The challenge was as follows: provide a handson workshop environment – consisting of nothing more than a browser connected to our office’s Wifi network – for visitors to the Open Day we organized at my company. However, all I had to work with was a bunch of really old laptops […]
IT
Migrate Oracle VM to KVM easily and without reconfiguration
Oracle VM is end-of-life and is, since March 2021, in extended support1. In looking for a replacement hypervisor AMIS has turned to KVM. Oracle itself also uses KVM, albeit its own brand of KVM, OLKVM, in Oracle Cloud and on the new versions of its Oracle Database Appliance. Topped with […]
Blog milestone: 200 blog posts, 1M page views!
This is my 200th blog post. Also I reached 1M page-views recently. In those 200 blog posts, I used approximately 325K words. An average non-fiction book is somewhere between 70K to 80K words. So that would amount to somewhere around 4 books. Why did I write so many blog posts, […]
Java Security: Open Source tools for use in CI/CD pipelines
It is often expected of a DevOps team to also take security into consideration when delivering software. Often however, this does not get the attention it deserves. In this blog post I’ll describe some easy to use, CI/CD pipeline friendly, open source tools you can use to perform several checks […]
AWS Shop example: step functions
Introduction When you follow along in this series [1], you might have been irritated by the amount of work to test your functions. It isn’t a problem to test only the unit test for the accept function, but when you have to test the unit test for the decrypt function, […]
HTTP benchmarking using wrk. Parsing output to CSV or JSON using Python
wrk is a modern HTTP benchmarking tool. Using a simple CLI interface you can put simple load on HTTP services and determine latency, response times and the number of successfully processed requests. It has a LuaJIT scripting interface which provides extensibility. A distinguishing feature of wrk compared to for example ab […]
Oracle Integration Cloud pricing explained – OCI vs Classic
Last week at AMIS we had the task of estimating costs of a proposed iPaaS solution for one of our customers that runs on a fully managed cloud. As AMIS is mainly an Oracle partner we looked at how competitive we could make the pricing of the solution using Oracle […]
Test Automation Days 2019
Vorige week woensdag en donderdag (19 en 20 juni) werden de Test Automation Days gehouden. De eerste dag bestond uit twee workshops die elk drie uur duurden. Op tweede dag van de Test Automation Days werden vooral presentaties gehouden. Ik zal van drie van deze presentaties een samenvatting geven. Keynote […]
How to deploy InfluxDB in Azure using a VM service with dedicated storage
InfluxDB isn’t natively supported on Azure. This blog post will teach you how to deploy InfluxDB (or any other database) in a VM with a managed disk on the Azure platform. This will enable you to use this fast time-series database for your project. If the standard range of […]
PeopleCounter part one: Counting People
Intro Internet of Things stands for connecting devices to the internet. The devices are then able to communicate with each other. In our project, the PeopleCounter, we use a mini-computer with intelligent software to count the number of people in front of a camera. We send that number to an […]
Oracle’s extended support – when is it free of charge
It’s such a simple, basic and old question I got from a colleague: “Do you have to pay for extended support?”. And if so, how much I have to pay for it. So basic and yet… always have to check again the waived support, what prices and where to find […]
Java SE licensing
There are several good blogs about this subject (like this one), and I never paid much attention to Java and licensing. Until one of our customers became a bit frightend after Oracle approached them with the question if they were really license compliant using Java. For many the words Java […]
Oracle, Azure Cloud and licensing with hyperthreading enabled.
