uCertify prepkit O1Z0-043

I was aked to evaluate the uCertify prep kit oz10-034. Because I am studying for the o1z0-043 exeam anyway, I thought it would be usefull to test the prep kit.
For the OCA exam, I only used the OCA study quide from Sybex. For the OCP exam, I also used the Sybex study guide, but also th euCertify prepkit.

I must say, the prepkit looks fine to me. It's a user friendly tool, with a lot of options to choose from.



Above you see the welcome screen with all options. So what can you do with the prepkit ?
- you can choose from 7 different tests (this is great, because making exams is the best way to get used to the actual exam..)
- there are study tips
- you can read related articles
- you can use the studynotes, which are all the important subjects from the book
- offcourse the prepkit saves your test results, so you can check your test history
- you can create a readiness report, check if you are already prepared for the real exam
- you can update the prepkit, so it's never out of date !

I think the tool is great for preparing for your Oracle OCP exam, and I am sure the prepkit will help me prepare.

Oracle 11g certified with EBS11i

Today 11g certification for EBS 11i was announced on the Steven Chan blog.
See http://blogs.oracle.com/schan/2008/03/26#a2532 for more info..

Startup/shutdown Oracle EBS when linux is booted

For a demo, I installed Oracle EBS on a laptop with Oracle Linux version 4.
Because the consultants take thelaptop with them during the demo, and I am not present at that demo, I wanted the Oracle EBS to start when the laptop was turned on and also stopped when the laptop was turned off...

Starting Oracle EBS at laptop startup was not that kind of a problem. I just created a script in the /etc/rc.d/init.d directory called 'oracleebs'. Just a simple start script for EBS, just be sure to put this line in the script...

# chkconfig: 2345 99 10

This lets the chkconfig tool know in which runlevel the script must be started (2345) and the script should be started after all ohther scripts (99), the stop must be the 10th script to be run (10)

After creating the script, add your script using the chkconfig tool

chkconfig --add oraclebs

to check if the script was added.....

[root@ebsdemo init.d]# chkconfig --list

ipmi 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off

sysstat 0:off 1:on 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

readahead 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:on 6:off

apmd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

arptables_jf 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

oracleebs 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

I tested the startup and everything went fine. But when shutting down the laptop, the script was not executed. Offcourse the Oracle EBS was stopped, but I wanted it to be stopped the right way. I noticed the K* scripts in the runlevels 0,1 and 6. So why isn't the stop script executed ??

I found out, a simple touch was missing :)

The shutdown is checking if the proces that has to be stopped is actually running. If the proces is running, there must be an entry in the /var/lock/subsys...
So, when a touch /var/lock/subsys/oracleebs is added to the startup part of the script, the shutdown will also execute the stop part of the script. This time the Oracle EBS was stopped nicely.

Oh, booting linux is hanging on ' starting killall' .....
Don't forget to remove the created lock after the EBS is stopped. At the end of the script add
rm -f /var/lock/subsys/oracleebs
Now, booting linux runs smoothly

Oracle White papers

On the Oracle Insight blog I found this interesting site : the Oracle White papers site
A nice site with a lot of white papers concerning Oracle..
You have to register yourself before accessing the white papers.
Enjoy !!

uCertify

Last week I received an email from uCertify. This company creates preparation kits for different certification programs, like Oracle OCP Dba....
They noticed my blog and asked me if I was willing to review one of their preparation kits and share my experience with this prep kit. Because I am studying for my OCP 10g, I agreed and yesterday I received the registration key for the 1Z0-043 PrepKit. During the download I noticed what in the prepkit, and I must say..it looks good !

Full version includes:
282 challenging questions with full explanation
199 Study Notes and Articles
5 Full length interactive tests
Detailed reports and analysis tools
No adware, malware or spyware
One year free upgrades
24x7 Support
100% money back guarantee

I will continu my study and use the prep kit also. I will share my experience with the prep kit in future posts...
For more info check the site http://www.ucertify.com/

Accessing Oracle EBS from linux client...

We cloned an Oracle EBS enviroment to a laptop for demo purposes. We installed Oracle Enterprise Linux 4, and cloned an excisting EBS environment.
After I got the EBS running, I tried to access the application from the linux laptop. But there was one problem, Jinitiator only works with windows. So, I was able to download the jini.exe, but could not execute it. Another way to work with the Oracle EBS (11.5.10.2) is using the sun java plugin.
I found out no plugins were installed in Firefox yet, so I had to download the sun java plugin.
I decided to download version 1.5.0.12. After installing the downloaded file, the plugin has to be noticed by Firefox. You can do this by creating a link in the FIREFOX_HOME/plugins directory.
Create a link to the libjavaplugin_oji.so from the installed jre...
ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0_12/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so ./libjavaplugin_oij.so

After the link is created, the java plugin is recognized in Firefox.
Next step is to let EBS now, you can also use the sun java plgin instead of the default jinitiator. This can be done by adjusting the $OA_HTML/bin/appsweb_sid.cfg and change the following lines.

sun_plugin_mimetype=application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.5.0_12
sun_plugin_version=1.5.0_12

After bouncing the webserver you can use the sun java plugin, but also the default jinitiator.