I just came back from diving, parasailing, safari and more fun in Egypt. On my blog I saw a comment from Nicolas regarding the availability of the terminal patchset for 10gR2
Note 161818.1: Oracle Database Releases Status Summary
10.2.0.5: Patchset 8202632
Released as announced for 2009Q4… database, 11.2 for Solaris x86_64
Still Oracle is suffering with European Union Commission who is still blocking the Sun deal.
You will get CPU and even PSU (Patch Set Updates are proactive cumulative patches comprised of recommended bug fixes that are released on a regular and predictable schedule)
But no more patchset. This the first time I see a release with only 1 pachset.
Well, if you use Linux, you can go to 11gR2. Otherwise you may better stick to 10.2.0.4 for a few more months
Ref: 742060.1
11.1.0.7 is the last patch set for Release 11.1
I just read a post from Barry Mc Gillin about apex on MacOsX.
After having being using Vista for one year, I would really welcome a Mac as my next notebook. But what about Oracle Database on Mac OS X?
According to otn, the latest release as of today is a deprecated 10gR1 for the deprecated platform PowerPC.
However, according to metalink, a 10gR2 is planned for the first quarter of 2009 (sic)
Db 10gR2 on MacOS X Intel
And 11g is planned too Db 11gR1 on MacOS X Intel, Schedule to be announced.
I just notice on Sven Blog that 11.1.0.7 is available. I have recently upgraded my connection at home so it took a bit less than half an hour to download this 1.5G patchset
$ wget -O p6890831_111070_Linux-x86-64.zip http://oracle-updates.oracle…
–10:17:40– http://oracle-updates.oracle.com/ARUConnect/p6890831_111070_Linux-x86-64..
Resolving oracle-updates.oracle.com… 87.248.199.23, 87.248.199.24
Connecting to oracle-updates.oracle.com|87.248.199.23|:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
Length: 1,613,366,248 (1.5G) [application/zip]
100%[==================================>] 1,613,366,248 891.73K/s
10:47:31 (879.89 KB/s) - `p6890831_111070_Linux-x86-64.zip’ saved [1613366248/1613366248]
$ unzip p6890831_111070_Linux-x86-64.zip
$ cd Disk1
$ ./runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer…
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from
Oracle Universal Installer, Version 11.1.0.7.0 Production
Copyright (C) 1999, 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved.
$ su -
root’s password:
# /u00/app/oracle/product/11.1/db_1/root.sh
Running Oracle 11g root.sh script…
# exit
$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on Sat Sep 20 11:10:35 2008
Copyright (c) 1982, 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> startup quiet migrate
ORACLE instance started.
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL> set time on
11:42:21 SQL> sho parameter sga_target
NAME TYPE VALUE
———————————— ———– ——————————
sga_target big integer 200M
11:42:25 SQL> alter system set sga_target=300m scope=spfile;
System altered.
11:42:28 SQL> shutdown immediate
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
11:42:43 SQL> startup quiet migrate
ORACLE instance started.
Database mounted.
Database opened.
11:43:01 SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/catupgrd
…
11:54:03 SQL> Rem END catupgrd.sql
11:54:03 SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 313159680 bytes
Fixed Size 2159272 bytes
Variable Size 226495832 bytes
Database Buffers 79691776 bytes
Redo Buffers 4812800 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
11:56:28 SQL> select comp_name,status,version from dba_registry;
COMP_NAME STATUS VERSION
———————————– ——– ———-
Oracle Ultra Search VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle XML Database VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle Text VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle Expression Filter VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle Rules Manager VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle Workspace Manager VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle Database Catalog Views VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle Database Packages and Types VALID 11.1.0.7.0
JServer JAVA Virtual Machine VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle XDK VALID 11.1.0.7.0
Oracle Database Java Packages VALID 11.1.0.7.0
My first try with 200Mb sga target did not succeeded. But with 300Mb sga target it worked fine.
While Linux x86_64 just came out, Unix Releases like HPUX, AIX and SunSolaris will probably not be available before third week of April.
While Linux x86_64 just came out, Unix Releases like HPUX, AIX and SunSolaris will probably not be available before third week of April.
Sven’s Technik-Blog » Blog Archive » Oracle 10.2.0.4 für Linux x86 ist verfügbar…
Patchset 6810189 is now available for Download on Metalink.