Until recently, there was one rule when deploying Oracle software in the Azure cloud: count one Azure CPU Core as equivalent to one Oracle Processor license. But there was somehow what confusion about hyperthreading VM’s. This has been nuanced by Oracle in their cloud-licensing document very recently
Oracle Compute Cloud – Uploading My Image – Part Two – Linux 7
In this sequel of part one I will show how you can upload your own (Oracle) Linux 7 image in the IAAS Cloud of Oracle. This post will use the lessons learnt by using AWS which I described here. The tools used are: VirtualBox, Oracle Linux 7, Oracle IAAS Documentation […]
AWS – Build your own Oracle Linux 7 AMI in the Cloud
I always like to know what is installed in the servers that I need to use for databases or Weblogic installs. Whether it is in the Oracle Cloud or in any other Cloud. One way to know is to build your own image that will be used to start your […]
Consequences of stopping Oracle support
When buying licenses for Oracle, the first year support is mostly part of the deal. After that, a Customer may decide to stop paying for the yearly technical support of the Oracle licenses. The consequences of that decision is not always clear to customers. Most OLSA’s will contain the sentence […]
Better track the Usage of Database Options and Management Packs, or it will cost you
So here it is Oracle announces a license audit, some urgency kicks in and this familiar but also really serious question comes down from management: “Are we using any unlicensed database features“. The seriousness is quite understandable, because if so, the company can look forward to some negotiations with Oracle […]
Single-Sign-On to Oracle ERP Cloud
More and more enterprises are using Single-Sign-On (SSO) for there on-premise applications today, but what if they want to use SSO for there cloud applications as well? This blog post is addressing this topic for Single-Sign-On to Oracle ERP Cloud in a hybrid environment. First of all lets focus on […]
Saving money by understanding Oracle licensing part 2
In part 1 the basics were explained. In this part II other topics will be treated like virtualizing, engineered systems, SE2, Unlimited License Agreements, Cloud and other stuff. Whenever I can I will link to other posts. Comments or additions are welcome. And of course, if there are still any questions […]
Saving money by understanding Oracle licensing, part 1
Oracle and licenses. The general feeling most of the time is that you pay too much for the use of the Oracle products, and it’s not always sure if you are compliant, because of the complexity of the rules. This – hopefully clarifying – blog is part of a small […]
6 surprising things you can do with Google search
Next the normal Google search you can use this search box for a lot more things. This search box is often the first place where you type when you want something done. Below I list 6 examples of how Google search can help you much quicker to answer a bit more complex questions. Set […]
Utilizing your IT environment with Oracle Database Appliance
I admit, I’m a bit of a fan of the Oracle Database Appliance. And I also admit there are some characteristics of the X5-2 ODA’s which made it sometimes a bit hard to fit in the needs of the customer. I’ll come to that later in this post. With the […]
Why go to a seminar or conference?
Developing a solid business case for going to a conference is not always easy. Most of the time the company culture dictates the succes-rate of your attempt. The necessity for your own development is of great importance to you but is most of the time not the prevailing factor for the company. […]
Usage Tracking Reports, using Oracle Enterprise Manager 13C as a SAM tool
Still loving the idea to use Oracle Enterprise Manager as a ‘kind of ‘ Software Asset Management Tool, and get regular centralized reports that tells me what Oracle software is running and if there are changes in use of licenses over time. The necessary data is already there in the […]
Reflections after Oracle OpenWorld 2015 – Infrastructure as a Service – and as a Product – on Compute, Linux, Private Cloud Machine, Storage, Network and more
If you want to be a cloud provider with a complete portfolio, that means you need to offer Infrastructure as a Service. That is where some cloud providers start(ed) – such as Amazon WebServices – and it is where Oracle completes its stack of cloud service offerings. Compute, Storage and […]
Reflections after Oracle OpenWorld 2015: IT Operations & Management
This article gives an overview of some of the most eye catching stories from Oracle OpenWorld 2015 around IT Ops and management. It discusses the ‘single pane of glass’ across on premises and cloud – Enterprise Manager – and introduces the new cloud service: Oracle Management Cloud Service. IT Operations […]
Oracle licenses needed while monitoring your (non-)Oracle environment with OEM
