Frankie goes to Hollywood

Two faced dual?

2011-12-07T10:43:00.003+01:00

Anyone witnessed this before?SQL> select * from dual;ADDR INDX INST_ID D-------- ---------- ---------- -03A00074 0 1 XSQL> desc dual Name Null? Type ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------- DUMMY VARCHAR2(1)SQL> select * from dual;D-XSQL>Happened

deconfig.pl - oh yeah!

2011-12-02T11:45:00.004+01:00

Ended up restoring databases, the other day, due to:If the tool deconfig.pl runs successfully, the two tablesorasso.wwsso_papp_configuration_info$ and orasso.wwsec_enabler_config_info$will not be empty.However, there are cases when deconfig.pl does not complete successfully andhence leaving these two tables not populated.In these case, restore the two tables from a orasso schema DB backup.Well, I

APEX PDF Printing II and ORA-20001 "Printing Engine"

2011-11-07T13:41:00.004+01:00

If you use APEX PDF printing with an 11G database, make sure you configure the acl. 11G does NOT allow alless to the www by default!When you run into this error: ORA-20001: The printing engine could not be reached because either the URL specified is incorrect or a proxy URL needs to be specifiedThen, try this:BEGIN DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL(acl => 'www.xml',

Edit your export dmp-file: never?

2011-10-10T20:56:00.005+02:00

Don't!Every expert in the field will tell you to never, ever edit your dump file.And rightfully so. Unless you really are caught between a rock and a hard place, and think you know what you are doing. I think I know.Fair warning: you are about to see stunts that should not be attempted at home. Do not perform these actions without supervision of experienced personnel.And never use a text

Upgrading VirtualBox

2011-06-29T16:06:00.002+02:00

It wasn't as easy as though, so here's the drill:sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.0If you get errors about trust/keys/whatever, do: wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -then, retry the above.wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.0.10/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.10-72436.vbox-extpackchmod 744

SSO Fails randomly; clock skew too great

2011-05-26T17:04:00.006+02:00

Ran against some weird issues today. At random people failed to pass Single Sign On. Not until I started to monitor the OC4J Security logging (in $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/logs) that I saw a failure GSSException raised: Failure unspecified at GSS-API level (Mechanism level: Clock skew too great (37))The Kerberos configuration file allows for a defined clock skew, and has a default of 300 (units: seconds

FireFox 4 breaks Oracle SSO

2011-05-23T09:47:00.002+02:00

I can no longer do SSO on Oracle application servers, using mod_osso with Firefox 4. Some problems with SPNEGO have been "solved", breaking SSO.Will be investigated, and continued. For now - do NOT move to FF4!

Quebes: A Secure Operating System

2011-04-15T10:20:00.002+02:00

This might be interesting for all you system operators out there: a secure OS!I see potential for Oracle as well.You may download from here which is a basic installation guide as well.Hats off for Joanna - she may have something here. Now we wait for buyers to emerge, and incorporate it in something we'll all have to pay for big time.

I'd like that: FTTH

2011-04-07T13:30:00.009+02:00

Deutschen Telekom offers Fiber To The home, with internet (100Mbps download, 50 Mbps upload) and telephone for less than 50 Euro monthly. That's about what I pay for 5Mbps down/1Mbps up.An extra 10 bucks will get you Digital Television as well. Unfortunately, delivery ends just at the other side of the border, in spite of this:

Long time no see

2011-03-29T09:50:00.005+02:00

You did not see updates for some time. One of the reasons is the NZ earth quake. My son lives in Christchurch. Another reason is work, which is very hectic, to say the least.Besides:

Progress

2011-01-05T17:28:00.001+01:00

First part of the "wall-to-wall-sso" project has been published: the AD to OID synchronisation.

Novell acquired - Unix status uncertain

2010-11-22T16:47:00.005+01:00

Oh, dear! Wonder where that is going to end. Not another SCO-like event, I hope.And, in the press: MicroSoft bought "intelectual properties" from Novell. Which properties that would be is unclear.Update: Novell released this: Novell will continue to own Novell’s UNIX copyrights following completion of the merger as a subsidiary of Attachmate.

ORA-12641 "Authentication service failed to initialize" on multi homed machines

2010-11-19T14:31:00.009+01:00

Update: the TMPDIR environment variable gets picked up; the file will be created in that directory. A technical note will be released, as this is not documented anywhere.I have been struggeling to get Kerberos Authentication running on multi homes machines at my clients site. I just could not figure out why one package (HP-speak for virtual machines) works just fine, where the next errs off with

Congratulations, Sebastian

2010-11-14T16:26:00.005+01:00

Sebastian Vettel, youngest world champion Formula 1 ever, congratulations!And perhaps Ferrari should rethink contracting Mr. F. Alonso - the unsportsmanlike behavior towards Petrov says it all... If you cannot pass Petrov in like 20-odd rounds, you're clearly not World Champion material. There's only one to blame, Fernando - that is you. Not Petrov!

