Oracle Applications DBA Blog

Getting Familiar with RTCCTL

One of the components that comes with Oracle Collaboration Suite is the Real Time Collaboration or RTC. The two main components of Real-Time Collaboration are

• Oracle Web Conferencing
• Oracle Messenger

Other than using OPMNCTL as described in my previous post to manage the services of Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle has also provided a utility rtcctl which can be used to manage the specific components which relate to Oracle Web Conferencing and Oracle Messenger. The rtcctl is a command-line utility which provides an interface to configure and administer your

Real-Time Collaboration components. This configuration and administration for RTC components is done through a set of properties which control the behavior of your RTC environment.

The rtcctl utility is located in the $ORACLE_HOME/imeeting/bin directory in your Oracle Collaboration Suite middle tier servers.

The RTCCTL utility allows you to

• View the status of the process related to Real-Time Collaboration.
• Start and stop all or specific components.
• View the value of Real-Time Collaboration specific components.
• Set the value of Real-Time Collaboration specific components.
• To view and Modify an RTC user's Access.
• Creating and Using a Broadcast Group.

To get the status of RTC
The getstate command executed within rtcctl show you the status of the components related to Real-Time Collaboration

rtcctl> getstate
ID      COMPONENT_NAME TYPE      STATUS         NUM_PROCS
10007   rtc-connmgr    connmgr   UP             2
10000   rtc-confsvr    confsvr   UP             4
10006   rtc-imrtr      imrtr     ACTIVE-OK      1
10008   rtc-voiceproxy voiceproxyUP             1
10004   rtcpm          rtcpm     UP             1
10003   rtc-rdtr       rdtr      UP             1
10002   rtc-mx         mx        UP             1

Setting RTC porperty Values
The getProperties command show a list of properties that are applicable to the current instance of RTC

rtcctl> getProperties
ApacheProtocolSecure="false"
ApacheWebHost="samlnx.appsdbablog.com"
ApacheWebPort="7780"
ApacheWebSecurePort="8250"
DefaultTimeZoneName="America/Los_Angeles"
EmailEnabled="false"
IMDomainNames="["appsdbablog.com"]"
RTCSSLSupportEnabled="false"
SmtpHost="samlnx.appsdbablog.com"
SmtpPort="25"
VoiceDialinPrefix=""

To get a the value of a specific property you could use the getpropety command with the -pname clause which refers to the property name

rtcctl> getproperty -pname IMDomainNames
The effective value for instance of the property "IMDomainNames" is "["appsdbablog.com"]"

The getproperties command along with the -maxlevel all clause displays a complete list of all RTC related properties.

The setProperty command allows you to set the value for a specific property

rtcctl> setProperty -pname property-name -pvalue property-name

You can use the rtcctl utility to configure and administer multiple instances of RTC running at your site.
To set properties at an instance level you can use the -i clause and to set it at a system level use the -system clause. By default the properties are set at the system level.

Startup and Shutdown Of RTC Services
The stop command shutsdown down all RTC managed process

rtcctl> stop
rtcctl> getstate
ID      COMPONENT_NAME TYPE      STATUS         NUM_PROCS
10007   rtc-connmgr    connmgr   DOWN           0
10000   rtc-confsvr    confsvr   DOWN           0
10006   rtc-imrtr      imrtr     DOWN           0
10008   rtc-voiceproxy voiceproxyDOWN           0
10004   rtcpm          rtcpm     DOWN           0
10003   rtc-rdtr       rdtr      DOWN           0
10002   rtc-mx         mx        DOWN           0

The start command startsup up the RTC managed processes

rtcctl> start
rtcctl> getstate
ID      COMPONENT_NAME TYPE      STATUS         NUM_PROCS
10007   rtc-connmgr    connmgr   UP             2
10000   rtc-confsvr    confsvr   UP             4
10006   rtc-imrtr      imrtr     ACTIVE-OK      1
10008   rtc-voiceproxy voiceproxyUP             1
10004   rtcpm          rtcpm     UP             1
10003   rtc-rdtr       rdtr      UP             1
10002   rtc-mx         mx        UP             1

Individual components can be started and stopped either by using the component type or the component name clause along with the start or stop command.

rtcctl> stop -cname rtc-confsvr
The stops the rtc-confsvr component.

rtcctl> start -ctype confsvr
This starts the confsvr type component.

