Cloud, Database, Apps and AI Workshop

 The release of Oracle AI Database 26ai marks a significant evolution—not just for AI inside the database, but also for Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) . While the core RAC architecture remains consistent with 23ai, 26ai introduces AI-driven intelligence, automation, and resilience improvements that directly enhance clustered database environments. This blog explores the key RAC-relevant innovations and how they reshape high availability, scalability, and performance. 1. AI-Native RAC – Intelligent Cluster Operations Oracle 26ai transforms RAC into an AI-aware platform : Built-in AI models and vector capabilities run directly inside the database No need to move data to external AI engines Supports semantic search and embeddings across RAC nodes his means: AI workloads can scale horizontally across RAC nodes Reduced data movement → lower latency and higher efficiency Oracle calls this shift an AI-native database architecture , embedding intelligence directl...

  Oracle Enterprise Manager 24ai  introduces powerful AI-driven capabilities that transform how organizations monitor and manage their Oracle environments. With integrated machine learning and AIOps , it enables intelligent anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and automated root cause analysis, reducing manual effort and improving operational efficiency. The addition of a natural language interface allows users to query system performance and issues conversationally, making management more accessible. Enterprise Manager 24ai also enhances observability, security, and hybrid cloud support , offering a unified platform to manage databases, middleware, applications, and infrastructure across on-premises and multi-cloud environments. The following are the key notable features provided by the OEM 24 ai release: OCI AI Cloud Extensions : Seamless integration with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's Operations Insights services, including Capacity Planning and SQL Insights, enables p...

 The Database Advanced Security Option (ASO) in Oracle E-Business Suite enhances data protection by enabling transparent data encryption (TDE) and network encryption. TDE helps secure sensitive data at rest—such as customer, financial, or HR data—by encrypting database files without requiring changes to applications. Network encryption ensures secure communication between the EBS application and the database by encrypting data in transit. Together, these features help organizations meet compliance requirements, mitigate the risk of data breaches, and strengthen the overall security posture of their Oracle EBS environments without impacting performance or user experience. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) for Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Database is a crucial security feature that ensures sensitive data is encrypted at rest, helping organizations meet compliance, privacy, and regulatory requirements. Here’s a concise overview tailored to Oracle EBS: TDE is an Oracle Database feat...

 Implementing a Disaster Recovery (DR) strategy for Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) between on-premises and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) involves carefully planning data replication, failover, and recovery to ensure business continuity. Below are best practices to help you build a robust, secure, and cost-effective DR architecture. Oracle E-Business Suite DR Best Practices (On-Prem to OCI) 1. Architect a DR Topology Based on Business Needs Active-Passive (Cold or Warm DR) : EBS runs on-prem; OCI is the failover site. Cold Standby : Cost-effective; environment is spun up only during failover. Warm Standby : EBS application tier is always available, but database is synchronized. 2. Use Oracle Data Guard for Database Synchronization Oracle Data Guard (Physical Standby) is the recommended method to replicate the EBS database to OCI. Enables real-time or near-real-time replication of the on-prem DB to OCI. Supports Fast-Start Failover and Snapshot Standby f...

 Oracle SPARC processors have been a hallmark of enterprise computing for over two decades, powering mission-critical workloads with exceptional reliability, security, and performance. Designed specifically for Oracle software and engineered systems, SPARC-based servers have long been favored in industries like finance, telecommunications, and government for their rock-solid stability and predictable scalability. But as the IT landscape evolves rapidly—driven by cloud computing, open architectures, and x86 dominance—the future of SPARC hardware is a topic of growing interest and speculation. The Legacy Strengths of SPARC SPARC architecture brought numerous innovations: High throughput and scalability: Optimized for multithreaded database and middleware workloads. Advanced RAS features: Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability designed to minimize downtime. Tight hardware-software integration: Oracle’s engineered systems such as Exadata and SuperCluster leverage S...

 For decades, Oracle Solaris has been a cornerstone of enterprise computing—powering mission-critical workloads across finance, telecom, government, and healthcare. Known for its unmatched scalability, security, and uptime, Solaris became synonymous with stability on SPARC hardware and even x86 platforms in earlier years. But in a world rapidly shifting toward cloud-native , containerized , and Linux-first architectures , where does Solaris stand today—and what does the future hold? A Brief Look Back Originally developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s, Solaris was a pioneer in: Zones (containers) before Docker was born ZFS for next-generation file systems DTrace for real-time observability RBAC and SMF for role-based security and service management After Sun's acquisition by Oracle in 2010, Solaris development slowed, and its open-source cousin OpenSolaris was discontinued. Oracle positioned Solaris as a long-term, stable platform—but innovation pace dec...

Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager (OLVM) is a powerful virtualization platform based on oVirt. Ensuring consistent backups of the OLVM environment is critical for disaster recovery and business continuity. The backup process primarily includes the engine database, configuration files, and optionally VM disk images (data domains).  Backup the OLVM Engine Database:  Use the engine-backup utility to back up the manager database and configuration. engine-backup --mode=backup \ --file=/backup/olvm_engine_backup.tar \ --log=/backup/olvm_backup.log \ --scope=all --scope=all ensures both the engine DB and configuration files are included.  Backup should be run on the OLVM manager node. Backup Data Domains (VM disks):  Use storage-level tools or snapshot methods to back up virtual machine disks.  For iSCSI/NFS domains:  Use storage-side snapshots or backup tools like rsync or tar. For GlusterFS:  Use Gluster snapshots or native backup solutions....

