Andreas' Adventures

For a training I installed a WebCenter Suite environment on an Oracle Enterprise Linux. I ran into two problems. First I couldn't start the AdminServer. The logfile told me that the JDBC to mdsSpaces failed due to a Socket time out. Took me some time to realize this, but the reason was that I had configured the VirtualBox with a DNS (on the Windows host). Therefore the JDBC calls went out to seek for the database - which timed out. The second issue I had (and still have) is that after starting the NodeManager and AdminServer I couldn't start the WC_Spaces Server from inside the WebLogic Console. I have no solution for this yet, only a work-around. When I start the WC_Spaces from the commandline as a Managed Server it works. If somebody has an idea why this happens, obviously I'd like to hear from you.

I could change the hostname of the VM template for the WebCenter. This would be done on the OS using the standard Linux way (change /etc/hosts, /etc/sysconfig/network). However as the Oracle Application Server OC4J is still configured with the template hostname (haovm007) I would need to changethis. Now - as a lot of you know - the hostname and domainname change in the OC4J is not the easiest tasks of the Application Server Administration. So I decided to build a WebCenter machine from scratch. A) It is easier B) I learn all the steps (probably have to install it more than once) C) I configure it as I would like to have it D) It is more fun

The beauty of the Oracle VM templates is of course the ease with which you create a new machine. But then it has to work, or at least it must be customizable. I have created a new machine from a WebCenter VM template. During the boot it asks for the network configuration. This seems to work, as ifconfig returns the correct settings. However the machinename is not used. I entered webcenter1 but the template still has the haovm007: While I am a Bond fan I'd rather see my own name for the machine. Let's see how this can be corrected.

Using a WebCenter Wiki with a 3rd party LDAP is possible but you have to make sure that the following two groups are present and populated in the LDAP: users oc4j-administrators Also the group search definition must be on Nested. The next picture shows the basic values for the 3rd party LDAP:

It is obvious again that new products that Oracle offers are not always that integrated. Take for example the Oracle Webcenter Discussions. Although it is from Jives it seems to be fully licensed with the Webcenter. However the license needs to be provided before the setup can be completed. Luckily the license is stored in the file jive.license - so just copy and paste it into the webpage.

Deployment of an ear file with the Application Server Control usually required to have the ear file on your local host. Very often this is not the case as your Application Server machine will be humming in the Data Center while you sit comfortable behind your PC or laptop. But I just found out that the ASC offers a new functionality: specify the location on the host where the ASC is running. The following screen shot shows this - while I was deploying the Wiki of the Oracle WebCenter: It even gets better - during the deployment instead of the small clock the messages are displayed: