Christmas 2008

I want to wish everybody a merry X'mas and a very good 2009 !!!!

Oracle Application Manager

We have a lot off forms users in out eBS environment. Because of this there are also a lot of forms sessions running for a long time. I use the Oracle Application Manager to check the current forms sessions and kill them when running for more then 10 hours....














In OAM the forms sessions screen looks like this..

This print is taken from a test environment, but in the production environment you will see more forms sessions. Select a session and press the 'Sessions Details' button. On the next screen you will see the logon date and time, the session id, status and much more. Also you can kill the forms session.

Ucertify Prepkits

And again I am able to offer a 10% discount on any PrepKit from Ucertify.
Just go to the site and use the following discount code 'BASK10'. Good luck with your certification...

Oracle Modernization Solutions

'A Practical guide to planning and implementing SOA Integration and Re-architecting to an Oracle platform'


Last week I recieved the book 'Oracle Modernization Solutions' from Packt Publishing. I was asked to review this book. The book is written by Tom Laszewski and Jason Williamson. The book describes different ways to modernize your business IT. The book is a technical dive on two approaches for Legacy Modernization, namely SOA enablement and re-architecture. They focus on these two methods because SOA is a modernization option for staying on a mainframe and re-architecture for moving off the mainframe.

According to the book there are several business objectives for a modernization project :
- Agility (enable innovation within the business)
- Value (expose and extend business value locked in the lagacy system)
- Reduced Cost
- Dwindling Technology Resources (there seems to be a decline in experienced IT personnel)

I just started, but already the book is taking most of my free time :) It's good stuff and very interesting. Although I have not finished the book yet, I already recommend this book to other Oracle technical specialists (like dba's or architects)

Freelancer

This morning I arrived at work, as a freelance Oracle eBS Dba. Did I notice anything different ? Not yet, but it sure feels good !

Which Oracle books should be published ?

Packt, an online book shop will be publishing more than a dozen Oracle titles in 2009. In order to better understand what information the Oracle community wants, they are looking at which topic areas and tools users would like to see covered. Therfore they created a short survey which can be found here https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QPlgF94Ha5Q_2fkNiHBvIzaw_3d_3dand
So, check it out and let them now which books to publish.

Oracle E-Business Suite Technology Stack Certifications

Another great experiment from Steven Chan. A single page with all the certifications for eBS !! Normally I visit Metalink to check if a certain combination is certified, but it takes a few clicks before I see the result.
Now all the eBS certifications are bundeled in one site. Great !
Check the site yourself...

http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenchan/certifications.html

Oracle's Database Machine..

Because my former Amis colleques are again present at the OOW, I check the Amis blog every morning for Oracle news. This morning I noticed the following entry about a new oracle database Machine (hardware) called the Exadata Storage Server. So, after introducing their own OS (Oracle Enterprise Linux), they also created their own hardware to run the Oracle database.

Check the Amis blog for more detailed info...

http://technology.amis.nl/blog/?p=3503

eBS Certification Announcements

a lot of new eBS 11i and R12 Certification Announcements on the Steven Chan site, check for 11i the following url http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenchan/archives11i.html, for R12 http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenchan/archives12.html

Cloning eBS on Oracle Enterprise Linux 5

When cloning an eBS environment on Oracle Enterprise LInux 5, the following error is shown on both the db and app Tier.

Checking for make... found - /usr/bin/make
Checking for ld... found - /usr/bin/ld
Checking for cc... found - /usr/bin/cc
Checking for ar... found - /usr/bin/ar
Checking for ksh...
Unable to find 'kshell' in path
Unable to locate all utilities with system path.

Looking in the clone script showed me the error came from the adchkutl.sh script in the $COMMON_TOP/clone/bin directory for appTier and the $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/clone/bin directory for the dbTier. In the script it's checking for ksh using the following syntax...

