Goodbye MetaLink

Today is a sad day for us all - it's the day when MetaLink is being executed, put to sleep, discontinued, integrated, merged, retired, or whatever. And what is going to replace our beloved support interface? A monster called My Oracle Support. And along with it, a deamon called Oracle Configuration Manager, designed to make life harder for tens of thousands of Oracle professionals all over the world.

This is a day of sorrow. We expect the worst. Please Larry, have mercy upon us.

PS: I wonder if direct links to MetaLink Notes (e.g. "Note 4.1: Knowledge Browser") will still work next week? I'm crossing my fingers.

Oracle's Online Documentation

Oracle publishes its online documentation using URLs which contain a version number (e.g. "_01"). If you bookmark such a URL, you will not know if the documentation has been updated (e.g. "_19"). This makes it difficult to maintain personal bookmarks and other links to Oracle's documentation.

Back in November 2005, I sent an email to appserverdocs_us@oracle.com with the following question: "Wouldn't it be better if old versions were moved to an archive while the most recent version was published without the suffix?"

The answer: "The OTN Web team's process for making the documentation libraries available is tied to the full part number of the library. We are aware that this is not ideal, and are working on a solution, but for now the documentation team does not have any control over the OTN process."

Hmmm . . .

OPatch: I'm struggling

I find it a bit hard to become friends with Oracle's Interim Patch Installer (OPatch). Back in 2005, I learned the hard way that OPatch itself contains bugs and needs to be patched every time you're going to use it to apply a patch! I've also gone through re-installation of Application Server Middle-Tier because a patch could not be rolled back without wiping out essensial files.

I'm sure that Oracle is trying to make it easier for us technicians to use OPatch, but so far I don't think they've been successful. Just look at this:

• OPatch comes in four flavors: 10.1 (for Database 9.2.x/10.1.x and Application Server 10.1.x), 10.2 (for Database 10.2.x), 11.1 (for Database 11.1.x) and 11.2 (for Database 11.2). The current OPatch version for Application Server 10.1.x is actually 1.0.0.0.63 (why not 10.x?). According to Note 224346.1 ("Where Can I Find the Latest Version of Opatch?", updated August 2009), it should be 1.0.0.0.62. This means that you have to download OPatch through patch 6880880 to determine which version is the current one.
• Since you cannot read the exact version number from the name of the downloaded file (e.g. p6880880_101000_WINNT.zip), you have to unzip it and look in the readme file to determine if the OPatch version installed in your Oracle Home is up to date.
• To determine the OPatch version in your Oracle Home, you have to set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable and then go to ORACLE_HOME/Opatch folder before you run the "opatch version" command.
• If you install OPatch by unzipping it in your Oracle Home, you have to unset the read-only flag for all the unzipped files to avoid problems.
• The size of the downloaded OPatch file jumped from 313 KB in version 1.0.0.0.58 to 22 MB in version 1.0.0.0.59! The increase was caused by the inclusion of Oracle Configuration Manager, another module that I'm struggeling to become friends with.
• Running one of the newer OPatch versions on Windows will install a service (e.g. Oracleora101202mtConfigurationManager) with Startup Type set to Automatic. This is a bit annoying if you have taken control of the services and created scripts to start the various Oracle processes. Subsequent runs of OPatch will force the Startup Type back to Automatic, which is even more annoying.

Maybe the patches could contain information about minimum OPatch version? Would it be possible to have one OPatch version which was intelligent enough to find out what kind of Oracle Home it was installed in? Wouldn't it be great if OPatch could just take care of itself?

More information on OPatch

OCM: I wish to remain uninformed

It was a sunny day in October 2009 . . .

I was sort of bothered by a mysterious, reappearing log entry in the application.log for Oracle Portal, and I logged a Service Request to get to the bottom of it. After some investigation, it turned out to be caused by bug 4581855 in Enterprise Manager, and patch 3731593 was the correct medicine (version 10.1.0.6 if you're running Application Server 10.1.2.3). However, since my installation had already undergone the necessary patching requirements, which includes upgrading OPatch, a component called Oracle Configuration Manager was waiting in the dungeons, waiting for an opportunity to cause trouble. Oracle Support gave me good advice, described in Note 843239.1, and I used it to realize that patch 3731593 forces you to disable SSL for the Infrastructure OHS if you're on a Windows platform. What the note did not tell me (at that time), was that I had to edit ocm_apache.conf and sso_apache.conf to get the Infrastructure OHS back up again.

But this was not my first encounter with OCM . . .

In September 2009, I was going to upgrade OC4J from 10.1.3.4 to 10.1.3.5 to get rid of a bug that paralyzed the very basic ability of the product, which is to create a new container. The upgrade was proceding as expected, until I was presented with a form asking me for my MetaLink account and password. I thought that it wouldn't hurt, but it did, since I was on the wrong side of a firewall: I ended up in all sorts of trouble, getting messages about "Missing OCM Response File" and whatnot. Luckily, with the help of Note 795348.1, I got solid ground under my feet once more, and the installation seemed to be successfully upgraded.

The funny part is how OCM presents itself when you encounter it the first time and the dialogue that follows if the configuration fails, maybe because of a firewall:

Provide your email address to be informed of security issues,
install and initiate Oracle Configuration Manager. Easier for
you if you use your My Oracle Support Email address/User Name.
Visit http://www.oracle.com/support/policies.html for details.
Email address/User Name: me@mycompany.com
Password (optional):
Unable to establish a network connection to Oracle. If your
systems require a proxy server for outbound Internet connections,
enter the proxy server details in this format:
[@][:]
If you want to remain uninformed of critical security issues in
your configuration, enter NONE
Proxy specification: NONE

My question is, do we really need Oracle Configuration Manager? Maybe it should be distributed as an addon, instead of an integrated part of the central patching mechanism OPach? Maybe it should have been tested by Oracle on a server with no Internet connection? Maybe it should have been tested on all platforms?