Oracle WebLogic Server in production: installation, domains and clustering, patching, deployment, security, tuning and the troubleshooting that comes with it.
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:…
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…
Oracle WebLogic Server continues to be a backbone for enterprise Java applications. With version 14, it brings improved Java compatibility, stronger security defaults, and better clustering. But while the platform is robust, monitoring it effectively remains a challenge. Introduction Within WebLogic 14, out-of-the-box tools such as the Remote Console and WLST scripts provide some visibility, but they are limited when…
After years working with WebLogic and other application servers (JBoss, WildFly, Tomcat, etc.), I’ve seen most of the challenges enterprises face: domains that refuse to start, clusters that behave unpredictably, and performance issues caused by poor configurations. What experience has taught me is clear: when Best Practices are applied, environments are far more stable and easier to manage. With the…
This short blog is to share with you an issue we faced at a customer during Oracle Fusion Middleware 14 installation. Introduction and Symptoms An important step in the installation process is the Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata repository creation using the RCU (Repository Creation Utility) which creates the necessary schemas for the components. But when running the Repository Creation Utility…
JBoss EAP simplifies a lot of server configuration by consolidating all subsystem configurations into a single XML file (standalone.xml or domain.xml). This, however, can expose sensitive information to any user that has access to the configuration files. For example, datasource credentials are by default stored in plain text in the XML file. In this blog I will show you how…