Happy Days

2010-11-04T15:11:00.001+01:00

Some post are still in backlog, I've been here...

Support pays off!

2010-11-04T15:01:00.002+01:00

Update on a previous entry: we have a patch, and it actually works.So when you ever get in the situation where fixed user database link do not work due to kerberos aare environments, ask for patch 8482256.Available (and tested!) for HP-UX 11.23 and up; should become available for MS Windows (Server 2003, 32 bit and up), as well as VMS.

mount Oracle

2010-09-27T13:23:00.002+02:00

Just curious:mountd 20048/tcp NFS mount protocolmountd 20048/udp NFS mount protocol# Nicolas Williams 09 August 2010

ORA-12638: Status 82 "Not a bug"

2010-09-26T11:05:00.005+02:00

One thing that completely spoils the previous entry on Kerberos authentication in the database, is the state of denial Oracle is in. It seems impossible to admit there's a bug in SQL*Net in the sense there's no fallback for username/password authentication when Kerberos fails.ORA-12638 [Credential retrieval failed]What's the case? Well, after you have set up Kerberos authentication, your database

Synchronize OID 10.1.4.3 with Active Directory

2010-09-22T10:22:00.019+02:00

There's quite a difference between 10.1.4.1 (and earlier versions) and 10.1.4.3 in the syncing business. You may now use multiple profiles quite easily and even have separate jobs for each profile. This would allow for a multi-AD-domain company to allow for different frequencies of synchronization: have one, well-know busy AD Domain synchronize very frequently, and other less frequent.You may

Wall-to-wall SSO and EUS

2010-09-15T10:18:00.007+02:00

After introducing Kerberos, and getting SSO to the database working, it's time for some excitement: combine Single Sign On (SSO) with Enterprise User Security (EUS).Sure, I blogged about Enterprise Security a long time ago (See the "Enterprise Security" entries of 2005), but there I used certificates; in fact another identity.In this entry, some of the 2005 stuff returns, but parts will

Single Sign On to the Database (or WNA for SQL*Plus)

2010-09-08T11:37:00.008+02:00

In this entry, I'll demonstrate how easy it is to do Kerberos authentication to the database, or -rephrasing that- how to do WNA in the database.The goal of this exercise will be to allow users to log on to a remote database using the following syntax:sqlplus /@db10g ScenarioI like to think major sites have serious machines and ditto operating systems. Workstations are uncannily often based on MS

Over the top

2010-09-06T09:31:00.006+02:00

As much as I like privacy (google changed it's privacy statement just now, btw), I hate any form of censorship on the internet.RIM seems to give up on privacy, by allowing governments to decrypt Blackberry traffic.Google is not just content with our search and surf behaviour on the internet, it now wants to know what we're talking about and introduces free phone services.And Apple is censoring

An old fox looses hair...

2010-08-26T13:06:00.004+02:00

but not it's tricks. MicroSoft's "new" IE9 interface looks suspiciously like Google's Chrome (or Iron, which lacks the privacy loopholes of Chrome).How very innovative - oh no, MS has been doing that since they dubbed QDOS "MS-DOS".And yes, QDOS meant Quick and Dirty Operating System, and yes, it was "bought" by MicroSoft. The 50k US$ was not the initial amount (that was considerably lower).

Privacy

2010-07-31T11:01:00.004+02:00

[update]The new, right wing government signed a treaty with the US on DNA and fingerprint exchange. Quote (in Dutch): Een woordvoerder van het ministerie benadrukt dat het om een versnelling van een bestaande procedure gaat die alleen geldt voor de gegevens van zware criminelen. Alleen mensen die een straf van minimaal vier jaar hebben gekregen komen terug in de database. Which roughly translates

DNSSec, please

2010-07-19T15:00:00.001+02:00

Or is it "just" an insecure server? Whole story is here.Oracle TimesTen users may want to check the latest Patch set

ORA-28047 "database is not a member of any enterprise domain in OID"

2010-06-11T10:54:00.008+02:00

Amazing... Two-and-a-half-thousand hits and no answer. Metalink: two hits and no answer. Why me?OK; here's what is happening, and how to resolve the issue. I have not figured out what causes the problem - it seems intermittent.Update: might have something to do with settings (stickyness?) on the loadbalancer.SymptomsYou will be confronted with this error while trying Enterprise Security:sqlplus s

Getting runInstaller to accept your version

2010-05-19T10:34:00.002+02:00

Of course, you can start with the "-ignoreSysPrereqs" switch, but if you just want to see if all is OK, fool the installer by tweaking oraparam.ini (in the install subdirectory) by adding the correct version.I am running CentOS 5.5 (Final), which is indicated by the contents of the file /etc/redhat-release:[oracle@oracleas install]$ cat /etc/redhat-release CentOS release 5.5 (Final)The

Clone your Machine (VirtualBox)

2010-05-16T11:54:00.002+02:00

It seemed so easy, but it turned out not to be. After using Export/Import once, your disk image gets the internal UUID from the original. You cannot clone your baseline once more, as the UUID is already being used.You will have to fall back to the CLI, and issue vboxmanage clonevdiThat will clone your virtual disk. You still have to create a new Virtual Machine (VM), and attach this disk to it.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and Oracle under VirtualBox

2010-05-08T14:55:00.010+02:00

VersionsI'm running Sun VirtualBox V3.1.6 r59338. Got it installed via Synaptic, not the Ubuntu Software Center. The latter does offer VirtualBox, but there seems something wrong with the networking components: I could not get a bridged network working: horrible errors at boot time about missing stuff.Guest AdditionsIn order to get the Guest Additions installed correctly, I needed yum install

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is here... and Oracle?

