Oracle Apps DBA

By Gowthami | apps-dba.com | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Series Setting up a Site-to-Site VPN between your on-premises network and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a fundamental step in hybrid cloud architectures. This post demonstrates how to configure an IPSec VPN using Libreswan as the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) on the OCI Free Tier. What You Will Learn: How to configure an IPSec Site-to-Site VPN on OCI Free Tier using Libreswan as the CPE, including DRG setup, IPSec connection creation, and Libreswan configuration on a Linux instance. Architecture Overview The demo uses the following setup: OCI Side: Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG), IPSec Connection, VCN with private subnet On-Premises Side (simulated): A separate OCI Free Tier VCN acting as the "on-prem" network, with a Linux instance running Libreswan as the CPE Step 1: Create the Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) Log in to OCI Console Navigate to Networking > Dynamic Routing Gateways Click ...

By Gowthami | apps-dba.com | Oracle Database Administration Series Monitoring the Oracle alert log for ORA- errors is a critical DBA responsibility. Catching errors early prevents minor issues from escalating into major outages. This post provides a shell script to automate alert log monitoring and send notifications when ORA- errors are detected. What You Will Learn: How to write a shell script that scans the Oracle alert log for ORA- errors, logs findings, and sends email notifications to the DBA team. Why Monitor the Alert Log? The Oracle alert log records critical database events including: ORA- errors (deadlocks, tablespace issues, corruption warnings) Instance startup and shutdown events Log switch and checkpoint information Redo log and archive log events Alert Log Location Find the alert log location using SQL*Plus: SQL> SELECT value FROM v$diag_info WHERE name = 'Diag Trace'; VALUE ------------------------------------------------------------ /u01...

By Gowthami | apps-dba.com | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Series When deploying Oracle Database or application servers on OCI Linux instances, opening the correct ports in both the OS firewall and OCI security lists is essential. This post covers how to allow ports through the Linux firewall (firewalld) and OCI network security rules. What You Will Learn: How to open ports on OCI Linux instances using firewalld commands, and how to configure OCI Security Lists and Network Security Groups to allow inbound traffic. Two Layers of Firewall on OCI OCI Linux instances have two firewall layers that must both allow traffic: OS-level firewall — firewalld (Oracle Linux / RHEL) or iptables OCI network-level — Security Lists attached to subnets, or Network Security Groups (NSGs) A common mistake is opening only one layer and wondering why connections still fail. Step 1: Allow Port in Linux Firewall (firewalld) Check if firewalld is running: $ sudo systemctl status fir...

By Gowthami | apps-dba.com | E-Business Suite Series After an unexpected server crash or hard reboot, Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2 managed servers (WebLogic AdminServer, oacore, forms, oafm) often fail to start due to stale lock files, incomplete shutdowns, or corrupted state files. This post covers the diagnostic steps and fixes to get EBS back online quickly. What You Will Learn: How to diagnose and resolve managed server startup failures in Oracle EBS R12.2 after a server crash, including clearing lock files, cleaning WebLogic state, and restarting services in the correct order. Common Symptoms adstrtal.sh completes but managed servers show FAILED or UNKNOWN state WebLogic AdminServer starts but oacore/forms/oafm fail to start Error: RUNNING mode failed - server is already started Error: Lock file exists or PID file found Step 1: Check Running Processes First, verify that no stale Oracle/WebLogic processes are still running: # Check for any running WLS or EBS pro...