Few Tips to install Oracle WebCenter 12c (12.2.1.0.0)

Oracle released its long-awaited 12c version of WebCenter on 23/10/2015.

Interesting thing about WebCenter versioning is that Oracle released its first 12c version with released 2 (12cR2=12.2.x) to match their latest FMW versioning scheme. There is no 12c R1 (12.1.x) version for WebCenter.

In this post, we will see how can we install WebCenter Portal and WebCenter Content quickly for production environment.

Prerequisites

               1.       You must have atleast JDK version 1.8.0_51 or above.

               2.       WLS 12c and WCP12c installer must be executed with JDK not with JRE.

               3.       Database 11g XE is not certified but you can use it for development purpose.

               4.       Unlike SOA suite installation, you need to install Weblogic Server 12c (12.2.1) before you install Oracle WebCenter Portal 12c.

              5.       You must install Weblogic Server with Fusion Middleware Infrastructure installer. This installer will also install JRF and EM Fusion Middleware Control which are required by WCP 12c. 

             6.       Please note that “Oracle Weblogic Server Quick Installer for Developer” and “Generic” installer will not work with WebCenter Portal installation.

      Installation

                  1.       Start the FMW infrastructure installer with following command.

java -jar fmw_12.2.1.0.0_infrastructure.jar

2.    No need to create any domain at this stage. Start the WCP & WCC installer with following command:-

java -jar fmw_12.2.1.0.0_wcportal_generic.jar
java -jar fmw_12.2.1.0.0_wccontent_generic.jar

     
2. RCU is also installed when we install FMW Infra. You will rcu.bat file at C:\middleware12c\Infra\oracle_common\bin\.  Process is same to install schema as we had in 11g.

3.       Use the Configuration Wizard to create a domain using the required domain configuration templates.

4.       By selecting RCU Data in Database Configuration Type screen of configuration wizard, it connect to the database and Service Table (STB) schema to automatically retrieve schema information for schemas needed to configure the domain.

Some Issues:

From 12c, NodeManager is available per host or per domain. If you try to start nodemanager per host, you will get following two errors:-

1.       It will throw error “Identity key store file not found” and shutdown the nodemanager.

Solution:

Quick solution is copy the DemoIdentity.jks file from <DomainHome>\security\ to

<MiddlewareHome>\oracle_common\common\nodemanager\security\ for development domain. 

2.       Processing for domain 'wcp_domain' failed due to configuration error: [The domain 'wcp_domain' at 'null' was not registered in the nodemanager.domains file and dynamic domain registration is not supported. Please register the domain in the nodemanager.domains file.

Solution:

Cop the nodemanager.domains file from <DomainHome>\nodemanager\

To <MiddlewareHome>\oracle_common\common\nodemanager

Alternatively, you can register WebLogic domains with Node Manager using the WLST command, nmEnroll.

How to configure SSL for Admin server when configured multiple authenticators

Symptoms:

We are getting following errors when we enabled SSL port and disabled non-SSL port for Admin server and try to check-in document in WCC:-

<oracle.ods.virtualization.engine.backend.jndi.DefaultAuthenticator.BackendJNDI> <LIBOVD-60143> <[#DefaultAuthenticator]  Unable to create connection to ldap://[localhost]:7002 as null.

javax.naming.CommunicationException: simple bind failed: localhost:7002 [Root exception is javax.net.ssl.SSLException: java.lang.RuntimeException:

Unexpected error: java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException: the trustAnchors parameter must be non-empty]

        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapClient.authenticate(LdapClient.java:218)

         at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.connect(LdapCtx.java:2740)

Cause: 

When we configure Admin Server to communicate over SSL then defaultLDAP automatically configure to communicate over SSL protocol (LDAPS). In case of multiple authenticators, and one of them is configure to communicate over SSL, we need to put the corresponding LDAP server's root certificate in an additional keystore used by the virtualisation (LibOVD) functionality otherwise application is unable to establish connection with defaultLDAP (ldaps://localhost:7002).

Solution:
Pre-requisites: Before completing this task, make sure the following configurations:-

• Configure the custom property called virtualize, and set its value to true.
• Admin Server SSL port is not enabled. (*) 
• Managed servers are down 

Steps:

1. Create the keystore:

a.      Set environment variables ORACLE_HOME, WL_HOME and JAVA_HOME.

export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/middleware/WC1

export WL_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/middleware/wlserver_10.3

export JAVA_HOME=/u01/app/jdk1.7.0_65/

b.      Setup the keystore by running libovdconfig.sh using -createKeystore option.

Open a shell prompt and change the directory to <MW_HOME>/oracle_common/bin. Then, run the following command:

./libovdconfig.sh -host <AdminServerHostName -port 7001 -userName weblogic -domainPath  <DomainPath> –createKeystore

      Enter AdminServer password:[Enter weblogic password]
Enter OVD Keystore password:[Enter a new password to secure a Keystore file]

Once this command runs, we see two new credentials in the Credential Store and a new Keystore file called adapters.jks under <DOMAIN_HOME>\config\fmwconfig\ovd\default\keystores.

