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You can directly move / migrate various source databases into different target cloud deployments running the Oracle Cloud. Oracle automated tools for migration will move on premise database to the...

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As pointed out in the last post, the Cube Viewer is a new way of displaying data for advanced analysis. The Cube Viewer functionality extends the existing ConfigTools (a.k.a Task Optimization) objects to allow the analysis to be defined as a Cube Type and Cube View. Those definitions are used by the widget to display correctly and define what level of interactivity the user can enjoy.

Note: Cube Viewer is available in Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.3.0.6.0 and above.

The process of building a cube introduces new concepts and new objects to ConfigTools to allow for an efficient method of defining the analysis and interactivity. In summary form the process is described by the figure below:

• Design Your Cube. Decide the data and related information to to be used in the Cube Viewer for analysis. This is not just a typical list of values but a design of dimensions, filters and values. This is an important step as it helps determine whether the Cube Viewer is appropriate for the data to be analyzed.
• Design Cube SQL. Translating the design into a Cube based SQL. This SQL statement is formatted specifically for use in a cube.
• Setup Query Zone. The SQL statement designed in the last step needs to be defined in a ConfigTools Query Zone for use in the Cube Type later in the process. This also allows for the configuration of additional information not contained in the SQL to be added to the Cube.
• Setup Business Service. The Cube Viewer requires a Business Service based upon the standard FWLZDEXP application service. This is also used by the Cube Type later process.
• Setup Cube Type. Define a Cube Type object defining the Query Zone, Business Service and other settings to be used by the Cube Viewer at runtime. This  brings all the configuration together into a new ConfigTools object.
• Setup Cube View. Define an instance of the Cube Type with the relevant predefined settings for use in the user interface as a Cube View object. Appropriate users can use this as the initial view into the cube and use it as a basis for any Saved Views they want to implement.

Over the next few weeks, a number of articles will be available to outline each of these steps to help you understand the feature and be on your way to building your own cubes.

In january 2019 Oracle released the documentation for Oracle Database 19c.

More than 7 weeks later there is still nothing at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/:


The gap between release date of the documentation and the on premises software was for 18c not so long...

Will 19c on premises software be released before may? Or later in summer?

HI iam using below query to read xml from blob and find the string but facing error buffer to small ora-22835 blob to raw conversion (actual 15569,mximum 2000) please help me out with below example <code> SELECT XMLTYPE (UTL_RAW.cast_to_varchar...

Hi Tom, I seek your help on how to compare two rows in the table and if they are same merge the rows. <code>create table test(id number, start_date date, end_date date, col1 varchar2(10), col2 varchar2(10), col3 varchar2(10)); insert into t...

Monday, I used the coe_xfr_sql_profile.sql script from Oracle Support’s SQLT scripts to resolve a performance issue. I had to set the parameter force_match to TRUE so that the SQL Profile I created would apply to all SQL statements with the same FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE value.

I just finished going off the on-call rotation at 8 am Monday and around 4 pm on Monday a coworker came up to me with a performance problem. A PeopleSoft Financials job was running longer than it normally did. Since it had run for several hours, I got an AWR report of the last hour and looked at the SQL ordered by Elapsed Time section and found a number of similar INSERT statements with different SQL_IDs.

The inserts were the same except for certain constant values. So, I used my fmsstat2.sql script with ss.sql_id = ’60dp9r760ja88′ to get the FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE value for these inserts. Here is the output:

FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE SQL_ID        PLAN_HASH_VALUE END_INTERVAL_TIME         EXECUTIONS_DELTA Elapsed Average ms CPU Average ms IO Average ms Cluster Average ms Application Average ms Concurrency Average ms Average buffer gets Average disk reads Average rows processed
------------------------ ------------- --------------- ------------------------- ---------------- ------------------ -------------- ------------- ------------------ ---------------------- ---------------------- ------------------- ------------------ ----------------------
     5442820596869317879 60dp9r760ja88         3334601 15-APR-19 05.00.34.061 PM                1         224414.511     224412.713         2.982                  0                      0                   .376             5785269                 40                   3707

Now that I had the FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE value 5442820596869317879 I reran fmsstat2.sql with ss.FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE = 5442820596869317879 instead of ss.sql_id = ’60dp9r760ja88′ and got all of the insert statements and their PLAN_HASH_VALUE values. I needed these to use coe_xfr_sql_profile.sql to generate a script to create a SQL Profile to force a better plan onto the insert statements. Here is the beginning of the output of the fmsstat2.sql script:

FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE SQL_ID        PLAN_HASH_VALUE END_INTERVAL_TIME         EXECUTIONS_DELTA Elapsed Average ms CPU Average ms IO Average ms Cluster Average ms Application Average ms Concurrency Average ms Average buffer gets Average disk reads Average rows processed
------------------------ ------------- --------------- ------------------------- ---------------- ------------------ -------------- ------------- ------------------ ---------------------- ---------------------- ------------------- ------------------ ----------------------
     5442820596869317879 0yzz90wgcybuk      1314604389 14-APR-19 01.00.44.945 PM                1            558.798        558.258             0                  0                      0                      0               23571                  0                    812
     5442820596869317879 5a86b68g7714k      1314604389 14-APR-19 01.00.44.945 PM                1            571.158        571.158             0                  0                      0                      0               23245                  0                    681
     5442820596869317879 9u1a335s936z9      1314604389 14-APR-19 01.00.44.945 PM                1            536.886        536.886             0                  0                      0                      0               21851                  0                      2
     5442820596869317879 a922w6t6nt6ry      1314604389 14-APR-19 01.00.44.945 PM                1            607.943        607.943             0                  0                      0                      0               25948                  0                   1914
     5442820596869317879 d5cca46bzhdk3      1314604389 14-APR-19 01.00.44.945 PM                1            606.268         598.11             0                  0                      0                      0               25848                  0                   1763
     5442820596869317879 gwv75p0fyf9ys      1314604389 14-APR-19 01.00.44.945 PM                1            598.806        598.393             0                  0                      0                      0               24981                  0                   1525
     5442820596869317879 0u2rzwd08859s         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1          18534.037      18531.635             0                  0                      0                      0              713757                  0                     59
     5442820596869317879 1spgv2h2sb8n5         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1          30627.533      30627.533          .546                  0                      0                      0             1022484                 27                    487
     5442820596869317879 252dsf173mvc4         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1          47872.361      47869.859          .085                  0                      0                      0             1457614                  2                    476
     5442820596869317879 25bw3269yx938         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1         107915.183     107912.459         1.114                  0                      0                      0             2996363                 26                   2442
     5442820596869317879 2ktg1dvz8rndw         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1          62178.512      62178.512          .077                  0                      0                      0             1789536                  3                   1111
     5442820596869317879 4500kk2dtkadn         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1         106586.665     106586.665         7.624                  0                      0                      0             2894719                 20                   1660
     5442820596869317879 4jmj30ym5rrum         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1          17638.067      17638.067             0                  0                      0                      0              699273                  0                    102
     5442820596869317879 657tp4jd07qn2         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1          118948.54      118890.57             0                  0                      0                      0             3257090                  0                   2515
     5442820596869317879 6gpwwnbmch1nq         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                0          48685.816      48685.816          .487                  0                      0                  1.111             1433923                 12                      0
     5442820596869317879 6k1q5byga902a         3334601 15-APR-19 09.00.53.913 AM                1            2144.59        2144.59             0                  0                      0                      0              307369                  0                      2

The first few lines show the good plan that these inserts ran on earlier runs. The good plan has PLAN_HASH_VALUE 1314604389 and runs in about 600 milliseconds. The bad plan has PLAN_HASH_VALUE 3334601 and runs in 100 or so seconds. I took a look at the plans before doing the SQL Profile but did not really dig into why the plans changed. It was 4:30 pm or so and I was trying to get out the door since I was not on call and wanted to get home at a normal time and leave the problems to the on-call DBA. Here is the good plan:

Plan hash value: 1314604389

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                       | Name               | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | INSERT STATEMENT                |                    |       |       |  3090 (100)|          |
|   1 |  HASH JOIN RIGHT SEMI           |                    |  2311 |  3511K|  3090   (1)| 00:00:13 |
|   2 |   VIEW                          | VW_SQ_1            |   967 | 44482 |  1652   (1)| 00:00:07 |
|   3 |    HASH JOIN                    |                    |   967 | 52218 |  1652   (1)| 00:00:07 |
|   4 |     TABLE ACCESS FULL           | PS_PST_VCHR_TAO4   |    90 |  1980 |    92   (3)| 00:00:01 |
|   5 |     NESTED LOOPS                |                    | 77352 |  2417K|  1557   (1)| 00:00:07 |
|   6 |      INDEX UNIQUE SCAN          | PS_BUS_UNIT_TBL_GL |     1 |     5 |     0   (0)|          |
|   7 |      TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| PS_DIST_LINE_TMP4  | 77352 |  2039K|  1557   (1)| 00:00:07 |
|   8 |       INDEX RANGE SCAN          | PS_DIST_LINE_TMP4  | 77352 |       |   756   (1)| 00:00:04 |
|   9 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID   | PS_VCHR_TEMP_LN4   | 99664 |   143M|  1434   (1)| 00:00:06 |
|  10 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN             | PSAVCHR_TEMP_LN4   | 99664 |       |   630   (1)| 00:00:03 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the bad plan:

Plan hash value: 3334601

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                          | Name               | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | INSERT STATEMENT                   |                    |       |       |  1819 (100)|          |
|   1 |  TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID       | PS_VCHR_TEMP_LN4   |  2926 |  4314K|  1814   (1)| 00:00:08 |
|   2 |   NESTED LOOPS                     |                    |  2926 |  4446K|  1819   (1)| 00:00:08 |
|   3 |    VIEW                            | VW_SQ_1            |     1 |    46 |     4   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   4 |     SORT UNIQUE                    |                    |     1 |    51 |            |          |
|   5 |      TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID   | PS_PST_VCHR_TAO4   |     1 |    23 |     1   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   6 |       NESTED LOOPS                 |                    |     1 |    51 |     4   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   7 |        NESTED LOOPS                |                    |     1 |    28 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   8 |         INDEX UNIQUE SCAN          | PS_BUS_UNIT_TBL_GL |     1 |     5 |     0   (0)|          |
|   9 |         TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| PS_DIST_LINE_TMP4  |     1 |    23 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|  10 |          INDEX RANGE SCAN          | PS_DIST_LINE_TMP4  |     1 |       |     2   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|  11 |        INDEX RANGE SCAN            | PS_PST_VCHR_TAO4   |     1 |       |     1   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|  12 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN                | PSAVCHR_TEMP_LN4   |   126K|       |  1010   (1)| 00:00:05 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notice that in the bad plan the Rows column has 1 in it on many of the lines, but in the good plan it has larger numbers. Something about the statistics and the values in the where clause caused the optimizer to build the bad plan as if no rows would be accessed from these tables even though many rows would be accessed. So, it made a plan based on wrong information. But I had no time to dig further. I did ask my coworker if anything had changed about this job and nothing had.

So, I created a SQL Profile script by going to the utl subdirectory under sqlt where it was installed on the database server. I generated the script by running coe_xfr_sql_profile gwv75p0fyf9ys 1314604389. I edited the created script by the name coe_xfr_sql_profile_gwv75p0fyf9ys_1314604389.sql and changed the setting force_match=>FALSE to force_match=>TRUE and ran the script. The long running job finished shortly thereafter, and no new incidents have occurred in future runs.

The only thing that confuses me is that when I run fmsstat2.sql now with ss.FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE = 5442820596869317879 I do not see any runs with the good plan. Maybe future runs of the job have a different FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE and the SQL Profile only helped the one job. If that is true, the future runs may have had the correct statistics and run the good plan on their own.

