Technical

Unboxing the new WebLogic Portal

Juha Technical, Technical, Technical , , , 0 Comment

Doesn’t it feel like Christmas when you download a new (point) release of a software and start the installation process. No? Really? Well, even so, you might want to mosey on down to the ever pleasant Oracle Technology Network and take a gander of the new WebLogic Portal and the wonders that it beholds.

All kidding aside, it does have a plethora of new features and improvements that belie it’s humble update from 10.3.1 (or 10.3.1.0.2 for those who like to patch these things) to 10.3.2. And as everyone likes lists, here’s one list for your enjoyment:

  • Windows installation kit is slightly (~100Mb) larger than before, which is nice
  • Binary installation now allows you to choose WebLogic SCA and Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse
  • Prebundled JDK’s (well <a href=http://www.oracle.com/us/sun/index.htm alt=Oracle Buys Sun>they own them both now</a>) are version 1.6.0_14 instead of 1.6.0_05
  • The Eclipse and plugins want to install to a directory called oepe_11gR1PS1, how about a mouthful
  • The installation screens promote JSF 1.2 and full integration to UCM (and a richer web experience, but please..)
  • JSR-286 \o/ and WSRP 2.0, also UUP REST services
  • WebLogic Server is the same version (10.3.2) as WebLogic Portal, except for the marketing version, which is 11gR1 for WLS and 10gR3 for WLP (a rose by any other name..)
  • Funnily (ha ha?) enough the rest of the promos are about WebLogic Server and Oracle Technology Networks

So what to think of these things? Same same but different? We’ll just have to wait and see until the grand publishing of the Roadmap/Statement of Direction, hope it comes soon.

Oh, and just a quick run-through of the Dom^H^H^H Fusion Middleware Configuration Wizard, in the form of a list, because.. well you know why:

  • You are no longer allowed to have weblogic/weblogic, so I guess the new standard is weblogic/weblogic1 or something? This special character requirement obviously comes from WLS
  • The database settings (and you will need to go through these now) are more simple, except that from a usability standpoint the database Test Connections (which now runs automatically) screen warns that PointBase is not available. Don’t Panic! It’s all OK, just move on to the next screen and ignore the warnings, the SQL scripts will load up fine
  • Now the Dynamic Visitor Tools libraries seem to be deployed automatically, which is nice
  • And bye bye Autonomy, it was great knowing you

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

Juha Uncategorized , 0 Comment

So have you ever tried to get Oracle Service Bus 10gR3, Oracle WebLogic Server 9.2.2 or 10gR3 to start up fast on a Linux (Oracle Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Linux or any other variant)? Takes a bit of time, hmm? Well, there is a reason for it and it is because of this (Bug ID: 6202721)not-a-bug bug in the JVM.

Essentially getting a random number from the system is done by querying the /dev/random or /dev/urandom device on the system. On a Windows box these “devices” default always to the CryptoAPI and that works fine. On Linux the /dev/random seeds the random numbers with an entropy pool which is all well and good. But say you are a server, especially a server that has not started the “services” yet – like an application server – you will not generate enough entropy to fill your pools for quite a while. This is because it is the network and disk I/O operations that make the entropy, and obviously you are not yet at the point where you will create any of that. So then the “really random randomness” of /dev/random becomes a hinderance rather than a benefit, because the startup times are a pain.

So this is where /dev/urandom steps in with its non-blocking and “less random randomness” (but still good enough randomness for most uses) goodness. Except for the “non-bug” of course. So there are many work-arounds to it, but I personally prefer changing the securerandom.source entry in the $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/java.security file to securerandom.source=file:/dev/./urandom. Now everything starts up like a dream, as it should.

Understanding Oracle SOA Suite documentation

Juha Uncategorized , 0 Comment

So, got wind of the new (beta) documentation about the Oracle Fusion Middleware and there are quite a few interesting documents there. Now the docs are still under work so there is a lot of this space left intentionally blank, but all in all it’s shaping up to be a good set that ties the lot together.

Some surprises like the fact that the Portal component would seem to be all about the OracleAS Portal and nothing to do with WebLogic Portal, except WSRP support popping up for the OAS Portal all of a sudden, although I do have to say that configuring the security for the WRSP seems a lot more involved than with WLP. I’m sure that they will ease the process going forward.

Anyway, do go and check out the very interesting Oracle Fusion Middleware overview of the Administrator Guide, definitely worth the read. Also, take a guick glance at the Oracle Fusion Middleware Components list for a good link list to all of the docs (in addition to the list being interesting in and of itself).