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Showing posts with label Oracle Forms 12. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oracle Forms 12. Show all posts

Monday, October 17, 2016

Oracle Forms 12c - Setting up Forms Diagnostics Agent

With the Oracle Forms 12c Diagnostics Agent you can populate the DMS (Dynamic Monitoring Service) metrics for Oracle Forms 12c simply into Oracle Database Tables, which allows you to have a historical view on the Oracle Forms related Performance Data out of DMS.

The installation comes in 2 major parts, first setup a Oracle Database User and the underlying objects and second part deploy the Forms Diagnostics Agent into your Oracle WebLogic Server.

Database Setup Part

A first create the required user and create the required objects in your Oracle Database which is hosting the Metadata Repository for your Oracle Forms & Reports 12c installation. In the Software Home directory of your Oracle Forms & Reports 12c installation, you can find under the directory $ORACLE_HOME/forms two scripts, first one forms_create_diagnostics_user.sql and second forms_create_diagnostics_schema.sql
Connect with sqlplus as sysdba to your Oracle Database and perform following steps:
First you have to create the User for the Forms Diagnostics Agent, the SQL Script forms_create_diagnostics_user.sql will prompt you for the Username and the Pasword, here in my example its the Username = forms_diag and the Password = MySecretPwd12c

connect / as sysdba
@forms_create_diagnostics_user.sql
User id : forms_diag
Password : MySecretPwd12c
old   1: DROP USER &&userid
new   1: DROP USER forms_diag
DROP USER forms_diag
          *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01918: user 'FORMS_DIAG' does not exist

Commit complete.

old   1: CREATE USER &&userid
new   1: CREATE USER forms_diag
old   2: IDENTIFIED BY &&password
new   2: IDENTIFIED BY MySecretPwd12c

User created.

old   1: GRANT CONNECT, RESOURCE TO &&userid
new   1: GRANT CONNECT, RESOURCE TO forms_diag

Grant succeeded.

Commit complete.

Disconnected from Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Advanced Analytics and Real Application Testing options

Important Notice: the above executed SQL Script provided by Oracle is not complete, as the created User doesn't have any privileges on the default tablespace USERS. In order to correct this, execute following command:

connect / as sysdba
alter user FORMS_DIAG quota unlimited on USERS;

As next we have to create the necessary objects within the above created User for the Forms Diagnostics Agent, connect to the Database as your newly created Forms Diagnostics Agent User and execute the second script forms_create_diagnostics_schema.sql

connect forms_diag/MySecretPwd12c
@forms_create_diagnostics_schema.sql
. . .
Table created.

Commit complete.

Disconnected from Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Advanced Analytics and Real Application Testing options

WebLogic Server Setup Part

Now you have to create a new Data Source within the Oracle WebLogic Server which is used for your Oracle Forms & Reports 12c environment.

Connect with a browser to your WebLogic Server Console via http://servername:adminport/console and login as weblogic user.
Navigate in the Domain Structure to "Domain / Services / Data Sources" and create a new Data Source by clicking the button "New".


Choose as new Data Source "Generic Data Source"


Provide a Name for the new Data Source of your choice and set the JNDI Name to "oracle/forms/agentDS"


Leave the new screen untouched and proceed with the button "Next"


Leave the new screen untouched and proceed with the button "Next"


Provide the Database Name which is hosting your Forms Diagnostics Agent User, the Hostname of the Database Server, Oracle Listener Port, Database Username and two times the password


As next you have to test the Data Source by clicking the button "Test Configuration"


If the test is successful, you should see following message:


As Target, select your Admin Server for your Oracle WebLogic Server.


