This is a shell (sh) script that should made things easier when having a look or doing a « tail -f » at Glassfish error logs.

This is a blog, lately talking about Glassfish V3 REST api implementation. As far as I know this is (still) not working with GF v2, which already have JMX and, if you’re a registered Sun user, SNMP. But worth having a look.

It seems to me that most of developpers are using Spring framework nowadays. This tool should enable them (or force them ?) to have a deeper look of what the framework is actualy doing. Seriously, comments welcome. May be the weapon of choice for sysadmins like me, dealing with developpers who hide behing their framework (like if the framework was an excuse… huhuhu).

Another monitoring software… well… to be tested.

An interesting thing you can do with Google’s API… It should with any database, but hey, a free software working with Oracle is worth beeing mentioned

This is a PDF file dealing with TimesTen Database. This is a product newly (2 or 3 years) bought by Oracle, and well integrated. Embed the database close to the application, in the application server. Data are replicated at startup. You can choose which database, which table, which data using a filter, or even do transformations to the data. You select the synchronization frequency and there you go. I had a session OOW 2009 about that and how it was used to break a CDN application in two parts : one for slow data change (read/write to the DB) and one for massive fast queries on the delivery side. Ok, this use a lot of RAM… but RAM is cheap isn’t it ?

Now we have some cool things to read and test, don’t we ?

First, get VirtualBox
Then, get a Fedora 11 image
You may also need a « z7″ compressor to un-z7 the image. You can get 7za from the Macports

Then configure and start the VM. I had to add 3 NICs, so I have 4 network interfaces, enough to play. I also set the first one as Bridge instead of the default NAT, so my VM have a real IP.
I then have to log as root, chance the /etc/sudoers so Wheel users can sudo. Then I added fedora (default user) to Wheel group in /etc/groups.
Now I can sudo. We are close to be able to install Oracle database. While I’m at it, go to Oracle website and download the 2 install zip files. This is quite huge, around 2.1Gb. Be carefull when you unzip (not yet), as everything lives in the « database » folder…
You will also need the Grid Infrastructure Software.
Please note we are installong the 32bits versions, but the 64bits version is the same, only the packages to download are different. Click on the « view all » to get the Grid Infrastructure Software.

For Oracle 11G R2 to work on linux you need to fulfill some dependencies, starting with some RPM packages. Use ‘yum’ to search for them and install them. Here is a list according to Oracle Linux recommendations :

11G R2 now comes with a « bundeled NTP server », I mean, Oracle now can sync the time of every node in the cluster. No need of NTPD, and no evictions due to bad Solaris xntpd server. Just disable ntpd or ensure it’s not running before installing Oracle database.
Also, configure SSHD and kernel parameters, if needed, as Oracle prerequisite.
Now, let’s go with Oracle. Create an oracle user with :

As root, create a /opt/oracle folder and give RWX rights to oracle user.
Create a SSL key for user Oracle, add your personal public key to authorized_keys and log as oracle user. Copy the Oracle install files to the home dir of this user.

Log-in again with your oracle user, setting X11 forwarding (use -X -Y if you are using a mac) :

Don’t take account for X11 errors, as long as you have the install window.
First question is giving out your email address for security updates… As you ARE a good DBA/Sysadmin, you won’t need this. Click next

As I don’t have time and I KNOW I will not do better, check there for some more informations on installing Oracle 11G R2 RAC ASM.

I was installing a Oracle 11g + ASM server for testing and upgrade purpose when I came across a problem : how do I create RAW « filsystem » for ASM ?

I found a lot of docs for doing this with Linux, but nothing about Solaris.

Of course you will quickly find something about ‘lofs’ and ‘lofsadm’. This is the right starting point. But then ?
It seems ASM wants to have « real » block device for use with ASM. If I’m wrong, please, comment and correct me.

