Oracle Forms: FRM-92290 after upgrade to 12.2.1.19

We are frequently involved in Oracle Fusion Middleware Forms and Reports installation or upgrade. For one of our customers, I upgraded Oracle Forms from version 12.2.1.4 to version 12.2.1.19, and this time I got an unusual issue…

Our dbi services Middleware team is involved since long time in Oracle Fusion Middleware, here is a blog from my colleague Arnaud published in 2012.

Let’s see together the upgrade process, the issue, and how I investigate to the BUG 😉

Upgrade overview

As you may know, there is two ways to upgrade Forms:

• Performing an In-Place Upgrade
  To perform an “in-place” upgrade, you should first back up the existing “Oracle Home” directory, install the latest versions of the required software in the existing directory, then copy over any required files from the backup directory.
  In an in-place upgrade, you install the 12.2.1.19.0 software in the same Oracle Home path that 12.2.1.4.0 or 12.2.1.3.0 previously used. This upgrade is recommended for multi-node load balanced Forms deployment.
• Performing an Out-of-Place Upgrade
  To perform an “out-of-place” upgrade, you’ll install the software as for a fresh install, then use the WLS Reconfiguration Wizard and Upgrade Assistant to complete the upgrade.
  In an out-of-place upgrade, you install the 12.2.1.19.0 software in a new Oracle Home directory rather than the one used by the 12.2.1.4.0 or 12.2.1.3.0 install.

For more information about Forms upgrade please check Oracle Documentation or contact me over linkedIn.

In my case, I performed an Out-of-Place Upgrade, I installed the software as for a fresh install under a new directory adding an extension to the original MW_HOME folder. So the old MW_HOME was midw the new one is midw_19. So far nothing shocking, right?

The issue

In fact, after the upgrade I restarted the domain, no issue encountered, everything seems OK, no errors in the logs… But , when the customer tested, he got the following error:

The customer got even the below error:
FRM-92290: HTTP response code 404--Not Found received when attempting to download archive file
FRM-92491: Unable to fetch archive file from server 

The issue seems to be related to frmall.jar. This jar file is present under the new MW_HOME, but not detected, strange 🙂

Investigation and RC

Well, the jar is not reachable, I tried to get the jar file via http://IP_ADDRESS:9001/forms/java/frmall.jar, without success I got 404 Error…

Humm, there is an issue with the MW_HOME Path for sure, so let’s try something else:

• Go to folder ORACLE_HOME/forms/java
• Create a file named test.html
• Try to access http://IP_ADDRESS:9001/forms/java/test.html

Same issue, test.html not found 404 !!!

Try to make full domain stop/start, still not working, without any relevant issue in the domain logs, except inside the access.log for sure:

2024-06-06 09:45:44 GET e4818f8a-9085-4a10-8fc0-5637bb4530f0-00000044 0 /forms/java/frmall.jar 404 1164
2023-06-06 10:01:56 GET dbbdc0b5-bd75-4aac-bbd1-93d27f622480-00000041 0 /forms/java/test.htlm 404 1164
2024-06-06 10:03:55 GET dbbdc0b5-bd75-4aac-bbd1-93d27f622480-00000043 0 /forms/java/frmall.jar 404 1164
2024-06-06 10:14:49 GET e703a936-5c16-4077-948a-7a93469537bb-00000040 0 /forms/java/test.html 404 1164 

I have now a real doubt that I am pointing to the correct MW_HOME. Remember, I replaced midw by midw_19 as MW_HOME.

I grep under the DOMAIN_HOME for midw and midw_19, and search for a while before I notice something strange inside the plan.xml file:

<variable-definition>
<variable>
<name>vd-/u01/app/oracle/product/midw_19_19/forms</name>
<value>/u01/app/oracle/product/midw_19_19/forms</value>
</variable>
</variable-definition> 

After further investigation, and reproduce the same on another environment, I found the RC:

• The domain reconfiguration apply the change in plan.xml, so it replace midw by midw_19.
• Then, the upgrade assistant apply a “replace all” under DOMAIN_HOME, which replace midw by midw_19, which result MW_HOME = midw_19_19!

The solution

We saw together that the issue is coming from the plan.xml, the MW_HOME is wrong there.

There is two solutions:

1. Rollback the upgrade and change the new MW_HOME to avoid the replacement issue.
2. Or, simply correct the wrong file:

- Stop All
- Correct MW_HOME path inside $DOMAIN_HOME/config/fmwconfig/deployment-plans/formsapp/12.2.1/plan.xml
- Start All

The issue is solved now 🙂

As you can see, the solution is very simple. My lesson learned is to avoid renaming with extension, this could be a source of confusion and issue. And you? Did you already encounter this kind of issues?