RTC user Management
The modifyRole command can be used to modify the existing role of user

rtcctl> modifyRole -username sam -rolename businessadmin

Broadcast Groups
You can also use the RTCCTL utility to create broadcast groups.

rtcctl> addGroup -groupname APPS_DBA_SUPPORT -type A -owner sam@appsdbablog.com -subscription S -permission R  -groupdisplayname "DBA Support Team"
Add group 'APPS_DBA_SUPPORT', type = A, owner = sam@appsdbablog.com, subscription = S, permission = R, groupdisplayname = DBA Support Team

You can user the -permission = O to create a open group which does not require approval for joining

The getGroups command displays the available groups in the system

rtcctl> getGroups
Groups:
Group IM Address: apps_dba_support@groups.appsdbablog.com
Group Display Name: DBA Support Team
Owner IM Address: sam@appsdbablog.com
Type: A
Subscription Type: S
Subscription Permission: R
Number of Members: 0

You can use the addGroupMember to add a new member to this group explicitly

rtcctl> addGroupMember -groupname APPS_DBA_SUPPORT -username samtest
Add Member 'samtest' to group 'APPS_DBA_SUPPORT'

Similarly the deleteGroupMember command removes a user from the group explicilty.

The deleteGroup command can be used to delete an existing group

rtcctl> deleteGroup -groupname APPS_DBA_SUPPORT
Delete group 'APPS_DBA_SUPPORT'

Getting real Time Statistics
The getMonitorStats command allows you to get real time statistics of your RTC environment.

rtcctl> getMonitorStats
Instance - OCSMI_home.samlnx.appsdbablog.com:
Component Name: rtc-confsvr, Component Type: confsvr
SERVICE_NAME                                 TMTGS CMTGS CLTS TMEM    UMEM
confsvr:OCSMI_home.samlnx.appsdbablog.com.rtc-confsvr.00     0     0    4,100K  2,620K
confsvr:OCSMI_home.samlnx.appsdbablog.com.rtc-confsvr.10     0     0    4,092K  2,782K
confsvr:OCSMI_home.samlnx.appsdbablog.com.rtc-confsvr.20     0     0    4,092K  2,800K
confsvr:OCSMI_home.samlnx.appsdbablog.com.rtc-confsvr.30     0     0    4,092K  2,588K
Component Name: rtc-imrtr, Component Type: imrtr presence                                    

Testing RTC
Th runTest command allows you to run a series of tests against your RTC environment to test the configuration.

rtcctl> runtests
Instance - OCSMI_home.samlnx.appsdbablog.com:
TEST NAME      SUCCESS
mtgtest        true
dbtest         true
apptest        true
proxytest      false
emailtest      false
imtest         true
servletAccessTesttrue

Posted by Sam at 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Installing Oracle Collaboration Suite

Few post ago i had discussed about the Oracle Collaboration suite, In today’s post i will discuss the installation of Oracle Collaboration Suite and Collaboration Applications.

System Environment
Operation System: Redhat Linux AS 4
Oracle Collaboration Suite Version: 10.1.2

Though we can install the Applications and the infrastructure for Oracle Collaboration Suite together for the ease of  management and understanding i had decided to go in for a separate installation.

Operating System Users
As a first set we will create two users one for holding the Infrastructure of Collaboration Suite and the other for holding  the collaboration suite middle tier applications.

# useradd -g dba -d /u03/ocsin ocsin
# useradd -g dba -d /u03/ocsmi ocsmi

Pre Requisite Checks

Memory requirement
The Oracle Collaboration Suite Both Infrastructure and Application would require a minimum of a 2 GB memory. You must make  sure of this.

grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:      8312720 kB

Temp Space
Ensure you have at least 250 MB free space in your tmperory directory

# df -k /tmp

Swap Space.
Ensure that at least 1.5 GB of unused swap space is available before proceeding with the installation.

# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          8117       8084         33          0         23       7115
-/+ buffers/cache:        944       7173
Swap:         1601          0       1601

OS packages for Redhat AS 4
The following OS patches a higher version should exist on your Redhat system.

glibc-2.3.4-2.9
glibc-common-2.3.4-2.9
binutils-2.15.92.0.2-13
compat-db-4.1.25-9
compat-glibc-2.3.2-95.30
compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-132.7.2
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3
gcc-3.4.3-22.1
gcc-c++-3.4.3-22.1
libstdc++-3.4.3-22.1
libstdc++-devel-3.4.3-22.1
openmotif21-2.1.30-11.RHEL4.4
pdksh-5.2.14-30
setarch-1.6-1
make-3.80-5
gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-44.1
sysstat-5.0.5-1

Staring The Installation
We first start the infrastructure installation as the infrastructure user ocsin

#su - ocsin
$ ./runInstaller

The first screen you see presents you with two choices, a basic installation and an advanced installation, i chose the advanced installation as it gives you more flexibility in terms of your installation and products you choose.




In the next screen you specify the ORACLE_HOME for your OCS infrastructure



The next screen gives an options to install the infrastructure and Application together or Infrastructure Only or Applications only. I choose the infrastructure only option.



This screen allows us to choose the type of Collaboration Suite Infrastructure we want to install. The choices her are IM and OCS DB, just the OCS DB, Just IM and convert an existing DB into an OCS DB. I have selected IM and OCS DB here.



The installer now does a pre requisite check for before proceeding with the installation.



Since OCS can be installed with support for multiple languages, this screen allows us to choose the additional languages which we wish to install with OCS.



The OCS infrastructure like the 10g Application Server infrastructure uses the 1521 port for its listener, it is not allowed to change this at the time of installation. You can however choose to share the listener in case 1521 is used by another listener.



The next screen displays a list of services that the OUI will configure and start for you as a part of the installation.



This screen specifies the namespace that will be used for your Oracle Internet Directory, You can change this if you wish.



Now you can specify whether to have automatic port selection or change it. For static ports you require a staticports.ini file which must be specified at the time of starting your OUI



This screen allows you to create the password for the orclguest user.



In this screen you specify the name for your database and the location you want to place your data files.



Here you specify the password for your other oracle schemas.



In this screen you specify the instance name for you infrastructure database and the passwords for the super user.

This screen displays the components the OUI is going to start the installation with.

After this the installer will start the installation, at the end of the installation it will attempt to configure and start the components it has installed. This will lead to a successful completion of your infrastructure tier installation.

Middle Tier Installation

The middle tier installation will be carried out by the OS user ocsmi



At first screen again we select the advanced installtion option.



Now specify the ORACLE_HOME for your OCS Middle Tier.



Choose that you want to install OCS Application here on this screen.



As usaul the OUI will validate your system before carring out the installation.



Choose the OCS applications you would like to install,i choose evrything other than oracle mail and discussions.



In this screen give the hostname and port of your OID server which you installed as a part of your infrastructure installation.



Give the password for the orcladmin user of your OID.



Here you can specify the components you want to associate with the available OCS databases.



The seelcted OCS Applications require a SMTP server, here you must specify that server and port.



Choose a automatic port selection or a static port selection here.



Specify the instance name for your middle tier and the password for the super user in this screen.



Specify a host name for the calender services here



The OUI now displays a summary of the installation it is going to carry out.



The OUI now start the installation process



You must have root privilages on the system to execute the root.sh as a part of the isntallation.



The installer now starts configuring and starting the products you installed,this really is time consuming and you should take a break here.

If all goes well, you installation would be complete and the access information can be found in the supportinfo.txt file in your ORACLE_HOME/install directory.

Posted by Sam at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Oracle Collaboration Suite

Its been quite sometime since my last post, but i have been traveling again. This time to the hot terrains of the Middle East. Traveling I found is one of the things that comes along with your job as an applications DBA consultant, you got to take it  weather you like it or not. Though some of my colleagues have taken up support assignments which means a steady place for a  long time somehow  I feel that is what I plan to do near retirement (no offences intended).
Experience tells me every visit holds its share of surprises and this one was no different.
I came across this really nice implementation of Oracle Collaboration Suite with seamless integration with Oracle  Applications. Something that would be a part of Release 12 or Fusion Applications.

