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.
I wrote this paper to describes the process & benefits of applying patches using the EM.
Case : RAC - 3 node 10.2.0.3
Patch : CPU July 2007
Method : Rolling patch , zero downtime , using Deployment procedures in EM.
You can access the paper here on OTN.
or by copying the below url :
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/oem/pdf/saving%20time%20and%20labor%20on%20oracle%20patching%20with%20em%20provisioning%20pack%20-%20a%20case%20study%20with%20oracle%20internal%20it.pdf
Other interesting white papers on EM are also listed here .
This paper describes the process & benefits of applying patches using the EM.
Case : RAC - 3 node 10.2.0.3
Patch : CPU July 2007
Method : Rolling patch , zero downtime , using Deployment procedures in EM.
You can access the paper here on OTN.
Other interesting white papers on EM are also listed here .
I am loving the experience with Apex , we plan to have couple of new application using APEX , for that i neeed to configure SSO with apex .
It can be done in 3 steps :
For step 1 , you need below :
HOME URL : http: // apex_server_name/pls/apex
Success URL : http: // apex_server_name/pls/apex/wwv_flow_custom_auth_sso.process_success
Log Out URL : http: // apex_server_name/pls/apex/apex
Note : not covering the actual creation process , pls look at “Creating Partner App in AS admin guide”
For Step 2:
First unlock the flows schema according to the apex version you have .
SQL> alter user flows_030100 account unlock; (If your Apex version is 2.0.0.0.0 change acccordingly)
Now you need to copy sso sdk from the midtier , Login to Middle tier $ORACLE_HOME/sso/lib
copy ssosdk902.zip , unzip it . It creates some sql scripts & packages .
Login to db as user flows_030100 & run loadsdk.sql
SQL>@loadsdk.sql (Make sure you are executing under flows_XXXX)
Above will load the sso schema into flows account.
For Step 3:
Now we need to wire sso & apex schema(flows_xx)
SQL> @regapp.sql
It will prompt you for
Enter value for listener_token: HTML_DB:Hostname:7777
Enter value for site_id: enter_value_returned_while_registering_sso
Enter value for site_token: enter_value_returned_while_registering_sso
Enter value for login_url: http: // apex_url_here/pls/orasso/orasso.wwsso_app_admin.ls_login
Enter value for encryption_key: enter_value_returned_while_registering_sso
Enter value for ip_check: N
These above value you will get from Registring as partner app in step 1
Now configure authentication packages under flows_XXX schema
You need to login a zip file from here:
Unzip & get 2 files , execute as below
SQL> @custom_auth_sso.sql
SQL> @custom_auth_sso.plb
Finally you should lock flows_XXXX schema & grant execute permission to public user
SQL> alter user flows_020200 account unlock;
SQL> grant execute on wwv_flow_custom_auth_sso to APEX_PUBLIC_USER;
All set , once you use the authentication schema as sso , you can see the login page .
I have been using Apex extensively now , have created 3-4 application for production usage & i can finally say that its easy to use for us non developers also 
I will be covering the installation of Apex 3.0.1 in this post & will cover the SSO part in next .
Software Req:
In short , the process of Installing & configuring apex goes like this :
Install 10g Db –> Install Http server (i used 10g AS) –>Install Apex
Starting the Apex Installation
I assume you have 10g Db installed , else read this post for details .
You need to create 2 table space , i created apex1 & apex2 to seed the apex data :
create tablespace apex1 datafile ‘/apexdb/apex1.dbf’ size 50M autoextend on next 10M maxsize 300M;
create tablespace apex2 datafile ‘/apexdb/apex2.dbf’ size 50M autoextend on next 10M maxsize 300M;
Now we will seed the db with Apex configs .
Download Apex 3.0.1 from here & unzip it .
This will craete a subdirectory with name apex , cd into it & start sqlplus as sysdba & run apexins.sql as shown below.
cd apex
sqlplus system@tns_alias as sysdba
@apexins.sql {pass} {ts for user} {ts for files} {ts for temp} /i/
Where
pass - Password for Apex Super User
ts for user - Tablespace for User data (Created above)
ts for files - Tablespace for Apex files (Created above)
ts for temp - temporary tablespace (Usually Temp)
i - is the alias for image directory configuration in Application Server (Apache httpd.conf)
According to our config above , i used :
Sqlplus > @apexins.sql welcome apex1 apex2 temp /i/
It Takes ard 1 hr to get the seed data .