The next step is to deploy the Forms Diagnostics Agent war file. Navigate in the Domain Structure to "Domain / Deployments", activate in the Change Center the Lock & Edit Mode and click under Configuration of the Deployments the button "Install"


Set the Path to your $ORACLE_HOME/forms/j2ee/formsagentapp.war and proceed with the button "Next"


Verify that "Install this deployment as an application" is marked and proceed with the button "Next"


Choose as deployment target the Admin Server of your Oracle WebLogic Server and proceed with the button "Next"


Leave the next screen untouched and proceed with the button "Finish"


Finally activate your deployment with the button "Activate Changes" under the Control Center.


Under your deployments you can find now your newly deploy Forms Diagnostics Agent named "formsagentapp". The deployment is currently in the State "Prepared". Simply click the "formsagentapp"


Under the Control tab of the "formsagentapp", mark the checkbox in front of the formsagentapp and click the button "Start / Servicing all requests"


Confirm the Application Start with the button "Yes"


Finally you should see the formsagentapp in the State "Active"


Now we can login to the Forms Diagnostics Agent Console via http://servername:adminport/formsagent/AgentConsole.jsp, provide at first the weblogic username and his password and proceed with "Submit"


Within the Forms Diagnostics Agent Console we can start and stop the Agent and define the frequency of the data collection.


After you activated the Agent, you should see following within the Forms Diagnostics Agent Console.



That's the complete configuration and activating of the Forms Diagnostics Agent, now we can start some Oracle Forms, perform some activities in the Oracle Forms and check what we can see under the tables of the Forms Diagnostics Agent User in the Oracle Database.

There 10 tables under the Forms Diagnostics Agent User:

  • ADMIN_SERVER
    • Contains information about the Oracle WebLogic Server Admin Server
  • AGENT
    • Holds informations about all executed data collections, like Collection Timestamp, Frequence in minutes and so on
  • FRM_DB
    • Holds information about the database connects used in the Oracle Forms Applications
  • FRM_DB_LOGIN
    • unfortunatelly not populated, seems there is an unexpected feature :-)
  • FRM_RUNTIME
    • Holds information about the used formsweb.cfg configuration section used for the Forms Application, Connect and Disconnect Time, Starting Form Name, Current Forms Status (Running, Exited), CPU Time on Exit and so on.
  • FRM_TRACE
    • Holds information about the Forms Trace File if enabled
  • FRM_TRACE_USE
    • Holds detailed information about Forms Trace if enabled
  • FRM_USER
    • Holds information about user, IP address and if used SSO Login Name
  • HISTORY
    • Holds historical data of all captured Forms Application Executions, like Number of Bytes send and received, Network Round Trips, CPU Time and so on
  • WLS_APP
    • Holds information about the underlying Oracle WebLogic Managed Server hosting the Forms Servlet

With the Forms Diagnostics Agent it's really simple to collect all necessary DMS metric data within a couple of tables and enables you easily to have a look some specific Performance Data.




Friday, October 7, 2016

Oracle Forms 12c - Multiple Managed Servers

You might remember the previous method to create multiple Managed Servers for Oracle Forms 11g, which can be found under the My Oracle Support Note 989118.1. This procedure were quite a bit critical, as you had to provide manually several arguments and classpath entries for the cloned Managed Server.

With Oracle Forms 12c the procedure to create (not cloning) additional WebLogic Managed Servers hosting your formsapp is really straight forward as you perform this with the config.sh (config.cmd for Windows) tool.

Let's say you will need an additional WebLogic Managed Server for your HR Forms Application which should reside in an independent Managed Server.
Connect to your Server on which your Oracle Forms & Reports are running and perform following steps:

cd $ORACLE_HOME/oracle_common/common/bin
./config.sh

On the first screen, choose the Option "Update an existing domain" and set your Domain Location to the correct directory and proceed with "Next"


Leave the next screen as it is and proceed with "Next"


All values should be automatically pre-filled and just test with the button "Get RCU Configuration" that you have a connection to your Repository Database for Oracle Forms 12c and finally proceed with "Next"


Leave the pre-filled values as they are and proceed with "Next"


Leave everything like it is and proceed with "Next"