2010-05-02T16:20:00.007+02:00

And I'm somewhat disappointed.Install woesI tried installing on a separate disk, a 300GiB Samsung 321KJ. The first installation attempt failed in the cleaning up phase, at 89%.The second attempt failed with a read error, and the advice to clean my CD lens or move to a colder area.Fourth attempt, after checking the installation CD for errors: ditto.Fifth attempt, other disk (same brand, model and

Firefox no longer does WNA with OSSO

2010-04-13T09:11:00.006+02:00

No, I'm not in some secret service, using all the acronyms. Firefox no longer does MS Windows Native Authentication in combination with Oracle Single Sign On. Somewhere between Firefox V1.5 and V2.0.11, they decided to change it's agent settings.Result is that there is not an enhancement request with Oracle: "BUG:6803891 ORACLE SSO WNA SOULD BE ENHANCED TO SUPPORT FIREFOX BROWSER".Please support

End of an era - Ed Roberts died

2010-04-02T16:03:00.002+02:00

The DIY PC era, that is - Henry Edward Roberts, the designer of worlds' first Personal Computer, the Altair 8800, died yesterday.

SSO server (with WNA) fails to start with Kerberos errors

2010-03-22T12:46:00.004+01:00

When you see this on the log:10/03/22 12:06:22 Acquire TGT using AS Exchange10/03/22 12:06:22 KerberosAuthenticator: GSSException raised in constructor - No valid credentials provided (Mechanism level: Attempt to obtain new ACCEPT credentials failed!)10/03/22 12:06:22 GSSException: No valid credentials provided (Mechanism level: Attempt to obtain new ACCEPT credentials failed!)10/03/22 12:06:22

Grid Control & OID: a deadly combo

2010-03-12T10:18:00.003+01:00

If you ever experience these symptoms, ask your self whether you have Grid Control (or OEM) running.Single Sign On failsOID Processes suddenly have stopped (which explains the above)ODS database account is locked, which seems to cause the problemUnlocking the ODS account resolves the problem, but it gets locked after a short period.The cause is the fact you changed the ODS password. Now, you may

IAM 10.1.4 on Ubuntu

2010-02-17T13:26:00.004+01:00

Starting off with a OID Repository, with is of the "Wrong Version" (Installed with REPCA 10.1.4 - trying to install 10.1.4...), now several wizards fail.It starts with the Delegated Administration Service Configuration Wizard; Apache fails to start with:Syntax error on line 1113 of /oracle/iam/Apache/Apache/conf/httpd.conf:Cannot load /oracle/iam/Apache/Apache/libexec/mod_rewrite.so into server:

There's quite a leak in 11G

2010-02-05T17:53:00.005+01:00

There's quite a security leak in Oracle 11G release 2. You are warned. No patch or workaround known (not installing Java - would that be an option?)Found on c't (German magizine, see link in title), announced on the Black Hat conference by David Litchfield.UpdateFirst line of defense: revoke all on DMBS_JAVA, DBMS_JAVA_TEST and DBMS_JVM_EXP_PERMS from PUBLIC.Update 2Here's a link to an English

Install APEX receipe

2010-01-27T09:57:00.005+01:00

How to install APEX - shorthand.Prepare the databaseThere are some options and tools to be installed. If you use the DBCA to generate scripts, make sure you at least run these:@$AH/scripts/CreateDB.sql@$AH/scripts/CreateDBFiles.sql@$AH/scripts/CreateDBCatalog.sql@$AH/scripts/JServer.sql@$AH/scripts/context.sql@$AH/scripts/xdb_protocol.sql@$AH/scripts/postDBCreation.sql$AH stands for my

OHS2 on Ubuntu (error loading shared libraries)

2010-01-20T10:50:00.004+01:00

Trying to install the Oracle HTTP Server powered by Apache 2, I got the following errors:/oracle/as/10.1.3/ohs/bin/apachectl startssl: execing httpd/oracle/as/10.1.3/ohs/bin/httpd: error while loading shared libraries: libgdbm.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directoryThat can be resolved by: sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libgdbm_compat.so.3.0.0 /usr/lib/libgdbm.so.2The next error on

Oracle 10G R2 on Ubuntu 9.10 (ins_rdbms.mk link error)