#

# Verify for ksh if its a linux only platform

#

if test $UNAME = "Linux"; then

printf "Checking for ksh...\t";

VERSN=`/bin/ksh -c 'echo $KSH_VERSION' grep "PD KSH";`;

EC=$?

if test $EC != "0" ; then

printf "\nUnable to find 'kshell' in path\n";

SHOW_PATH=1

else

printf "found - $VERSN\n";

fi

fi

When manually checking for the ksh version on Linux 5...

[root@ebs ~]# /bin/ksh -c 'echo $KSH_VERSION'

But when doing the same thing on Linux 4...

[root@ebs ~]# /bin/ksh -c 'echo $KSH_VERSION'

@(#)PD KSH v5.2.14 99/07/13.2

So, it seems the check does not work anymore on Linux 5 ???

For now, I changed both scripts so the check didn't take place. I also logged an TAR, a new script should be delivered....

The new script is delivered in patch 6718351 '11I RAPIDCLONE CONSOLIDATED FIXES JUL/2008'

e-BSolutions

I decided to leave my current company and start my own. I have been thinking about contracting for a year now, and finally took the step. From 1-12-2008 I am working as a contractor Oracle eBS Dba. I already registered my company, called e-BSolutions

I looking forward to this new career move and will continue blogging....

Google Chrome (Beta)

Tonight I downloaded the new Google browser called Chrome. It is  a beta version , but I am going to try it anyway.

Will eBS run in this new browser ?

Meet the experts on the OCP blog !

Mohan Dutt, a.k.a. OCP Advisor, is presenting a new weekly feature on his OCP blog (http://ebizocp.blogspot.com). It is called 'Meet the Experts' and its' a Q/A with certain Oracle Certified professionals. I am proud to say that I was also asked to be part of this new feature. So, I delivered my certification experience and it will soon be on the OCP blog. So keep checking the OCP blog for the Q/A sessions !!

How to get Discoverer4i working on Oracle Linux5

This morning I tested the sollution on another EBS 11.5.1.0.2 environment running on Oracle Linux 5. I also upgraded the database for this environment from 9i to 10.2.0.4, so it's also a test for Discoverer4i on 10gr2.
I tried starting the disco processes using the default start script addisctl.sh from Oracle in the $COMMON_TOP/admin/script/ORACLE_SID. When the script tried to start the locator, I received the same error again...

oebs/oracle/ora/8.0.6/jre1183o/lib/i686/green_threads/libzip.so: symbol errno, version GLIBC_2.0 not defined in file libc.so.6 with link time reference (libzip.so)
Unable to initialize threads: cannot find class java/lang/Thread
Could not create Java VM

Setting the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL didn't help. After setting this parameter on Linux 5, nothing else is working anymore. I solved this issue by performing the following steps :

1. adjust the discwb.sh in the $ORACLE_806_HOME/discwb4 directory.
In this file, change the VBROKER_JAVAVM parameter, it was pointing to the jre in the 8.0.6 home, to ...

VBROKER_JAVAVM="/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_06/jre/bin/java - Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBClass=com.visigenic.vbroker.orb.ORB -Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBSingletonClass=com.visigenic.vbroker.orb.ORB"

After setting this parameter to it's new value, also edit the start,stop and status scripts.
Edit the start/stop script in the $8.0.6_HOME/discwb4/util directory and also the addisctl.sh script in the $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts
In these script change the check for 'jre' to 'java' ...

for example in the startlocator.sh (8.0.6_home/discwb4/util) change
findprocess "JRE" ${lpid:-0} into findprocess "java" ${lpid:-0}

After these changes, the discoverer4i is working on Oracle Linux 5 and with a 10.2.0.4 database !!

Issue solved....

I solved the issue with Discoverer on Linux 5.
I will post the workaround tomorrow, because I have to test it on another enviroment also. To get Discoverer working I had to edit some config files, change it back later on. Patch the disco libraries, undo the patch and so on. To get a good image of the sollution I want to test it on another Linux 5 EBS environment.
The service request is still open, no answer from Oracle yet. Maybe because Disco 4 is desupported....