I wanted to post this to give an example of using force_match=>TRUE with coe_xfr_sql_profile. I had an earlier post about this subject, but I thought another example could not hurt. I also wanted to show how I use fmsstat2.sql to find multiple SQL statements by their FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE value. I realize that SQL Profiles are a kind of band aid rather than a solution to the real problem. But I got out of the door by 5 pm on Monday and did not get woken up in the middle of the night so sometimes a quick fix is what you need.

Bobby

Introduction

Developers have significantly greater choice today than even just a few years ago, when considering where to build, test and host their services and applications, deciding which clouds to move existing on-premises workloads to, and which of the multitude of open source projects to leverage. So why, in this new era of empowered developers and expanding choice, have so many organizations pursued a single cloud strategy?  The proliferation of new, cloud native open source projects and cloud service providers over recent years who have added capacity, functionality, tools, resources and services, has resulted in better performance, different cost models, and more choice for developers and DevOps engineers, while increasing competition among providers. This is leading into a new era of cloud choice, where the new norm will be dominated by a multi-cloud and hybrid cloud model.

As new cloud native design and development technologies like Kubernetes, serverless computing, and the maturing discipline of microservices emerge, they help accelerate, simplify, and expand deployment and development options. Users have the ability to leverage new technologies with their existing designs and deployments, and the flexibility they afford expands users’ option to run on many different platforms. Given this rapidly changing cloud landscape, it is not surprising that hybrid cloud and multi cloud strategies are being adopted by an increasing number of companies today. 

For a deeper dive into Prediction #7 of the 10 Predictions for Developers in 2019 offered by Siddhartha Agarwal, “Developers Decide One Cloud Isn’t Enough”, we look at the growing trend for companies and developers to choose more than one cloud provider. We’ll examine a few of the factors they consider, the needs determined by a company’s place in the development cycle, business objectives, and level of risk tolerance, and predict how certain choices will trend in 2019 and beyond.

 

Different Strokes

We are in a heterogeneous IT world today. A plethora of choice and use cases, coupled with widely varying technical and business needs and approaches to solving them, give rise to different solutions. No two are exactly the same, but development projects today typically fall within the following scenarios.

A. Born in the cloud development – these suffer little to no constraint imposed by existing applications; it is highly efficient and cost-effective to begin design in the cloud. They are naturally leveraging containers and new open source development tools like serverless (https://fnproject.io/) or service mesh platforms (e.g., Istio)  A decade ago, startup costs based on datacenter needs alone were a serious barrier to entry for budding tech companies – cloud computing has completely changed this.

B. On premises development moving to cloud – enterprises in this category have many more factors to consider. Java teams for example are rapidly adopting frameworks like Helidon and GraalVM to help them move to a microservice architecture and migrate applications to the cloud. But will greenfield development projects start only in cloud? Do they migrate legacy workloads to cloud? How do they balance existing investments with new opportunities? And what about the interface between on-premises and cloud?

C. Remaining mostly on premises but moving some services to cloud – options are expanding for those in this category. A hybrid cloud approach has been expanding, and we predict will continue to expand, over the course of at least the next few years.  The cloud native stacks available on premises now mirror the cloud native stacks in the cloud thus enabling a new generation of hybrid cloud use cases. An integrated and supported cloud native framework that spans on premises and cloud options delivers choice once again.  And, security, privacy and latency concerns will dictate some of their unique development project needs.

 

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It?

IT investments are real. Inertia can be hard to overcome. Let’s look at the main reasons for not distributing workloads across multiple clouds.  

• Economy of scale tops the list, as most cloud providers will offer discounts for customers who go all in; larger workloads on one cloud provide negotiating leverage.
• Development staff familiarity with one chosen platform makes it easier to bring on and train new developers; ramp time to productivity increases.
• Custom features or functionality unique to the main cloud provider may need to be removed or redesigned in moving to another platform. Even on supposedly open platforms, developers must be aware of the not-so-obvious features impacting portability.
• Geographical location of datacenters for privacy and/or latency concerns in less well-served areas of the world may also inhibit choice, or force uncomfortable trade-offs.
• Risk mitigation is another significant factor, as enterprises seek to balance conflicting business needs with associated risks. Lean development teams often need to choose between taking on new development work vs modernizing legacy applications, when resources are scarce.

Change is Gonna Do You Good

These are valid concerns, but as dev teams look more deeply into the robust services and offerings emerging today, the trend is to diversify.

The most frequently cited concern is that of vendor lock-in. This counter-argument to that of economy of scale says that the more difficult it is to move your workloads off of one provider, the less motivated that vendor is to help reduce your cost of operations. For SMBs (small to mid-sized businesses) without a ton of leverage in comparison to large enterprises, this can be significant. Ensuring portability of workloads is important. A comprehensive cloud native infrastructure is imperative here – one that includes container orchestration but also streaming, CI/CD, and observability and analysis (e.g, Prometheus and Grafana). Containers and Kubernetes deliver portability, provided your cloud vendor uses unmodified open source code. In this model, a developer can develop their web application on their laptop, push it into a CI/CD system on one cloud, and leverage another cloud for managed Kubernetes to run their container-based app. However, the minute you start using specific APIs from the underlying platform, moving to another platform is much more difficult. AWS Lambda is one of many examples.

Mergers, acquisitions, changing business plans or practices, or other unforeseen events may impact a business at a time when they are not equipped to deal with it. Having greater flexibility to move with changing circumstances, and not being rushed into decisions, is also important. Consider for example, the merger of an organization that uses an on-premises PaaS, such as OpenShift, merging with another organization that has leveraged the public cloud across IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. It’s important to choose interoperable technologies to anticipate these scenarios.

Availability is another reason cited by customers. A thoughtfully designed multi-cloud architecture not only offers potential negotiating power as mentioned above, but also allows for failover in case of outages, DDoS attacks, local catastrophes, and the like. Larger cloud providers with massive resources and proliferation of datacenters and multiple availability domains offer a clear advantage here, but it also behooves the consumer to distribute risk across not only datacenters, but over several providers.