My solution was to :

• create two ‘zeroed’ files with DD, around 8Gb each. They will be used in a RAID 0 redundancy. This should be managed by ASM itself, and need to be configured. Do this as user Oracle

  $ cd /opt/oracle
  $ mkdir disks
  $ dd if=/dev/zero of=/opt/oracle/disks/baytestdb_asm1_disk1 bs=8192 count=1000000
  $ dd if=/dev/zero of=/opt/oracle/disks/baytestdb_asm1_disk2 bs=8192 count=1000000

• use ‘lofiadm’ to link the files as block devices. Do this as root user :

  # lofiadm -a /opt/oracle/disks/baytestdb_asm1_disk1 /dev/lofi/1
  # lofiadm -a /opt/oracle/disks/baytestdb_asm1_disk2 /dev/lofi/2
  # lofiadm
  Block Device             File
  /dev/lofi/1              /opt/oracle/disks/baytestdb_asm1_disk1
  /dev/lofi/2              /opt/oracle/disks/baytestdb_asm1_disk2

• use ‘mknod’ to create a copy of the block device in your Oracle directory and give appropriate rights.

  #  ls -l /dev/lofi
  lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          29 Nov 25 14:39 1 -> ../../devices/pseudo/lofi@0:1
  lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          29 Nov 25 14:39 2 -> ../../devices/pseudo/lofi@0:2
  
  # ls -l /devices/pseudo/lofi@0:1
  brw-------   1 root     sys      147,  1 Nov 25 14:30 /devices/pseudo/lofi@0:1
  
  # ls -l /devices/pseudo/lofi@0:2
  brw-------   1 root     sys      147,  2 Nov 25 14:36 /devices/pseudo/lofi@0:2

  You will use the numbers 147, 1 and 147, 2 to create the node :

  # cd /opt/oracle/disks
  # mknod baytestdb_asm1_disk_1 c 147 1
  # mknod baytestdb_asm1_disk_2 c 147 2
  # chown oracle:oinstall baytestdb_asm1_disk_*
  # chmod 660 baytestdb_asm1_disk_*

• Tell the Oracle ASM Installer to search in the directory (/opt/oracle/disks in my case and NOT /opt/oracle/disks/*)

OK, I admit, names of dd files and block device are not good/clear… I still havn’t found  a real good and clear naming. But, heh, I did my part. Now, do yours and propose the names

I did all this on the latest Solaris 10/08 :

cat /etc/release    
                      Solaris 10 10/08 s10s_u6wos_07b SPARC
           Copyright 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
                        Use is subject to license terms.
                            Assembled 27 October 2008
uname -a
SunOS indus.adm.groupertl.net 5.10 Generic_137137-09 sun4v sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-T1000

I will not come over all the recommended for Oracle install, like having oracle user and oinstall, oper and dba groups. Once you have all the pre-requisit and the new devices created as above, start here.

Untar, unzip or uncpio the ASM install files and the DB files. I like to do this in /opt/oracle/install.
Oracle disks are in /opt/oracle/disks. Oracle home is in /opt/oracle/shellhome. Oracle product files are in /opt/oracle/product/11. If you have RAC (crs), I do intall in /opt/oracle/product/11/crs_1. For ASM and DBs, I install in /opt/oracle/product/11/oracle_base/asm_1 and db_1.

Once this is done, start the installer as user oracle :

$ /opt/oracle/install/11GR1ASM/database/runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...
Checking Temp space: must be greater than 180 MB.   Actual 6241 MB    Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB.   Actual 6564 MB    Passed
Checking monitor: must be configured to display at least 256 colors.    Actual 16777216    Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2008-11-27_10-30-27AM. Please wait ...-bash-3.00$ Warning: Cannot convert string "-monotype-arial-regular-r-normal--*-140-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct

Don’t care for the font error.
As a side note, if you are working on the server from a remote host, using SSH, you will have to redirect the display. You will have all the informations if you don’t. If you are on a Mac OsX, you will need to :

• start the X11 server (found in the Xcode tools I think)
• configure your SSH client to redirect the DISPLAY (this is by default I think – on every Unix OS)
• use the -X -Y options to ssh like :    ssh -X -Y oracle@my_server_name

The Oracle installer will open with this window.

Choose the Advanced Install and click next.

Remember the baytest_asm1 name. You may have to use it later when you administer your oracle install.

Enter here, the ASM password. Keep it secure.

