Failed to call destination: home’s service() to service the request

While implementing a custom login page you might run into these errors when accessing the default available 0c4jmount j2ee.

http://sso.example.com:7777/j2ee/examples/

This URL which mounts default to the directory :

$ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/home/default-web-app/examples/

This only works when you have the home component enabled and started. By default the container is disabled and stopped.

So when requesting this url you will get a 500 internal error returned.

> error_log.1234224000

[Thu Feb  5 15:50:29 2009] [error] [client x.x.x.x] [ecid: 1233845429:x.x.x.x:16857:0:17,0] MOD_OC4J_0119: Failed to get an oc4j process for destination: home
[Thu Feb  5 15:50:29 2009] [error] [client x.x.x.x] [ecid: 1233845429:x.x.x.x:16857:0:17,0] MOD_OC4J_0013: Failed to call destination: home's service() to service the request.

When the home oc4j container is enabled and started, you will recieve the desired page !

> access_log.1234224000

x.x.x.x - - [10/Feb/2009:09:59:57 +0100] "GET /j2ee/examples/login.jsp HTTP/1.1" 200 146

Now you can use this default page either by adjusting the policy.properties file or to update the ORASSO schema table WWSSO_LS_CONFIGURATION_INFO$.

Cleanup old snapshot data in Oracle 9i RDBMS

When you are monitoring a Oracle 9i database with Oracle Enterprise Manager.
You might run into the problem that old snapshot statistics do not have a retension periode and therefor make a tablespace grow bigger then expected.

To somewhat control the growth of this snapshot data. Here is a easy script that will clearout old ( older then 1 month ) snapshot data in you monitored 9i database.
This script assumes that statspack is installed under schema owner perfstat.

declare
   -- Determine snapshots to be deleted.
   cursor c_snap is
      select snap_id
      from perfstat.STATS$SNAPSHOT
      where trunc(snap_time) < add_months(sysdate, -1);
   l_teller integer default 0;
begin
   for r_snap in c_snap loop
      delete from perfstat.STATS$SNAPSHOT
      where snap_id = r_snap.snap_id;
      l_teller := l_teller + 1;
      -- commit after every 10 records
      if mod(l_teller, 10) = '0' then
         commit;
      end if;
   end loop;
   -- commit last snapshot delete
   commit;
end;
/

Here you can see the amount of records that will be deleted when running this cleanup script.

select count(snap_id)
from perfstat.STATS$SNAPSHOT
where trunc(snap_time) < add_months(sysdate, -1);

I used this script by scheduling this job to be executed every week.

Securing default developer pages on Oracle Portal

As an extension on my posting on how to secure default admin pages on a SSO server. Here is a list of rules you could implement to make your Oracle Portal ( 10.1.4 )some what protected for the outside.

################################################
# Protect the Portal default / admin pages
# For Public (internet)users
################################################

<LocationMatch  /(?i)portal/page/portal/TOPLEVELSITE.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch  /(?i)portalHelp2.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)portal/pls/portal/PORTAL.wwexp_explore.explore.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)portal/pls/portal/PORTAL.wwexp_explore.builder.*$>
   Order allow,deny
   deny from all
   Allow from 10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)portal/pls/portal/PORTAL.wwpob_app_globalset.edit_settings.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

These settings are again implemented in the Apache Reverse Proxy configuration file httpd.conf which used a proxypass command to process the incoming requests. The “Allow from” indicates our internal IP range to be able to still administer the Portal server.

Securing default admin pages on Oracle SSO server

Sometime ago i was challanged by “securing” an Oracle Single-Sign On which is indirectly connected to the internet by an Apache Reverse proxy(using mod_proxy ). Here are some rules i implemented to protect the SSO server :

################################################
# Protect the SSO admin pages
# For Public (internet)users
################################################

<LocationMatch /(?i)oiddas.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from 10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)pls/orasso/ORASSO.home$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)pls/orasso/ORASSO.wwsso_app_admin.administer_fapp.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)pls/orasso/ORASSO.wwsso_app_admin.edit_ls_configuration.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)pls/orasso/ORASSO.wwsso_app_admin.papp_administer.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)pls/orasso/ORASSO.wwsso_app_admin.papp_list.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

<LocationMatch /(?i)pls/orasso/ORASSO.wwsso_app_admin.show_ls_menu.*$>
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from  10.32
</LocationMatch>

These settings where implemented in the Apache Reverse Proxy configuration file httpd.conf which used a proxypass command to process the incoming requests.
The “Allow from” indicates our internal IP range to be able to still administer the SSO server.