Another important set of factors is related to cost and ROI. Running the same workload on multiple cloud providers to compare cost and performance can help achieve business goals, and also help inform design practices.  

Adopting open source technologies enables businesses to choose where to run their applications based on the criteria they deem most important, be they technical, cost, business, compliance, or regulatory concerns. Moving to open source thus opens up the possibility to run applications on any cloud. That is, any CNCF-certified Kubernetes managed cloud service can safely run Kubernetes – so enterprises can take advantage of this key benefit to drive a multi-cloud strategy.

The trend in 2019 is moving strongly in the direction of design practices that support all aspects of a business’s goals, with the best offers, pricing and practices from multiple providers. This direction makes enterprises more competitive – maximally productive, cost-effective, secure, available, and flexible regarding platform choice.

 

Design for Flexibility

Though having a multi-cloud strategy seems to be the growing trend, it does come with some inherent challenges. To address issues like interoperability among multiple providers and establishing depth of expertise with a single cloud provider, we’re seeing an increased use of different technologies that help to abstract away some of the infrastructure interoperability hiccups. This is particularly important to developers, who seek the best available technologies that fit their specific needs.

Serverless computing seeks to reduce the awareness of any notion of infrastructure. Consider it similar to water or electricity utilities – once you have attached your own minimal home infrastructure to the endpoint offered by the utility, you simply turn on the tap or light switch, and pay for what you consume. The service scales automatically – for all intents and purposes, you may consume as much output of the utility or service as desired, and the bill goes up and down accordingly. When you are not consuming the service, there is no (or almost no) overhead.  

Development teams are picking cloud vendors based on capabilities they need. This is especially true in SaaS. SaaS is a cloud-based software delivery model with payment based on usage, rather than license or support-based pricing. The SaaS provider develops, maintains and updates the software, along with the hardware, middleware, application software, and security. SaaS customers can more easily predict total cost of ownership with greater accuracy. The more modern, complete SaaS solutions also allow for greater ease of configuration and personalization, and offer embedded analytics, data portability, cloud security, support for emerging technologies, and connected, end-to-end business processes.

Serverless computing not only provides simplicity through abstraction of infrastructure, its design patterns also promote the use of third-party managed services whenever possible. This provides flexibility and allows you to choose the best solution for your problem from the growing suite of products and services available in the cloud, from software-defined networking and API gateways, to databases and managed streaming services. In this design paradigm, everything within an application that is not purely business logic can be efficiently outsourced.

More and more companies are finding it increasingly easy to connect elements together with Serverless functionality for the desired business logic and design goals. Serverless deployments talking to multiple endpoints can run almost anywhere; serverless becomes the “glue” that is used to make use of the best services available, from any provider.

Serverless deployments can be run anywhere, even on multiple cloud platforms. Hence flexibility of choice expands even further, making it arguably the best design option for those desiring portability and openness.

 

Summary

There are many pieces required to deliver a successful multi-cloud approach. Modern developers use specific criteria to validate if a particular cloud is “open” and whether or not it supports a multi-cloud approach. Does it have the ability to

• extract/export data without incurring significant expense or overhead?
• be deployed either on-premises or in the public cloud, including for custom applications, integrations between applications, etc.?
• monitor and manage applications that might reside on-premises or in other clouds from a single console, with the ability to aggregate monitoring/management data?

And does it have a good set of APIs that enables access to everything in the UI via an API? Does it expose all the business logic and data required by the application? Does it have SSO capability across applications?

The CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) has over 400 cloud provider, user, and supporter members, and its working groups and cloud events specification engage these and thousands more in the ongoing mission to make cloud native computing ubiquitous, and allow engineers to make high-impact changes frequently and predictably with minimal toil.

We predict this trend will continue well beyond 2019 as CNCF drives adoption of this paradigm by fostering and sustaining an ecosystem of open source, vendor-neutral projects, and democratizing state-of-the-art patterns to make these innovations accessible for everyone.

Oracle is a platinum member of CNCF, along with 17 other major cloud providers. We are serious about our commitment to open source, open development practices, and sharing our expertise via technical tutorials, talks at meetups and conferences, and helping businesses succeed. Learn more and engage with us at cloudnative.oracle.com, and we’d love to hear if you agree with the predictions expressed in this post. 

Are you familiar with Project Helidon? It’s an open source Java microservices framework introduced by Oracle in September of 2018.  As Helidon project lead Dmitry Kornilov explains in his article Helidon Takes Flight, "It’s possible to build microservices using Java EE, but it’s better to have a framework designed from the ground up for building microservices."

Helidon consists of a lightweight set of libraries that require no application server and can be used in Java SE applications. While these libraries can be used separately, using them in combination provides developers with a solid foundation on which to build microservices.

In this program we’ll dig into Project Helidon with a panel that consists of two people who are actively engaged in the project, and two community leaders who have used Helidon in development projects, and have also organized Helidon-focused Meet-Ups.

This program was recorded on Friday, March 8, 2019. So let’s journey through time and space and get to the conversation. Just press play in the widget.

The Panelists

Dmitry Kornilov
Senior Software Development Manager, Oracle; Project Lead, Project Helidon
Prague, Czech Republic

 

Tomas Langer
Consulting Member of Technical Staff, Oracle; Member of the Project Helidon Team
Prague, Czech Republic

 

José Rodrigues
Principal Consultant and Business Analyst, Link Consulting; Co-Organizer, Oracle Developer Meetup Lisbon
Lisbon, Portugal

 

Phil Wilkins
Senior Consultant, Capgemini; Co-Organizer. Oracle Developer Meetup London
Reading, UK

 

Relevant Resources

• Project Helidon
• @helidon_project
• Github: oracle/helidon
• Microservices From Dev To Deploy, Part 1: Getting Started With Helidon
• Eclipse MicroProfile
• Helidon Takes Flight
• Oracle Introduces Helidon - A Lightweight Java Microservices Framework
• Podcast: Polyglot Programming and Graal VM

Tom, Can you please provide info on how can I find the full table scan and index table scan activities in the database using v$statname and v$sysstat? Do I need to set TIMED_STATISTICS=TRUE before running queries against v$sysstat?...