With Oracle Enterprise Manager you are able to monitor an Oracle environment as well as a non-Oracle environment, like Microsoft’s SQL Server. You are also able to exchange notifications between Oracle Enterprise Manager and e.g. Microsoft’s SCOM, and there’s a choice how to monitor this heterogeneous environment. One of the […]
Licensing ODA on NUP’s and with different metrics
Since Oracle launched the Oracle Database Appliance a few years ago it has become clear that only the Enterprise Edition is allowed on the machine. But when NOT using the bare metal setup (not the OracleVM) it’s not always quite transparent what kind of licensing requirements is needed and allowed. More […]
Keeping track of your licenses with OEM12C – reports
Wouldn’t be nice to get regularly informed how (in)compliant you are with Oracle licenses in an easy – centralized – way, and therefore not have to worry about visits of Oracle’s LMS – License Management Services? I think that would be nice for the most of us. Running LMS-scripts on […]
ADF Performance Monitor: Support for EJB/JPA (EclipseLink)
Not all Oracle ADF projects are built with ADF Business Components (ADF BC). Some organizations prefer to use EJB/JPA (EclipseLink) instead of ADF BC. The EclipseLink JPA provides developers with a standards based Object-Relational persistence solution. The application still reflects the Model-View-Controller architecture. In this case the model is provided by […]
Oracle datapump, advanced compression and licensing
As you may well know, Advanced Compression is an option you have to pay for when using it. But as a DBA you can’t always control the use of this option, e.g. the use of Datapump with Compression parameters. Lately, a few customers were involved in a discussion with Oracle […]
Oracle licenses and the cloud
Suppose the number of Oracle licenses you acquired in the past, is in line with the use. That is, you’re compliant with all the licensing rules Oracle come up with. The license form you use is the so called ‘Full use’ license, this is the most common license form. Everybody […]
Oracle has changed the Exchange rate of the Euro to 0.8682
For years the number of 0.7893 meant something to those who are working on regular basis with licenses in Europe. This number is the ‘Current local Pricing Exchange rate’. And Oracle is entitled to change this rate twice a year:
Changed licensing rules for Exadata X5-2 with OracleVM
On 21 January 2015, Oracle announced Exadata X5, the sixth revision of Oracle’s database management system (DBMS) engineered system. The entire Exadata configuration no longer needs to be licensed when using OracleVM. Instead, a minimum of 40% of the cores in a server must be licensed. This information has been […]
ADF Performance Monitor: Measuring Slow Network Time
Recently I was implementing the ADF Performance Monitor at a customer site and doing a detailed performance analysis. This customer had severe (and less severe) performance problems but was unable to pinpoint the exact pain points. Frequently, end-users were complaining because they were experiencing first a very good performance (response times […]
How to get your picture in Google search results with Google Authorship Markup
Did you ever wonder how you people get their picture in the Google search results? You want this too? Sure you can, this is quite easy. This feature is called “rich snippet”. Compared to a “normal” (boring) snippet. The magic in getting you verified as the author for your articles […]
ADF Runtime Diagnostics: Instrumenting your ADF Application – Part 2
In a series of blog articles I show how you can instrument your ADF Application key actions. Instrumenting gives visibility and insight of what is happening inside the ADF application and in the ADF framework (what methods and queries are executed, when and how often). These runtime diagnostics can be very effective in […]
ADF Performance Monitor: Detecting and Analyzing a High ADF BC Memory Consumption
Like other web applications, Oracle ADF applications potentially use a lot of JVM memory. Many times, the root cause of a high memory usage is that application data retrieved from the database into memory is not properly limited; hundreds or thousands of rows (with too many attributes) are fetched and […]
ADF performance tuning: Whitepaper published on the ADF Performance Monitor
The AMIS ADF Performance Monitor is an advanced tool designed for measuring, analyzing, improving, and checking the performance of Oracle ADF applications. The monitor can track and collect crucial (production) performance information of the application’s runtime ADF components that are not standard provided by Oracle. It helps development, QA, and […]
ADF Performance Tuning: Improve Your Oracle ADF App Response Time by as Much as 70 Percent
Performance needs to be ingrained in your application – it cannot be added in during the last stages of development. In this video I discuss how you can optimize the performance of your Oracle ADF Fusion application, diagnose and solve typical performance problems, and build an efficient, responsive, scalable ADF […]