In my today's post i will cover an overview of the Oracle Collaboration Suite. Oracle Collaboration Suite (OCS) integrates a set of applications that enable seamless collaboration within an enterprise in a efficient and secure manner. By introducing  the collaboration suite Oracle aims at reducing the dependency of the enterprise on multiple third-party products for the  achieving the same.

Additionally Collaboration suite also ensure compliance requirements by implementation polices and procedures across the  enterprise. It secures the system by implementing features like intrusion detection, data protection and access control.

Collaboration suite also implements Single Sign On in an out of box implementation thereby reducing the requirement of any additional configuration or setups. It has an inbuilt LDAP server for this purpose which is the Oracle Internet Directory. Its also makes use a simplified provisioning policy from a unified console which can be used to add, delete and 
modify existing users.

The Collaboration suite also makes use of the Oracle Delegated Administration Services (DAS) which enable directory administrators to delegate responsibilities to lower administrators or to end users.

Oracle Collaboration suite is also highly scalable and optionally leverages the benefits of Oracle Real Application Clusters to achieve a high availability architecture.

Another interesting component that is bundled with the collaboration suite is the Oracle Web Cache. Apart from improving performance by using caching techniques the web cache also allows for load balancing.

DMZ configurations can also be implemented with in a Oracle Collaboration suite architecture.

With such extensive features management of the system from an administrator’s point of view might end up as a complex  task, but that’s where the Oracle Enterprise Manager(OEM) comes into picture. The OEM acts as a centralized tool for  monitoring real-time use and performance monitoring, configuration, and control operations such as starting and stopping  processes.

The most current version of the collaboration suite is OCS 10g Release 1 (10.1.2)

The main components of Oracle Collaboration Suite can be classified as under

• Calendar
• Content Services
• Discussions
• Mail
• Mobile Collaboration
• Real-Time Collaboration
• Search
• Voicemail and Fax
• Workspaces

The figure below depicts the architecture of Oracle Collaboration suite.

Oracle Calendar Services
Oracle Calendar is the time management and resource scheduling component of Oracle Collaboration Suite. It comprises of a  central calendar server and a calendar client. this client can either be a desktop client or a web based client. OCS also provides a Connecter for Microsoft Outlook to enable you use your existing outlook client with oracle calendar.

Oracle Content Services
Oracle content services provide a set of application services for file and document management across the enterprise. For  this content services makes use of various oracle tools like oracle drive for file management, Oracle BPEL for powerful custom workflows. Oracle Content services support the HTTP,FTP,FTPS and WebDAV protocols.

Discussions
Oracle discussions provide for message posting and idea exchanging within the enterprise. It includes features like RSS  feeds, Web Services and integration with email and portal.

Mail
Oracle Mail is a complete email system that is built around the oracle 10g database. It has a desktop client as well as web  based client. Additionally you can use the oracle connecter for outlook to use your outlook mail client with oracle mail.

Mobile Collaboration
Oracle Collaboration suite also provides mobile /wireless access to OCS services like mail calendar and content services. This  can be via SMS or through mobile browsers using a supported markup language.

Real Time Collaboration
Real Time collaboration is provided across the business by using two main components which are Oracle Web Conferencing.Oracle web conferencing is a thin client web conferencing tool which runs on client  using just a plug-in inside a web browser.
The other tool is the Oracle Messenger which supports instant messaging across the enterprise using both normal and secure  protocols.

Search
Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g Search is Oracle Collaboration Suite's cross-application search tool. This is built upon  Oracle Ultra Search and is used to search across OCS services like content services mail and calendar.

Voicemail and Fax
Oracle Collaboration suite 10g provides a voicemail and fax which allows retrieval storage of voicemail and fax messages. It  also provides a web based client for ease of administration and uses industry recognized formats like .wav and .tif.

Workspaces
The workspace component of Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g provides a comprehensive set of tools to manage  documents, meetings, tasks and discussions. It uses web services to implement these features.

Posted by Sam at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)