In the screen "Advanced Configuration" tick the checkbox for "Managed Servers, Clusters and Coherence" as we will here add our new additonal WebLogic Managed Server for hosting the formsapp


In the screen "Managed Servers" add a new Managed Server by clicking the button "Add" and provide all required values:

  • Name of your Managed Server, in this example WLS_FORMS_HR
  • Listen Address
  • Listen Port, in this example I choose 9011
  • Optionally enable SSL and provide if you enable SSL the SSL Listen Port
  • Server Group, this is the important part, select the Server Group "FORMS-MAN-SRV"

In the screen "Clusters" change nothing and proceed with "Next"


Under the screen "Assign Servers to Clusters" mark in the column "Servers" your newly created Managed Server (in this example WLS_FORMS_HR") and move the Managed Server by clicking the arrow button to the "cluster_forms" section under the column "Clusters"


After moving the WLS_FORMS_HR Managed Server you should see following screen and proceed with "Next"


In the screen "Coherence Clusters" just proceed with "Next"


In the screen "Machines" just proceed with "Next"


In the screen "Assign Servers to Machines" mark your newly created Managed Server "WLS_FORMS_HR" and move it by clicking the arrow button under your Machine


After moving the WLS_FORMS_HR Managed Server you should see following screen and proceed with "Next"


In the screen "Configuration Summary" click the button "Update" to perform the creating of your new Managed Server hosting the formsapp


Wait until the Configuration Progress is complete and proceed with "Next"


Close the screen "End of Configuration" with "Finish"


After that you need to restart your Admin Server, connect to your server on which your Oracle Forms & Reports are installed and restart your Admin Server

cd $DOMAIN_HOME/bin
./stopWebLogic.sh
cd ..
nohup ./startWebLogic.sh >/dev/null 2>&1 &

The connect to your Oracle WebLogic Server Console http://servername:7001/console and you will find your newly created Managed Server under the "Domain Structure / Environment / Servers"


Go to the "Control" Tab and startup your new Managed Server (in this example WLS_FORMS_HR). Click the checkbox in front of your Managed Server and click the button "Start"


Confirm the Startup with the button "Yes"


After some time you should see in the Configuration tab that your new Managed Server is up and running


If you connect finally to your Fusion Middleware Control 12c http://servername:7001/em and navigate to the "Forms / forms1" section


You will find your new Managed Server (in this example WLS_FORMS_HR) already integrated with all necessary configuration options like

  • Web Configuration
  • Environment Configuration
  • Font and Icon Mapping
  • Servlet Log


and as usual under the directory $DOMAIN_HOME/config/fmwconfig/servers/<new_Managed_Server>/application/formsapp_12.2.1/config you will find all your necessary configuration files:

cd $DOMAIN_HOME/config/fmwconfig/servers/WLS_FORMS_HR/applications/formsapp_12.2.1/config/
ls -la
drwxr-x---. 3 oracle oinstall  4096 Oct  7 10:13 .
drwxr-x---. 3 oracle oinstall    19 Oct  7 10:10 ..
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall  4422 Oct  7 10:13 default.env
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall  4128 Oct  7 10:10 default.env.jmxori
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 10629 Oct  7 10:10 formsweb.cfg
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 10629 Oct  7 10:10 formsweb.cfg.jmxori
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall   562 Oct  7 10:10 IdentityStoreConfig.xml
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall   562 Oct  7 10:10 IdentityStoreConfig.xml.jmxori
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall   350 Oct  7 10:10 logmetadata.xml
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall   350 Oct  7 10:10 logmetadata.xml.jmxori
drwxr-x---. 3 oracle oinstall    18 Oct  7 10:10 oracle

Finally you can access the new formsapp with http://<servername>:<port_of_new_Managed_Server>/forms/frmservlet

With the above shown method its really simple to create multiple Managed Servers hosting the formsapp in order to separate different Oracle Forms Application by placing them on individual Managed Servers.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Oracle Forms Stand-alone Application Launcher (FSAL)

Since Oracle Forms 12c its possible to start your Oracle Forms without invoking a browser, this is called Oracle Forms Stand-alone Application Launcher (FSAL).

