Installing Oracle 12c

Introduction:

In continuation to my last blog posted on 6th Oct 2014 on Oracle 12c, this article will detail the steps of installation which will bundle JDeveloper, Weblogic, SOA, OSB, Java DB (Derby).
Note: This installation was carried out on WIndows 7 for Studio Edition version 12.1.3.0.0

Prerequisites to Kick-Start:

1) JAVA 7: You need Java 7 installed on your system. I would recommend to use Java 7 for now, with Java 8 we did faced some installation issues. If it is not installed yet, you can refer to below link to get hold of the software (File name: jdk-7u67-windows-x64.exe): http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

2) SOA 12c: You need to have the software for SOA 12c (fmw_12.1.3.0.0_soaqs_Disk1_1of1.zip) installation. You can download this from below location: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/soasuite/downloads/index.html?ssSourceSiteId=opn

3) Database: This is OPTIONAL. Oracle 12c comes along with default Java DB (Derby) as Database. So this is not required. I had to explore SOA 12c and MFT, hence I have gone for Derby and local 12c Database. Choice is yours. You can download this from Oracle site, two files will be downloaded i.e. winx64_12c_database_1of2.zip and winx64_12c_database_2of2.zip.

4) You should have enough RAM like 8GB or 16GB, 64 bit configured with good system specifications

Steps of Installation:

1) Type cmd in start menu and once it appears, right click and choose ‘Run as administrator’, as shown below

2) Once command prompt is opened, navigate to your Java Jdk, as shown below

3) Navigate to the folder where your SOA setup is. Extract the zip file, Copy the folder location, this will be handy while giving command for installation

4) Go back to Command prompt and type command as (make sure you are under Java\jdk\bin): java –jar
Below Screenshot explains the same

This will open Quick Start Installer for 12c with Welcome page

5) Click Next, it will ask you for Oracle Home location, i.e. the place where it will install

6) If you follow the above screen shot Left hand panel, 3rd step is for checking Prerequisites, where it will check for operating system certifications and Java versions. Simply click next once it passes these checks

7) 4th step shows Installation Summary, i.e. what all feature it is going to Install. Simply click on Install button

8) 5th Step shows Installation Progress, where it will prepare, copy libraries and will run the setup. Once this completes it will show you success as

9) Click Next and it will show you the final Page as below. Unckeck Start Jdeveloper and click Finish.

Word of Advice: On the final page if you see below, there is a check box for Starting Jdeveloper. I would recommend to uncheck that for a moment. We will start it once configurations are done

Steps for Local Domain Setup

1) If you Start Jdeveloper and then start the server, by default it creates your domain under hidden folder:

C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\JDeveloper\system11.1.1.7.40.64.93\DefaultDomain

This will be a problem. I would recommend to have your domain in same place, where your Oracle Home is.

2) To do the same, set the System Environment Variable. Goto Environment Variable (Computer -Properties -Advanced system settings -Advanced -Environment Variables -System Variables)

Create folder like user_projects\domains under OracleWls_Home. In the Variable value give the same folder path value as OracleWls_Home\user_projects\domains

Once this is set, means now whenever you will start Jdeveloper server, it will by default create the domain under your Oracle Home

3) Save it and naviagte to open Jdeveloper. Your Jdeveloper will be under \jdeveloper\jdeveloper.exe

4) Once Jdeveloper is opened, Navigate to Window - Application Servers

5) It will open a Tab on left hand side, right click on IntegratedWeblogicServer and start the server. It will by default create the domain. For first time set up it will ask you to enter weblogic details

Enter the password which you will be using for all Weblogic, EM operations.

6) Once done, click OK and you are all good to go.

7) Whenever you want to switch off/bring down your server, just right click on there server and choose Terminate

So, its all done. You are all set to explore SOA 12c. Go.. Go..Go

Oracle SOA 12c- What's New in store for Developers

I had been researching for quite a sometime on Oracle SOA 12c and have found some cool features for Developers in terms of development ease, user experience, integration, performance, management, mobile, cloud and many more. Here is the compilation of the same.

Note: As there are many features, to make this blog to the point and readable, I have just presented features summary. Details of each feature will be published in my subsequent blogs later.

Single Installer: Oracle Suite 12c comes as single installer for developers. It’s one single package which include JDeveloper, a integrated Weblogic service with SOA Suite (including OSB), JavaDB (Database) and the Enterprise Manager. In JDeveloper, the WebLogic Integrated Server is pre-configured with SOA Suite components runtime and JavaDB.

No Eclipse: For OSB development we need not have to use Eclipse IDE anymore, we can develop OSB application in Jdeveloper itself. OSB development now also uses similar terminology and layout as the SOA Suite SCA composite application development.

