Simple steps for (scott/tiger):

> VBoxManage setproperty vrdeauthlibrary "VBoxAuthSimple"

> VBoxManage modifyvm <uuid|name> --vrdeauthtype external

> VBoxManage internalcommands passwordhash "tiger"
Password hash: f15c16b99f82d8201767d3a841ff40849c8a1b812ffbfd2e393d2b6aa6682a6e

> VBoxManage setextradata <uuid|name> "VBoxAuthSimple/users/scott" f15c16b99f82d8201767d3a841ff40849c8a1b812ffbfd2e393d2b6aa6682a6e

(I had to add the VirtualBox install directory %VBOX_INSTALL_PATH% to my path…)

Happy connecting!

VirtualBox Remote Display Properties

It seems it only works when one selects Allow me to save credentials in the Options -> General Tab in Remote Desktop Connection screen.

Remote Desktop properties

Happy connecting!

When using ‘SQL Server Management Studio’, the ‘Server name’ is in the format:

SERVERNAME\INSTANCE.

This won’t work in SQL Developer:

Status : Failure -Unknown server host name 'SERVERNAME\INSTANCE'.

This can be solved using the Hostname in the next format in SQL Developer:

SERVERNAME;instance=INSTANCE

For me it worked :)

“The page isn’t redirecting properly“, “This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies.“?

I only removed one cookie for Domain ‘.www.google.com‘ and Path ‘/calendar/‘ and problem was solved!

The dot prefixing the ‘www’ is causing the problem I think.

Happy surfing!

The add-on is called ‘cliget’ and can be downloaded here: cliget add-on for FireFox.

Get wget command from cliget download dialog

1. Go to the Oracle support site: support.oracle.com;
2. Search for the patch or donwload you need and click on the file to download it;
3. In the download dialog an extra section is added with the wget command and a copy button:

cliget add-on for FireFox

Paste wget command in Linux

Paste this wget command in a Linux command line and hit enter:

[oracle::/u01/download]$ wget --header="Host: aru-llnw-dl.oracle.com" --header="User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0" --header="Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8" --header="Accept-Language: en" --header="Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate" --header="Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7" --header="DNT: 1" --header="Connection: keep-alive" --header="Cookie: ORA_UCM_SRVC=3*ORA~1~0~//~null~*OTN~1~0~//~null~
(...)
ZD0yNzMxOTU5&e=1312565455&h=a6261356a8937ecf2ecdad0f6ae6e629
Resolving aru-llnw-dl.oracle.com... 87.248.203.253, 87.248.203.254
Connecting to aru-llnw-dl.oracle.com|87.248.203.253|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 226118567 (216M) [application/zip]
Saving to: 'p12398567_112022_SOLARIS64.zip'

100%[=========================================>] 226,118,567 4.72M/s in 56s

2011-08-05 19:21:58 (3.87 MB/s) - 'p12398567_112022_SOLARIS64.zip' saved [226118567/226118567]

The link must be used ‘immediately’, when I tried to use it again 60 minutes later, the result was:

Connecting to aru-llnw-dl.oracle.com|87.248.203.254|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 400 Bad Request
2011-08-05 19:20:15 ERROR 400: Bad Request.

Google Chrome

I have found something similar for Google Chrome, but I involves some steps in exporting a cookie.txt file: wget cookie.txt export add-on for Google Chrome.

Metalink Flash wget

The Flash site of My Oracle Support also lets you create wget commands, but this will be a script which must be edited with your password before it can be used. It includes logging and creating temporary cookie files, but the advantage is it will be usable for 48 hours.

Oracle patch wget options

Happy downloading!

Adding shared folders from your host to your VirtualBox guest is a good option to use. If you have a Windows guest and a GUI based Host, it it’s very easy; click, click, done.

BUt if you are stuck with only a command line based guest and or host, it a bit more complex. Please use this post a guideline, Linux knowledge is assumed…

Adding/removing shared folders to VirtualBox

[host] # vboxmanage sharedfolder add "vbox_name" --name install --hostpath /install --automount
[host] # vboxmanage sharedfolder remove "vbox_name" --name install

On guest automounted to ‘/media/sf_install’, otherwise mount (again) with:

[guest] # mount -t vboxsf install /mnt/install

What if in case of the vboxfs mounting error

/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: No such device

We are probably missing VBoxGuestAdditions (vboxfs). For a Windows guest we can use the following command:

[host] # vboxmanage guestcontrol updateadditions "vbox_name" --source /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso --verbose

If we are using Linux, we might need to do it manually!

Manually installing VBoxGuestAdditions

0. Make sure GCC, MAKE and KERNEL-DEVEL are installed…

[guest] # yum install gcc make kernel-devel
(or similar package command for your distribution)

If not installed, you might run into next troubles:

[guest] # cat /var/log/vboxadd-install.log
Makefile:23: *** Error: unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again..  Stop.
Creating user for the Guest Additions.
Creating udev rule for the Guest Additions kernel module.

