Category: Server Administration

Turning Oracle Linux 6.1 Graphical

I have an experimental Oracle Linux VM that I am playing with, and I am going to want to try to run some desktop applications inside the image.  So, I want to enable the X Window Graphical Environment.

Here’s the command to install it all:

yum groupinstall “X Window System” XFCE

Then, I had to edit the /etc/inittab and change the “3” to a “5” (on the last line).

When I rebooted, it didn’t offer the login screen.  I had to press Alt+F2 to get to a regular login.  Then, I installed 2 more groups:

yum groupinstall Desktop “General Purpose Desktop”

I am not sure that this got me an XFCE Desktop, but it got me what I needed.

Resources

PeopleTools 8.53 Installation Error

This is a quick blurb about an installation problem that I ran into.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get screenshots grabbed or exact error messages written down, but maybe this will still help.

The first problem was that near the end of the PeopleTools 8.53 Installer, the program gave me a window describing the usage options for the Windows installer.  It was like the PeopleTools installer had called another installer but hadn’t passed the correct arguments.  I got the window twice, so I am thinking that it tried to call it twice.

Windows Installer Usage window

The next problem was that App Designer wouldn’t start.  I didn’t try any of the other client programs like Data Mover, but I suspect that they would not have worked either.  The error message was something about a missing DLL file.

The PeopleTools install notes had a note about the VC++ Run Time. (Page 142 of the PDF / 116 on paper of the Oracle Database one.)  The solution was to simply install the Microsoft Windows machine’s CRT files.  The installer is located in <PS_HOME>\setup\psvccrt.  I was on a 32-bit machine, so I just ran the psvccrt_retail.msi.

Exploring Vagrant with Ubuntu and Oracle XE

I ran across Andrej Koelewijn’s article about Vagrant over a year ago, and I have been wanting to explore it ever since.  I do a lot of playing around with different things, and Vagrant looked like it would be a cool, quick way to spin up a new image of an OS.  I would love to get it to the point of being able to spin up an instance of PeopleSoft.  I am no where near there now, though.

This is just my first run through.  I set an easy goal of trying to get Oracle XE running on Ubuntu via the repositories.  Unfortunately, I learned that that repository isn’t worth the time.  Still, it was a fruitful exercise, and I definitely will be playing around more with Vagrant.

Follow along if you like…

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Troubleshooting PeopleTools Version Mismatch

I got the following error message after installing the PeopleTools 8.52.10 patch:

PeopleTools release (8.52.10) for web server/ Application Designer ‘lxdevweb02.pugetsound.edu’ is not the same as Application Server PeopleTools release (8.52.02). Access denied.

CHECK APPSERVER LOGS. THE SITE BOOTED WITH INTERNAL DEFAULT SETTINGS, BECAUSE OF: bea.jolt.ApplicationException: TPESVCFAIL – application level service failure

To fix the problem, I just reconfigured the Application Server.

I found that I needed to change something to make it think that it needs to load the configuration.  So, I changed the WSL option.  After loading the configuration, I changed it back and loaded it a second time.

After booting the Application Server again, everything worked fine.  The instructions didn’t say anything about reconfiguring the Application Server, but I found that I had to do it.  I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but I did change my PS_HOME environment variable as part of the patch installation.  The tools version  (patch number included) is in the path for my PS_HOME.

Now, on a side note, if you get just this message:

CHECK APPSERVER LOGS. THE SITE BOOTED WITH INTERNAL DEFAULT SETTINGS, BECAUSE OF: bea.jolt.ApplicationException: TPESVCFAIL – application level service failure

The problem is probably that the web server cannot talk to the application server.  Here are a few things to check:

  • Is the application server started?  Use psadmin to check the application server status.
  • Is the firewall blocking connections?  Use “sudo service iptables stop” to turn off the firewall.  If that fixes the problem, configure iptables to allow the JSL port.
  • Are the application server and web server using the same port?  Check the psappsrv.cfg file to see what the JSL port is (or use psadmin).  Check the <ps cfg home>/webserv/<domain name>/applications/peoplesoft/PORTAL.war/WEB-INF/psftdocs/<site name>/configuration.properties file for the psserver port (or use psadmin)
  • Is the app server hostname configured to localhost?  On the application server, ping the server name.  If it comes back with 127.0.0.1, you have a problem.  If your configuration is supposed to be listening on the hostname, it will be listening on localhost.  Either change /etc/hosts or put the actual IP address in the app server configuration file.
  • Is the host name on the web server the actual hostname on the app server?  It’s pretty easy to accidentally just put the web server host name as the application server.

