Pankaj Chandiramani

Read more here about the PRESS RELEASE:  Oracle Delivers Latest Release of Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c

Richer
Service Catalog for Database and Middleware as a Service; Enhanced
Database and Middleware Management Help Drive Enterprise-Scale Private
Cloud Adoption

In coming weeks  , i will be covering latest topics like :

1. DbaaS Service Catalog incorporating High Availability and Disaster Recovery
   


2. New Rapid Start kit
   


3. Other new Features 

Stay Tuned !

 Interesting info-graphics on Data-center / DB-Manageability

One of the key task that a DBA performs repeatedly is Provisioning of Databases which also happens to one of the top 10 Database Challenges as per IOUG Survey .

Most of the challenge comes in form of either Lack of Standardization or it being a Long and Error Prone Process . This is where Enterprise Manager 12c can help by making this a standardized process using profiles and lock-downs ; plus have a role and access separation where lead dba can lock certain properties of database (like character-set or Oracle Home location  or SGA etc) and junior DBA's can't change those during provisioning .Below image describes the solution :

In Short :

• Its Fast


• Its Easy 


• And you have complete control over the lifecycle of your dev and production resources.
  

I actually wanted to show step by step details on how to provision a 11204 RAC using Provisioning feature of DBLM  , but today i saw a great post by MaaZ Anjum that does the same , so i am going to refer you to his blog here :

Patch and Provision in EM12c: #5 Provision a Real Application Cluster Database

Other Resources : 

Official Doc : http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/em.121/e27046/prov_db_overview.htm#CJAJCIDA

Screen Watch : https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=44785:24:112210352584821::NO:24:P24_CONTENT_ID%2CP24_PREV_PAGE:5776%2C1

Others : http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/lifecycle-mgmt-495331.html?ssSourceSiteId=ocomen

A quick note on how to install EMCLI which is used for various CLI operations from EM . I was looking to test some Database provisioning automation via EMCLI and thus was looking to setup the same . 

EMCLI Setup
To set up EMCLI on the host, follow these steps:
1.    Download the emcliadvancedkit.jar from the OMS using URL https://<omshost>:<omsport>/em/public_lib_download/emcli/kit/emcliadvancedkit.jar
2.    Set your JAVA_HOME environment variable and ensure that it is part of your PATH. You must be running Java 1.6.0_43 or greater. For example:
o    setenv JAVA_HOME /usr/local/packages/j2sdk
o    setenv PATH $JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
3.    You can install the EMCLI with scripting option in any directory either on the same machine on which the OMS is running or on any machine on your network (download the emcliadvancedkit.jar to that machine)
java -jar emcliadvancedkit.jar client -install_dir=<emcli client dir>
4.    Run emcli help sync from the EMCLI Home (the directory where you have installed emcli) for instructions on how to use the "sync" verb to configure the client for a particular OMS.
5.    Navigate to the Setup menu then the Command Line Interface. See the Enterprise Manager Command Line Tools Download page for details on setting EMCLI.

Since the demands
from the business for IT services is non-stop, creating copies of production
databases in order to develop, test and deploy new applications can be
labor intensive and time consuming. Users may also need to preserve private
copies of the database, so that they can go back to a point prior to when
a change was made in order to diagnose potential issues. Using Snap Clone,
users can create multiple snapshots of the database and “time
travel” across these snapshots to access data from any point
in time.

Join us for an in-depth
technical webcast and learn how Oracle Cloud Management Pack for Oracle
Database's capability called Snap Clone, can fundamentally improve the
efficiency and agility of administrators and QA Engineers while saving
CAPEX on storage. Benefits include:

• Agile provisioning
  (~ 2 minutes to provision a 1 TB database)


• Over 90% storage
  savings


• Reduced administrative
  overhead from integrated lifecycle management

Register
Now!

April 24 — 10:00 a.m. PT | 1:00 p.m. ET

May 8 — 7:00 a.m. PT | 10:00 a.m. ET | 4:00 p.m. CET

May 22 — 10:00 a.m. PT | 1:00 p.m. ET

Database Life Cycle Management via EM 12c eliminates manual and time consuming tasks related to discovery, Database provisioning, patching, configuration management, ongoing change
management and disaster protection automation.

Click here to register for a live webcast.