Online Patching : you can apply or roll back online patches while the RDBMS instance is running
1) download an interim patch for 11g, f.ex. dummy patch 6198642
2) unzip p6198642_111060_LINUX.zip
3) cd 6198642
4) $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch apply -silent -connectString LSC08 -runSql
Invoking OPatch 11.1.0.6.0
Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 11.1.0.6.0
Copyright (c) 2007, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Oracle Home : /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4
Central Inventory : /opt/oracle/oraInventory
from : /etc/oraInst.loc
OPatch version : 11.1.0.6.0
OUI version : 11.1.0.6.0
OUI location : /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/oui
Log file location : /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/cfgtoollogs/
opatch/opatch2007-12-05_21-23-42PM.log
RollbackSession rolling back interim patch '6198642' from OH
'/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4'
Running prerequisite checks...
OPatch detected non-cluster Oracle Home from the inventory
and will patch the local system only.
Please shutdown Oracle instances running out of this
ORACLE_HOME on the local system.
(Oracle Home = '/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4')
Is the local system ready for patching? [y|n]
Y (auto-answered by -silent)
User Responded with: Y
Backing up files affected by the patch '6198642' for restore.
This might take a while...
Execution of 'sh /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/.patch_storage/
6198642_May_07_2007_00_50_36/original_patch/custom/
scripts/pre -rollback 6198642 ':
Return Code = 0
Patching component oracle.rdbms, 11.1.0.6.0...
Copying file to "/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/cpu/CPUDummy2007/
catcpu.sql"
RollbackSession removing interim patch '6198642' from inventory
---------------------------------------------------------------
This is a dummy patch for testing only
---------------------------------------------------------------
Execution of 'sh /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/.patch_storage/
6198642_May_07_2007_00_50_36/original_patch/custom/scripts/
post -rollback 6198642 ':
Return Code = 0
Running the "apply" sql script "/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/cpu/
CPUDummy2007/catcpu.sql" with reference to 'patchmd.xml' file
for the patch "6198642"...
The local system has been patched and can be restarted.
OPatch succeeded.
OPatch did run the necessary script (catcpu for Dummy2007) on the various instances (LSC08). It needed only one step and 34 seconds on my notebook. This patch is a dummy patch, let’s wait for CPU January to see if it is online applicable 
Yesterday I installed ContentDB. The installation is fairly straightforward.
Download and install Oracle Identity Management
This will create a 10.1.0.5 database. The default parameters are too low for contentDB.
alter system set
processes=250
scope=spfile
sga_max_size=629145600
scope=spfile
shared_pool_size=184549376
scope=spfile
java_pool_size=125829120
scope=spfile
db_cache_size=150994944
scope=spfile
db_file_multiblock_read_count=32
scope=spfile
db_create_file_dest='/u02/oradata'
scope=spfile
job_queue_processes=10
scope=spfile
session_max_open_files=50
scope=spfile
open_cursors=400
scope=spfile
star_transformation_enabled=true
scope=spfile
pga_aggregate_target=203423744
scope=spfile;
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl stop iasconsole
$ $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl stopall
$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> shutdown immediate
SQL> startup
$ $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl startall
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl start iasconsole
It is now possible to install ContentDB in this database. Of course the ContentDB could be installed in a separate database, it does not have to be the same as the infrastructure database.
Now, download and install Oracle ContentDB
That’s all. There now two application server instances, one for the infrastructure and one for the content database.
To launch the Content Database web interface, just go to the http server of the ContentDB installation, something like http://server:7779.
$ /app/oracle/product/10.1.2/cdb_1/bin/opmnctl status -l
Processes in Instance: CONTENTDB01.srp20604ax
-------------------+----------+------------------------
ias-component | status | ports
-------------------+----------+------------------------
DSA | Down | N/A
HTTP_Server | Alive | http1:7779,http2:7202
LogLoader | Down | N/A
dcm-daemon | Alive | N/A
OC4J | Alive | ajp:12503,rmi:12403,...
WebCache | Alive | http:7778,invalidati...
WebCache | Alive | administration:9400
Content | Alive | node_dms_http:53900,...
Content | Alive | node_manager_locator...
Login with user ORCLADMIN and the password you specified for IAS_ADMIN.
ContentDB interface let you upload and download files. You can use it to keep your documentation in a single location. It has versioning capabilities too.
Application Server, Blogroll, content database, installation
Download oracle-oid-10.1.4.2.0-1.0.i386.rpm
Download oracle-xe-univ-10.2.0.1-1.0.i386.rpm
Install the rpm
# rpm -i oracle-*.i386.rpm
In SLES 10, there is no /bin/cut, let’s create a link as root to avoid a mistake when running config-oid.sh
# ln -s /usr/bin/cut /bin/cut
Run the configure script as root
# /etc/init.d/oracle-oid configure
That’s all folks! It created an Oracle XE 10gR2 database, and configured a running database. Excellent!
LDAP Server is running and configured.