2010-01-20T09:14:00.005+01:00

Installing Oracle 10G release 2 on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is pretty much the same as installing on 8.04, except for the extra packages needed. In this entry, I used apt-get install build-essential libaio1 gawk ksh libmotif3 alien libtool lsb-rpm libstdc++5 Problem with 9.10 is: libstdc++5 has been fased out and superseeded with libstdc++6.When you try to install nevertheless, you'll get:

Reaching out: the database as Web-browser

2010-01-17T14:22:00.009+01:00

Many people may not know of the possibility to use the database as browser. Oracle dumped the RDBMS as database since the introduction of Oracle 8i, and made it some Jack-of-all-Trades. The browser capabilities were introduced even earlier, in release 7.3.3.Why?Indeed, you may want to ask: why? What use could this possibly have? Well, for one: gathering statistics about something you do not have

Special Characters - notes and comments

2010-01-17T14:00:00.003+01:00

Reason for this entry is the rather disturbing observation, you can actually get different results from one and the same script.The scenario is running a script, that uses embedded "special" characters (an €, in this case) and is executed using either the CLI version of SQL*Plus (sqlplus.exe), or the Windowed version (sqlplusw.exe).Code PagesIt turns out that both versions use different MS

Ubuntu 9.10 (and Oracle's support for it)

2010-01-13T09:09:00.006+01:00

It's official... CentOS is exit, I'm now running Ubuntu 9.10 (or Karmic Koala).Of course, I'll set up Oracle again, which appears to be very easy, as Oracle provided a Debian (and thus Ubuntu) repository. This should allow Debian and Ubuntu users to install Oracle by using Synaptic Package Manager. Point an shoot installs... I am curious!Add the repositoryYou do have to make Ubuntu aware of the

More APEX notes

2010-01-12T13:04:00.004+01:00

A very, very quick way of housekeeping:BEGIN APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.REMOVE_WORKSPACE ('&workspace_name','Y','Y');END;/It will drop your code, database accounts, and tablespace associated with it.If you ever want to create a workspace, and do some basic housekeeping:set echo off verify offaccept apex_short_name prompt 'Enter the short APEX applicaton name: 'prompt ...Creating the APEX tablespace...--

RSA-768 cracked

2010-01-11T12:21:00.003+01:00

Today I read the announcement, RSA-768 is factorized, that is, the prime numbers of which the 232-digit number consists, are known.English, and original, announcement, and a Dutch comment.It may have taken a lot of time, but it just shows: nothing is secret. I previously blogged about SHA1 and MD-5 being broken, and actually being used for forgery. Nice date formatToday is (was) 54 decimal.

Special characters - part V

2010-01-06T13:57:00.008+01:00

The end of the War of the Worlds?Well... that remains to be seen. I predict the conclusion will be that there's always a possibility unwanted, or "wrong" characters get displayed. But when you start to understand why, my mission is accomplished. By the way - I found an excellent explanation on HTML right hereSetupFor the setup, I used the "we8" database instance (see this entry) I added the

APEX Notes

2009-12-18T16:09:00.004+01:00

If you want to access a procedure without going through the APEX security, alter wwv_flow_epg_include_mod_local to include your procedure.I had a simple procedure, that lists all applications, called apex_apps:CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE apex_030200.apex_appsASBEGIN FOR i IN (SELECT TRIM(TO_CHAR (display_id)) ID, NAME FROM apex_030200.wwv_flows WHERE display_id NOT BETWEEN

My first program

2009-12-14T19:44:00.006+01:00

Entry # 100 - celebration? Anyway, ran into probably my first program ever. Machine code, for an MC6800 (6802, actually). Dates back to 1978 or 1979:inadd: CLRB ; clear count CLR,X PUSH B ; count on stack CLR 1,Xinadd3: BSR INHEX BMI inadd1 LDB#4inadd2: ASL 1,X ROL,X DEC B BNE inadd2 PSHS A ORA 1,X STA 1,X PULS A

Friday, the 13th.

2009-11-13T12:10:00.003+01:00

Could someone persuade Oracle to reinstate the good old Metalink, please?!Yesterday, I got just "An error has occurred. Please try again later" the whole day. And I was not the only one.Today it worked for about an hour for me (between 09:00 and 10:00 GMT+1), then it started with http-501 errors, and now this:Update: My favourites are gone! Years of careful reading, searching and safekeeping:

Go, google, go!

2009-11-13T12:04:00.002+01:00

Go - a new programming language. Let's hope it will not be the same disaster as Java became. Google should be large enough to withstand Microsoft. Are we waiting for Yet Another Programming Language? Only the future will tell. I see annoying things like 'garbage collection', which leads me to believe it will be just a "lazy" a language as Java.And the supposedly simple printf is beyond

Administration in Run-Time Only APEX

2009-11-10T11:51:00.006+01:00

Simple, but you have to know...connect systemalter session set current_schema = FLOWS_030100;begin apex_instance_admin.set_parameter('PRINT_BIB_LICENSED','ADVANCED');apex_instance_admin.set_parameter('PRINT_SVR_HOST','tobi01.home.local');apex_instance_admin.set_parameter('PRINT_SVR_PORT','8123');apex_instance_admin.set_parameter('PRINT_SVR_SCRIPT','/xmlpserver/convert');