There is an interesting webcast happening on 25th April on Building private cloud using EM which covers everything from Setup to Meeting & Charge-back , below are the details : 

Unleash the Power of Oracle Enterprise Manager to Build Private Clouds

Cloud is undergoing rapid adoption. As IT
organizations get flooded with requests for new resources, they are
looking for large scale automation for provisioning, monitoring and
administering resources. In this highly technical session, you will
learn from architects how the Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud
Management Pack can enable IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and DBaaS
(Database as a Service) involving self-service provisioning, monitoring
and chargeback in your enterprise and help you develop an enterprise
private cloud in quick time.

In this live session, we will demonstrate and review the following cloud-related topics:

• Plan and Setup the Cloud Environment


• Enabling Consolidation Cost Savings


• Self Service Access


• Monitor and Manage Cloud Operations


• Meter, Chargeback, and Optimize Cloud Services

Click here to register for a live webcast.

Here is an interesting white paper on Metering and Charge-back using Enterprise Manager 12c . This covers Cloud, Database and Middleware.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/cloud-mgmt/wp-em12c-chargeback-final-1585483.pdf

Are you planning to apply Bundle patch 1 for EM 12c ? 

If yes , check this workbook which describes the complete flow .

Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Workbook for Applying Bundle Patch 1 (February 2012) and 12.1.0.2 Plugins [ID 1393173.1]

Applies to:
Enterprise Manager Base Platform - Version: 12.1.0.1.0 to 12.1.0.1.0 - Release: 12.1 to 12.1

Purpose
This document provides an overview of the installation steps needed to apply Bundle Patch 1 on the EM Cloud Control 12c Oracle Management Service OMS) and Management Agent.

Its been an year since i moved to my new role as Product Manager for Enterprise Manager & time flew like anything specially with activities like Product Beta's , Pre-launch Activity , Oracle Open World , Product Launch , Collateral creation (white-papers , video , demos etc)  & 100's of others things . Now finally i have decided to revive this blog & start sharing my experience on Em12 .

Next up i will be covering OAM-OIM integration for 11g .

Why do we need Integration?
Oracle Identity Manager(OIM) is an Identity Administration solution which Enables management of users and organizational identities with their associated attributes.

Oracle Access Manager(OAM) is an Access Management solution which Facilitates authentication of resource-related accounts for users and organizations, and allow users and organizations to access their accounts by authorizing them .

OIM and OAM are integrated together to provide a complete Identity and Access Solution

I will start with Architecture & then steps involved for integration in coming post ...

This is part 2 of http://blogs.oracle.com/pankaj/2010/11/upgrade_10g_osso_to_11g_oam.html

So last post we saw the overview of upgrading osso to oam11g . Now some more details on same .

As we are using the co-existence feature , we have to install the OAM server and upgrade the existing OSSO 10g server to the OAM servers.

OAM Upgrade Steps Overview
Pre-Req : You already have a OAM 11g Installed
Upgrade Step 1: Configure User Store & Make it Primary
Upgrade Step 2: Create Policy Domain , this is dome by UA automatically
Upgrade Step 3: Migrate Partners : This is done by running Upgrade Assistant
Verify successful Upgrade

Details on UA step :
To Upgrade the existing OSSO 10g servers to OAM server , this is done by running the UA script in OAM , which copies over all the partner app details from osso to OAM 11g , run_ua.sh is the script name which will ask you to input the Policies.properties from SSO $OH/sso/config folder of osso 10g & other variables like db password .

Some pointers

• Upgrading oso to Oam 11g , by default enables the coexistence mode on the OAM Server


• Front-end the OAM server with the same Load Balancer that is the front end of the OSSO 10g servers.


• Now, OAM and OSSO 10g servers are working in a co-exist mode.
• OAM 11g is made to understand 10g OSSO Token format and session handling capabilities so as to co-exist with 10g OSSO servers.<>/li
  

How to test ?

Try to access the partner applications and verify that single sign on works. Also, verify that user does not have to login in if the user is already authenticated by either OAM or OSSO 10g server.

Screen-shots & Troubleshooting tips to be followed .......

As described earlier , Oam 11g is a replacement of 10g osso in IDM suite . In OAM 11g there is a new feature called Co-exist in where you can do step-up replacement of osso environment , ie , a phased migration approach where only one 10g OSSO instance is migrated to 11g OAM at a time.

To be frank , this is a really cool feature specially when you want to upgrade production & don't want a downtime while migration . I will be taking through the step-by-step details on the same , but before that here is an overview .

