Oracletech closing

 Its as sad day for me but I have not been able to recover to full working condition because of my stroke in 2012 and it seems unlikely that I will be returning to work in the Oracle area anytime soon.  TBH being a DBA is a high stress world and I'll probably be something different in the not-too-distant future. 

Workaround to activate Office 2007 without using a nasty KeyGen

So Microsoft has removed support for activating Office 2007, they don't care that you legally bought a license in 2006 and are not fussed on Office 360. But there is a workaround!!

Instructions:


1.Open a command prompt as Administrator

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Proof.en

c:> notepad Proof.XML

Menu- EDIT>Replace

Find What:  AlwaysInstalled
Replace With: NeverInstalled

"AlwaysInstalled" with "NeverInstalled."

Save!

Start any Microsoft Office application You will get the activate by network or phone standard pop-up.

• Then click the activation by network

It will then say activation succeeded

And your legally owned Office 2007 Works!

Credit to
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-remove-office-2007-activation
I felt it was missing some instructions for the average user.- viewing comments from average users showed they didn't understand to edit the file as Administrator.

Why Linux Sucks on the Desktop

Over the last few months, after having been cheesed off with Windows 10, I tried to embrace a pig with lipstick. I tested most of the trendy Linux distributions on my Dell XPS 15 L521X, and found none of them could replace Windows as a decent desktop OS - for me, that's a responsive desktop that runs common software chrome, skype(and supports the built-in webcam), video and audio works.

I just came across an article that succinctly summarizes why Linux is not ready for the desktop in 2017,"Major Linux Problems on the Desktop, 2017 edition"

 I will try again in 2018 and see if things have improved, but given Linux has been this awful on the desktop for YEARS, I'm not confident.

Windows 10; Registry settings to Turn On or Off Driver Updates

Driver updates from Microsoft for my Dell XPS15 L521x have been driving me nuts just when I get it working by uninstalling the latest DEll Touchpad driver update another DEll Touchpad driver update from Windows update installs. WEll I finaly found out how to stop the cycle  - disable friver updates al together, I'm happy to do that for a while I have the Intel driver update agent which covers most things.

Found this trick on WinAero

You can do the same thing with group policy if you have a version of Windows that supports that. See the TenForums link for details

To Turn On or Off Including Driver Updates in Windows Update 

   Note

The .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings

ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate DWORD

0 = On
1 = Off

Seagate external USB 3.0 disk drive disconnects intermittently? Here is my solution

SEagate external USB 3.0 disk drive disconnects intermittently? Here is my solution
OK so you updated to Windows 10 an raninto this issue, or may be you had it on Windows 7 as well but worked around it by installing the Renesas USB 3.0 driver, with utility that allows you to disable USB 3.0 power management across the board.

Well there is no Renesas USB 3.0 driver for Windows 10 with power management disabling utility. BUGGER!

 YOU can fiddle with some Windows 10 power managEment settings disabling USB Selective suspend.  BUt I have had mixed success with that. THe following solution is the ONLY solution that has worked for me.

I got onto this registry tweak by monitoring changes to the registry, when running the  Renesas USB 3.0 driver utilityThat has a check box for disabling power management

THe parameter is DisableSSLinkPM.

MY LAptop shows the USB controller as INtel USB 3 Extensible Host Controller:

Hardware ID and DEVice ID matches the following registry setting

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1E31&SUBSYS_054F1028&REV_04\3&11583659&0&A0\Device Parameters]
"DisableSSLinkPM"=dword:00000001

No more disconnects!!!

Update 5 Jun 2017

I found that the issue would COME BACK :(

Also it affected my Sandisk USB 3 memory sticks, which would also regularly disconnect from the system.

Alternative solution

Disable USB 3.0 U1 and U2 Power states using the Microsoft USB Test Tool (MUTT)software

The USBLPM tool monitors the U0/U1/U2/U3 power states of USB 3.0 ports. It can also be used to verify that transitions between U0/U1/U2 occur correctly. In addition, the tool can enable or disable U1 and/or U2 states on all devices in the system!

So after installing Mutt:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\USBTest\x64

usblpm /disable U1 

usblpm /disable U2

FIXED!!
NOw if I can only find a solution for the linux kernel - I have one that is showing signs of promise.

Become a Bilingual database DBA Oracle/ SQL Server

With Oracle losing ground to SQL Server, and probably alot more in the next few years with Oracles featureless (non-option) 12c I think it pays to know about the enemy as many DBA jobs now require bi platform knowledge . Microsoft have been nice enough to put together free training videos for Oracle DBAs

Become A Bilingual DBA*
 an Oracle DBA (possibly certified) who masters Microsoft SQL Server knowledge (possibly certified)
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/learning-center/bilingual-dba.aspx

Latest:

SQL Server 2014 Essentials for Oracle DBAs

Networking in-depth for Oracle VM Server for x86

Good article on OTN looks "under the hood" of Oracle VM Server for x86, exploring the underlying logical network components that are created by Oracle VM Manager. By best practices engineer in a blog post on OTN garage.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/servers-storage-admin/networking-ovm-x86-1873548.html

#virtualization   #oraclevm   #ovm  

Oracle RAC Internals Presentation including Advanced Listener Configuration

Just came across this excellent presentation on RAC internals.

