Count(bpws:getVariableData(....)) results in SelectionFailure in SOA 11g

This perhaps will be a short post about a known issue on SOA 11g. I was trying to use count XPATH function on getVariableData to find count of dataarea in EBM. This worked fine in SOA 10g but in 11g it failed with SelectionFailure.

Found that this is a known issue in SOA 11g.
Oracle Release Notes for 11g

16.1.8 getVariableData Function Throws a selectionFailure if the Result Node Set is of a Size Other Than One During Execution

According to the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services Specification, if the the locationPath argument of the bpws:getVariableData() function selects a node set of a size other than one during execution, the standard fault bpws:selectionFailure must be thrown by a compliant implementation.

To get around this issue simply use ora:getNodes() which acts as an alternate to getVariableData to obtain the same functionality. getVariableData is striclty for one node result, where as getNodes would return a nodeset.

BPEL Scheduling: Quartz and Database

A common requirement in many SOA projects is to schedule BPEL processes to run at specific time. Now there are various scheduling mechanisms which can be used for doing this. In this post I will be discussing about 2 approaches which I have used :
1. Using Open source Quartz scheduler.
2. Scheduling your process from Database using dbms_scheduler apis.

In Oracle BPEL open source job scheduler, Quartz is implemented as part of java class called DefaultSchedulerCalloutImpl. Incase your BPEL process is triggered by a file/ftp adapter you can modify the bpel.xml file to make use of the quartz scheduler.

<activationAgents>
<activationAgent className="oracle.tip.adapter.fw.agent.jca.JCAActivationAgent"
partnerLink="ReadFile" heartBeatInterval="10">
<property name="portType">Read_ptt</property>
<property name="schedulerCallout">DefaultSchedulerCalloutImpl</property>
<property name="endpointScheduleOn">0 0 8 * * ?</property>
<property name="endpointScheduleOff">0 0 10 * * ?</property>
</activationAgent>
</activationAgents>

The above piece of code is direction to the activation agent to activate the BPEL process between 8 and 10 am everyday and heartbeat interval of 10 seconds indicates how frequently the process is active for polling.

The 2nd approach is a simple solution based on Oracle dbms_scheduler api. Basically you need to have your BPEL process read from a DB table which gets populated by the DBMS job at a particular frequency. I am sharing some sample code below which can be reused after making modifications.

Create table bpelschedulertable (process_name varchar2(20));

Script to create the scheduler job.

/* Drop Jobs if they exist */
BEGIN
DBMS_SCHEDULER.DROP_JOB(JOB_NAME => 'BpelScheduledJob');
END;
/

/* Create Scheduled Job */
BEGIN
 DBMS_SCHEDULER.CREATE_JOB(
 JOB_NAME => 'BpelScheduledJob',
 JOB_TYPE => 'PLSQL_BLOCK',
 JOB_ACTION => 'BEGIN INSERT INTO bpelschedulertable (PROCESS_NAME) VALUES (''samplebpel'');COMMIT;END;',
 START_DATE => TO_DATE('2010-08-18 12:00:00','YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS'),
 REPEAT_INTERVAL => 'FREQ=MINUTELY;INTERVAL=15',
 COMMENTS => 'Scheduled for every 15 minutes');
 DBMS_SCHEDULER.ENABLE(NAME => 'BpelScheduledJob');
 END;
/

That's it ! Your BPEL process(samplebpel) should trigger every 15 minutues now.

Scripts to monitor/manage the scheduled job.

select * from dba_scheduler_jobs ;

/*Command to enable job*/
Begin    
dbms_scheduler.enable('BpelScheduledJob');  
end;

/*Command to disable job*/
Begin
Dbms_scheduler.Disable('BpelScheduledJob');
end;

/*Command to change the repeat interval of the job*/
Begin
Dbms_scheduler.set_attribute(name=>'BpelScheduledJob',attribute=> 'REPEAT_INTERVAL', value=> 'FREQ=HOURLY;INTERVAL=1');
end;

Common SOA composite deployment errors from Jdeveloper

In this post I would like to share few deployment errors I faced with SOA composites from Jdeveloper and their resolutions. This will be helpful to people starting work on SOA 11g.

Error 1 :

Preparing to send HTTP request for deployment
Creating HTTP connection to host:xxxx, port:yyyy
Sending internal deployment descriptor
Sending archive - sca_HelloWorld_rev1.0.jar
Received HTTP response from the server, response code=500
Error deploying archive sca_HelloWorld_rev1.0.jar to soa_server1 [xxxx:yyyy]   HTTP error code returned [500]
Error message from server: Unknown Host
Description: Unable to locate the server named "xxxx" --- the server does not have a DNS entry.  Perhaps there is a misspelling in the server name, or the server no longer exists.  Double-check the name and try again.