Discoverer on Oracle Linux 5

After I had the EBS 11.5.10.2 running on Oracle Linux 5, I noticed another problem.
When trying to start the disco proces using addisctl.sh in the $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts directory I noticed the following error :

/oebs/pubtar21/pubtar21ora/8.0.6/jre1183o/lib/i686/green_threads/libzip.so: symbol errno, version GLIBC_2.0 not defined in file libc.so.6 with link time reference (libzip.so)Unable to initialize threads: cannot find class java/lang/ThreadCould not create Java VM

In my last post about Oracle Linux 5, I mentioned that the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL must be unset. In earlier versions this parameter had to be set if you wanted to install or work with EBS 11i. I searched Metalink for a sollution for my Disco problem. The answer was found on Metalink....
Before starting the Disco processes, set the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL parameter !!!!
But when the parameter is set, nothing else is working anymore. So, here is another problem with Linux 5. I already logged an service request. To be continued.

Cloning 11i EBS on Oracle Linux 5

We have upgrade our Linux OS to Oracle Linux 5. We have 11i running on release 5, and today I tried to clone an EBS environment. At the beginning of the db_Tier the clone script runsinto an error.

Enter the APPS password [APPS]:
apps
Checking for make... found - /usr/bin/make
Checking for ld... found - /usr/bin/ld
Checking for cc... found - /usr/bin/cc
Checking for ar... found - /usr/bin/ar
Checking for ksh...
Unable to find 'kshell' in path Unable to locate all utilities with system path.

Strange error, because ksh is located in de /usr/bin and this is in the $PATH

Oracle appl: /oebs/oracle/home/oracle> which ksh
/usr/bin/ksh

I searched Metalink and Google, and found thsi problem also occurs when installing 11.5.10 on Oracle Linux 5.
I checked the adchkutl.sh script and found the problem :

## Verify for ksh if its a linux only platform#
if test $UNAME = "Linux"; then
printf "Checking for ksh...\t";
VERSN=`/bin/ksh -c 'echo $KSH_VERSION' grep "PD KSH";`;
EC=$?
if test $EC != "0" ; then
printf "\nUnable to find 'kshell' in path\n";
SHOW_PATH=1
else
printf "found - $VERSN\n";
fi
fi

It's checking for ' PD KSH' and that's not installed when installing Oracle Linux 5 !!!!!!
So, it looks like an error in the script. I searched Metalink again, but could not find anything in the documents (316806.1)
I removed the ksh check from the script to see if it would run this time.
And it did......
Another problem is the adgetlnxver.sh script. This sh script is called by the .env file in your ORACLE_HOME and it produces library errors. A patch has to be installed, patch 6365595 from Metalink solves this issue. The patch replaces the shell script in the $AD_TOP/bin directory. But not in your 9.2.0 ORACLE_HOME ???? You have to copy the adgetlnxver.sh manually to your $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/bin (9.2.0) directory...


The same error also occurs when running the app_Tier clone. So dont forget to edit the same script in the $COMMON_TOP/clone/bin

Installing new NLS...

I was asked to install an new NLS language on our excisting EBS environment. I had never done this before, usally the NLS is installed during a fresh install of EBS. This time I had to install the German language next to our US end NL languages.


Installing a new language is one thing, I downloaded the German langugae cd from e-delivery. This is a patch that can be installed, so no problem so far. I also downloaded the online help patch from Metalink and started patching.

But how to get the new language one the same pacthlevel as our other languages ? Should you look into every patch ever applied ?? I searched Metalink for a answer and found the following note 252422.1. According to this note Oracle provides you a synchronization patch for your NLS languages. All you have to do is run a perl script $AD_TOP/bin/adgennls.pl
This script genrates an manifest $APPL_TOP/admin/$TWO_TASK/out/adgennls.txt you should upload to Oracle (see the note for prereqs etc..)
I created the manifest for our test enviroment and it looks like this :

