SSH

Unappreciated SSH Client Config

Some IT folks how are fluent with the server configuration of the SSH daemon. But I can hardly name a few who knows how helpful client SSH configuration is.

Git

Automate Housekeeping

For one who does automation for living, it's okay to be a bit lazy. So let's talk about how I keep my local git repositories in order with minimal effort.

Ansible

Ansible and Git Submodules

Let's discuss a problem I faced, moving from Ansible to the Ansible Tower. The problem is how to maintain multiple inventories scattered all over new projects effectively.

SSH

Getting ssh_init when using SSH or SCP

When using pscp to transfer a file, you may receive the error: ssh_init: Network error: Cannot assign requested address The solution is simple. Simply specify the -P 22 parameter to explicitly connect to the port, and you should be good to go.

Ansible

Ansible: Conditional Playbooks

I have praised Ansible tags all about the previous post. Unfortunately, tags don't go along with Ansible Tower's complex workflows. Let me guide you through the playbook transformation we've done. The answer to this challenge is extra variables.

Ansible

Ansible: the Power of Tags

Let's talk about why you should use tags in your Ansible playbooks. For starters, I'll lecture you a bit about tags in the Ansible language, and then show you how we use them in a real-life scenario.

SSL

Getting DN mismatch in Java? Use keytool

I wrote some Java code that connects to a secure Oracle Database listener port through JDBC. The code I used is published here. However, every time I execute this code, I receive the following exception: java.sql.SQLRecoverableException: IO Error: Mismatch with the server cert DN. This means that the

Ansible

Ansible Tower: Dynamic Usernames

The slow drift toward the Red Hat Ansible Tower uncovers more and more compatibility issues, so I have to go back and revisit some decisions and make sure that the same code would fit both worlds.

Ghost

Ghost 4: the Major Upgrade

This small how-to could be helpful if you have a standalone Ghost platform and plan to upgrade it to the latest version - Ghost 4.4.0.

Oracle SOA Suite

When is the Oracle SOA Platform ready to accept requests?

If you've started up your Oracle SOA Suite 12c managed servers, and even after the managed server is reporting RUNNING and OK, this doesn't mean that the SOA platform is completely up yet. WebLogic reporting the state of the managed serversEven after the managed servers are

Recovering from a corrupted Embedded LDAP in WebLogic 12c

A customer experienced an issue in Oracle WebLogic 12c in which their Global Roles suddenly disappeared. Not having seen this exact issue before, I did however experience issues in the past where the Embedded LDAP was corrupted. Per Oracle Doc ID 1192253.1 [https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocContentDisplay?

Enable 'configuration archive' in WebLogic

When you enable configuration archive in your Oracle WebLogic Server domain, the entire domain configuration is backed up at every server restart. This is pretty much a must-have setting for every domain. There are absolutely no disadvantages in enabling this, and can come in extremely handy if you experience an

Linux

Why does Linux report 100% memory usage all the time?

Why does Linux report memory usage as being 99% used even though nothing is running on the server? I'll start with the conclusion: If little swap is being used, then memory usage is not impacting performance at all. * Traditional Unix tools like top often report a surprisingly small

Keycloak

Install and Startup Keycloak

Keycloak is an open source software product (Apache License 2.0) identity and access management solution. This post walks you through an extremely quick setup of this product. Download Keycloak 1. Download Keycloak from here [https://www.keycloak.org/downloads]. Install Keycloak 1. Run these commands (filename may differ depending

SSH

Login to Linux using SSH Keys in PuTTY

This post provides a quick guide to configuring access to a Linux account using SSH keys. Generate a Private and Public Key Pair 1. Download puttygen.exe from here. 2. Click Generate. 3. Move the mouse until complete. 4. Enter the "Key passphrase". 5. Click Save public key.

Linux

Getting "Argument list too long" when using ls

I was trying to count the number of files in a particular directory in Linux using the ls command and received the following error: oracle@soadev:/home/oracle> ls /u01/archive/*.* | wc -l -bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long Turns out the resolution to this is to increase

Containers

Maven Project with Docker Compose

This little tweak streamlines the development lifecycle and simplifies build and test operations. If you build something with Docker and Apache Maven you could find this article useful.

Linux

Find directories with largest number of files in Linux

I needed to find the list of directories that had the largest number of files on my Linux file system, searching recursively through the filesystem. Here's the content you can paste in a script: #!/bin/bash if [ $# -ne 1 ];then echo "Usage: `basename $0` DIRECTORY" exit

OPatch

Getting OPatch error code 255 and 1

I ran OPatch against my Oracle Access Manager (OAM) 12.2.1.4 installation, and I got the OPatch error code 255. oracle@soadev:/u01/oracle/middleware/OPatch> ./opatch lsinventory OPatch failed with error code 255 I guess I had to set the ORACLE_HOME first, which I then

Ansible

Ansible: Consume SQL*Plus Output

A simple way to consume Oracle Database data in Ansible playbooks without extensive Python or PL/SQL coding or 3rd party modules.

Ansible

Automating Oracle Forms environment files configuration

Automating everything many times comes to a halt once you discover that specific applications or platforms do not support changes to be done using a command-line interface. One such application is Oracle Forms, even if you run the latest and greatest version of it. This post is not to prove

Ansible

Ansible: dynamic usernames

Ansible uses OS username to authenticate against targets. When you need to run commands as a different user, you have multiple options: privilege escalation, set a remote username, and dynamic definition in inventory.

Keycloack

Keycloak: Use Oracle Autonomous database

The Keycloack Server documentation recommends an external database to persist realms configuration. The article describes how to configure Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing service with WildFly/JBoss application server.

Keycloack

Keycloack: configure frontend URL

It's turned out that my free tier VMs are powerful enough to run a standalone Keycloack [https://www.keycloack.org/]server. I'm not a big fan of the direct instance access on high ports, so I decided to configure it with the OCI load balancer [https:

Git

What I ignore in Ansible projects

Keep your repository neat and clean is a mandatory repository requirement, same as readable documentation and a good code, preferably useful. So, one of the first things I do in a new project is a .gitignore file.