Check 18c Upgrade Results – The cluster upgrade state is [UPGRADE FINAL]

18c Upgrade Getting to Results – The cluster upgrade state is [NORMAL]

This is a multi-part series for 18c Upgrade and suggest read the above 2 posts first.

Commands for gridSetup.sh

+ /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/gridSetup.sh -silent -skipPrereqs -applyRU /media/patch/Jan2019/28828717 -responseFile /sf_OracleSoftware/18cLinux/gridsetup_upgrade.rsp -J-Doracle.install.mgmtDB=false -J-Doracle.install.mgmtDB.CDB=false -J Doracle.install.crs.enableRemoteGIMR=false
Preparing the home to patch...
Applying the patch /media/patch/Jan2019/28828717...
Successfully applied the patch.
The log can be found at: /u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_06-19-12AM/installerPatchActions_2019-04-16_06-19-12AM.log
Launching Oracle Grid Infrastructure Setup Wizard...

The response file for this session can be found at:
 /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/install/response/grid_2019-04-16_06-19-12AM.rsp

You can find the log of this install session at:
 /u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_06-19-12AM/gridSetupActions2019-04-16_06-19-12AM.log

As a root user, execute the following script(s):
        1. /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/rootupgrade.sh

Execute /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/rootupgrade.sh on the following nodes:
[racnode-dc1-1, racnode-dc1-2]

Run the script on the local node first. After successful completion, you can start the script in parallel on all other nodes, except a node you designate as the last node. When all the nodes except the last node are done successfully, run the script on the last node.

Successfully Setup Software.
As install user, execute the following command to complete the configuration.
        /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/gridSetup.sh -executeConfigTools -responseFile /sf_OracleSoftware/18cLinux/gridsetup_upgrade.rsp [-silent]


+ exit
oracle@racnode-dc1-1::/home/oracle
$

Basically, the error provided is utterly useless.

oracle@racnode-dc1-1::/home/oracle
$ /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/gridSetup.sh -executeConfigTools -responseFile /sf_OracleSoftware/18cLinux/gridsetup_upgrade.rsp -silent
Launching Oracle Grid Infrastructure Setup Wizard...

You can find the logs of this session at:
/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM

[WARNING] [INS-43080] Some of the configuration assistants failed, were cancelled or skipped.
   ACTION: Refer to the logs or contact Oracle Support Services.
oracle@racnode-dc1-1::/home/oracle

Check logs from directory /u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM

oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/home/oracle
$ cd /u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM

oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM
$ ls -alrt
total 1072
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall     130 Apr 16 12:59 installerPatchActions_2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall       0 Apr 16 12:59 gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.err
drwxrwx--- 8 oracle oinstall    4096 Apr 16 13:01 ..
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall 1004378 Apr 16 13:01 gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.out
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall    2172 Apr 16 13:01 time2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log ***
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall   73047 Apr 16 13:01 gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log ***
drwxrwx--- 2 oracle oinstall    4096 Apr 16 13:01 .

Check time2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log

oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM
$ cat time2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log
 # Message # ElapsedTime # Current Time ( ms )
 # Starting step:INITIALIZE_ACTION of state:init #  0  # 1555412405106
 # Finished step:INITIALIZE_ACTION of state:init # 1 # 1555412405106
 # Starting step:EXECUTE of state:init #  0  # 1555412405108
 # Finished step:EXECUTE of state:init # 3 # 1555412405111
 # Starting step:VALIDATE of state:init #  0  # 1555412405113
 # Finished step:VALIDATE of state:init # 2 # 1555412405115
 # Starting step:TRANSITION of state:init #  0  # 1555412405115
 # Finished step:TRANSITION of state:init # 2 # 1555412405117
 # Starting step:EXECUTE of state:CRSConfigTools #  0  # 1555412405117
 # Finished step:EXECUTE of state:CRSConfigTools # 813 # 1555412405930
 # Starting step:VALIDATE of state:CRSConfigTools #  0  # 1555412405930
 # Finished step:VALIDATE of state:CRSConfigTools # 0 # 1555412405930
 # Starting step:TRANSITION of state:CRSConfigTools #  0  # 1555412405930
 # Finished step:TRANSITION of state:CRSConfigTools # 26591 # 1555412432521
 # Starting step:INITIALIZE_ACTION of state:setup #  0  # 1555412432521
 # Finished step:INITIALIZE_ACTION of state:setup # 0 # 1555412432521
 # Starting step:EXECUTE of state:setup #  0  # 1555412432522
 # Finished step:EXECUTE of state:setup # 6 # 1555412432528
 # Configuration in progress. #  0  # 1555412436788
 # Update Inventory in progress. #  0  # 1555412437768
 # Update Inventory successful. # 52612 # 1555412490380
 # Upgrading RHP Repository in progress. #  0  # 1555412490445

================================================================================
 # Upgrading RHP Repository failed. # 12668 # 1555412503112
================================================================================