I hope those thoughts help more than just me.

PIA needs JRockit!

The other day, I was trying to finish up an install for someone, and ran into a problem.  I couldn’t get psadmin to create a new PIA domain.  Finally, thanks to OTN, I found that I had to have JRockit JDK set as the Java environment for WebLogic.  Note that this was to create the domain not just start the domain.

Logs

If there was one thing I could change about this whole thing, it would the logs.  I spent so long on this issue just because I had no clues.  We have got to have more logs to look at for clues!  If am missing something, please comment below and point it out.  If not, Oracle, please add some logging — at least maybe print out what JVM it is using.

This is the first log file that I found: <PS_CFG_HOME>/webserv/piainstall_<domain name>.log

Install Action : CREATE_NEW_DOMAIN

Creating Domain...

Deploying Web Applications...

Deploying WebLogic Extension files...

Deploying PeopleSoft Site files...

Deploying PeopleSoft Site Doc files...

Completed.

PS_CFG_HOME: /psoft/pscfgs/fnprd

PIA_INSTALL_FAIL

This is the second log: /tmp/piaInatallLog_<timestamp>

Install Action : CREATE_NEW_DOMAIN

Creating Domain...

Deploying Web Applications...

Deploying WebLogic Extension files...

Deploying PeopleSoft Site files...

Deploying PeopleSoft Site Doc files...

Completed.

Also, in <PS_CFG_HOME>, I found the  wlspiainstall.properties which included all of the settings that it was using to create the domain.

Avoiding the Error

The best way to avoid this error is to make sure that you set the JAVA_HOME to your JRockit installation before installing WebLogic.  So, assuming that you have JRockit installed at /opt/jdk, you can run something like this:

export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
which java
java -version

Your output should look something like this:


$export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk
$export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
$which java
/opt/jdk/bin/java
$java -version
java version "1.6.0_20"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_20-b02)
Oracle JRockit(R) (build R28.1.0-123-138454-1.6.0_20-20101014-1350-linux-x86_64, compiled mode)

If it looks like this, you have something wrong.  This is open source OpenJDK JVM:


$which java
/usr/bin/java
$java -version
java version "1.7.0_03"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea7 2.1.1pre) (7~u3-2.1.1~pre1-1ubuntu3)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 22.0-b10, mixed mode)

Or, this is the Sun JDK, which caused me problems:


$java -version
java version "1.5.0_30"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_30-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 1.5.0_30-b03, mixed mode)

Now, once you have that correct, you should run the Weblogic install from that command-line session.

Fixing the Problem

Now, my problem was that Weblogic had already been installed.  Apparently, it was using the Sun JDK instead of the JRockit JDK.  Normally, I would look in the <PS_CFG_HOME>/webserv/<domain>/bin/setcmd…. file to change the setting.  But, I don’t even have the domain installed at this point.

I found that I could set the JAVA_HOME and JAVA_VENDOR variables in the <weblogic home>/wlserver_10.3/common/bin/commEnv.sh file.  Note that the JAVA_VENDOR was required.  If it is not set, some of the logic later on in the script overwrites the JAVA_HOME.

So, I added these two lines near the top between the comments:


#
#*****************************************************************************

JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk
JAVA_VENDOR=Oracle

#*****************************************************************************
# sub functions
#*****************************************************************************

After that, my PIA built with no problem.

Resources

OTN: unable to create Web Server Domain

Sudo Plus X11 Forwarding

I had trouble the other day running the Oracle installer in GUI mode over SSH.  I had the -X option set, and I could run a GUI program as myself.  The problem was that I couldn’t run the GUI program after I used sudo to change to my oracle user.

I found the answer on the “Bag of Tricks” blog:

Bag of Tricks: x forwarding and sudo for oracle installs

To build upon that, I turned it into a script.  The script adds the x cookie, runs an interactive bash, and finally removes the cookie at the end.


#!/bin/sh

user=$1
if [ -z "$user" ]; then
 user=<default user>
fi

displayNum=`echo $DISPLAY | sed -e 's/^.*://' -e 's/\.[0123456789]*//'`
echo "Display # = $displayNum"
cookie=`xauth list | grep ":$displayNum"`
echo "Cookie = $cookie"
cookiename=`echo $cookie | sed 's/\s*MIT-MAGIC.*$//'`
echo "Cookie Name: $cookiename"
echo "user = $user"
sudo -u $user bash -c "xauth list; xauth add $cookie; bash; xauth remove $cookiename"

I put the script in my ~/bin directory and called it ms (my-sudo).  That way I could call it easily.

I hope someone finds that usedful.  Any comments are welcomed.