It has quite a few nuggets of information for RAC 11.2, well worth a read.

Understanding Oracle RAC Internals

Markus Michalewicz (Markus.Michalewicz@oracle.com)
Senior Principal Product Manager Oracle RAC and Oracle RAC One Node

http://tcoug.org/presentations/winter-2012/Understanding-Oracle-RAC-Internals.pdf

Couple of things I picked up (which is what I was searching on)

• Listeners used for a client connection to Oracle RAC should be managed by Oracle Clusterware and should be listening on an Oracle managed VIP.

• Using server-side TNSNAMES aliases to resolve the listener configuration is not recommended. 

• Listeners specified by the LISTENER_NETWORKS parameter should not be used in the LOCAL_LISTENER and REMOTE_LISTENER parameters. Otherwise, cross registration will happen and connections will be redirected cross networks.

oraenv returns XPointer evaluation failed: no locset

Using the oraanv script and getting "XPointer evaluation failed: no locset"?

Well I have a potential solution. There are a couple of causes of this error that I know of.

One is a bug - using oranev from an agent home.
It's not supported - it has to be from a database home. See 
"Running oraenv from the Grid Control Agent Oracle Home Fails [ID 1323684.1]"

"The oraenv is not meant to be run from the Grid Control 11.1.0.1 Agent ORACLE_HOME.This was diagnosed in BUG 10227734. The BUG will remove the oraenv from future agent installs....

Do not run oraenv to set the environment for the Grid Control Agent.Set the environment manually or using .sh script."

See the note for full details.

What if you are not using an agent home? 

Then the other cause I am aware of is this-

The oraenv script sets ORACLE_BASE. If it is not already set in the environment it calls a binary $ORACLE_HOME/bin/orabase.

orabase returns the ORACLE_BASE by looking in the Oracle Home's Inventory. It looks for the value in the file 

ORACLE_HOME/inventory/ContentsXML/oraclehomeproperties.xml 

This file it seems can sometimes lose the value of the Oracle Base, and if it does then orabase returns the XPointer evaluation failed: no locset error.

The file contents should look much like this:

<ORACLEHOME_INFO> 

   <GUID>973484272.77449395</GUID> 

   <HOME/> 

   <ARU_PLATFORM_INFO> 

      <ARU_ID>226</ARU_ID> 

      <ARU_ID_DESCRIPTION>Linux x86-64</ARU_ID_DESCRIPTION> 

   </ARU_PLATFORM_INFO> 

   <PROPERTY_LIST> 

      <PROPERTY NAME="ORACLE_BASE" VAL="/ora/oracle"/> 

   </PROPERTY_LIST> 

</ORACLEHOME_INFO> 

If the PROPERTY_LIST bit is missing, then you need to add it back in.
Set VAL= to be your Oracle Base - the example above is specific to MY environment.

SYSDBA user gets ORA-01031: insufficient privileges updating user$

I was merrily following note "Instructions for Clearing pre-11g Database Password Hashes [ID 463999.1]" to remove the pre-11g password hashes from sys.user$. I connected as SYSDBA, and when trying to run the update statement I got ORA-01031:

SQL> update sys.user$ set password=NULL;
update sys.user$ set password=NULL
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges

I tried another user with SYSDBA privilege and got the same thing. These users can do everything else as SYSDBA but not it seems update user$. What's going on?


Well...


The software install was a default install with the "Enterprise Edition" option selected. As it turns out this includes installing the binaries for Database Vault. Even though Database Vault is not configured, the binaries still have an effect. So Database Vault is enabled even though you have not configured it, there are no Database Vault schemas etc.


To remedy the issue you have to relink Oracle without Database Vault on. This is documented in The Database Vault Administrators guide.

Disabling and Enabling Oracle Database Vault
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e23090/dvdisabl.htm

From the doc: Disable Oracle Database Vault as follows:

• UNIX: Run the following commands:
  

  $ cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
  $ make -f ins_rdbms.mk dv_off ioracle
  

• Windows: In the ORACLE_HOME\bin directory, rename the oradvll.dll file to another name, such as oradvll.dll.dbl.

After disabling database vault I was successfully able to update the password file and remove the pre-11g password hashes.


Word to the wise: Use the custom install option when installing Oracle software and only pick the components you really need and are licensed for. This has the added benefit of upgrades going faster due to not having a bunch of unnecessary packages and tables.