2. Export the root certificate from the Admin Server SSL certificate or LDAP directory.
3. Import the root certificate to the libOVD keystore using the keytool command:

$JAVA_Home/bin/keytool -import -keystore adapters.jks -storepass <KeyStore password> -alias <alias of your choice> -file <Admin Server Certificate filename>

4. Enable SSL port and disabled non-SSL port of Admin server. (*)
5. Restart Admin Server and start all the managed servers.

* No need for this step if we are just configuring multiple authenticators with non-defaultLDAP (AD/OID) is communicating over SSL

Reference : Above steps are documented in Oracle BI security Guide: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E21764_01/bi.1111/e10543/ssl.htm#BIESC6078

Oracle Weblogic Server : Enabling Log rotation of .out file

There is no way to rotate out file from Oracle Weblogic Server Console or EM. To enable log rotation of the out log file on a Linux-based system, perform the following steps:

1. Ensure that you have the logrotate binary installed on your operating system:

ls /usr/sbin/logrotate

2. Create a logrotate configuration file (for example, under /home/oracle/ scripts/logrotate.conf) with the following contents, setting [Domain] to your domain name:

/home/oracle/SOA_DOMAIN/servers/soa_Srv01/logs/soa_Srv01.out {

missingok

copytruncate

compress

rotate=5

size=5M

}

3. Create a logrotate status file (for example, under /home/oracle/scripts/ logrotate.status) with the following contents, setting [Domain] to your domain name:

logrotate state -- version 2

"/home/oracle/SOA_DOMAIN/servers/soa_Srv01/logs/soa_Srv01.out" 2012-1-1

4. Add a new crontab entry by typing crontab -e and adding the following line:

0,15,30,45 * * * * /usr/sbin/logrotate -s /home/oracle/scripts /logrotate.status /home/oracle/scripts/logrotate.conf

This will check every 15 minutes to see if it is necessary to rotate the soa_server1.out standard out file based on the rules defined in the logrotate.conf configuration file. If new log files are added, you must ensure that they are added to the status file or they will not be rotated. This can be repeated for other managed servers as necessary.

You can run the cron job manually to test it.
/usr/sbin/logrotate -s /home/oracle/scripts/logrotate.status /home/oracle/scripts/logrotate.conf

Note: 

You can apply above steps for any Oracle middlware products like Oracle Weblogic Server, WbCenter, SOA, BPM, IDM etc. As this is a linux cron job, I believe its not WLS version specific. 

Oracle WebCenter 11g R1 PS7 (11.1.1.8.0) has been released and new features of WebCenter Portal 11g PS7

Oracle WebCenter 11g R1 PS7 (11.1.1.8.0) has been released and includes the following products:

• Oracle WebCenter Content 11g R1 (11.1.1.8.0)
• Oracle WebCenter Portal 11g R1 (11.1.1.8.0)
• Oracle WebCenter Sites 11g R1 (11.1.1.8.0)
• Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility 11g R1 (11.1.1.8.0)

About Oracle WebCenter Portal 11g R1 PS7

WebCenter Spaces is no more in WebCenter Portal world, Spaces is renamed to Portal. Simply speaking, if you are running Spaces or you are running custom portal means you are just running portal. Here are some of the highlights of the release:

1. Portal Builder: Browser-based Tools

This release focused on optimizing the browser-based tools to make it faster and easier for non-technical users to create and manage the portal experience.  The key themes in these enhancements are intuitiveness and efficiency.  Examples include:

• Streamlined interface to manage all portals and portal assets.
• Quickly create new portals based on templates.
• Quickly add pages and manage navigation structure when creating a new portal. 
• Drag and drop components onto page from the resource catalog.
• Save the resulting portal as a portal template. 
• No more popup windows


2. Multi-Channel Portal Experiences
In this release, WebCenter Portal adds easy-to-use tools which allow for creation and management of tailored experiences for target client devices (smartphones, tablets, kiosks, etc.).  Some key features include seeded profiles for the most common devices such as iPad®, iPhone®, Samsung Galaxy S®, etc.  Ability for knowledge workers to create tailored experiences leveraging techniques such as adaptive/responsive design, variant pages and preview/emulate the experience within the browser.
3. Performance
This release has a number of performance gains including improved response time for initial page request, responsiveness of Portal Builder and increased transactions per second for server performance.
4. Simplified deployment
You can use Portal Builder administration or WLST commands to export a portal archive (.par file) and then import portals from the file.

5. Terminology changes

Prior to 11g PS7	In 11g PS7
WebCenter Portal: Spaces	WebCenter Portal
space	portal
space template	portal template
resource	asset

For detail about Portal deployment, see http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E29542_01/webcenter.1111/e27738/wcadm_deploy_portal.htm#CHDFDFHJ
Oracle WebCenter Portal 11g R1 PS7 (11.1.1.8.0) Documentation : WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.8.0 Documentation