In Normal redundancy you will need two disks. They are not used as mirror, but should guaranty some redundancy. High redundancy will require 3 disks. External… you have to manage it. Use this is you already have some RAID you are trusting in

Click Install and wait. Wait. Waiiiiiit……….

Then…

You will have to run the script on the host as root. You will only have to give a directory where some files will be installed. Don’t use the /usr/local/bin offer. Change it to somewhere in /opt/oracle, at least. You will have to do the same thing for the Database install in a few moments.

# /opt/oracle/product/11/oracle_base/asm_1/root.sh
Running Oracle 11g root.sh script...

The following environment variables are set as:
    ORACLE_OWNER= oracle
    ORACLE_HOME=  /opt/oracle/product/11/oracle_base/asm_1

Enter the full pathname of the local bin directory: [/usr/local/bin]: /opt/oracle/asmbin     

Entries will be added to the /var/opt/oracle/oratab file as needed by
Database Configuration Assistant when a database is created
Finished running generic part of root.sh script.
Now product-specific root actions will be performed.
Successfully accumulated necessary OCR keys.
Creating OCR keys for user 'root', privgrp 'root'..
Operation successful.
Configuration for local CSS has been initialized

Cleaning up Network socket directories
Setting up Network socket directories
Adding to inittab
Startup will be queued to init within 30 seconds.
Checking the status of new Oracle init process...
Expecting the CRS daemons to be up within 600 seconds.
Cluster Synchronization Services is active on these nodes.
        indus
Cluster Synchronization Services is active on all the nodes.
Oracle CSS service is installed and running under init(1M)
Finished product-specific root actions.

You can click OK and go to the next step.

And you are done.

Let’s go with the DB install now. Just run the DB installer.

$ /opt/oracle/install/11GR1DB/database/runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking Temp space: must be greater than 180 MB.   Actual 5825 MB    Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB.   Actual 6507 MB    Passed
Checking monitor: must be configured to display at least 256 colors.    Actual 16777216    Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2008-11-27_11-17-05AM. Please wait ...-bash-3.00$ Warning: Cannot convert string "-monotype-arial-regular-r-normal--*-140-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct
Oracle Universal Installer, Version 11.1.0.6.0 Production
Copyright (C) 1999, 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

You will encounter one or two error message. Just click OK and go on. One done, click OK and Next.

You now have to run a script as root. Copy the script name and start it in a root shell of the host.

# /opt/oracle/product/11/oracle_base/db_1/root.sh
Running Oracle 11g root.sh script...
The following environment variables are set as:
   ORACLE_OWNER= oracle
    ORACLE_HOME=  /opt/oracle/product/11/oracle_base/db_1
Enter the full pathname of the local bin directory: [/usr/local/bin]: /opt/oracle/dbbin
Entries will be added to the /var/opt/oracle/oratab file as needed by
Database Configuration Assistant when a database is created
Finished running generic part of root.sh script.
Now product-specific root actions will be performed.
Finished product-specific root actions.

And you are done.
Now you should have some running processes on the host. Notice the two listeners, one for ASM, one for the DB.
Also note the /opt/oracle/product/11/oracle_base/asm_1/bin/ocssd.bin process. This one is the link between ASM and the database.

Check next post for the Oracle 11.1.0.6 to 11.1.0.7 upgrade.

Thanks to the Database Journal and Tarry Singh, you have now really good introduction articles on Oracle, TAF, FAN, and many more.

Just check articles 15 and 16, and spend some time on the others.

Thank you Tarry.

Cette année j’ai la chance d’aller a Oracle Open World.

Pour ceux qui ne savent pas, c’est 5 jours avec plein d’informaticiens qui parlent de bases de données. Enfin, surtout d’une, Oracle.

Comme moi je suis la pour travailler, je vais laisser la place a mon compère, TrucTruc.

Bonjour, alors c’est moi TrucTruc. Pour ceux qui ne me connaissent pas, voila une photo de moi :

Donc, ce matin nous avons pris l’avion. Un 747 de Air France. Bon, j’ai pas trop de photo de moi, mais voila ce que j’ai pu prendre de la fenetre :
 

On est meme passé a au sud dur Groenland:
 

A la fin on a pris le metro et on est arrivé a l’hotel : 
  
 
 
  

Voila. 