# Release: 11i# Active languages: D, NL, US# Manifest generated by adgennls.pl 115.7
abm admin/import/US abmactwk.dis 115.1 D:115.1:0 NL:115.1:0
abm admin/import/US abmcowk.dis 115.1 D:115.1:0 NL:115.1:0
abm admin/import/US abmdepwk.dis 115.1 D:115.1:0 NL:115.1:0
abm admin/import/US abmexpwk.dis 115.1 D:115.1:0 NL:115.1:0
abm admin/import/US abmmatwk.dis 115.1 D:115.1:0 NL:115.1:0
abm patch/115/discover/US abmactaccdaseflo.eex 115.7 D:115.7:0 NL:115.7:0
abm patch/115/discover/US abmactaccdavaflo.eex 115.6 D:115.6:0 NL:115.6:0
abm patch/115/discover/US abmactaccflo.eex 115.5 D:115.5:0 NL:115.5:0
abm patch/115/discover/US abmactbao.eex 115.5 D:115.5:0 NL:115.5:0
abm patch/115/discover/US abmactdrvflo.eex 115.5 D:115.5:0 NL:115.5:0
abm patch/115/discover/US abmactdrvsrcflo.eex 115.5 D:115.5:0 NL:115.5:0

The NL and D files are compared to the US files. If different your NLS is patched by the patch deliverd by Oracle.
So far, I have recieved a Dutch synchronization patch.

Agent upload fails...ret = -2

For some time now, I had some trouble with a database instance in OEM. The agent refused to upload his data to the OMS, giving me the Failed to upload file Bxxxxxx.xml, ret = -2 error.
In the log file, the following error occurs :

Thread-4595721 ERROR upload: Failed to upload file B0012907.xml, ret = -22008-07-23
Thread-4595721 WARN upload: FxferSend: received http error in header from repository: http://oemrepository/em/upload/

I bounced the agent, the OMS...even patched the OMS, but nothing solved this problem. Until I noticed the same problem in a forum. I tried the following on the target machine..

oemagent@oebs04:(state)> rm *
oemagent@oebs04:(collection)> rm *
oemagent@oebs04:(upload)> rm *
oemagent@oebs04:(emd)> rm lastupld.xml
oemagent@oebs04:(emd)> rm agntstmp.txt
oemagent@oebs04:(emd)> rm blackouts.xml
oemagent@oebs04:(emd)> cd ..
oemagent@oebs04:(sysman)> cd ../bin
oemagent@oebs04:(bin)> ./emctl clearstate agent
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 10.1.0.5.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2006 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
EMD clearstate completed successfully
oemagent@oebs04:(bin)> ./emctl start agent
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 10.1.0.5.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2006 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Starting agent ........ started.
oemagent@oebs04:(bin)> ./emctl reload agent
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 10.1.0.5.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2006 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
EMD reload completed successfully
oemagent@oebs04:(bin)> ./emctl upload agent
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 10.1.0.5.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2006 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
EMD upload completed successfully
oemagent@oebs04:(bin)> ./emctl status agent
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 10.1.0.5.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2006 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Agent Version : 10.1.0.5.1
OMS Version : 10.2.0.3.0
Protocol Version : 10.1.0.2.0
Agent Home : /oebs/oemagent/10.1.0
Agent binaries : /oebs/oemagent/10.1.0
Agent Process ID : 14591
Parent Process ID : 14588
Agent URL : http://oebs04.control.publicsoft.nl:1831/emd/main/
Started at : 2008-07-23 08:52:23
Started by user : oemagent
Last Reload : 2008-07-23 08:52:38
Last successful upload : 2008-07-23 08:52:52
Total Megabytes of XML files uploaded so far : 2.75
Number of XML files pending upload : 1
Size of XML files pending upload(MB) : 0.02
Available disk space on upload filesystem : 47.02%
---------------------------------------------------------------
Agent is Running and Ready

And this solved the problem !

OEM problem solved...

The problem mentioned before has been solved. Like most of us suspected, there was a synonym missing.

SQL> select OWNER, SYNONYM_NAME
2 from all_synonyms
3 where synonym_name like 'MGMT_VIEW_UTIL';

no rows selected

SQL> create public synonym MGMT_VIEW_UTIL FOR MGMT_VIEW_UTIL;

Synonym created.

After creating the synonym, the reports look fine. I believe this porblem was caused by the export/import from the sysman schema.