$ ldapsearch cn=orcladmin dn
cn=orcladmin, cn=Users, dc=comThere is a nice video to run on linux : oracleauthenticationservices_demo.vvl
Save the file, set the display, then
$ chmod +x oracleauthenticationservices_demo.vvl
$ ./oracleauthenticationservices_demo.vvlWith dbca you can fasten the procedure of creating databases in your company. You can also run this in silent mode and create exactly the database you want, with your redo/undo size, with your parameters settings. You create the template once, and use it many times. Fast and easy 
I have one database which I created with SQL*PLUS called LSC01.
1) Create template lsc-template
dbca
–> Manage Templates
–> Create a database template
–> from an existing database (structure as well as data)
–> LSC01
–> lsc-template
–> convert the file locations to use OFA structure
This takes some place on disk and will speed up database creation. Technically speaking, it is doing a compressed backup with RMAN that will be restore, and restore is way faster than create database
2) Create database LSC99 in silent mode or progressOnly mode.
dbca -silent -createDatabase -templateName lsc-template.dbc -gdbName LSC99.lcsys.ch
It took me only two minutes to create my database on my notebook !
Try it ! Of course I expect comments on this post 
I just read on the General Notes For Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition in Metalink that 10.1.0.5 is the terminal patchset for 10gR1
I just downloaded and installed the Critical Patch Update April 2007
$ lsnrctl stop ... The command completed successfully $ sqlplus / as sysdba SQL> shutdown immediate ... ORACLE instance shut down. SQL> quit $ cd /tmp/5901891 $ ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch apply ... Finish at Wed Apr 18 10:28:17 CEST 2007 $ lsnrctl start ... The command completed successfully $ sqlplus / as sysdba SQL> startup ... Database opened. SQL> @?/cpu/CPUApr2007/catcpu SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/utlrp
The logfile of opatch is $ORACLE_HOME/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatchdate.log and the logfile of the catcpu is APPLY_sid_date.log. ORA-02303 can be safely ignored.
SQL> select * from dba_registry_history ACTION_TIME ------------------------------ ACTION ------------------------------ NAMESPACE ------------------------------ VERSION ------------------------------ ID ---------- COMMENTS ------------------------------ 18-APR-07 10.38.09.565465 AM CPU SERVER 10.2.0.3.0 5901891 CPUApr2007 SQL> select count(*) from dba_objects where status='INVALID'; COUNT(*) ---------- 0
Successfully applied 
Maybe you have a firewall in your company, only your PC can access the production server, only you have the root password in prod, and your company spend a lot of money in security, but you dare using xhost +.
This is a huge security hole, because it gives anyone access to your X resources, not only your display, but also your mouse and your keyboard, so anyone can read/modify/corrupt what you are typing/clicking. It is a bad habit to use xhost+. Even using xhost +localhost give access to your keyboard to anyone on localhost…
So what else could you use ?
The simplest is probably ssh tunnelling.
lsc@chltlxlsc:~> ssh -X oracle@localhost Last login: Fri Max 2 10:24:09 2007 from localhost oracle@chltlxlsc:~> xterm -e true && echo success success
Another way to do this is to use X cookies.
lsc@chltlxlsc1:~> xauth extract ~/my-x-cookie $DISPLAY< lsc@chltlxlsc1:~> setfacl -m u:oracle:r ~/my-x-cookie lsc@chltlxlsc1:~> su - oracle -c "DISPLAY=$DISPLAY bash" Password: oracle@chltlxlsc1:~> xterm -e true && echo success Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server Xlib: No protocol specified xterm Xt error: Can't open display: :0.0 oracle@chltlxlsc1:~> xauth merge ~lsc/my-x-cookie xauth: creating new authority file ~oracle/.Xauthority oracle@chltlxlsc1:~> xterm -e true && echo success success
No need to type all. Here is my alias
alias oracle=' xauth extract $HOME/my-x-cookie $DISPLAY; setfacl -m u:oracle:r $HOME/my-x-cookie; su - oracle -c "export DISPLAY=$DISPLAY; xauth merge $HOME/my-x-cookie; bash"'
The critical patch update for january is released. However, not for every version.
Already in CPU Oct 2006, many versions were delayed. The release date of 10gR1 Tru64 for example was Nov 15, but the note has not been updated for months. 9.2.0.8 Linux was released so late (29 Dec), that the CPU2006OCT-9208 is considered to be CPU2007JAN (patch 5490859). For 10.2.0.3, there is no CPU2007JAN
I applied both 9208-cpu2006oct and 10105-cpu2007jan to my notebook database.
Both complained about not existing XDB schema, but I ignore those (I have no XDB schema). Otherwise it went fine.