ORA-24062 ( Subscriber table inconsistent with queue table)

2009-10-23T10:17:00.005+02:00

Surprisingly little search results in either google, the oracle fora, or metalink for this error. Ran into this today, and could drop an recreate the queues:SQL> BEGIN 2 SYS.DBMS_AQADM.STOP_QUEUE(QUEUE_NAME =>'TAB_OWNER.TB_BTR_Q_OPDR'); 3 SYS.DBMS_AQADM.DROP_QUEUE(QUEUE_NAME =>'TAB_OWNER.TB_BTR_Q_OPDR'); 4 END; 5 /BEGIN*ERROR at line 1:ORA-24062: Subscriber table TAB_OWNER.AQ$_

HP-UX: UnsatisfiedLinkError exception loading native library: njni10

2009-09-11T10:04:00.004+02:00

Ran into this today whilst applying patch 10.1.4.3 on Identity Management installs. Causes the Directory Intergration Platform (DIP) upgrade to fail. As there are some nice features, quite important. I want that to run, and run correctly!Three things to check/do:export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/libexport SHLIB_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib32Then you can rerun the configuration wizards again, assuring

Upgrade IDM from 10.1.2 to 10.1.4: dba_registry invalid OID

2009-09-10T10:03:00.009+02:00

After you upgrade Oracle identity management from 10.1.2(.2) to 10.1.4.0, you will notice that Oracle Internet Directory is listed as Invalid:idm01@xxxxxxx:/home/idm01> sqlplus / as sysdbaSQL> set lines 132 pages 99SQL> col version format a10SQL> col status format a15SQL> col comp_name for a65SQL> select COMP_NAME,VERSION,STATUS from dba_registry;COMP_NAME

Actieve DonorRegistratiesysteem

2009-09-03T17:36:00.002+02:00

Ik heb zojuist mijn steun gegeven aan de campagne 2 Miljoen Handtekeningen. Het doel van deze campagne is de invoer van het Actieve DonorRegistratiesysteem (ADR).Bij deze zou ik jou willen vragen om de petitie ook te ondertekenen op de site www.2miljoenhandtekeningen.nlMocht je eerst meer willen weten over de campagne of het ADR dan kun je al die informatie ook op de site vinden.Daarnaast het

Oracle 10, Apex 3, PDF printing and ORA-20001

2009-07-14T12:55:00.005+02:00

I have been struggling to get Apex 3.2 to print PDF, using BI Publisher.Time and time again, the developer reported he got the -by now- dreaded error:"ORA-20001: The printing engine could not be reached because either the URL specified is incorrect or a proxy URL needs to be specified."Because I spent quite a lot of time researching this, and the solution was so simple, this entry.Please be

Apex runtime maintenance: wwv_flow_api and #IMAGE_PREFIX#

2009-05-15T11:04:00.004+02:00

For some reason, the most important API within Apex is not well documented. I was asked to change the image prefix in an Apex environment.GUIUsing the Graphical User Interface, or GUI, it would have been easy: On the Workspace home page, click the Application Builder icon. Select an application. On the Application home page, click Shared Components. Under Application, select Definition. When the

Project Raw Iron, pardon me, Virtual Iron

2009-05-14T09:36:00.002+02:00

Crisis? What crisis?Never heard of the company (Virtual Iron, that is), and wonder if this would be an "if you can't beat them..." action. What would the impact be on Oracle's Linux fork?

"Special" characters - part IV

2009-05-02T11:53:00.015+02:00

By now, special characters should not be special. The whole point is that these characters have code points that have different shapes in different character sets. Once you realize that, it's simple. Make sure you use the same character set all the way.If you can't do that, make sure you understand what to use, and how it's done. Reread previous parts.Is there a silver bullet? A cure against all

Whoo!

2009-04-24T16:08:00.002+02:00

Little Darling, it seems like years since it's been here.Here comes the sun.Just click the header for the press release.

Database agnostic and Hibernate

2009-04-23T14:51:00.005+02:00

You know, there once was a time I genuinely loved Java. I thought it would be a great language with even better security. Then came V0.8, and we had to rewrite everything we'd done so far during the class... Since then, I changed. Java stepped out of the sandbox, was even tangled with by Microsoft, and I've become a bitter old man. I've seen too many Java "programmers" that just select from

"Special" Characters - part III

2009-04-22T09:43:00.007+02:00

Now that you know how Oracle databases store characters, as seen in part I and part II, it may be time to get realistic. After all, no one wants to loose information in a dramatic way as seen in part II.One thing I forgot earlier: the euro symbol...[frank@cs-frank03 ~]$ su - ora10gr2Password:[ora10gr2@cs-frank03 ~]$ . oraenvORACLE_SID = [ora10gr2] ? us7ascii[ora10gr2@cs-frank03 ~]$ sqlplus /

"Special" Characters - part II

2009-04-19T11:04:00.006+02:00

One of the prerequisites to do what I demonstrated in the previous entry is that you must use tools that allow the display of special characters.As logical as it seems, you can only display diacritics or a Euro sign when the tool actually knows how to display those. If in the end, your tooling cannot, you will see some strange things.This screenshot is not as strange as it looks. The terminal

"Special" Characters - part I

2009-04-15T09:19:00.008+02:00

Times and times again, people complain about "not being able to store special characters". Whatever special means - in this case diacriticals, like à é or ç, or currency symbols like the Yen or Euro sign: ¥ and €.Educated guess... Sort of.I even had an Oracle Master explaining that "the database had the wrong character set" because a web based application did not display the euro sign correctly.