OR

Error 2 :

Problem in sending HTTP request to the server. Check standard  HTTP response code for 502
No error message is returned from the server.
#### Deployment incomplete. ####
Error deploying archive file:/C:/JDeveloper/mywork/Sample/HelloWorld/deploy/sca_HelloWorld_rev1.0.jar
 (oracle.tip.tools.ide.fabric.deploy.common.SOARemoteDeployer)


Solution :

1. Go to weblogic console. Server->click on managed Server and select configuration->General tab
    There in listen address provide the listen address to the ip address and restart the server.

2. Go to jdeveloper 11g and disable the proxy settings there.
    Go to tools->Preferences->Web Browser and proxy and disable the use proxy http server

3. Exit and start the jdeveloper once again.

Error 3 :

Received HTTP response from the server, response code=500
Error deploying archive sca_HelloWorld_rev1.0.jar to soa_server1 [xxxx:yyyy]   HTTP error code returned [500]
 Error message from server:

javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:333)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.TailFilter.doFilter(TailFilter.java:26)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:56)
 at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsAbsFilter$1.run(JpsAbsFilter.java:94)
 at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
 at oracle.security.jps.util.JpsSubject.doAsPrivileged(JpsSubject.java:313)
 at oracle.security.jps.ee.util.JpsPlatformUtil.runJaasMode(JpsPlatformUtil.java:413)
 at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsAbsFilter.doFilter(JpsAbsFilter.java:138)
 at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsFilter.doFilter(JpsFilter.java:70)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:56)
 at oracle.dms.wls.DMSServletFilter.doFilter(DMSServletFilter.java:326)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:56)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run(WebAppServletContext.java:3592)
 at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
 at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:121)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2202)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.execute(WebAppServletContext.java:2108)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.run(ServletRequestImpl.java:1432)
 at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:201)
 at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:173)
Caused by: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space

Solution :

The JVM Memory arguments are in the file " setDomainEnv.sh " in the folder $MW_HOME/user_projects/domains/<domain_name>/bin

You can open the file in any Text Editor and add the below line :-
     USER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms512m -Xmx1024m" (alter as per need)

Error 4 :

Preparing to send HTTP request for deployment
Creating HTTP connection to host:xxxx, port:yyyy
Sending internal deployment descriptor
Sending archive - sca_HelloWorld_rev1.0.jar
Received HTTP response from the server, response code=401
Problem in sending HTTP request to the server. Check standard HTTP response code for 401
Error deploying archive sca_HelloWorld_rev1.0.jar to soa_server1 [xxxx:yyyy]  
HTTP error code returned [401] No error message is returned from the server.
####  Deployment incomplete.  ####
Error deploying archive file:/C:/JDeveloper/mywork/Sample/HelloWorld/deploy/sca_HelloWorld_rev1.0.jar 
 (oracle.tip.tools.ide.fabric.deploy.common.SOARemoteDeployer)

Solution :

HTTP 401 Unauthorized is similar to 403 Forbidden, but specifically for use when authentication is possible but has failed or not yet been provided. Double-check the weblogic username/password prompted during deployment from Jdeveloper.

Oracle Application Explorer : Could not initialize JCA Container

While trying to connect to the JCA config on application explorer you may hit the below error message

Error stack is as mentioned below :

com.iwaysoftware.iwrepository.RepositoryException

        at com.iwaysoftware.iwrepository.xml.XMLRepository.end(XMLRepository.java:272)

        at com.iwaysoftware.iwrepository.xml.file.FileRepository.end(FileRepository.java:436)

        at com.iwaysoftware.iwrepository.xml.XMLQuery.executeQuery(XMLQuery.java:863)

        at com.iwaysoftware.af.container.IWAFRepositoryOP.getConfigs(IWAFRepositoryOP.java:167)

       ....

       ....

To fix this error go to $SOA_HOME/soa/thirdparty/ApplicationAdapters/config/<config_name> , Take a backup of the st_repository.xml file and delete it. Now restart Application explorer and try connecting. The error should be gone .....

VisualGC: Performance Monitoring tool for Oracle SOA Suite

Oracle Fusion Middleware supports various performance monitoring tools for helping us debug performance issues with SOA Suite. Performance bottlenecks can happen at many places in an integration solution. It can either take place at DB level, or the BPEL/ESB code level or the JVM/Middleware level. Identifying these bottlenecks is a daunting task and often requires analysis from multiple aspects. 

