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With the Oracle Technet Virtual Developer Day coming up a great VirtualBox appliance came available. The developer day focusses on developing Java EE6 applications and Oracle WebLogic Suite 12c.

WebLogic Server 12.1.1 VirtualBox Appliance

The virtual machine contains:

• Oracle Linux 5, JDK 1.6 +
• Oracle WebLogic Server 12.1.1
• Oracle Coherence 3.7
• Oracle TopLink 12.1.1
• Hudson 2.2
• Subversion 1.4.2
• Apache Maven 3.0.1
• NetBeans IDE 7.1 RC2
• Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 12.1.1 / Eclipse 3.7
• Easter Egg: Introductory Labs for Oracle Coherence 3.7

All details on download and importing the appliance can be found on the VirtualBox instructions page. No need to say that the appliance has been released for development and testing purposes.

Labs

The image contains four Labs:

• Total Oracle WebLogic Server Development with Eclipse, Maven, and Hudson
• Hands on with an end-to-end Java EE6 Application
• A Step-By-Step Guide to Oracle Coherence
• Running the Coherence Examples Project in Eclipse

These can be found in the /home/oracle/labs/ directory. Web links to these Labs can be found here.

Wanted to do a quick blog on installing Windows8 on VirtualBox. However work and stuff came in the way and of course now there are multiple sites describing it now like this quite short on Oracle blogs, Life Hacker Guide and How-To Geek. Since especially the first ones lack some screenshots, I’ll share mine:

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More info on installing an OS like Ubuntu 11.04 on VirtualBox can give you some background on the general process of creating a new VirtualBox image.

Since I had to test some webpages with IE6 (please don’t ask), I wanted to use Windows XP Mode on my Windows 7 laptop (actually run it in VMWare as described here). Microsoft provides virtual machines (vhd files) to run in Microsoft Virtual PC.

Rolling back the update

Installation failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0×80004005: Update for Windows KB958559

Digging into the support forums and blog posts on the subject, the most common working solution I found to the problem was to uninstall VMWare and/or VirtualBox. After the uninstall you can install Virtual PC without the error and after that reinstall VMWare and/or VirtualBox.

Recently I wanted to share a VirtualBox Appliance with a colleague. So I tried to export the created appliance. Unfortunate this failed with a:

VBoxManage.exe: error: Code VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR (0x80BB0004) – File not accessible or erroneous file contents (extended info not available)

So I thought why not just copy it… Oh wait, first compact it to save some space and time using VBoxManage modifyvdi some.vdi compact:

>VBoxManage modifyvdi Windows7.vdi compact
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...
Progress state: VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR
VBoxManage.exe: error: Code VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR (0x80BB0004) - File not accessible or erroneous file contents (extended info not available)

When I tried to copy or zip the file there were errors accessing it. Somehow the VirtualBox Appliance was still running fine. The files that make up the appliance weren’t locked.

Use CHKDSK

My laptop (the host of the appliance) is is running Windows7 and I decide to run chkdsk and found:

CHKDSK controleert de bestandsgegevens (stap 4 van 5)...
Leesfout met status 0xc0000185 op offset 0x17410c9000 voor 0x10000 bytes.
Leesfout met status 0xc0000185 op offset 0x17410d6000 voor 0x1000 bytes.
Er zijn beschadigde clusters in bestand 37907 met naam \Users\ppvdbeek\VIRTUA~2\Windows7\Windows7.vdi vervangen.

This is Dutch stating that there were bad sectors in the vdi file that had to be corrected. After that I could run the appliance, compact the disk and export the appliance successful.

On Linux you could use fsck (for “file system check”) in a similar case.

This post will show you how to install JRockit on Ubuntu 11.04. In later posts this will be used to run both WebLogic Server and Oracle Service Bus (OSB).

First download the installer from the JRockit download page. Make sure that the .bin file is executable. You can use chmod +x filename to make the file executable.

The installation guide for JRockit can be obtained from the JRockit Documentation page.

• Start the installer: ./jrockit-jdk1.6.0_24-R28.1.3-4.0.1-linux-x64.bin from the directory you download it or copied it to. Extracting can take some time.
• Click Next on the Welcome screen.
• Choose the product installation directory eg /oracle/jrockit-jdk1.6.0_24 and click Next
• Check optional components if you need them and click Next
• Watch the progress bar
• The installation is complete so press Done.

The screenshots of the installation process are in this gallery:

[Show as slideshow]

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:

[Show as slideshow]

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:

[Show as slideshow]

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:

[Show as slideshow]

I’m a fan of ready to use appliances for development and demo purposes. Recently it was announced that additional developer Virtual Machines have been released by Oracle. These in addition to the SOA Suite and BPM appliance mentioned before.

Developers can simply download a few files, assemble them with a script , and then import and run the resulting pre-built VM in VirtualBox. This makes starting with these technologies even easier. Each appliance contains some Hands-On-Labs to start learning.

Java Developement

This VirtualBox Appliance contains:

• Java SE (JDK) 1.6.0 u20 (note: Mac OS X 10.5 users must use Apple update)
• Java FX 1.3.1 runtime
• NetBeans IDE 6.9.1
• GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 3.0.1 (installed with NetBeans)

The Aquarium says about this Java EE6 VM:

This is everything you need to get started with Java EE 6 development and you’ll even find three labs (with code and instructions) to start using JSF 2, JAX-RS 1.1, EJB 3.1, Servlet 3.0, JPA 2.0 and CDI 1.0!

For detailed instructions and downloads go here…

Oracle Database Development

This VirtualBox Appliance contains:

• Oracle Enterprise Linux 5
• Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Enterprise Edition
• Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Cache
• Oracle XML DB
• Oracle SQL Developer
• Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler
• Oracle Application Express 4.0
• Oracle JDeveloper
• Hands-On-Labs (accessed via the Toolbar Menu in Firefox)

For detailed instructions.

It is expected that more flavors will be available in 2011.

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:

Install WebLogic 10.3.3

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Oracle Service Bus installation

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

Install Oracle Service Bus

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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:

[Show as slideshow]

Start WebLogic

./startWebLogic.sh and Have Fun!

Few weeks ago I mentioned the VirtualBox SOA Suite and BPM 11g R1 PS2 Appliance. In the last week we’ve been test driving it on several machines.

32-bits Windows7

We noticed that on some 32-bits Windows7 machines the WebLogic Server and SOA Suite fail to start. The reason seems to be that on some 32-bit Windows 7 machines the amount of memory that can be allocated to the VirtualMachine in VirtualBox is limited to 1500 MB.
VirtualBox explains:

The Base Memory sets the amount of RAM that is allocated and given to the VM when it is running. The specified amount of memory will be requested from the host operating system, so it must be available or made available as free memory on the host when attempting to start the VM and will not be available to the host while the VM is running. This is the same setting that was specified in the “New Virtual Machine” wizard.

This can cause a crash when starting the WebLogic Server since the SER_MEM_ARGS are set to:
SER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms512m -Xmx1536m"

These are set in the wls_env.sh which can be found in the /home/oracle/bin/. Altering the -Xmx to a lower value (lower than the amount you can allocate on your workstation) can solve this problem.

Oracle Service Bus

Since I’ve been involved in several projects in the last year that want to use both SOA Suite and the Oracle Service Bus (which at least from some perspectives is part of the SOA Suite) it was a bit disappointing for me that OSB isn’t included. I’ve been asking around for the rationale behind this choice without any satisfying answers so far. Please leave your thoughts in the comments or in this thread of the Oracle forums.