Just like OSB, even for OEP (Oracle Event Processing), we do not have to use Eclipse anymore. The new version is not just a simple port to JDeveloper, it has gotta major face lift.

New DB connection Types: SOA Suite 12c adds two new Database connection types when creating Database connections.
a. JavaDB - JavaDB (Derby) is used to run SOA Suite repository on that is used for the integrated server. It is a development database that allows one to start development with SOA Suite without the need to run RCU. Java Derby database, which is file based and that makes it really fast.

b. JDE World - JDE World connection you have easy access to the data in the JD Edwards database.

New Technology Adapters: 
a. Coherence Adapter
b. Salesforce cloud Adapter
c. REST Adapter
d. MFT
e. LDAP
f. Healthcare
g. MSMQ
h. JDE World
i. SAP
j. UMS (SMS support)

Support for Maven: Like ANT for deployment, now Oracle 12c supports Maven explicitly. Whenever an Application or Project is created, automatically pom.xml gets created which can be used for deployments using Maven.

JDeveloper Debugging and Testing: One of the most useful improvements made to JDeveloper is the inclusion of a debugger. With the help of debugger we can debug our code before deploying it, this saves lot of development efforts. It allows you to set breakpoints within a SOA composite, BPEL process or OSB.

Improved Test suite: The SOA Suite test framework has also been improved, with the ability to run the tests within JDeveloper with detailed reports of every test run, instead of having to perform the testing from within Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control.

Improved XSLT Mapper: In this release I can see much better support for complex stylesheets with multiple templates, user defined functions (also recursive functions). I can also see a better functioning of XSLT when we switch between Design and Source mode, which was an issue till 11g.

New Xquery Mapper: In this release Xquery mapper is newly introduced which provide XQuery support. BPEL  has a dedicated activity to use XQuery in your BPEL code for transformations.  The XQuery mapper has support for XPath 2.0 and user defined functions. The mapper is really user friendly and it’s made consistent with the XSLT mapper interface. The mapper also has an integrated Test framework and is build for reuse in both SOA & OSB.

Translate Activity:  New Activity in 12c which is used for Native to XML and XML to Native transformations.

MDS goes Graphical: Now with 12c, you can publish, search and consume files from MDS and OER. Its quite user friendly.

Templates for SOA: By using SOA Templates, you can start developing a composite application and can easily add reusable components or activities to an existing composite application. You can create and apply templates at three levels within a composite application, these are:
a. Project Template
b. Component Template
c. Custom Activity Template

Note: More details of it will be publish in my subsequent blogs

Templates for OSB: Oracle Service Bus templates are also supported in Oracle SOA Suite 12c. They are similar to SOA Suite SCA composite templates but with minor differences. OSB templates are created at the pipeline level and can be either linked or unlined.

OSB - MDS support: Now MDS support is provided for OSB in 12c, unlike 11g.

BPEL Sub-process: Sub-process is new introduction in this release which provides a mechanism for reusing BPEL code within a BPEL process. A BPEL sub-process can be described as a unit of encapsulated logic that can be called zero to many times within a BPEL process.
There are two types of sub-processes.
a. Inline subprocess
b. Standalone subprocess

Managed File Transfer (MFT) 12c: MFT is a simple and secure End-to-End Managed File Gateway. It is used for transferring files between a source and one or more targets. It integrates with (s)FTP, File, B2B, ODI, Healthcare and SOA, B2B and web services. MFT runs as an application on WebLogic 12c and has a lightweight Web based Design Time interface to easily build, edit and deploy end-to-end transfers and a Run Time interface to monitor running / failed transfer instances. It runs on its own managed server.

Enterprise Service Scheduler (ESS): ESS is out of box scheduler which comes as a new feature of 12c (only supports weblogic and oracle DB in 12c). ESS is part of the SOA Suite license and with it you can create & schedule jobs through the EM. By using this we can schedule the services. It is automatically installed as part of SOA Suite (optional), Service Bus (optional) and MFT (mandatory).

Resequencing in OSB: Resequencing functionality was in 11g Mediator, now this feature is introduced in OSB as well with 12c release. Now with the help of this feature we will be able to process the request message in proper sequence.

Better BAM in 12c

Auto Purge functionality: In 12c Auto purge of SOA DB is enabled by default for new installations. Purging of the SOA DB can now be scheduled through EM Console.

EM Console: In 12c EM console is also enhanced with its features. A lot have been modified like Search option, Flow view etc.

Welcome to Oracle SOA 12c

Introduction:
New version from Oracle (SOA 12c) was out few months back - Lets explore it with me. Oracle SOA 12c comes with loads of new good features and enhancements.

