Installing SOA 12c on a Mac

Introduction:
Having SOA installed on Windows 7 and working on it since long, I thought of trying my hands on my Mac running OS Yosemite. I have successfully installed SOA 12c on my Mac. Oracle has made it simpler to install SOA 12c for Mac, I still remember how I struggled while installing 11g.

Pre requisites:
1) You need to have Java 7 (jre-7u71-macosx-x64.dmg) installed on your Mac. Steps for installing Java can be found on https://www.java.com/en/download/help/mac_install.xml

Steps:

1) Download SOA 12c from Oracle site (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/soasuite/downloads/index.html) for Mac (fmw_12.1.3.0.0_soaqs_Disk1_1of1.zip)

2) Once the file is downloaded, unzip the file. Open Terminal and Navigate to the directory containing the .jar files as shown below

Run Java -jar fmw_12.1.3.0.0_soa_quickstart.jar

3) This will bring up the installer, change the OS Group accordingly. I choose everyone. Click OK

 4) First page of the instller, Click Next

5) OracleWls_Home directory will be shown, you can choose your own directory. I went with the default one. Click Next

6) Click Install

7) Next

8) Installation is done, This is the last page. Make sure Start JDeveloper is Enabled and click on Finish

9) JDeveloper will start

10) After start you will see Application Server navigator, where the domain as Unconfigured. Configured the domain either by doing right click on the IntegratedWeblogicServer or by navigating to Run menu as shown in the screen shot below

11) Upon its first time start, a window will open where you will be setting up the password for your local Weblogic. Click OK once done

Thats it. It will take few minutes to configure and start the server. Once started you can access EM using http://localhost:7101/em on your safari.

Oracle 12c MFT - Using PGP Decryption

Introduction:
This is in continuation of my last blog, Oracle 12c MFT - Using PGP Encryption, here we will understand on how to decrypt the file which was encrypted using PGP Encryption technique.

I would recommend you to go through my PGP Encyption blog to understand the process.

Steps:
Once the Keys are available (created and imported during Encryption), doing Decryption will be quite simple. We will be using Private Key for decrypting the file.

1) Goto MFT console Design Tab, and for Transfer, select add pre-processing actions.

2) Once window opens, select PGP Decryption for the drop down and Add to the list.
Select Decryption Alias. Click OK

And you are all done.

Oracle 12c MFT - Using PGP Encryption

Introduction:
While creating Transfers in MFT, we have came across various pre-processing actions, such as Compress, decompress, PGP Encryption and PGP Decryption. These operations will be done for securing Files which is getting transferred from Source to Target.

Lets learn now how to use PGP Encryption.

Steps:
Before using PGP Encryption, we need to create PGP Key using WLST command. Below are detailed steps on how to acheive the same.

1) Navigate to OracleWLS_Home\mft\common\bin
2) Once you are there, Run wlst.cmd

3) You are now on wlst prompt, Now connect to your server using following command
connect("username","password","t3://hostname:port")

4) Above prompt shows that you are now connected to server. Now we will have to generate the PGP Key to create a password-protected PGP key pair. Fire the wlst command for generating Key, as-
generateKeys('PGP', 'Password for the key','Location name where you want keys to get generated')

Note: I have created a seperate new directory under my local domain to contain all the Keys

This will create two keys - pub.asc (Public) and secret.asc (Private)

5) Now you will have to import the PGP key pair to the server and will also create an alias for both Public and Private keys.
Use below commands to do the same:
importCSFKey('PGP', 'PUBLIC', 'Alias Name', 'full location/pub.asc')
importCSFKey('PGP', 'PRIVATE', 'Alias Name', 'full location/secret.asc')

6) Now as your Key pairs are generated and imported successfully, Go back to MFT console. Now rest of the configuration will happen there.

7) Login to MFT console and navigate to administration Tab - Keystores.
Enter the same password which was used during Generating key in the PGP Keystore section. Save the changes

8) Now you are all good to use this setup in creating Transfers. Goto MFT console Design Tab, and for Transfer, select add pre-processing actions.

Once a window opens, select PGP Encryption for the drop down and Add to the list.
Select Encryption Alias and the Armored section. Click OK

 And you are all set. You file will be Encrypted.

Oracle 12c MFT - Configuring sFTP Embed

Introduction:
Oracle 12c MFT includes built-in sFTP (SSH-FTP) server, known as sFTP Embedded. You can see this in MFT console drop down when you configure Source.

sFTP Embed has its own file system directories for sending and receiving files. By default, this is disabled, we need to configure it before using it.

Lets learn step by step on how to configure this.

Steps:
For configuring sFTP (SSH-FTP), we need to create SSH Keystore using WLST command. Below are detailed steps on how to acheive the same.

1) Navigate to OracleWLS_Home\mft\common\bin
2) Once you are there, Run wlst.cmd

3) You are now on wlst prompt, Now connect to your server using following command
connect("username","password","t3://hostname:port")

4) Above prompt shows that you are now connected to server. Now we will have to generate the Key to create a password-protected private SSH key. The key type is RSA and the key size is 1024 bits. Fire the wlst command for generating Key, as
generateKeys('SSH','Password for the key','Key Name with full location')

Note: I have created a new directory under my local domain to contain all the Keys

5) Now you will have to import the key to the server and will also create an alias for the key.
Use below command to do the same:
importCSFKey('SSH', 'PRIVATE', 'Alias Name', 'Key Name with full location')

6) Now as your Key generation and import is done, Go back to MFT console. Now rest of the configuration will happen there.