As pre requirement you will need either a JRE or JDK on your desktop, which should execute the Oracle Forms.

For this new Feature Oracle has integrated a short description Website within your installed and configured Oracle Forms & Reports Server 12c. The description website can be reached under following URL http://<your_server>:<port>/forms/html/fsal.html



Simply access this website from your desktop and download the frmsal.jar file to your desktop.

On your server hosting the Oracle Forms & Reports Server, access the formsweb.cfg and search for the section [standalone] or create a new section with a unique name.

[oracle@server] cd $DOMAIN_HOME/config/fmwconfig/servers/WLS_FORMS/applications/formsapp_12.2.1/config
[oracle@server] vi formsweb.cfg
-- Snippet from formsweb.cfg
[standaloneapp]
# Note: baseSAAfile must end with .txt
baseSAAfile=basesaa.txt
# definition of colorScheme
colorScheme=blaf
# My Start Form
form=t1.fmx
# fsalcheck parameter specifies whether to perform checksum comparison
# of Forms stand-alone app launcher or not. When it is enabled, it triggers
# the comparison at server. The checksum of FSAL at client machine will be
# compared with the checksum of FSAL archived at the server repository.
fsalcheck=true

After you have modified or created your own section for the FSAL, get back to your desktop, open a command prompt and navigate to the directory in which you have placed the frmsal.jar file. From there make sure that you have the java binary in your PATH and execute following command

java -jar frmsal.jar -url "http://<your_server>:<your_port>/forms/frmservlet?config=standaloneapp" -t 10000

You can also define within the parameter -url various options, e.g. .../forms/frmservlet?config=standaloneapp&colorScheme=teal

Depending on your formsweb.cfg section configuration you might see the typical login dialog.



or you will access directly your Oracle Forms Application.



And everything without any browser :-)

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Oracle Forms 12c (12.2.1) first impressions

As I already posted over the weekend, several new Oracle Fusion Middleware Components were released by Oracle.

One of this new Components is Oracle Forms & Reports 12c (12.2.1).

I have been playing around a little bit with the latest release:


  • Oracle Forms & Reports 12c is now requiring a configured Meta Repository
  • Don't try to use as the underlying Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) the "standalone" WebLogic Server, you NEED to install the Fusion Middleware Infrastructure Option (1.4 GB download) or else you can not install the Forms & Reports Part on top of your WebLogic/Infrastructure
  • The new Enterprise Manager is really cool now :-) can be reached under http://yourserver:port/em

The Look'n Feel is completely redesigned, my personal feeling is that the Oracle ALTA UI from Oracle ADF was the base for this really cool redesign. 

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Several New Oracle Fusion Middleware Components 12.2.1 available

Oracle has been busy releasing several new Release for various Oracle Fusion Middleware Components on Friday 23rd October 2015

Oracle WebLogic Server is now available as Release 12.2.1
Download can be found here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/weblogic/downloads/index.html

  • There are in general 3 options available for the latest Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1
    • Quick Installer for Developers for Windows, Linux and MAC OS X
    • Generic Installer
    • Fusion Middleware Infrastructure Installer
Oracle Forms & Reports is now also available in the Release 12.2.1
Download can be found here:

  • The latest Oracle Forms & Reports 12c (12.2.1) is available for following Operating Systems:
    • Windows 64bit
    • Linux x86-64
    • Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64bit)
    • Oracle Solaris on Intel (x86-84)
    • HP UX Itanium
    • IBM AIX on Power Systems (64bit)
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) is also released for 12.2.1.0.0
Download can be found here:

Oracle WebCenter has also been release with 12.2.1.
Oracle SOA Suite comes also along in a new release with 12.2.1


Happy Download :-)