Typical OSSO Server Deployment Topology
A Cluster of 10g SSO Servers Front-ended by a Load Balancer (LBR)

Flow
User accesses a protected resource , Agent intercepts it and redirects to the LBR
->LBR routes the request to one of the SSO Servers in the cluster
->The SSO Server authenticates and sets a SSO_ID Cookie containing the session state.



















So whats the problem?

• 10g SSO Server sets a SSO_ID cookie
• 11g OAM Server sets an OAM_ID cookie
• They don't understand each other's cookies . They don't honor sessions created by each other.
• Single Sign on wouldn't work

Solution 11g OAM Server should also

• Understand the 10g SSO Cookie
• Create/Update the 10g SSO Cookie

To Be continued ............

One of my reader has some questions :

1)I use osso , what is oam ? Why should i upgrade to oam 11g ?
2)Can i upgrade from oam 10g to oam11g ?

So here are the details
1) You should look to upgrade to oam11g as osso will not be supported after 2011 (or will need extended support) . OAM 11g is the supported product that will replace the osso in fusion middle-ware . So if you are running osso 10g , you should start looking at upgrade options .

2)Current rollout of 11g oam is intended for osso customers mostly . So you can wait for further announcements or follow-up with PM team.

Bird's eye view of OAM 11g Install process

Configuration process requires 2 steps
1)Database schema configuration using Repository Creation Utility (RCU)
2)Product install , configuration and deployment using WebLogic Configuration Wizard

Database schema configuration
RCU allows customers to choose the product for which they want to create database schema and creates the schema after providing the database details

OAM Product install , configuration and deployment
OAM 11g installs using Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) , The installation process copies all the software bits to the host machine but. does not perform product configuration

OAM 11g is a J2EE application that deploys into a container ,The deployment and configuration is handled by WebLogic Configuration Wizard by using configuration templates provided by each product to configure the product .Finally, it deploys the product into a new or existing WLS domain.

I had this question in mind when i started looking at 11g OAM .
bind or compare for authentication ? And Why ?

So what i found .......
11g OAM uses Ldapcompare
why ? because
An ldapcompare works like an ldapbind as far as username /password check is concerned, it doesnt create a session an thus is far more efficient that using ldapbind for a server to authenticate multiple users

Hi , Recently i installed 11g db on one of my systems ,as it comes with APEX i thought to move my apex app(which were in 10g) to the same .........when i moved my apps , i got everything working but mail .......it gave error :ORA-24247: network access denied by access control list (ACL)

The issue is with ACL as by default, the ability to interact with network services is disabled in Oracle Database 11g. To enable i needed to run a procedure as shown below .

DECLARE
ACL_PATH VARCHAR2(4000);
ACL_ID RAW(16);
BEGIN
-- Look for the ACL currently assigned to '*' and give FLOWS_030000
-- the "connect" privilege if FLOWS_030000 does not have the privilege yet.

SELECT ACL INTO ACL_PATH FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS
WHERE HOST = '*' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL;

-- Before checking the privilege, make sure that the ACL is valid
-- (for example, does not contain stale references to dropped users).
-- If it does, the following exception will be raised:
--
-- ORA-44416: Invalid ACL: Unresolved principal 'FLOWS_030000'
-- ORA-06512: at "XDB.DBMS_XDBZ", line ...
--
SELECT SYS_OP_R2O(extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef')) INTO ACL_ID
FROM XDB.XDB$ACL A, PATH_VIEW P
WHERE extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef') = REF(A) AND
EQUALS_PATH(P.RES, ACL_PATH) = 1;

DBMS_XDBZ.ValidateACL(ACL_ID);
IF DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CHECK_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH, 'FLOWS_030000',
'connect') IS NULL THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH,
'FLOWS_030000', TRUE, 'connect');
END IF;

EXCEPTION
-- When no ACL has been assigned to '*'.
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL('power_users.xml',
'ACL that lets power users to connect to everywhere',
'FLOWS_030000', TRUE, 'connect');
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL('power_users.xml','*');
END;
/
COMMIT;

Finally got it working :)

Now you can record & share the issues you are facing to Oracle Support .

https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/f?p=130:14:7679480494464650902::::p14_database_id,p14_docid,p14_show_header,p14_show_help,p14_black_frame,p14_font:NOT,11.1,1,1,0,helvetica

Its a nice way to share the error & show the support guys on how that error occurred & faster reproducibility.

Been long time since i posted something  the reason being have started in new directions  ......working with OIM , OID & stuff these days .

So will be writing a post to install/config OIM in next couple of days & will keep on posting regularly on the topic.