APEX V3.1.2 Runtime Adminitration

2009-02-13T14:23:00.008+01:00

Currently working on a third party developed application, that does user management from within the application. Nothing special, you'd say.Nope, it is not. But for the part, where a new user needs to get privileges to add other users... The query used to check whether a user can administer application users is a join over the view FLOWS_030100.APEX_WORKSPACE_APEX_USERS, specifically the column

Top-25

2009-01-15T12:40:00.003+01:00

A little late, this top-25, but noteworthy, non the less. The top-25 of programming errors. What about Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output, or SQL Injection (the CWE organization calls it 'Failure to Preserve SQL Query Structure')Others, I like:Improper InitializationClient-Side Enforcement of Server-Side SecurityHard-Coded Passwordand, one I blogged about years ago: Use of a Broken or Risky

10G database on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

2008-09-07T11:27:00.003+02:00

I will describe what I did to get 10G Rel2 working on Ubuntu 8.04, codename Hardy Heron. Lot of the research was already done, of course, and comes from here.Update and upgrade.I made sure I got the latest version by switching to root, and upgrading/updating:frank@IA-laptop:~$ sudo su -[sudo] password for frank:root@IA-laptop:~# apt-get updateHit http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com hardy Release.gpgIgn

Oracle on Ubuntu

2008-09-01T20:26:00.006+02:00

The company I work for has supplied me with a very decent laptop, in December 2007, equipped with an Intel Core Duo T7500 processor, 4GB of RAM, and an 160GB Harddisk. The only downside (and reason I hardly ever use the thing) is Vista Enterpise. Apart from the fact Oracle only recently certified versions for Vista, it takes forever to get it into a state I can actually do some work. I timed it

Error creating new OC4J instance: Invalid protocol or port range.

2008-08-17T16:57:00.005+02:00

This is an attempt to install the SOA Suite, using Oracle AS 10.1.3.4 on HP-UX using the Enterprise Deployment Guide; the complete error message is:Error creating new OC4J instance: create oc4j instance fails: Invalid protocol or port range. There is no OHS installed on the Oracle Home. So new OC4J instance can not use ajp protocol. Please use the -protocol and -httpPort option on the command to

Cannot deploy because already deployed?

2008-08-08T09:28:00.003+02:00

Oracle Application Server playing bezerk? You undeployed an application, but ran into a memory error (or another).An error occured while undeploying the application. The evaluate phase failed. The Adapter used in the evaluate may have thrown an exception.Resolution:Please call Oracle support.Base Exception:java.lang.OutOfMemoryErrornull. java.lang.OutOfMemoryErrorNo trace of your application, but

SOA 10.1.3.3 install fails on multi IP machine...

2008-02-08T13:22:00.000+01:00

Of course, it's the 10.1.3.1 install, before patching to 10.1.3.3.You need to define VIRTUAL_HOST_NAME (yes - that is virtual-underscore-host-underscore-name).In addition to OUI_HOSTNAME, ORACLE_HOSTNAME and EMHOSTNAME, that is...So, if confronted with errors during the configuration stage (ESB goes wrong according to log, but gets status succeeded, BPEL Process Manager fails with Failed at "

Kerberos errors

2008-01-25T13:32:00.001+01:00

As extension of the previous blog on Windows Native Authentication with Oracle, this little piece of info:Kerberos Error 68.Kerberos testing (kinit -k -t command) responded with kinit: KRB5 error code 68 while getting initial credentialsSearches revealed:KDC_ERR_WRONG_REALM 68 Reserved for future useis being returned by Active Directory because your users are attempting to obtain a Kerberos TGT

UltraSearch - manual install

2008-01-19T14:49:00.000+01:00

Because of switching operating systems, my iAS repository needs rebuilding. And of course, UltraSearch was forgotten.So, after adding UltraSearch, I still needed the wksys user in the database. Have been looking for it once beore, and now decided to make a 'note to one self'. Of course, the Database Creation Assistent is useless, because it does not recognize the already installed instance, as so

Once bitten twice shy.