[GOTO 1. if you do not see these errors...]

To see what went wrong run ‘/etc/init.d/vboxadd setup’:

[guest] # /etc/init.d/vboxadd setup
Removing existing VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules           [  OK  ]
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules       [  OK  ]
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
The headers for the current running kernel were not found. If the following
module compilation fails then this could be the reason.
The missing package can be probably installed with
yum install kernel-devel-2.6.18-238.el5                    [FAILED]

Your system does not seem to be set up to build kernel modules.
Look at /var/log/vboxadd-install.log to find out what went wrong.
Once you have corrected it, you can run

/etc/init.d/vboxadd setup

to build them.

Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions              [  OK  ]

Correct what went wrong and run ‘/etc/init.d/vboxadd setup’ again:

[guest] # yum install gcc make kernel-devel
(yada yada yada)

[guest] # /etc/init.d/vboxadd setup
Removing existing VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules           [  OK  ]
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules       [  OK  ]
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Your guest system does not seem to have sufficient OpenGL support to enable
accelerated 3D effects (this requires Linux 2.6.27 or later in the guest
system).  This Guest Additions feature will be disabled.

Building the main Guest Additions module                   [  OK  ]
Building the shared folder support module                  [  OK  ]
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions              [  OK  ]
Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions                    [  OK  ]

1a. Find the IDE Controller device numbers

[host] # vboxmanage showvminfo "vbox_name" | grep "Storage Controller Name"
 Storage Controller Name (0):            IDE controller

1b.Get the port and device numbers

[host] # vboxmanage showvminfo "vbox_name" | grep "IDE controller"
 IDE controller (1, 0): Empty

1c. If not found, add it

[host] # vboxmanage storagectl "vbox_name" --name "IDE controller" --add ide

2. Attach the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso as dvddrive

Port and device numbers needed here!

[host] # vboxmanage storageattach "vbox_name" --storagectl "IDE controller" \
--port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive \
--medium /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso

3. Mount the DVD drive on Guest OS

[guest] # mkdir /mnt/dvd
[guest] # mount -t iso9660 -o ro /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd

4. Install VBoxLinuxAdditions

[guest] # cd /mnt/dvd
[guest] # ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

5. Done? Unmount and remove

[guest] # umount /dev/dvd

[host] # vboxmanage controlvm "vbox_name" poweroff
[host] # vboxmanage storageattach "vbox_name" --storagectl "IDE controller" \
--port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium emptydrive

Uninstall VBoxGuestAdditions

[guest] # /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-4.0.8/uninstall.sh

VirtualBox downloads

http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/

Done… Happy sharing!

[guest]

All command shown here can be used with expdp and impdp datapump.

Identifying datapump jobs

Do a select from dba_datapump_jobs in sqlplus to get the job name:

> expdp system full=y

SELECT owner_name, job_name, operation, job_mode, state
FROM dba_datapump_jobs;

OWNER_NAME JOB_NAME             OPERATION  JOB_MODE   STATE
---------- -------------------- ---------- ---------- ------------
SYSTEM     SYS_EXPORT_FULL_01   EXPORT     FULL       EXECUTING

Or when you use the JOB_NAME parameter when datapumping, you already identified the job with a name. You don’t need to look up afterwards…

expdp system full=y JOB_NAME=EXP_FULL

OWNER_NAME JOB_NAME             OPERATION  JOB_MODE   STATE
---------- -------------------- ---------- ---------- ------------
SYSTEM     EXP_FULL             EXPORT     FULL       EXECUTING

Killing or stopping a running datapump job

The difference between Kill and Stop is simple to explain. When killing a job, you won’t be able to resume or start it again. Also logs and dumpfiles will be removed!

When exporting (or importing), press Ctrl-c to show the datapump prompt and type KILL_JOB or STOP_JOB[=IMMEDIATE]. You will be prompted to confirm if you are sure…

Adding ‘=IMMEDIATE‘ to STOP_JOB will not finish currently running ‘sub-job’ and must be redone when starting it again.