After this is complete , we go to the HTTP server location to configure Apex with it . AS we have the Oracle 10g AS installed we go to $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/modplsql/conf directory .
There in dads.conf we add the below lines :
#######
Alias /i/ “/apex/images/” (replace with your image location)
AddType text/xml xbl
AddType text/x-component htc
<Location /pls/apex>
Order deny,allow
PlsqlDocumentPath docs
AllowOverride None
PlsqlDocumentProcedure wwv_flow_file_mgr.process_download
PlsqlDatabaseConnectString host:port:service_name ServiceNameFormat
PlsqlNLSLanguage AMERICAN_AMERICA.AL32UTF8
PlsqlAuthenticationMode Basic
SetHandler pls_handler
PlsqlDocumentTablename wwv_flow_file_objects$
PlsqlDatabaseUsername APEX_PUBLIC_USER
PlsqlDefaultPage apex
PlsqlDatabasePassword apex_public_user_password
Allow from all
</Location>
###################
For above replace according to your server & install locations , we did below :
PlsqlDatabaseConnectString xyz.com:1521:apexdb apexdb
Post Install
After this you need to restart the Appache server as shown below :
dcmctl updateconfig -ct ohs
opmnctl restartproc ias-component=HTTP_Server (Restart HTTP Server to check it)
ou are all set to use the Apex , try http://hostname.domainname:port/pls/apex
I will be writing on how to configure sso in next post
11g for linux is available for download @OTN from here.
Read all abt the new features for HA , Db Replay etc from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/oracle11g/index.html
I have seen couple of good technical whitepapers at otn , below is the link to the same .
These cover the complete series for new features , security , HA etc
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/oracle11g/index.html
Backing Up and Recovering Voting Disks
What is a voting disk & why its needed ?
The voting disk records node membership information. A node must be
able to access more than half of the voting disks at any time.
For example, if you have seven voting disks configured, then a node must
be able to access at least four of the voting disks at any time. If a
node cannot access the minimum required number of voting disks it is evicted, or removed, from the cluster.
Backing Up Voting Disks
When to backup voting disk ?
To make a backup copy of the voting disk, use the Linux dd command. Perform this operation on every voting disk as needed where voting_disk_name is the name of the active voting disk and backup_file_name is the name of the file to which you want to back up the voting disk contents:
dd if=voting_disk_name of=backup_file_name
If your voting disk is stored on a raw device, use the device name in place of voting_disk_name. For example:
dd if=/dev/sdd1 of=/tmp/voting.dmp
Note : When you use the dd command for making backups of the voting disk, the backup can be performed while the Cluster Ready Services (CRS) process is active; you do not need to stop the crsd.bin process before taking a backup of the voting disk.
Recovering Voting Disks
If a voting disk is damaged, and no longer usable by Oracle Clusterware, you can recover the voting disk if you have a backup file.
dd if=backup_file_name of=voting_disk_name
Administring OCR
We will see how OCR(Oracle cluster Registry) backup & recovery is done .
Backup
Oracle clusterware automatically creastes a OCR backup every 4 hrs & retains the last 3 backups . Actually the CRSD process creates & manages the backup for each full day & a weekly backup at nd of the week .
Default backup Location : $CRS_HOME/cdata/$clustername
Other than the automated backup , you can export the content any time you want to a file .
eg : $ ocrconfig -export emergency_export.ocr
You can see the list of ocrbackup by using :
$ ocrconfig -showbackup
As the backup directory is default , you can change the dir by using below command
$ ocrconfig -backuploc <directory>
Restore
OCR can be restored (if you have a backup ) be below command
NOTE: Should you need to restore, make sure all CRS daemons on all nodes are stopped.
To perform a restore, execute the command:
$ cd CRS_Home/cdata/crscluster
$ ocrconfig -restore week.ocr
If you had exported using the above command & want to resore , then you can use import
IMPORTANT: Importing a backup when CRS daemons are running will only corrupt OCR.
$ ocrconfig -import emergency_export.ocr
If anything is wrong than you can use the OCRDUMP comand to dump all info to a file & check
$ ocrdump OCR_DUMP
Also you can use :
$ ocrcheck to check for the stats of OCR