deltalounge

Recently I engaged with a customer who experiences (among other problems) the following. Since there is hardly any info on Oracle Support or blogs I thought I’d share some info here:

WSIF JCA Execute of operation 'SomeService' failed due to: Unable to create control directory.
Unable to create control directory: "/mnt/queues/controldir/bpel/fileftp/controlFiles/epajYGFxPFPErSM8HcN8HQ==/outbound".
; nested exception is:
ORABPEL-11075
Unable to create control directory.
Unable to create control directory: "/mnt/queues/controldir/bpel/fileftp/controlFiles/epajYGFxPFPErSM8HcN8HQ==/outbound".
Please make sure that the directory name is valid and that there are adequate permissions to create the directory.


Solution

As the last part of the error message suggests, check for file system stuff:

1. Is the share and/or mount your file / ftp adapter is pointing to still available?
2. Can the share be reached from your SOA Server?
3. Does the directory name exist?
4. Are the required permissions available?

Correct inaccuracies.

Common Issues and Workarounds for File/FTP Adapter

There is an extensive document on solving issues with file and FTP adapters on Oracle support. The documentation for file and FTP adapters can be found:

1. 11g JCA File / FTP adapter
2. 10g File / FTP Adapter

Today I presented at ODTUG Kaleidoscope. The presentation is aimed at supporting architects and especially developers to choose the right integration infrastructure for a job.

Sharing some highlights from Symposium Sunday of Kscope 2011. The two most remarkable quotes of the day are:

ADF is the “Paint by the Numbers” for web front end development.

The most common application integration tools/solutions used are Post-it and a paper notepad.

However the real gem I discovered during this first day was:

User Experience Design Patterns

Madhuri Kolhatkar has delivered a great presentation on the effort Oracle has put into creating and implementing User Experience Design Patterns. Extended information is available on the Usable Apps pages of the Oracle website. Great insight on how this can help you in developing and delivering your applications can for example for OBIEE be found on Design Patterns and Guidelines for Oracle Applications. Take special note of the Pattern Selection Tool.

From now on counting down in days to the upcoming ODTUG Kscope 2011. ODTUG is a user group for for a wide range of technologists working with the Oracle platforms. During this conference I’ll be presenting on solid Service Bus implementations using the Oracle Service Bus, Mediator or both. The full schedule of Kscope is here.

Installing WebLogic Server on Ubuntu and JRockit 64 bits. This installation will later be used to install Oracle Service Bus.

Download the WebLogic Server installation files from OTN or E-Delivery.

Make sure the JAVA_HOME refers to the proper Java installation:

$ JAVA_HOME=/oracle/jrockit-jdk1.6.0_24 export JAVA_HOME
$ PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH; export PATH

Check that the proper Java version will be used:

$ java -version
Oracle JRockit(R) (build R28.1.3-11-141760-1.6.0_24-20110301-1432-linux-x86_64, compiled mode)

If you are installing WebLogic Server on a 64-bit platform using a .jar installation program use the downloaded wlsversionnumber_generic.jar . Start the installation using the following command. Include the -d64 flag in the installation command when using a 32/64-bit hybrid JDK.

$ java -d64 -jar wls1035_generic.jar

• Welcome screen – Click Next
• Choose Middleware Home Directory – Create a new Middleware Home and enter the directory of your choice
• Register for Security Updates
• Choose Install Type – Choose Custom to be able to select the JDK of choice
• Choose Products and Components – No changes needed
• JDK Selection – Pick the JRockit JDK previously installed
• Choose Product Installation Directories – No changes needed
• Confirm Product Installation Directories
• Installer is running
• Installation complete

An overview of the WebLogic Server installation screen can be viewed in the gallery:

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This post will show you how to install Ubuntu 11.04 in VirtualBox. In later posts this will be used to run: JRockit 64 bit, WebLogic Server (WLS) and Oracle Service Bus (OSB).

Prepare Ubuntu install in VirtualBox

A short recipe for preparing the Virtual Machine to install Ubuntu on it. The blog post Installing Ubuntu inside Windows using VirtualBox is more extensive on this subject…

• Create a new Virtual Machine using the VirtualBox Manager
• Click Next in the Welcome screen
• Choose a Name for the Virtual Machine and select the Operating System (OS) before you click Next
• Set the amount of memory you want to allocate to the Virtual Machine
• When asked for the Virtual Hard Disk, check the Boot Hard Disk box and Create a new hard disk. Then the Create New Virtual Disk Wizard will start guiding you through the process
• I choose a Fixed-size storage when asked for the Hard Disk Storage Type
• Choose the Size (16 GB) and Location (left it default) for the Virtual Hard Disk
• Check the summary
• Watch the progress while the .vdi file is created
• Click Finish to acknowledge the creation of the new Virtual Machine
• The newly created Virtual Machine will show up in the VirtualBox Manager
• In order to install Ubuntu 11.04 on the Machine go to the settings to alter the storage settings
• Use the icon besides the IDE Controller to add the disk image – ISO file – you downloaded to boot and install Ubuntu as media in a drive
• Check the boot order and make sure that the Machine is booted from the CD/DVD device first
• Acknowledge
• Start the Virtual Machine and the “regular” installation of Ubuntu will start

The screenshot that come with the short instructions above:

Ubuntu install

• Boot the installation ISO
• Choose Install Ubuntu and your language
• Preparing to install Ubuntu – You don’t need the additions here to later install WebLogic Server and Oracle Service Bus
• Allocate drive space – If you created a new Virtual Disk before you can safely erase the empty disk here
• Erase disk and install Ubuntu – Acknowledge
• Choose location and time zone
• Keyboard layout
• Who are you – Fill in the username, computer name and password
• Welcome screen
• Installation is complete – click the button to restart
• Login as the user you just created