I apply the CPU as soon as released for testing purpose. However, applying the CPU as soon as possible in PROD does not apply to most of my customers.
In the Critical Patch Update 2007 January Pre-Release Announcement, you may wonder why there is a 8.1.7.4 CPU patch.
The reason is, Oracle 8.1.7.4 is still supported for some application supported by Oracle like Siebel, E-Business and Clinical.
Have a look at Metalink Note 148054.1
10.2.0.3 patch is released for various plateforms, like Linux (x86,x86_64,Itanium), Windows (32bits/64bits), Solaris (64 bits) and Z/OS
Patch 5337014
I am in the process in installing Oracle 10gR2 patch 2 with response file. There is no plenty of disk available, but installing a patch does not require as much space as specified by the runInstaller.
when I start in silent mode, I get :
$ ./runInstaller -responseFile /home/oracle/10202.rsp -silent
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may not have enough space on your drive for a successful install. Do you still want to continue?
Where should I answer yes? There is a secret parameter called -ignoreDiskWarning which does the trick. The parameter is not listed in ./runInstaller -help.
So I installed my 10.2.0.1 + patch 10.2.0.2 and still have 500Mb free. It is ok for Oracle Home. Check your diskspace before using this to avoid filesystem full.
I successfully installed 10gR2 patchset 2 on my notebook :
SQL> select ACTION,VERSION,COMMENTS from registry$history; ACTION VERSION COMMENTS ------- ---------- ------------------------------ CPU 10.2.0.2.0 CPUOct2006 UPGRADE 10.2.0.3.0 Upgraded from 10.2.0.2.0 SQL> select COMP_NAME,VERSION,STATUS from dba_registry; COMP_NAME VERSION STATUS ----------------------------------- ---------- ----------- Oracle Expression Filter 10.2.0.3.0 VALID Oracle Database Catalog Views 10.2.0.3.0 VALID Oracle Database Packages and Types 10.2.0.3.0 VALID Oracle Database Java Packages 10.2.0.3.0 VALID JServer JAVA Virtual Machine 10.2.0.3.0 VALID Oracle XDK 10.2.0.3.0 VALID
900M in size for a Linux patch is getting quite big. Expect 2G for HPUX/AIX5L, guess this 2G limit, if reached, is going to be a problem for many users !
Hint : use FileZilla to download software
For Windows and Linux x86, Oracle Database 10.2.0.3 is available
I downloaded the CPUOct2006 patch for 10.2.0.2 and applied it successfully to my database.
SQL> select action,id,comments from dba_registry_history; ACTION ID COMMENTS ------ ---------- ---------- CPU 5490848 CPUOct2006
in the logfile, apart from a few ignorable ORA-02303: cannot drop or replace a type with type or table dependents errors, everything went fine.
Applying the security patch shortly after they are released is in my opinion a good practice, because a fix could sometimes reverse-engineered to reveal the bug.
Tomorrow afternoon I flight via London to SF for OOW2006. I am quite unhappy about not taking my notebook, my phone, not even a book or a SuDoKu in the plane 
Well, I hope BA will not refuse to serve me wine this time as Delta did last year
wget is a well-known command line utility for downloading files from the internet/intranet.
I like to use the limit-rate, so that my coworkers still can surf. Until today, I never succeeded to download from otn, because wgetting software required me to log in and accept the export restriction
How to automate login is actually extremly easy :
1) open your mozilla browser, go to the page, login, accept the export, download the file, click properties, copy paste the “Saving From”, Cancel
2) find out where is located your cookies.txt file
3) wget
$ wget –load-cookies /home/lsc/.mozilla/default/86iy2n5j.slt/cookies.txt –limit-rate 250k http://download-uk.oracle.com/otn/compaq/oracle10g/10202/10202_database_HP-Tru64.zip
100%[++++++++++++++++++++++++++++======>] 1,081,211,566 254.98K/s ETA 00:00
16:48:05 (249.99 KB/s) - `10202_database_HP-Tru64.zip.1′ saved [1,081,211,566/1,081,211,566]
It works!
Patchset 9.2.0.8 is out for a few plateform. I am quite surprised it did not come out on Solaris 32bits first, as I expected, but rather on the following
Microsoft Windows 32bits
Microsoft Windows 64bits
Linux Itanium
Linux x86_64
HP UX PA-RISC
IBM AIX5L
IBM z/OS (OS 390)
This is the terminal release of 9iR2
Huge downtime on forums.oracle.com today. After landing on an Error-500 page, I discovered a quick and neat overview of oracle patchsets, accessible without metalink account :
http://www.oracle.com/technology/support/patches.htm
Still waiting for 9.2.0.8 Solaris by the way, announced for 2006Q3, whatever this mean
