Laurent Schneider

I just noticed 10.2.0.4 is out. I started downloading 1,916,781 KB !

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

• OID 10.1.4.0.1
• Install the Infrastructure, with the Identity Management and Repository, including Internet Directory, Single Sign-on, Delegated Administration Services and Directory provisioning

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

• Content Database 10.2.0.0.0
• Install the 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.

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=com

There 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.vvl

With 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:~&gt; xauth extract ~/my-x-cookie $DISPLAY<
lsc@chltlxlsc1:~&gt; setfacl -m u:oracle:r ~/my-x-cookie
lsc@chltlxlsc1:~&gt; su - oracle -c "DISPLAY=$DISPLAY bash"
Password:
oracle@chltlxlsc1:~&gt; 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:~&gt; xauth merge ~lsc/my-x-cookie
xauth:  creating new authority file ~oracle/.Xauthority
oracle@chltlxlsc1:~&gt; 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

download

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

Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.2)
Enterprise/Standard Edition for Solaris Operating System (x86)

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!

Linux x86

Solaris Sparc 64bits
Solaris Sparc 32bits

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

Novell SLES10 Oracle Database
Originally uploaded by laurentschneider.

The orarun package to be installed in SLES10

How neat is Suse!

I downloaded the DVD SLES10 on Novell.com. At the installation time, appart from Gnome, Development, X Window, there are a few new categories. One of them is called Oracle Database, and guess what, it installs all what I needed for Oracle. It creates an oracle account, with oinstall as primary group and dba as secondary group, it sets usefull things like ORACLE_HOME.

Ok, let’s unlock the account

chltlxlsc1:~ # usermod -s /bin/bash oracle
chltlxlsc1:~ # passwd oracle
Changing password for oracle.
New Password:
Reenter New Password:
Password changed.

Ok, let’s install. SLES10 is not recognized as a certified OS yet. The DISPLAY thing has to be manually set too.

oracle@chltlxlsc1:~> ./runInstaller  -ignoreSysPrereqs
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking installer requirements...

Checking operating system version: must be redhat-3, SuSE-9, 
redhat-4, UnitedLinux-1.0, asianux-1 or asianux-2
                                      Failed <<<<

>>> Ignoring required pre-requisite failures. Continuing...

this is one of the friendliest installation I have ever made…

I successfully applied patch 5225799 on my notebook

SQL> select action,version,id,comments from dba_registry_history;
ACTION VERSION          ID COMMENTS
------ ---------- -------- ----------
CPU    10.2.0.2.0  5225799 CPUJul2006

Download of the pre-release version of Suse Linux Entreprise 10 is now available
http://www.novell.com/linux/prerelease.html?sourceid=prerelease1

mod_plsql is an oracle module for Apache. Let’s do it from A to Z.

I install HTTP server. In 10g, it is located on the companion cd and requires a separate oracle home.

I copy my tnsnames.ora in COMPANIONHOME/network/admin

Then, I configure COMPANIONHOME/Apache/modplsql/conf/dads.conf

<Location /helloworld>
  SetHandler pls_handler
  PlsqlDatabaseUsername         scott
  PlsqlDatabasePassword         tiger
  PlsqlDatabaseConnectString    LSC01
</Location>

I create my procedure
create or replace procedure helloworld is begin htp.bold('hello world'); end;

I start my Apache server
$ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl startproc ias-component=HTTP_Server

I open my browser
firefox http://localhost:7780/helloworld/scott.helloworld

So easy!

Oracle Secure Backup is out. It enables the use encryption of backup on tapes, it can help you to save on media library costs (no need from a media manager any more).

Well, I am curious how many customer will take the challenge to migrate from tivoli or netbackup to oracle secure backup…

Oracle Release a solaris release for the intel/amd 64bits platform.

This is the first release ever from oracle on solaris x86-64.

Download Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.1.0) for Solaris Operating System (x86-64) now

the patchset 1 of database 10gR2 is available on AIX, HPUX, Solaris, Linux and Windows yet.

download patch 4547817 on metalink

As a habit of changing name of everything, the catpatch sql script has been renamed to catupgrd