Prerequisites to Kick-Start:
Lets start with prerequisites which is needed for learning 12c. This section gives required links, all in one place, so that you don't have to wonder places to gather information.

First of all, you need to check your system requirement, if all ok, then you need to have JDK 7 for 12c. Upgrade it, if not yet done.

Link for checking your system requirements:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/fusion-certification-100350.html

Once you open the link, there are xls files which contains Certification Matrix. Check that out for reference

Link for JDK 7 download:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

(Note: Detailed step for installing it will be presented in another follow up blog entry)

Once JDK is downloaded, go for SOA 12c download. Keep both ready, so that we can install it altogether.

Link for SOA 12c download:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/soasuite/downloads/index.html?ssSourceSiteId=opn

With Oracle Suite 12c its all easy. All your installation, a sample Hello world, deploy and test will happen with in 30 mins only, its fast. Oracle SOA 12c use Java Derby database, which is file based and that makes it really fast. With 12c, it is now a single installer for developers - means your JDeveloper (IDE), Weblogic, Database and SOA is now integrated, no need to install it separately.

(Note: Detailed step for installing it will be presented in another follow up blog entry)

States meaning for Instances

This is an enhanced version of my own blog dated 08-Aug-2008, BPEL: Purging Instances-1, which suggests about various States stored in Dehydration store. Earlier information was for SOA 10g interface States stored in Cube_instances, This blog is about the same but for SOA 11g.

Problem: To know the meaning of States stored under CUBE_INSTANCE table of SOA_INFRA Schema

Explanation:

Value: 0

Meaning: Initiated

Description: for an instance that has just been newly created

Value: 1

Meaning: Open & Running

Description: for an instance that has been created and has active activities executing

Value: 2

Meaning: Open & Suspended

Description: for an instance that is unavailable & is in suspended state. No action can be taken for this instance until the instance has returned to the running state

Value: 3

Meaning: Open & Faulted

Description: for an instance that has an activity that has thrown an exception. When an activity throws an exception, the instance is flagged as being in an exception state until the exception is properly caught and handled

Value: 4

Meaning: Open & Pending

Description: for an instance that is in mid of cancellation. An instance is said to be pending cancellation state - it may happen that the process is quite big & complicated that the entire cancellation process may takes anywhere from seconds/minutes/days. An instance may not be acted upon during this time

Value: 5

Meaning: Closed & Completed

Description: for an instance that has been completed i.e. All activities belonging to this instance have also been completed

Value: 6

Meaning: Closed & Faulted

Description: for an instance that has an activity that has thrown an exception while the instance is being cancelled

Value: 7

Meaning: Closed & Cancelled

Description: for an instance that has been cancelled. All activities belonging to this instance have also been cancelled

Value: 8

Meaning: Closed & Aborted

Description: for an instance that has been aborted due to administrative control. All activities belonging to this instance are also moved to the aborted state

Value: 9

Meaning: Closed & Stale

Description: for an instance who's process has been changed since the process was last accessed. No actions may be performed on the instance. All activities that belong to this instance are also moved to the stale state

Value: 10

Meaning: Non Recoverable

Description: for an instance that has failed and is marked as non recoverable

And here I come with more exciting knowledge and learnings.

Apologies for not being there for quite a few months. During this period I have gathered lot of experiences on Oracle Fusion products and its implementation which I will sharing to you all, watch out the space.

And yes, although I am late, as always I wish all my blog readers a very happy and prosperous New Year 2013.

Connecting to SQL Server using SQL Developer

Problem:
Need to connect to SQL Server Database using SQL Developer

Solution:
This is an option available under SQL Developer which will allow us to connect to Third-Party Database systems. If we configure our SQL Developer, we can connect to SQL Server database.

Below mentioned are the steps which will ensure SQL server connectivity:
1) You need to have a Jar file in place for SQL server.
2) Download jTDS SQL Server driver - an open source JDBC driver from:-'http://sourceforge.net/projects/jtds/' to your local drive.
3) Unzip the folder
4) Open SQL Developer
5) Goto Tools -> Preferences -> Database -> Third Party JDBC Drivers
6) Click 'Add Entry', navigate to the unzipped folder
7) Select jtds-1.2.5.jar and click OK
8) Now goto the connections window and create a new connection
9) Give some connection name, enter proper username and password
10)Select 'SQLServer' Tab
11)Enter proper Hostname and leave Port as 1433 (Default). Change the port number only if it is running on running on some different port.
12)Click on Retrive Database button to fetch the Database name you want to connect
13) Test the connection
14) SUCCESS, Save the connection and press the connect button

It works!!!