57:50 2012] [I] [ServiceStart] done waiting for multiple events. Wait=0[Tue Sep 18 14:57:50 2012] [I] [ServiceStart] Informing SCM about SERVICE_STOP
...

 

 

SOLUTION

 

This issue is easy to correct following the steps below:

*) Locate the JAR file for the OSSO Identity Asserter at: %MW_HOME%\oracle_common\modules\oracle.ossoiap_11.1.1\ossoiap.jar

*) Copy the provider file to the appropriate location under the WebLogic directory tree %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.x\server\lib\mbeantype

*) Restart your WebLogic server(s)

 

 

 

 

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Oracle Partner Exchange Keynote

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20120930-134923.jpg It is very interesting to seat in a room filled with a large cloud, very representative of the Oracle Partner Ecosystem in its diversity and passion for the portfolio. This unique partner ecosystem is definitively a key differentiator in Oracle’s go to market strategy.   Key Topics: * Fusion Applications * Engineered Systems * Big growth initiatives coming next year   Fusion Applications Fusion Apps is big this year, you can feel it in the air with many of the partners making the suite their key strategic offering this year.   Engineered Systems The message from Oracle is loud and clear: “do no replicate our cloud offerings and engineered systems, join us instead”. Partners are called to join Oracle in evangelizing across the different channels and extend the reach of this engineered system offerings across their particular focus industries.   Growth initiatives With the engineered systems platform coming to its maturity stage and the big push this year for cloud offerings Oracle is asking partners to step up and go to market aggressively. Mark’s key remarks regarding growth are additional investment from Oracle side’s on the sales force, the fact that the company’s owns a best of breed portfolio and… please do not compare Hanna with Exadata…   New products * Fusion Apps is a big push this year * New Exadata configuration with 26 TB of storage (52 times the biggest Hanna configuration) * Business applications, Analytics and many fo the portfolio components now available on the cloud

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Key Announcements by Larry Ellison @ the Open World Keynote

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  OK, the key announcement from day one are out now and I am pretty sure there’s a bunch of unhappy people at SAP headquarters in Germany with the announcement of Exadata X3 which is 42 times larger the largest Hanna configuration.   Key Announcements:   *) Oracle Cloud to offer Infrastructure as a Service   – Not conventional infrastructure (ROS, RVM, Compute Services, Storage Services) - All on engineered systems – All networked with Infiniband   *) Oracle Private Cloud   – For organizations with strict compliance requirements such as banks and government institutions.   *) Oracle Database 12c   – First multi-tenant database in the cloud – Being delivered in 2013 – A single instance of the database on shared hardware that allows for shared workloads – The support   *) Exadata X3   26 TB of DRAM and Flash – Ability to have multiple databases stored in memory – Ultra-high performance   10X database compression – Store 220 TB in memory – Reduce storage costs by 10X   Infrastructure of the Oracle Cloud and Private Cloud – High Performance, Reliability, Security – Only pay for what you use   Key nugget: One rack of Exadata is cheaper than a EMC Synnetrix VMAX 40K and it also comes with the database license.

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Verifying the pre-requisites for an Oracle Database Install on SUSE Linux

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This is a list of the parameters and configuration settings you should first check when installing the oracle database into a personal/sandbox environments, I made a note of them to allow me to verify them quickly without going through all the documentation for every install. This assumes you will not use ASM on your new instance.

All these commands assume you are logged in to your system as root.

