Middleware is where applications meet infrastructure. Here our consultants write about WebLogic, JBoss EAP, WildFly and Tomcat in real production environments: installing and clustering them, patching, deploying applications and finding out why something stopped working.
Upgrading Oracle Fusion Middleware from 12c to 14c is not simply about installing new binaries and running the Upgrade Assistant. After working on several Oracle Fusion Middleware upgrades, involving WebLogic Server, ADF, Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, Oracle HTTP Server, and Identity Management components, I have noticed that the most challenging issues rarely come from the installation itself. They usually come…
During a recent Oracle Fusion Middleware upgrade from 12.2.1.4 to 14.1.2, I encountered an interesting issue with Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) and WebGate. The upgraded components were running, but WebGate initialization failed and the application was inaccessible. The root cause was not an incorrect OAM registration or a missing configuration file. It was a stale ObAccessClient.xml in the OHS/WebGate runtime…
How bytecode analysis exposed an ORB initialization defect during an Oracle Fusion Middleware upgrade! Context During a recent Oracle Fusion Middleware upgrade from 12.2.1.4 to 14.1.2, I encountered an unexpected startup failure affecting Oracle Reports Server. The installation, domain upgrade and reconfiguration had completed successfully. The following components were operational: However, the standalone Reports Server components, RptSvr_1 and RptSvr_2, failed…
During an Oracle Fusion Middleware 14.1.2 upgrade, I encountered an issue while reconfiguring an existing Oracle ADF domain. The WebLogic Configuration Wizard launched successfully through SSH X11 forwarding, but the graphical interface became unresponsive during the reconfiguration. There was no obvious error message, and the wizard could not proceed. The solution turned out to be a single Java parameter. The…
During the preparation of an Oracle Fusion Middleware upgrade from 12.2.1.4 to 14.1.2, the Upgrade Assistant readiness check flagged the WebLogic schema in an ADF domain. The error identified during the investigation was INVALID_WLS_COMPONENT_SCHEMA_OWNER. I was already aware of the documented change to WLSSchemaDataSource in 14.1.2. Before modifying the existing domain, however, I wanted to establish whether the failure matched…
A client contacted me after an operating system upgrade and the restart of an Oracle Fusion Middleware environment. The application servers were running. The ADF applications appeared healthy. Both Oracle Reports Server processes were also reported as running. Yet report generation failed. Even a simple request to display the Reports job list returned an error: The investigation led somewhere else:…
More and more often, we are contacted to assess, challenge, and advise on the migration of Oracle Fusion Middleware platforms to the cloud. These discussions usually involve critical environments based on Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Forms, and sometimes Oracle Reports. The objective is rarely just to “move to the cloud”. It is about understanding what can realistically be migrated, what…
When discussing modern application platforms, JBoss EAP is rarely the technology that creates the most excitement. Today, the attention is more often on Kubernetes, OpenShift, Quarkus, serverless platforms, service meshes, GitOps, and event-driven architectures. In this context, the question is not simply: “Should we replace JBoss EAP?” The real question is: “How can we modernize these workloads without creating unnecessary…
More and more customers running traditional Java EE or Jakarta EE workloads are asking the same question: “We already use JBoss EAP. Should we move to Kubernetes or OpenShift, and do we need to replace the application server?” The answer is not to rush into a rewrite. In many cases, the most realistic and valuable first step is to move…
A customer recently asked me about the difference between Java Web Start and the Forms Standalone Launcher for running Oracle Forms applications. I found it a very good question. From the user’s perspective, both methods look similar: the Forms application opens in its own Java window. The real difference is how the application is launched, deployed, secured, and maintained on…
Application servers such as WebLogic, JBoss EAP, WildFly, Tomcat, and WebSphere still run critical business applications in many enterprise environments. However, they are often monitored like basic infrastructure components: CPU, memory, disk, process status, and sometimes port availability. This is useful, but it is not enough. An application server can be up, the JVM can be running, and the port…
During a recent maintenance activity, I patched an Oracle Forms & Reports 14.1.2 environment on Linux. The patching itself completed successfully, but immediately after the restart, Oracle Reports started failing. At first, the issue looked like a Java or JDK problem. After a full investigation, it turned out to be different. This blog explains the full story from beginning to…