7) Login to MFT console and navigate to administration Tab - Keystores.
Enter the same password which was used during Generating key in the SSH Keystore section. Save the changes

8) Click on Embedded servers and go to the sFTP tab. Check the Enabled button, Choose Authentication Type as Password and Host Key Alias (the same alias which was created at the time of importing the key to the server).

Save the changes, click on Start button

9) Now your sFTP Embed server is up and running, this by default runs on Port 7522. You can check the same in the Ports section (You can change the port, but I would recommend to keep this as it is.)

10) So now you are all set to use sFTP Embedded feature of Oracle 12c MFT. You can even connect to the sFTP location using any client like WinScp.

Go ahead and try this awesome feature.

Note: The default root directory location for this is OracleWLS_Home/user_projects/domains/your -Default Domain/mft/ftp_root (This can be changed and configured from MFT console, I would prefer to use the same path)

Installing Oracle Database 12c for SOA & MFT

Introduction:
This is with reference to my last post of Installation of MFT, for which Oracle Database is required. This blog aims at explaining the steps for Installation Oracle Database 12c, which will be used by Oracle MFT later.

Steps for Installation:

1) Download Oracle 12c from following location:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/database12c-win64-download-1968077.html

2) There will be two files downloaded, unzip those files

3) Open command line, choose Run as Administrator

4) Now navigate to the location of Unzipped file and run Setup.exe

5) This will open the Universal installer

6) Follow the installation window, step wise as shown in below screen shots

(Note: I was running this for my learning purpose, so I have tried skipping some of the steps which were recommended by Oracle. But as it was for my local system, I choose quick and dirty way. Its your choice, you can go by the recommended steps)

Below are some quick and dirty steps of its installation, don't worry this will not impact running of your Database, anyhow this is done for learning purpose.

a) Uncheck the box and click Next

b) There will be Warning, just Click Yes and proceed

c) Select Skip software updates Radio button, click Next

d) As we will Create and will have to configure the database, choose the first option and click Next

e) Choose Desktop class and click Next

f) Choose Use Windows Built-in Account and click Next (You can even use the first option)

g) You will will again prompted with message box, Click Yes and Next

h) This is an important page, you need to do some changes here. By default Oracle base, edition, character set will be different. I have selected my own folder in Oracle base (once you provide this, automatically Software location and Database file location will get updated).

As my Database usage is going to be minimal, I selected Personal Edition (which takes less space), and Character set as AL32UTF8. Choose proper SID name and its password. (Password should be as per Oracle standard, but I have given my own short password, there will be a warning message coming but you can neglect it). Click Next

i) Click Next and then press Install

j) Click Next

k) Click Next, here once you click Next Password Management screen will appear. You can either just press Ok or press the Password Management button to set passwords for some of the Schemas like sys, system, scott etc. Its your choice after all.

l) Click Next

m) And that's it.

Database 12c is all set and installed for use now.

Exploring MFT in 12c

Introduction:
I have been doing some good amount of work on Oracle 12c new product MFT - 'Managed File Transfer' recently. Let me share the experiences with you all. I will start giving details on its installation and then will share some good posts on its working

To Start:
Before starting MFT installation, you need to have certain products already installed on your system.
Make sure you have following installed:
1) Java 7
2) SOA 12c along with Domain creation (Refer my blog on its installation)
3) Oracle Database (I have used Oracle 12c as Database)
4) RCU for MFT (This actually can be done after MFT installation also)

To cover the whole MFT installation to make it ready for use, I am going to write separate blogs which will contain steps for
1) Installing Oracle Database 12c
2) Installing MFT
3) Running RCU on Database for MFT
4) Updating your local development Domain for MFT

By covering above 4 steps you will ready with MFT.

You can also go for creation of seperate domain for SOA and MFT, although it is not required, but you can learn on how to setup the environment. This will be optional step.

So, keep watching the space for my next blog entry.

Oracle 12c "Composite Lazy Loading" Feature

Introduction:
I had struggled in the past till 11g, where I had seen Server start up taking time when I have more numbers of composites deployed on the server.

With SOA 12c, Oracle has introduced a new feature known as 'Composite Lazy loading'. This is one of the nice features, in which any server initialization tasks such as loading components and resources like WSDLs and XSDs, are loaded later at first-request time when they are needed, which means that server will only create in-memory java models and MBeans. It improves server startup time when there is a large number of composites deployed on it.

Details:
Composite Lazy Loading can be configured at two levels - 1) Domain 2) Component Level

Lazy Loading at Domain Level:
This setting can be disabled/enabled from System MBean Browser in FMW EM console. Follow below steps:
1. Login to EM Console, right-click on the domain you want to tune and select System MBean Browser from the drop-down menu

2. In the System MBean Browser folder structure, navigate through: Application Defined MBeans --  oracle.as.soainfra.config -- Server: ServerName -- SoaInfraConfig -- soa-infra

3. When you click on soa-infra, its attributes will be listed in on the right. Look for the CompositeLazyLoading attribute and click on it. You can set the value to true to enable it or
false to disable it

4. Click Apply and restart the server for changes to take effect.

Lazy Loading at the Component level:
To enable/disable it at component level, you need to follow below steps:
1. Open composite.xml file
2.  Add the new property lazyLoading="false" to override the default behaviour at the domain level, as shown in screen shot

3. Redeploy your code

By default, composites will inherit the lazy loading setting from the domain level.