Sergio's Blog

Last week, ULN was updated with Oracle VM 2.1.5 RPMs. One of the main new features in Oracle VM 2.1.5 is a web services-based API to perform any of the operations in Oracle VM Manager, for example, create a server pool, add servers, or create virtual machines. Read the Oracle VM Web Services API documentation. ISOs will be published on edelivery.oracle.com/oraclevm soon.

Download OEL 4 Update 8 for i386 and x86_64 architectures for free from edelivery.oracle.com/linux. ia64 ISOs will be published in the same location a bit later.

We've just released Oracle Enterprise Linux 4, Update 8 on ULN (linux.oracle.com) and on public-yum.oracle.com. DVD ISOs are available for Unbreakable Linux support customers by calling support. They'll be available soon on edelivery.oracle.com/linux

Next week I'll be in Tokyo to deliver two sessions on Oracle VM. Consider this post an introduction to the Virtualization blog, where Adam Hawley has been writing about Oracle VM for a few weeks now. I'll be adding this to the blog roll.

We've just launched a new public yum server for Oracle Enterprise Linux and Oracle VM. This yum server offers a free and convenient way to install packages from the Enterprise Linux and Oracle VM installation media via a yum client.
To get started: public-yum.oracle.com

My good friend Joel showed me how you can connect to a (remote) database using an easy connect identifier. Here's how it works:

    sqlplus sergiodb/sergiodb@//127.0.0.1:1521/mvl

It looks to be a way of constructing a connect identifier that's new since database 10g Release 1. The syntax is as follows:

   [//]host[:port][/service_name]

The documentation sums it up nicely: The easy connection identifier can be used wherever you can use a full connection identifier, or a net service name. The easy syntax is less complex, and no tnsnames.ora entry is required.

I came across a forum post in which one of my co-workers, Avi Miller, explained how to install Oracle Enterprise Linux from DVD so that all software requirements are met when you fire up the Oracle Database 10g or 11g installer.

There are several ways to deal with the software preinstallation requirements for the Oracle Database. And, while it's not very difficult to install the required RPMs, it can be somewhat awkward to do so in the correct dependency order.

To simplify this task, Oracle provides the oracle-validated RPM, discussed here, here, and here previously on this blog. The Oracle® Database Installation Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1) for Linux also describes how to install the oracle-validated RPM if you have access to Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN)

If you're installing Oracle Enterprise Linux, to run Oracle Database 10g or 11g, following the steps Avi outlined will save you time. Especially if you don't have access to ULN.

1. Follow the installation process as normal until you get to the first software selection screen (it lists a series of tasks that you can add support for, and has an option at the bottom: "Customize Later" and "Customize Now"
2. Select the "Customize Now" option and click Next





3. Select "Base System" in the left-hand list and then "System Tools" in the right hand list. Click the checkbox next to "System Tools", then click the "Optional Packages" button.









4. Scroll down and select the "oracle-validated" package and click "Close"

Avi continues: "You can now click "next" and continue the installation as normal. This also creates the oracle user/groups, sets up sysctl.conf, limits.conf, etc. It's fairly nifty." I followed these steps using the Oracle Enterprise Linux 5, Update 3 DVD I downloaded via edelivery.oracle.com, and it works like a breeze. Here's a final screen shot of the installer looking happy:

This recently posted page summarizes some of the contributions Oracle's Linux developers make to Linux and the community in general, including:

• OCFS2
• BTRFS
• Libstdc++
• NFS on IPv6
• RDS
• T10-DIF Data Integrity
• Etc.

I speak with prospects, customers, and partners on a regular basis and when I tell them that we have people at Oracle who's sole job it is to work on open source software, they are often very surprised. I'm glad this was posted.

In a previous post, I mentioned that DVDs of Oracle Enterprise Linux are only availably for purchase via the Unbreakable Linux Store. I was incorrect. As of Oracle Enterprise Linux 4, Update 7, we now offer DVDs as a free download.

Another post from the archives...

HTML Expressions is a feature in the Application Express reporting engine that lets you apply an HTML mask to a column value in a report. In the HTML Expression, you refer to the column value using #COLUMN_NAME#. Recently, I saw this used to create neat inline bar charts like the one below:

To create this example, I used the following query based on the Issue Tracker data model:

select pname, 
       cnt_issues,
       ratio_to_report (cnt_issues) over () * 100 issues_chart,
       round (ratio_to_report (cnt_issues) over () * 100, 1) issues_ratio
  from (
select p.person_name pname, count(*) cnt_issues 
  from ht_issues i, ht_people p
 where i.assigned_to = p.person_id
 group by p.person_name
  )

I then edited the column attritbues for the ISSUES_CHART column and placed the following HTML in the the HTML Expression field:

<div style="width:100px;height:14px;background:#dddddd;
border-top:1px solid #aaaaaa;border-left:1px solid #aaaaaa;
border-bottom:1px solid #ffffff;border-right:1px solid #ffffff;">
<img src="/i/1px_trans.gif" width="#ISSUES_CHART#" height="14" border="0" style="background:#3f863f;"></div>

In this HTML with CSS style declarations, the width:100px in the beginning controls the maximum length in pixels of each bar in the chart and background:#dddddd makes the background grey. The width="#ISSUES_CHART#" controls the actual length of the green part of the bar by using the value of issues_chart from the result set.