2008-01-19T14:14:00.000+01:00

Or should it be "Three strike - you're out!"?Strike one: MicroSod started complaining about the validity of my XP install - out.Strike two: tried Ubuntu 7.10 instead - graphics (solved) and networking issues; tried for two days - out.Strike three: running CentOS 5.1 now. Graphics is OK - nVidia recognized, network is a known issue on an Asus P5B, and the solution is to prepare a driver disk for

balance 3.40

2007-12-07T09:29:00.000+01:00

I used this piece of software in an earlier setup, and much to my surprise, there's even a Metalink note, that references the product.Anyway, download it here, documentation can be found here.

How to setup WNA with Oracle

2007-12-06T09:21:00.003+01:00

Just a short note on how to set up Windows Native Authentication (WNA) with Oracle Internet Directory (OID), V10.1.2.2 (patched 10G Rel 2).Of course, it requires you have your setup done, that is, OID is in place, it synchronises with Actice Directory (from AD to OID minimal, or two way), and the external authentication plugin works. Maybe I will publish on those steps and update this entry with

How to log on as orcladmin with WNA?

2007-12-05T16:29:00.000+01:00

Finally have WNA working, but now there is another "problem": how can I login as orcladmin (or any other user, for that matter)? Because every time, I switch to anything administrative on my oiddas page, Windows Native Authentication kicks in, and presents me with less privileged pages.The only workaround I have found so far, is to disable WNA for the time being.In IE, it is located in the

Indeed... what if?

2007-11-22T20:05:00.000+01:00

Just came across this - nothing to do with Oracle, but there is a point... I think.

It does not run Oracle

2007-10-18T12:16:00.000+02:00

But it is capable of running Linux, and -according to the specsheet- MS Windows XP. I doubt that, with just 256MB on board, but hey - it uses no more than 5 Watts peak, 3 Watts average!

Tweep-tweep-tweep

2007-10-04T08:54:00.000+02:00

Something like that would have been heard, coming from an object, circling the earth, just like an artificial moon. The space age was born, today, fifty years ago, with the launch of the sputnik.And it's animal's day, of course.

WNA and Firefox

2007-09-18T09:35:00.000+02:00

Where IE supports Windows Native Authentication sort of 'Out of the Box', Firefox does not. Here's how to enable Windows Native Authentication (WNA) in forefox:- type 'about:config' in the address bar- navigate to the entry 'network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris' (tip: set the search filter to "network.negotiate"- enter the domains you want WNA to act upon, e.g. "home.local".Multiple domains are to

ldapbindssl

2007-09-12T16:54:00.000+02:00

Trying to get password synchronisation from Active Directory to Oracle internet Directory (OID) to work. The password filter is a bit hard to find ("CD 1 of the Application Server"), actually it is in de utils directory of this download.Looks great, upto the part where I try ldapbindssl.The first attempt resulted in D:\>ldapbindssl -h idmhost -p 1636 -D cn=orcladmin -w welcome1Connecting server

Remove a realm

2007-08-30T13:45:00.000+02:00

Playing around with OID and Application Server Hosting, I created some realms. Quite easy to add one, but there's no delete, drop or remove realm option.So: how to drop a realm, without painstakingly going through the ODM (Oracle Directory Manager) screens, that do not support a cascaded delete?Appears to be quite simple:login on the machine your OID runs on, and:opmnctl stopall./bulkdelete.sh -

How to unlock orcladmin

2007-08-30T13:35:00.000+02:00

Proving the point that using 'cn=orcladmin' or 'orcladmin' when starting Oracle Internet Directory (OID) Manager (ODM), is actually the same account, I managed to "prove" the point just once too often, resulting in a "your account is locked" error.So, the question raises: how to unlock you superuser account orcladmin?Very simple:login on the Application Server where your OID runs, and:$

Passwords: store them in a Wallet!

2007-08-28T14:09:00.001+02:00

Working on OID and database registrations, I found the wallet created by the DBCA does not need to be signed. Basically - it's empty!Well, not quite; although the oracle Wallet Manager, owm, only shows "there's something", details can be retrieved using mkstore:oracle10@infra mkstore -wrl /oracle/infra/admin/dev/wallet -list Enter password: Oracle Secret Store entries

Status 84?

2007-08-27T20:29:00.000+02:00

Not feasable to Fix?Annoying, to say the least - ever been in the situation where the Network Configuration Assistant could not process your tnsnames.ora? Manually edited just once too often?I ran into this error when using the Enterprise Security Manager - I was mapping an Enterprise Role to Database Roles. [AWT-EventQueue-0][2007-8-17:16:14:56:927] java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 240

Enterprise network issues

2007-08-17T11:15:00.000+02:00

Just had a situation where I set up an enterprise user on a registered database. Logging on to the instance works on the machine itself:SQL> create user global_id_schema_user identified globally;User created.SQL> grant connect to global_id_schema_user;Grant succeeded.SQL> connect bortelEnter password:Connected.SQL> select sys_context('userenv','external_name') from dual;SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','

Oracle 11g

2007-07-11T21:31:00.000+02:00

No downloads yet, but marketing starts spinning up.All features and why we should is here. Have fun reading.[Edit] It's downloadable; the Linux versions, that is.[Edit]As of today, october, 23, 2007, 11G for windows is avaiable from otn.