Processing object type DATABASE_EXPORT/SCHEMA/TABLE/TABLE_DATA
[Ctrl-c]
Export> KILL_JOB
..or..
Export> STOP_JOB=IMMEDIATE
Are you sure you wish to stop this job ([yes]/no): yes

Resuming a stopped job

Identify your job with SQL or you already knew it because you used ‘JOB_NAME=‘ ;)

SELECT owner_name, job_name, operation, job_mode, state
FROM dba_datapump_jobs;

OWNER_NAME JOB_NAME             OPERATION  JOB_MODE   STATE      
---------- -------------------- ---------- ---------- ------------
SYSTEM     EXP_FULL             EXPORT     FULL       NOT RUNNING

Now we can ATTACH to the job using it as a parameter to the expdp or impdp command, and a lot of gibberish is shown:

> expdp system ATTACH=EXP_FULL

Job: EXP_FULL
 Owner: SYSTEM
 Operation: EXPORT
 Creator Privs: TRUE
 GUID: A5441357B472DFEEE040007F0100692A
 Start Time: Thursday, 08 June, 2011 20:23:39
 Mode: FULL
 Instance: db1
 Max Parallelism: 1
 EXPORT Job Parameters:
 Parameter Name      Parameter Value:
 CLIENT_COMMAND        system/******** full=y JOB_NAME=EXP_FULL
 State: IDLING
 Bytes Processed: 0
 Current Parallelism: 1
 Job Error Count: 0
 Dump File: /u01/app/oracle/admin/db1/dpdump/expdat.dmp
 bytes written: 520,192

Worker 1 Status:
 Process Name: DW00
 State: UNDEFINED

(Re)start the job with START_JOB, use ‘=SKIP_CURRENT‘ if you want to skip the current job. To show progress again, type CONTINUE_CLIENT (Job will be restarted if idle).

Export> START_JOB[=SKIP_CURRENT]
Export> CONTINUE_CLIENT
Job EXP_FULL has been reopened at Thursday, 09 June, 2011 10:26
Restarting "SYSTEM"."EXP_FULL":  system/******** full=y JOB_NAME=EXP_FULL

Processing object type DATABASE_EXPORT/TABLESPACE
Processing object type DATABASE_EXPORT/PROFILE

Done…

Happy pumping!

Of course a lot more IPv6 test pages can be found here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ipv6+test

Happy testing!

Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/REF_CONSTRAINT
ORA-39083: Object type REF_CONSTRAINT failed to create with error:
ORA-02298: cannot validate (SCOTT.FK_SCALE_ID) - parent keys not found
Failing sql is:
ALTER TABLE "SCOTT"."SCALE_ID" ADD CONSTRAINT "FK_SCALE_ID" FOREIGN KEY ("SCALE_ID") REFERENCES "SCOTT"."SCALE" ("ID") ENABLE

I thought the expdp had made an consistent database dump, but didn’t! The FK’s present in SALARY were not present as PK’s in the SCALE table, so this could only mean the dump was not database consistent at all!

Solution: Using the flashback_time option

I found a discussion about ‘exp consistent=y’ on AskTom. Check the followup on June 6, 2010:

Followup
“in all cases, a table is always exported “as of a single point in time”. However, many times you want ALL tables exported as of a single point in time. If you want the equivalent of the old export “consistent=y”, you would use flashback_time=systimestamp to get the data pump export to be “as of the point in time the export began, every table will be as of the same commit point in time” ”

According to the docs:

“The SCN that most closely matches the specified time is found, and this SCN is used to enable the Flashback utility. The export operation is performed with data that is consistent as of this SCN.”

Using the ‘systimestamp’ option will pass the current time value, as easy as that!

Example

expdp scott dumpfile=expdp.dmp logfile=expdp.log flashback_time=systimestamp

Update: Legacy Mode

Since 11.2, Oracle introduced ‘legacy mode‘ options for expdp and impdp.

One now can use the old exp and imp parameters, including ‘CONSISTENT=Y’.

Summary

• By default expdp is consistent only for the table it is currently exporting.
• Use ‘flashback_time=systimestamp‘ to simulate the old export ‘consistent=y’.

Happy Data Pumping!

The most found example on internet is the one with typing the password at the command prompt when starting sqlplus:

sqlplus username/password@[//]host[:port][/service_name]

$> sqlplus system/manager@db_machine:1521/db_servicename

However, this means that the password will be stored in you history of commands (linux). This is not really secure… but sqlplus does not accept it when no password is supplied when using easy connect.

Two solutions

If you want to login with easy connect without typing the password on the command line, you have two options:

1. Start sqlplus with the /nolog option and connect with easy connect on the sqlplus prompt:

$> sqlplus /nolog
(...)
SQL> conn system/manager@db_machine:1521/db_servicename
Connected.
SQL>

2. Start sqlplus on the command line with the following easy connect syntax in order to be prompted for a password:

$> sqlplus system@\"db_machine:1521/db_servicename\"
Enter password:
Connected to:
(...)
SQL>

Important: The  \”  in the beginning and end of the server:port/service is part of the syntax!
This last option is documented at Oracle Support Note [ID 274757.1].

SQLNET.ORA

If there is no SQLNET.ORA present or NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH is not defined, EZCONNECT is enabled by default (as is TNSNAMES and HOSTNAME). Otherwise add the following to SQLNET.ORA:

NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH=(ezconnect)

Happy connecting!