 # Starting step:VALIDATE of state:setup #  0  # 1555412503215
 # Finished step:VALIDATE of state:setup # 15 # 1555412503230
 # Starting step:TRANSITION of state:setup #  0  # 1555412503230
 # Finished step:TRANSITION of state:setup # 0 # 1555412503230
 # Starting step:EXECUTE of state:finish #  0  # 1555412503230
 # Finished step:EXECUTE of state:finish # 6 # 1555412503236
 # Starting step:VALIDATE of state:finish #  0  # 1555412503237
 # Finished step:VALIDATE of state:finish # 1 # 1555412503238
 # Starting step:TRANSITION of state:finish #  0  # 1555412503238
 # Finished step:TRANSITION of state:finish # 0 # 1555412503238

oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM

Check gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log

oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM
$ grep -B2 -A100 'Executing RHPUPGRADE' gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Starting 'Upgrading RHP Repository'
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Starting 'Upgrading RHP Repository'
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Executing RHPUPGRADE
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Command /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/bin/rhprepos upgradeSchema -fromversion 12.1.0.2.0
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] ... GenericInternalPlugIn.handleProcess() entered.
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] ... GenericInternalPlugIn: getting configAssistantParmas.
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] ... GenericInternalPlugIn: checking secretArguments.
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] No arguments to pass to stdin
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] ... GenericInternalPlugIn: starting read loop.
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed Plugin named: rhpupgrade
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] ConfigClient.saveSession method called
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Upgrading RHP Repository failed.
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Upgrading RHP Repository failed.
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] ConfigClient.executeSelectedToolsInAggregate action performed
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Exiting ConfigClient.executeSelectedToolsInAggregate method
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Adding ExitStatus SUCCESS_MINUS_RECTOOL to the exit status set
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] ConfigClient.saveSession method called
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Calling event ConfigSessionEnding
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] ConfigClient.endSession method called
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed Configuration
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Adding ExitStatus FAILURE to the exit status set
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] All forked task are completed at state setup
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Validating state <setup>

================================================================================
WARNING:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] [WARNING] [INS-43080] Some of the configuration assistants failed, were cancelled or skipped.
   ACTION: Refer to the logs or contact Oracle Support Services.
================================================================================

INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Advice is CONTINUE
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed validating state <setup>
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Verifying route success
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Waiting for completion of background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Waiting for completion of background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Executing action at state finish
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] FinishAction Actions.execute called
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Finding the most appropriate exit status for the current application
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed executing action at state <finish>
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Waiting for completion of background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Waiting for completion of background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Moved to state <finish>
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Waiting for completion of background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Validating state <finish>
WARNING:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Validation disabled for the state finish
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed validating state <finish>
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Terminating all background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Terminated all background operations
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Successfully executed the flow in SILENT mode
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Finding the most appropriate exit status for the current application
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] inventory location is/u01/app/oraInventory
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Finding the most appropriate exit status for the current application

================================================================================
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Exit Status is -1
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Shutdown Oracle Grid Infrastructure 18c Installer
INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Unloading Setup Driver
================================================================================
oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM
$

Due to Exit Status is -1 is probably why – The cluster upgrade state is [UPGRADE FINAL]

Why Upgrading RHP Repository when oracle_install_crs_ConfigureRHPS=false?

oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM
$ grep -i rhp *
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:00:04 PM] Setting value for the property:oracle_install_crs_ConfigureRHPS in the bean:CRSInstallSettings
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log: oracle_install_crs_ConfigureRHPS                       false
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:00:37 PM] Created config job for rhpupgrade
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:00:37 PM] Selecting job named 'Upgrading RHP Repository' for retry
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Started Plugin named: rhpupgrade
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Starting 'Upgrading RHP Repository'
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Starting 'Upgrading RHP Repository'
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Executing RHPUPGRADE
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:30 PM] Command /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/bin/rhprepos upgradeSchema -fromversion 12.1.0.2.0
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Completed Plugin named: rhpupgrade
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Upgrading RHP Repository failed.
gridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log:INFO:  [Apr 16, 2019 1:01:43 PM] Upgrading RHP Repository failed.
time2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log: # Upgrading RHP Repository in progress. #  0  # 1555412490445
time2019-04-16_12-59-56PM.log: # Upgrading RHP Repository failed. # 12668 # 1555412503112
oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/GridSetupActions2019-04-16_12-59-56PM
$

gridsetup_upgrade.rsp is used for upgrade and pertinent info shown.

## To upgrade clusterware and/or Automatic storage management of earlier     ##
## releases                                                                  ##
##  - Fill out sections A,B,C,D and H                                        ##

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Specify the required cluster configuration
# Allowed values: STANDALONE, DOMAIN, MEMBERDB, MEMBERAPP
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
oracle.install.crs.config.ClusterConfiguration=STANDALONE 

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Configure RHPS - Rapid Home Provisioning Service
# Applicable only for DOMAIN cluster configuration
# Specify 'true' if you want to configure RHP service, else specify 'false'
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
oracle.install.crs.configureRHPS=false

oracle@racnode-dc1-1::/sf_OracleSoftware/18cLinux
$ sdiff -iEZbWBst -w 150 gridsetup.rsp gridsetup_upgrade.rsp
INVENTORY_LOCATION=                                                       |  INVENTORY_LOCATION=/u01/app/oraInventory
oracle.install.option=                                                    |  oracle.install.option=UPGRADE
ORACLE_BASE=                                                              |  ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
oracle.install.crs.config.scanType=                                       |  oracle.install.crs.config.scanType=LOCAL_SCAN
oracle.install.crs.config.ClusterConfiguration=                           |  oracle.install.crs.config.ClusterConfiguration=STANDALONE
oracle.install.crs.config.configureAsExtendedCluster=                     |  oracle.install.crs.config.configureAsExtendedCluster=false
oracle.install.crs.config.gpnp.configureGNS=                              |  oracle.install.crs.config.gpnp.configureGNS=false
oracle.install.crs.config.autoConfigureClusterNodeVIP=                    |  oracle.install.crs.config.autoConfigureClusterNodeVIP=false
oracle.install.asm.configureGIMRDataDG=                                   |  oracle.install.asm.configureGIMRDataDG=false
oracle.install.asm.configureAFD=                                          |  oracle.install.asm.configureAFD=false
oracle.install.crs.configureRHPS=                                         |  oracle.install.crs.configureRHPS=false
oracle.install.crs.config.ignoreDownNodes=                                |  oracle.install.crs.config.ignoreDownNodes=false
oracle.install.config.managementOption=                                   |  oracle.install.config.managementOption=NONE
oracle.install.crs.rootconfig.executeRootScript=                          |  oracle.install.crs.rootconfig.executeRootScript=false

ora.cvu does not report any errors.

oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/home/oracle
$ crsctl stat res -w "TYPE = ora.cvu.type" -t
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name           Target  State        Server                   State details
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cluster Resources
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ora.cvu
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode-dc1-2            STABLE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/home/oracle
$ crsctl stat res -w "TYPE = ora.cvu.type" -p|grep RESULTS | sed 's/,/\n/g'
CHECK_RESULTS=
oracle@racnode-dc1-1:+ASM1:/home/oracle
$

Run rhprepos upgradeSchema -fromversion 12.1.0.2.0 – FAILED.

oracle@racnode-dc1-1::/home/oracle
$ /u01/18.3.0.0/grid/bin/rhprepos upgradeSchema -fromversion 12.1.0.2.0
PRCT-1474 : failed to run 'mgmtca' on node racnode-dc1-2.

oracle@racnode-dc1-1::/home/oracle
$ ps -ef|grep pmon
oracle    9722  4804  0 19:37 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto pmon
oracle   10380     1  0 13:46 ?        00:00:01 asm_pmon_+ASM1
oracle   10974     1  0 13:46 ?        00:00:01 apx_pmon_+APX1
oracle   11218     1  0 13:47 ?        00:00:02 ora_pmon_hawk1
oracle@racnode-dc1-1::/home/oracle
$ ssh racnode-dc1-2
Last login: Tue Apr 16 18:44:30 2019

----------------------------------------
Welcome to racnode-dc1-2
OracleLinux 7.3 x86_64

FQDN: racnode-dc1-2.internal.lab
IP:   10.0.2.15

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2640M CPU @ 2.80GHz
#CPU's:    2
Memory:    5709 MB
Kernel:    4.1.12-61.1.18.el7uek.x86_64

----------------------------------------

oracle@racnode-dc1-2::/home/oracle
$ ps -ef|grep pmon
oracle    9219     1  0 13:44 ?        00:00:01 asm_pmon_+ASM2
oracle   10113     1  0 13:45 ?        00:00:01 apx_pmon_+APX2
oracle   10619     1  0 13:45 ?        00:00:01 ora_pmon_hawk2
oracle   13200 13178  0 19:37 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto pmon
oracle@racnode-dc1-2::/home/oracle
$

In conclusion, the silent upgrade process is poorly documented at best.

Starting to wondering if the following parameters contributed to the issue:

-J-Doracle.install.mgmtDB=false -J-Doracle.install.mgmtDB.CDB=false -J Doracle.install.crs.enableRemoteGIMR=false

Back in 2017 I wrote about how I had to disable the result cache after upgrading a database to 11.2.0.4. This week I found one of our top queries and it looked like removing the result cache hints made it run 10 times faster. But this did not make sense because I disabled the result cache. Then I examined the hints closer. They looked like this:

/*+ RESULT CACHE */

There should be an underscore between the two words. I look up hints in the manuals and found that CACHE is a real hint. So, I tried the query with these three additional combinations:

 
/*+ RESULT */ 

 
/*+ CACHE */ 

 
/*+ RESULT_CACHE */ 

It ran slow with the original hint and with just the CACHE hint but none of the others. So, the moral of the story is to check your hints carefully because they may not be what you think they are.

Bobby

Your Digital Spring Cleaning Tips

It’s that time of year—spring cleaning is here. Time to dust off your IT strategy and make sure your security, software, systems, and support are ready for the season ahead. Follow these easy, actionable tips to ensure your business is prepared, cyber safe, protected, and compliant.

 

Tip 1: Commit to Continuous Innovation

Now is the time to ensure you are maximizing the value of your Oracle investment and are ready for the future. If you haven’t already done so, explore Oracle Applications Unlimited and Oracle Premier Support offerings for your covered on-premises applications, including Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, PeopleSoft, and Siebel, and take advantage of the Lifetime Support Policy for your Applications Unlimited products and the latest product roadmaps.

Tip 2: Update Your Software

Outdated software is as problematic as having no security defense at all. Ensure your Oracle software is up to date to reduce risk of cyber threats. Visit My Oracle Support to get the latest updates and details.

Looking for streamlined and more efficient upgrades with shorter cycles? Discover how you can receive continuous innovation releases for your covered Oracle Applications[1] with Oracle Applications Unlimited.

Tip 3: Patch, Patch, Patch

Security patching is essential for securing enterprise software and must be a core part of your security strategy. Failure to patch your software at the source leaves your software open to attack and your business open to risk.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “it is necessary for all organizations to establish a strong ongoing patch management process to ensure the proper preventive measures are taken against potential threats.”

Learn more about the importance of cybersecurity (PDF) and how Oracle Support can help protect your business from cyber threats.

Tip 4: Do a Compliance Check

Many new privacy regulations are being enacted to protect businesses everywhere, such as tax, legal, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Learn how Oracle can help you on the road to compliance.

Tip 5: Polish Up Your Skills and Expertise

Take Oracle Support Accreditation learning paths to get support best practices and tips directly from Oracle product experts. By completing the accreditation learning series, you can increase your proficiency with My Oracle Support’s core functions and build skills to help you leverage Oracle solutions, tools, and knowledge that enable productivity. Get more insights into the benefits of getting accredited.

 

Whether it’s spring or any other season, we encourage customers to learn more about the fundamentals of protecting their businesses with a trusted partner who both understands the importance of security and delivers ongoing and unparalleled product innovation. Visit our Oracle Premier Support website to learn more.

Learn More:

• How Can You Protect Your Business From Cybercrime?