1. Verify your system has at least 1 GB of RAM
grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo

2. Verify the required Libraries (x86_64)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11The following packages (or later versions) must be installed:
binutils-2.20.0-0.7.9 (s390x)
gcc-4.3-62.198 (s390x)
gcc-c++-4.3-62.198 (s390x)
glibc-2.11.1-0.17.4 (s390x)
glibc-32bit-2.11.1-0.17.4 (s390x)
glibc-devel-2.11.1-0.17.4 (s390x)
glibc-devel-32bit-2.11.1-0.17.4 (s390x)
kshlibaio-0.3.109-0.1.46 (s390x)
libaio-32bit-0.3.109-0.1.46 (s390x)
libaio-devel-0.3.109-0.1.46 (s390x)
libaio-devel-32bit-0.3.109-0.1.46 (s390x)
libstdc++43-4.3.4_20091019-0.7.35 (s390x)
libstdc++43-32bit-4.3.4_20091019-0.7.35 (s390x)
libstdc++43-devel-4.3.4_20091019-0.7.35 (s390x)
libstdc++43-devel-32bit-4.3.4_20091019-0.7.35 (s390x)
libgcc43-4.3.4_20091019-0.7.35
make-3.81
sysstat-8.1.5-7.9.56 (s390x)
unixODBC-2.2.12 or later
unixODBC-devel-2.2.12 or later
unixODBC-32bit-2.2.12 (32 bit) or later
3. Ensure that resource limits are set appropriately by editing the /etc/security/limits.conf file to include the configuration described below:
oracle soft nproc 2047oracle hard nproc 16384
oracle soft nofile 1024
oracle hard nofile 65536
oracle soft stack 10240

4. Configure kernel parameters on the /etc/sysctl.conf as follows:
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 536870912
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048586

5. On SUSE Enterprise Linux use the command below:
/sbin/chkconfig boot.sysctl on
6. Create O/S groups:
#create the OSDBA group
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 502 dba
#create the OSOPER group
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 504 oper
#create the Oracle Installer Group
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 507 oinstall
7. Create the Oracle software owner user:
/usr/sbin/useradd -u 502 -g oinstall -G dba,asmdba,oper oracle

8. Create the ORACLE_BASE directory
cd /u01
mkdir app
cd app
mkdir oracle
chown oracle:oinstall oracle

9. Add the ORACLE_BASE and other configuration to the oracle user’s profile
su – oracle

echo “export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle” >> /home/oracle/.profileecho “export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0″ >> /home/oracle/.profile
exit chmod -R 775 /u01/app/oracle
10. Create directories for database files and the recovery area:
su – oracle
mkdir $ORACLE_BASE/oradata
mkdir $ORACLE_BASE/recovery_area
11. Verify TMP space and configure a new directory if necessary:
df -h /tmp
if the space in the current TMP directory is not sufficient:
mkdir /u01/tmp
chmod a+wr /u01/tmp
echo “export TMP=/u01/tmp” >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo “export TMPDIR=/u01/tmp” >> /home/oracle/.profile

12. Close your root session and login to the system as oracle to execute the following commands before you begin your installation:
xhost +localhost
unset ORACLE_HOME
unset TNS_ADMIN

Oracle Database 11g R2 Minimum Requirements (windows)

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Database Version: gRelease 2 (11.2)for Microsoft Windows (32-Bit)

Hardware Requirements

Requirement Minimum Value

Physical memory (RAM)

  • GB minimum

  • Virtual memory

    Double the amount of RAM

    Disk space

    Total: 5.35 GB

    SeeTable 2for details.

    Processor Type

    Intel (x86), AMD64, and Intel EM64T

    Video adapter

    56 colors

    Screen Resolution

  • 024 X 768 minimum

  • Space Requirements

    Installation Type TEMP Space C:\Program Files\Oracle Oracle Home Datafiles * Total

    Typical Install

    00 MB

    .0 MB

    .4 GB

  • .9 GB

  • .79 GB

    Software Requirements

    Requirement Value

    Operating System

    Oracle Database for 32-bit Windows is supported on the following operating systems:

    • Windows Server 2003 – all editions

    • Windows Server 2003 R2 – all editions

    • Windows XP Professional

    • Windows Vista – Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions

    • Windows Server 2008 – Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, and Foundation editions. The Server Core option is not supported.

      Note:Check My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) for more information about Hyper-V support.

    • Windows 7 – Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions

    Windows Multilingual User Interface Pack is supported.

    Compiler

    Pro*Cobol has been tested and certified with Net Express 5.0.

    The following components are supported with the Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2005 8.0, Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2008 9.0, and Intel 10.1 C compilers:

    • Oracle Call Interface

    • External callouts

    • Pro*C/C++

    • XDK

    Oracle C++ Call Interface is supported with

    • Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2005 8.0

    • Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2008 9.0 – OCCI libraries are installed underORACLE_HOME\oci\lib\msvc\vc9. When developing OCCI applications with MSVC++ 9.0, ensure that the OCCI libraries are correctly selected from this directory for linking and executing.