Ah oui, j’ai aussi fait caca (en téléphonant… il y a un téléphone dans les toilettes )
 
Mais apres je me suis lavé les mains :

Maintenant on va prendre une doucher puis aller diner. Enfin, ptetre on va prendre un bain. En meme temps, la douche est pas mal. Vous voullez voir ?
 

Et pour ce soir, j’ai déjà tout prevu. Mais chut, il faut pas le dire a Vachette et Chaussette. C’est des filles, elles peuvent pas comprendre : 
 

Bon, j’arrête pour aujourd’hui. Demain je prendrais des photos dans la rue. C’est drôle les américains. Vous allez voir

Merci TrucTruc pour ces belles photo. Ne vide pas le mini bar ce soir quand même, tu dois tenir 5 jours ! 
A demain pour la suite : des bus « Oracle », des affiches « Oracle », des flèches dans les rues « Oracle », des pompiers, des manifs de catho intégristes, une rue barrée pour installer la cantine Oracle, des vendeur de badges Barrack Obama, des lions de mer qui puent, les cable car… Enfin, surtout du Oracle quand meme

En fait, la seule mauvaise nouvelle, c’est que le concert du mercredi soir, c’est UB40, et pas U2
La lose !!!
Enfin ya aussi 3 autres mecs, mais bon, on verra d’ici la…

So you pay A LOT for your premium Oracle support ?

I won’t spend my time complaining on the Metalink web interface, the one you must use to open a F**King SR (Service Request), where you lost half a day each time.
I won’t complain on the F**King result you get… something nobody can read through and get the information without losing the second half day

No, my problems are somwhere else, and far more important, to me…

First, I tried to open a SR. Well, ok, it did not took me half of the day. But then, everything was complete, I clicked « next » at the bottom of the page. And there we go :

ERROR: MetaLink Network or Page Error

We're sorry but there was a problem trying to access the requested page in MetaLink.

Please hit the "back" button to retry the previous operation. If you continue to get this error page
, please email essrv_us@oracle.com with details of what you are doing when you r
eceive this page.

So I sent an email to Oracle.

My supprise was the opening of a new SR in my SR list. The number is 18697692.6. I don’t know if you can have a look at it. whatever.

I just add an update, specifying I was using Safari on OS X Tiger.

Today I got a phone call from Oracle. Don’t know which support team it was. The girl asked me what the problem was. I just answerd what was in the ticket : trying to open a SR on metalink using Safari.

She was not aware of what Safari was… She just answered me that Internet Explorer was the only solution to use Metalink, and I should download and install it ASAP.

laught !!!

I told her that IE was not existing anymore on OsX, and whatever I wouldn’t install it anyway.

The told me she will refer to a more technical team and call me back.

Few hours after I had an email telling me the SR was updated and waiting for customer update. I went to metalink, and here is the answer from Oracle :

26-MAR-08 11:35:44 GMT

.
ACTION PLAN
============
Please upload the alert.log and the trace files generated by this error.

Regards
Göran Sxxxxx
Oracle Support Services

Of course, I made an answer. It is just here under. Just before you read it, let me point out the conclusion : as long as you don’t upload a RDA with your SR, you won’t get any usefull answer, even if your SR does not require more information to be resolved.
Now you know what you pay for.
My answer :

Hi,

I'm sorry your ticket system is so dumb you can't realise this SR was opened automaticaly by you, and is not about Oracle problem, but using Metalink web site.

I had a phonecall this morning from someone don't knowing what are Firefox and Safari.

I may provide you with those URL so you can check on your own :

http://www.apple.com/fr/safari/

http://www.mozilla.org/

I just tried to open another SR from Safari on Os X Tiger and got the error you can see on the first ticket (which was in fact an email sent to you as requested inside the error message).

I'm sorry, you won't get any alert.log or trace file on this one !
This just points out to me that the SRs are not read by a human intelligent brain UNTIL the result of the RDA is uploaded.

But heh, you guys have other things to do than answering to support calls from customers who pay millions for it...