• Oracle Applications Unlimited: Investing in Growth and Innovation

Busy as bees, these ACEs have been, keeping the buzz going with another week's worth of posts offering the kind of technical experience and expertise that can help to keep you from getting stung on your next project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Resources

• Latest Blog Posts from Oracle ACEs: March 31 - April 6, 2019
• Oracle ACE Program: A High-Five for New Members and Category Climbers
• Oracle ACE Program: Community Thought Leaders

Oracle ACE Guide

Oracle ACE Director: Top-tier community members who engage more closely with Oracle.
Oracle ACE: Established Oracle advocates who are well known in the community.
Oracle ACE Associate: Entry point for the Oracle ACE program

In the April release of Oracle Developer Cloud, we introduced a feature you can use to protect a specific branch of a Git repository hosted by Oracle Developer Cloud. This blog should help you understand the options we introduced.

Who has access to branch protection?

The only one allowed to configure branch protection for a Git repository is the user with the Project Owner role for the project in which the Git repository was created.

Where can we find the branch protection option?

To access this feature, select the Project Administration tab on the left navigation bar and then select the Branches tile in Developer Cloud.  This feature is accessible to a Project Owner, not to a Project Member.

 

Branch Protection Settings – Getting Started

To get started with setting branch protections, select the Git repository and the branch in the Branches tab. The dropdown lists all the repositories in the project and all the branches created for the selected repository.  In the following screenshot, I selected the NodeJSMicroService.git repository and the master branch.

 

Branch Protection – Options

There are four options for branch protection:

• Open
• Requires Review
• Private
• Frozen

By default, every branch of every Git repository is Open.

 

Branch Protection Options – Details

Open

By default, any branch of a given Git repository has a branch protection type of Open. This means there are no restrictions on the branch. You can still impose two rules without imposing code merge rules by selecting one or both of the following checkboxes:

Do not allow forced pushes: Select this option to ensure that, if there are any merge conflicts, no code can be pushed to the branch using the force push provision in Git.

Do not allow renaming or deleting the branch: Select this option to ensure that nobody can rename or delete the branch. The branch cannot be deleted manually or as part of the merge request.

You can save the configuration by clicking the Save button or discard it by clicking the Discard button.

 

Requires Review

If the Project Owner opts for this branch protection option, the code will be reviewed and approved by the configured reviewer for any push or code merge to take place. This is very useful when it is used with the master branch, to avoid any direct push or code merge to it without prior review. You can configure the reviewer(s) who are part of the project and set the criteria for approval. The Criteria for approval dropdown lets you configure whether an approval is required from all the configured reviewers, just one reviewer, or any two of them.

In addition to the review criteria, there are few other checkboxes that can help provide you with more comprehensive coverage as part of this protection option.

Requires Successful Build:  Select this checkbox to ensure that the review branch to be merged with the selected branch had a successful last build.

Reapproval needed when the branch is updated: Select this checkbox to ensure that, if a change is pushed to a branch after some reviewers have approved the merge request, the merge will only happen after the reviewers reapprove the merge request.

Changes pushed to the target branch must match review content: Select this checkbox to ensure that the reviewed code and the merged code are one and the same.

You can save the configuration by clicking the Save button or discard it by clicking the Discard button.

Private

This branch protection option ensures that only user(s) who have been configured or designated as branch owners will be able to push the code to the branch directly. All other users will have to create a merge request to push their code to this branch. This option makes sense when the user(s) have branched the code to work on a fix or enhancement and you want to restrict the ability to push code to this branch to a defined set of people.

Note: A Project Owner may not be a branch owner.

You can also impose two additional rules by selecting one or both of the following checkboxes:

Do not allow forced pushes: Select this checkbox to ensure that, if there are any merge conflicts, no code can be pushed to the branch using the force push provision in Git.

Do not allow renaming or deleting the branch: Select this checkbox to ensure that nobody can rename the branch or delete it manually or as part of the merge request.

You can save the configuration by clicking the Save button or discard it by clicking the Discard button.

 

Frozen:

This probably an easy but crucial branch protection option. As the name suggests, it freezes the branch and prevents any further changes. This option comes in handy during code freeze for the release or master branch. Once a branch has been marked as Frozen, it can only be undone by the Project Owner.

You can save the configuration by clicking the Save button or discard it by clicking the Discard button.

Branch protection can help streamline the Release Management for the project and help enforce best practices in your development process.

To learn more about this and other new features in Oracle Developer Cloud,  take a look at the What's New in Oracle Developer Cloud Service document and the links it provides to our product documentation. If you have any questions, you can reach us on the Developer Cloud slack channel or in the online forum.

Happy Coding!

Cloud technology is a word that is being used a lot when it comes to online services. The term, which refers to a network of online servers, is more than just a buzz word. Companies are quickly discovering that cloud functions can help them run applications, deliver services, or simply store their extra data. Most […]

The New release (19.1.1) of Oracle E-Business Suite Cloud Manager (EBS CM) is now available, that brings new security features for EBS (R12) on Cloud If you are an Oracle Apps DBA, Architect or someone working on EBS(R12) then, Check my new Video Below & know about: ✔ What is this new Security Feature? ✔ What […]

The post EBS Cloud Manager: New Release 19.1.1 Separation Of Duties appeared first on Oracle Trainings for Apps & Fusion DBA.

Oracle today released the April 2019 Critical Patch Update. 

This Critical Patch Update provides security updates for a wide range of product families, including: Oracle Database Server, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle PeopleSoft, Oracle Siebel CRM, Oracle Industry Applications (Construction and Engineering, Communications, Financial Services, Hospitality, Food & Beverage, Retail, Utilities), Oracle Java SE, Oracle Virtualization, Oracle MySQL, and Oracle Sun Systems Products Suite.

For more information about this Critical Patch Update, customers should refer to the Critical Patch Update Advisory located at https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpuapr2019-5072813.html and the executive summary published on My Oracle Support (Doc ID. 2494878.1). 

For more information about the Critical Patch Update program, see the security vulnerability remediation practices page located on Oracle’s corporate security practices site.

Hi Tom, Please help me on one of our prod issue. We have an object and all the attributes in the object(EMP_OBJ) are columns of a table(Lets say EMP) in diff schema. So when we defined the object we gave the datatype and size of the object attr...