    • Intel 10.1 C++ compiler with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2005 STLs.

    Network Protocol

    The Oracle Net foundation layer uses Oracle protocol support to communicate with the following industry-standard network protocols:

    • TCP/IP

    • TCP/IP with SSL

    • Named Pipes

    Oracle Database Client

    If you plan to connect to Oracle Database 11gRelease 2 (11.2) from a release of Oracle Database Client that is earlier than 11gRelease 2 (11.2), the following conditions apply:

    • Oracle Database Client is version 9.2.0.4 or higher. See Note 207303.1 on My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) for more details and up to date information.

    • If the earlier Oracle Database Client is running on the same computer as Oracle Database 11gRelease 2 (11.2), a bequeath connection cannot be used.

    Oracle recommends upgrading Oracle Database Client to the latest patchset (9.2.0.8, 10.2.0.4, or later). You can download the patchset from the Patches and Updates section of My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) at

    https://support.oracle.com

    Reference:

    Oracle Database Quick Installation Guide

    Error message when incorrect version of Oracle Database Client has been installed

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    Symptom:

    The following error message is displayed when trying to issue any queries to an Oracle database:

    [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. libclntsh.so.10.1: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 [nQSError: 46029] Failed to load the DLL /usr/oracle/OracleBI/server/Bin/libnqsdbgatewayoci10g.so. Check if ‘Oracle OCI 10G’ database client is installed.

    Causes:

    This error message is typical of a situation where the OBIEE server is running a 64 bit version of the Oracle Database client. OBIEE requires a 32 bit database client even on servers running a 64 bit OS.

    Resolution:

    Install the 32 bit Oracle Database Client

     

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    Configuring a new loopback adapter in windows

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    1. Start > Control Pannel> Add  Hardware
    2. Click next on the Welcome screen 
      Click next on the Welcome screen
    3. When ask if you have connected your hardware, specify yes 
      When ask if you have connected your hardware, specify yes
    4. In the next dialog select Add new hardware device 
      In the next dialog select Add new hardware device
    5. On the following screen select Network Adapters 
      On the following screen select Network Adapters
    6. Select Microsoft > Microsoft Loopback Adapter from the list 
      Select Microsoft > Microsoft Loopback Adapter from the list
    7. Select next in the following screen to install your loopback adapter 
      Select next in the following screen to install your loopback adapter
    8. Click finish to complete this section of the installation process
      Click finish to complete this section of the installation process
    9. Find your newly created adapter by going to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections 
      Find your newly created adapter by going to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections
    10. Right click your new connection and select Properties
    11. Select the Internet Protocol on the second section of the screen and click properties 
      Select the Internet Protocol on the second section of the screen and click properties
    12. In the IP properties dialog configure a static IP address following the example belowIP Address: 10.10.10.35 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
      In the IP properties dialog configure a static IP address following the example belowIP Address: 10.10.10.35 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

    Once you have configured a static IP address you will have completed the configuration of your new loopback adapter.

     

    For instructions on configuring your hosts file to correctly use your loopback adapter when installing Oracle products see this post.

     

     

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    Error: [nQSError: 23026] The logical column referenced by DESCRIPTOR_IDOF does not specify a Descriptor ID column.

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    Description

    This error message is associated with the “Descriptor ID” feature introduced with OBIEE 11g. This feature is aimed at transparently replacing descriptor fields (ie. Department Name) with their equivalent ID fields (ie. Department ID) on the WHERE clause of SQL statements issued by the BI server. This is achieved by selecting a “Descriptor ID” field on the logical column definition for each descriptor field.

    Symptoms

    Error message “[nQSError: 23026] The logical column referenced by DESCRIPTOR_IDOF does not specify a Descriptor ID column.”

    Cause

    This error message refers to an instance of a descriptor field where this Descriptor ID selection has been removed from the descriptor field.

    Solution(s)

    Depending on your current requirements you can resolve this issue by either:

    1)  Verify a Descriptor ID field has been configured on your logical column

    2) Edit the logical SQLfor each report with this error on the Analysis designer Advanced tab to remove the Descriptor ID references.

    3) Depending on the amount of formating and layout customization on your report sometimes is best to instead edit the XML and remove all references to DESCRIPTOR_IDOF().”

     

     

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