Virtual Identity Dialogue

We released OVD 10.1.4.2 last week. It is a patchset release and in many cases patchsets are primarily bug fix releases. However, in this case it is another major milestone for us because we were able to add new certifications and completed our integration with the Oracle process.

Perhaps the biggest news is that this release is the first certified release of OVD with Enterprise User Security (EUS) specifically EUS 10g. EUS is an Oracle database option that allows you to manage user credentials in a directory as well as centralize management of database roles. The EUS functionality has been in the database since 8i but until now always required an OID installation.

Due to customer demand - we have released a certified version of OVD to support EUS which means you can deploy EUS without needing to deploy (and synchronize) data to OID. More information on the integration can be found in the OVD 10.1.4.2 documentation. And more information on EUS can be found in the Oracle database security docs.

As part of this effort we are now also running the automated EUS regression tests against both OVD and OID. This should provide us with much higher quality QA in particular since many of these tests have been in-use for several years and thus are very mature. Many thanks to everyone who helped achieve this.

Other notables in OVD 10.1.4.2:
* Enhanced globalization capabilities including expanded multi-byte
data support and localization for 9 admin languages

* Ability to Control LDAP Anonymous Authentication, closing Inactive
Connections and controlling Database Adapter Connection Pools

* New Certified Components (Oracle TimesTen (6.0 and 7.0), MS SQL
Server 2005 in addition to the versions supported by OVD 10.1.4.0.1)

* This release also uses OUI for its installation on top of Oracle
Virtual Directory 10.1.4.0.1.

* And of course the usual round of bug fixing that accompanies any release (see the release notes for the complete list).

And we did all of this while including 12 different teams from across the globe to make an on-time release.

OVD 10.1.4.2 can be downloaded from Metalink (which is where patchsets are normally released) or from OTN. We are releasing on OTN for this patchset to make it easier for customers who wish to explore the EUS integration.