VisualGC tool from Sun which comes with jvmstat 3.0 (for JDK 1.5.0 and higher) is an excellent tool for monitoring JVM memory usage. This tool helps in investigating issues where the applications tends to slow down after a while/sees degraded performance over a period of time.

Links for downloading and using this tool on Linux environments is provided below:

VisualGC download link
Description of the tool 
Installation instructions on Linux/Solaris

Once the tool has been installed you can use the below commands to run it and monitor the performance:

I have unzipped the jvmstat3.0 zip file at /opt/apps/Java/ on my linux server and using JDK6.

$ export JVMSTAT_HOME=/opt/apps/Java/jvmstat 
$ export JAVA_HOME=/opt/apps/Java/jdk1.6.0_18 
$ export PATH=$JVMSTAT_HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH 

$ jps 
5755 Server 
2885 Jps 
5930 Server 

jps command gives you the JVM ids which are required as input parameter for the visualgc command.

$ visualgc 5755

As can be seen from the adjacent image, the memory usage of different parts of the JVM are shown graphically. The PermGen, OldGen and YoungGen (Eden Space, Survivor0 and Survivor1) usage can be monitored. When you observe a flat line in the Eden Space (right hand graph window) then its a cause of concern and indicates memory leaks/deadlock scenarios and requires immediate investigation.





There are other performance monitoring tools which can be used with Oracle SOA Suite. The EM Console in SOA 11G has a nice Summary screen which shows several important performance tracking statistics. For details on few of these tools please check the below link.
Overview of Performance Tuning Tools in Oracle Fusion Middleware

Weblogic domain creation error "Unable to invoke parse in InvokeStaticMethodTask"

While creating weblogic domain on linux server below error is encountered.

Steps:
export WLS_HOME=/opt/apps/Oracle/Middleware
export WLS_SERVER=/opt/apps/Oracle/Middleware/wlserver_10.3
export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/apps/Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_SOA1
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/apps/Java6/jdk1.6.0_20
export WLS_DOMAIN=/opt/apps/Oracle/Middleware/user_projects/domains
cd $ORACLE_HOME/common/bin
./config.sh



Here is the full stack trace of the error.

2010-08-02 09:56:28,142 ERROR [invokeStaticMethod] com.bea.plateng.wizard.silent.tasks.InvokeStaticMethodTask - Unable to invoke parse on class com.bea.plateng.plugin.PlugInExecutionPlanParser>
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at com.bea.plateng.wizard.silent.tasks.InvokeStaticMethodTask.execute(InvokeStaticMethodTask.java:304)
at com.bea.plateng.wizard.silent.tasks.AbstractSilentTask.run(AbstractSilentTask.java:28)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:103)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:66)
at com.bea.plateng.plugin.PlugInExecutionPlanParser.parse(PlugInExecutionPlanParser.java:111)
at com.bea.plateng.plugin.PlugInExecutionPlanParser.parse(PlugInExecutionPlanParser.java:90)
... 7 more
2010-08-02 09:56:28,145 ERROR [invokeStaticMethod] com.bea.plateng.wizard.silent.tasks.InvokeStaticMethodTask - parameterValue 0 = <null>

The problem is the classpath for launching the configuration wizard.

/opt/apps/Oracle/Middleware/patch_wls1032/profiles/default/sys_manifest_classpat
h/weblogic_patch.jar:/opt/apps/Java6/jdk1.6.0_20/lib/tools.jar:/opt/apps/Oracle/
Middleware/utils/config/10.3.1.0/config-launch.jar:.......

The source of this classpath entry is from $WLS_HOME/common/bin/commEnv.sh
The highlighted entry is invalid. It should point to 10.3 and not 10.3.1.0. Once this is changed the Configuration Wizard can be launched successfully for domain creation

New updates to Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway(ISG) with R12.1 ATG RUP3

Oracle has recently released the R12.1 ATG RUP3 patch which brings along with it many new features to the Integrated SOA Gateway(ISG) product. I had talked about ISG in one of my earlier posts soa-integrations-with-oracle-ebusiness. Its a nice product which allows system integrators to design solutions surrounding integrations with Oracle Ebusiness Suite using out-of-the-box features. Most of the updates coming along with this patch have been around enhanced administration capabilities for the product.


More details about the new added features can be found from below links:
New features overview
Enhanced logging in ISG
Enhanced Service Monitoring 
Securing WebServices with ISG