Cannot login Enterprise Manager

2007-07-09T19:30:00.002+02:00

It happened to me the other day: I could no longer login to an Enterprise Manager site, and I was sure I had the correct password. It might have something to do with running ssoReplSetup.jar.Anyway, the solution is to use a hidden option of emctl: reset. These are the steps to revitalize your OEM:edit $ORACLE_HOME/sysman/j2ee/jazn-data.xmlfind ias_admin entryremove line with "credentials"save

Handy

2007-06-27T22:06:00.000+02:00

these plugins, for Firefox users. Search Metalink, OTN, documentation, whatever.Update: The Oracle toolbar has a new version. Still not published on OTN, but you can find it here.

High performance, High availablity in Oracle Application Server

2007-06-10T12:01:00.000+02:00

Last update: Aug, 10, 10:53 (11g Download!)Ambitious?Here is what I want to do. I have done setups according to the Enterprise Deployment Guide, ending up with a configuration similar to what you can see here, and I've also witnessed stuff, described in numerous metalink articles (so it must be hard :) ) and in the High Availability Guide, that lead to this.Now, for some reason, my current

A test bed, or how to install Linux fast!

2007-06-07T19:19:00.000+02:00

How do you prepare for Oracle testing? Or anything else, for that matter, based on Linux? Here's how:Preparation:Hardware. Of course, you should have the hardware. I have.Download the CentOS 4.4 Server CD; it can be found here.Burn the .iso on a CD - any burning program can do that, many recognize the downloaded file as an image.The next steps take about twenty minutes, even less on a modern

Oracle Apex goes commercial!

2007-04-04T20:55:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, Oracle launched version 3 of Application Express, also known as ApEx. I wasn't sure about the new frills it would contain - PDF from within wasn't something I was missing. After all, it has been possible to produce PDF since version 1.5.But things sure have been improved - PDF printing is now so much easier!Edit: I fell for it. I'll admit; I fell for the marketing machine.PDF printing

Who said I was?

2006-12-27T16:07:00.001+01:00

I already noted the nasty side effects, but instead of altering the once published blog, I decided to add this one. After all, the portal single-sign on (SSO) was just an example, and I want the originally registered applications still to be registered, including OIDDAS, orasso and both the infrastructure as well as the middle tier Oracle HTTP Servers (or OHS).Inventory taking.What is it I will

So, you're the security expert on Oracle iAS... or How To Relocate the SSO server

2006-12-15T10:51:00.000+01:00

Well, uhm, actually I'm not, but how often do you find yourself in the position that the consulting firm you work for positions you as one?Picture the following: a perfectly reasonable setup of Oracle's internet Application Server, with Oracle's LDAP implementation (Oracle Internet Directory, or OID) and Portal, Single Sign On (SSO), the Oracle Certificate Authority (OCA), Forms, Discoverer, the

Troubles....

2006-12-14T20:44:00.000+01:00

About two weeks ago, my monitor went dead. I switched it on, and it did ''poof!" - lights out. Funny smell came from it, too. Anyway - no fuse to be seen, and as the main switch was dead as well (no power light), I decided to say farewell to my 19" Iiyama, that has served me for about 8 years.So - something new had to be bought, but what? I wanted a 22" wide Samsung (the SyncMaster 225 BW), but

mod_plsql and flexible parameter passing

2006-09-27T09:53:00.000+02:00

This is a continuation on a previous entry, where I introduced a HTML wrapper. This wrapper has a nice way to produce a combo box:htp.p(htmlform.selecttable(label => 'Directory:', name => 'p_directory', tablename => 'dba_directories', textcol => 'directory_name',

Space advisor - ORA-20000

2006-09-15T14:18:00.000+02:00

Ran against a bug today, with dbms_space:ORA-12012: error on auto execute of job 8897ORA-20000: ORA-20000: Content of the tablespace specified is not permanent or tablespace name is invalidORA-06512: at "SYS.PRVT_ADVISOR", line 1624ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_ADVISOR", line 186ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SPACE", line 1344ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SPACE", line 1560Turns out to be bug 4707226, which "will be

Help save €200,000,000

2006-09-13T14:11:00.000+02:00

Although I like France, I think this should stop.Wasting €200 million each year... Just take a moment and sign the petition:

Formatting blogs

2006-09-05T14:31:00.000+02:00

Today, I finally got around some nagging problem with formatting. Just reread some old posts to see the difference... Code snippets now actually look like code snippets - I'm in the process of updating all old posts, but it requires editing the HTML code directly, so it's error prone.Anyway - that's my current backlog for now: reformat old posts...

Authentication in mod_plsql

2006-07-18T09:26:00.003+02:00

Ever wondered what all these possibilites in your DAD configuration meant? I did, and I have used 'Per package' since.IntroductionLet me assume you have your database (9i Release 2, or 10g, Release 1 or 2) installed and configured, and you have the Oracle Webserver by Apache installed, too. After you started the http server, you should be able to fire up your favourite browser, and browse to