Oracle Solaris and IBM AIX are both enterprise-grade Unix operating systems that have long histories in mission-critical environments. However, their future is increasingly uncertain as the IT industry shifts toward cloud-native, Linux-based, and containerized solutions. Oracle Solaris has seen limited development in recent years, with Oracle focusing more on its cloud offerings, leading many to question its long-term viability. Similarly, IBM AIX, while still actively supported, is increasingly viewed as a legacy system as IBM emphasizes Linux, particularly Red Hat Enterprise Linux, for modernization and hybrid cloud strategies. Despite continued use in sectors like finance and government, where stability and long-term support are crucial, both Solaris and AIX face declining adoption and a shrinking talent pool, suggesting that their roles in enterprise IT will continue to diminish in the coming years. Migrating an Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) database from Solaris to Linux involves ...

 This blogpost will provide details and steps for  automating VLAN-tagged bridge setup on a KVM host using Ansible , and then optionally connect it to OLVM if needed. Use Ansible to: Create a VLAN sub-interface on a physical NIC. Create a Linux bridge attached to that VLAN interface. Ensure the bridge is ready to be used by VMs or OLVM. Prerequisites Ansible installed on a control node. SSH access to the KVM host(s). nmcli or network role availability (for Red Hat-based distros). Ansible Playbook Example Directory Structure: vlan-bridge-setup/ ├── inventory └── vlan_bridge.yml inventory: [kvmhosts] 192.168.125.100 ansible_user=root vlan_bridge.yml: - name: Configure VLAN tagged bridge on KVM host   hosts: kvmhosts   become: yes   tasks:     - name: Create VLAN interface eth0.100       nmcli:         conn_name: vlan100         ifname: eth0         type: vla...

 In this blogpost its important to clarify a common point of confusion: ZFS as implemented in Oracle Solaris is not directly available on Oracle Linux . Oracle’s version of ZFS— ZFS on Solaris (Solaris ZFS) —is tightly integrated with the Solaris kernel and is proprietary. Oracle Linux, on the other hand, is based on the Red Hat ecosystem and uses the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) , which does not include Oracle’s Solaris ZFS . However, you can deploy a version of ZFS on Oracle Linux 9 using the OpenZFS project, which is the open-source continuation of ZFS development. Enable Required Repositories: Oracle Linux does not include OpenZFS by default. Use the EPEL repository or build from source, but the cleanest method is usually via kmods or DKMS packages . sudo dnf install -y epel-release Install OpenZFS You can build from source or install from the OpenZFS packages . A third-party repository such as ZFS-on-Linux or a compiled RPM may be available. dnf install -y https://...

    During PROD backup getting error “Based on the error: java.sql.SQLException: Non supported character set (add orai18n.jar in your classpath): AR8MSWIN1256” copy orai18n.jar file to Valid ORACLE_HOME [oracle@oraerpdb01n ~]$ cd $ORACLE_HOME [oracle@oraerpdb01n 19.0.0]$ find . -name orai8* [oracle@oraerpdb01n 19.0.0]$ find . -name orai18* ./oui/jlib/orai18n-collation.jar ./oui/jlib/orai18n-mapping.jar ./jlib/orai18n-tools.jar ./jlib/orai18n-translation.jar ./jlib/orai18n-collation.jar ./jlib/orai18n.jar ./jlib/orai18n-net.jar ./jlib/orai18n-mapping.jar ./jlib/orai18n-servlet.jar ./jlib/orai18n-lcsd.jar ./jlib/orai18n-utility.jar ./appsutil_xx/jre/lib/ext/orai18n.jar ./appsutil_xx/clone/jlib/oui/jlib/orai18n-collation.jar ./appsutil_xx/clone/jlib/oui/jlib/orai18n-mapping.jar ./appsutil_xx/clone/jlib/oui/orai18n-collation.jar ./appsutil_xx/clone/jlib/oui/orai18n-mapping.jar ./appsutil_xx/clone/jre/lib/ext/orai18n.jar ./appsutil/jre/lib/ext/orai18n.jar ./app...

In the last blog post we have seen how we can install the ZFS rpm packages on Oracle Linux 8 Operating System and now in this blog post, we will see how to configure and create the zpool on Oracle Linux 8 operating system.  Check the ZFS services: [root@localhost ~]# systemctl -a | grep zfs zfs-import-cache.service loaded inactive dead Import ZFS pools by cache file zfs-mount.service loaded inactive dead Mount ZFS filesystems zfs-share.service loaded inactive dead ZFS file system shares ...

This blogpost will provide you detailed information about Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall (Oracle AVDF) setup. Oracle AVDF is a comprehensive Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) solution that integrates with native audit data. Environment Setup: [oracrp@ebs-dev2-db01 ~]$ mkdir -pv /oradb/oracle/avcli mkdir: created directory ‘/oradb/oracle/avcli’ [oracrp@ebs-dev2-db01 ~]$ mkdir -pv /oradb/oracle/avagent mkdir: created directory ‘/oradb/oracle/avagent’ [oracrp@ebs-dev2-db01 ~]$ - Add these variables to the environment file vi DEV2CDB.env # AVS export AVCLI_HOME="/oradb/oracle/avcli" export AV_HOME="/oradb/oracle/avagent" export PATH="$PATH:$AV_HOME/bin" Download the JAR files:   AVDF installation requires one network interface card on respective hosts. IP assigned to AV server NIC will communicate with target databases and IP assigned to DF server will connect to AV Download - Agent jar file:   Login to AV console as avadmin user   - Go t...