Watch the screenshots that come with the steps above:

Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions

• From the VirtualBox Manager menu choose the Devices - Install Guest Additions options
• Choose the application to start
• Click Run
• Authenticate with your password
• You need to restart Ubuntu to make it work

Watch the screenshots that come with the steps above:

When you are using Oracle ESB 10g and encounter the message No WebService Provider is registered at this URL when testing a web service from the ESB Console try the following:

Verify the ESB web service providers are generated correctly in ESB runtime (known as the esb-rt):

• Login into Enterprise Manager
• Go to the Application Server Control
• Click OC4J_SOA oc4j instance
• Click Web Services tab
• Verify the deployed web services are listed here, and test that services.

In case there are no web service from the ESB runtime (esb-rt) the service providers were not generated correctly, restart ESB-RT:

• Click OC4J_SOA oc4j instance
• Click the Applications tab
• Expand Middleware Services, ESB and esb-dt
• Check the esb-rt and click the restart button

Now check the j2ee/_instance_name_/log/*/oc4j/log.xml to see if the ESB application has started correctly. Verify that ESB-RT application is initialized correctly by searching for ‘ESB bootstrap: Runtime initialized‘ message in the log file. If you also restarted the ESB-DT, verify that ESB DT application is initialized correctly by searching for ‘ESB bootstrap: Repository initialized‘ message in the log file. And finally check that the ESB web service providers were generated correct (see above).

The question on the ability to purge instances for both Oracle BPEL and Oracle ESB keeps recurring so I decided to come up with a small overview.

Oracle BPEL

• FMW version 11.1.1.4 and up, there is a new version of the purge_soainfra_oracle.sql. Ensure that you run the purge setup scripts from the 11.1.1.4 RCU or 11.1.1.5 RCU location, respectively, as this contains the latest purge details. Details are in the SOA Admin Guide
• FMW version 11.1.1.1 and up, there is a purge_soainfra_oracle.sql script in the RCU_HOME/rcu/integration/soainfra/sql/purge directory. In the release before 11.1.1.4 you need to apply patch 10297850 to obtain the updated purge scripts. More details are in the FMW Admin Guide on Managing Database Growth. Mark Kelderman posted on how to improve the performance of this script by adding a specific index.
• From BPEL in SOA Suite version 10.1.3.3.1 and up, there is a purge_instances_oracle.sql script in the SOA_HOME/bpel/system/database/scripts directory.
• For BPEL in SOA Suite version 10.1.3.1 you need patch 7162289. After applying this patch purge_instances_oracle.sql will be located at SOA_HOME/bpel/system/database/scripts.
• In case you’re still running BPEL 10.1.2.0.2 check Oracle support document 398578.1 and document 341102.1

Oracle ESB

• For Mediator in FMW 11g refer to the scripts and links mentioned in the BPEL paragraph.
• To purge ESB instances in 10.1.3.4 you need to apply at least MLR#4 to have purge scripts available. There are 3 scripts available:

$ORACLE_HOME/integration/esb/sql/other/purge_by_date.sql
$ORACLE_HOME/integration/esb/sql/other/purge_by_id.sql
$ORACLE_HOME/integration/esb/sql/other/purge_by_instance_id.sql

Update 2011-06 SOA Suite 11gR1 PS3

Recently the SOA Suite Engineering Team published a presentation on Purging strategies in Oracle SOA Suite 11gR1 PS3. Besides the information presented in this post, the presentation goes into targeted deletion from the EM and looks into looped and parallel purges. It also mentions the use of database partitioning. That can be very useful when you have long running instances and a large installation (the presentation gives more than 500GB total OR more than 10GB daily depending on environment specifics).

Update 2011-07 Purging the Extreme Edition

Mark Kelderman posted a blog on Purging SOA Suite 11g Extreme Edition. He give a SQL script that deletes data from Mediator, BPEL, BPM, Workflow and Composite, and after that reclaims disk space.

Update Purge Oracle Service Bus

Marc Kelderman posted on his blog on Purging OSB Report Data. Besides the default way to delete the data using the console. He also gives a SQL script to purge directly in the database.

The session I presented at the SOA Symposium 2010 is now available online via InfoQ. You can find it as a Service Bus case study. It is introduced as:

a case study of using a service bus in a supply channel connecting a wholesale supplier with hundreds of retailers, the overall context and challenges faced – including the integration of POS software coming from different software providers-, the solution chosen and its implementation, how it worked out and the lessons learned along the way.

Watch the video, download the mp3 or sheets.

In this post will show you how to install the Oracle Service Bus on the VirtualBox SOA Suite 11g appliance. For this demo we used a pretty straightforward installation scheme.

Oracle WebLogic Server installation

Download wls1033_oepe111150_linux32.bin for installation on Linux. Install using the command ./wls1033_oepe111150_linux32.bin:

The following screenshots will give you a good idea of the installation flow.

Oracle Service Bus installation

Start the Disk1/runInstaller.sh and specify the JRE/JDK location /oracle/osbhome/jdk160_18/.

This sequence of screenshots gives you a good impression.

Configure a WebLogic Domain

Configure a Domain using the Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuration Wizard using ./config.sh in the /oracle/osbhome/oracle_common/common/bin directory.

A straightforward configuration of the WLS Domain requires the following steps:

Start WebLogic

./startWebLogic.sh and Have Fun!