How to Prevent the 'WLS_DIAGNOSTICSxxxxxx.DAT' file from Growing Too Large

The Archive component of the WebLogic Diagnostic Framework (WLDF) captures and persists all data events, log records, and metrics collected by WLDF from server instances and applications running on them. You can configure WLDF to archive diagnostic data to a file store or a Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) data source. If you choose to archive diagnostic data to a file store, this file would stored in <DOMAIN_NAME>/servers/<SERVER_NAME>/data/store/diagnostics.

Under some conditions, these archived files may grow bigger and bigger and can not be removed automatically if you have not done special configuration. e.g., if JDBC connection profiling is enabled, etc.

Circular Group reference in external authenticator causes LDAP to hang

The impact of the Circular Group reference in external authenticator causes LDAP to hang and impacts to Outage. By default, Oracle WebLogic Server does not check for Group circularity for any externally configured LDAP Authenticators (iPlanet, Active Directory, Novell, Open LDAP, etc.).

Circular Group reference example:

If Group A is a member of Group B
and Group B is a member of Group A

When a circular group [as above] exists in the backend LDAP, so many LDAP connections are created (due to the backend LDAP group having itself as a member), that a server crash can result.

JSAFE_PaddingException: Could not perform unpadding: invalid pad byte

While working on a issue it was found the Managed server was not able to Authenticate to its Admin Server in a domain. As i was able to restart the Admin Server with the boot.properties on its host, so i tried copying the same boot.properties to Managed server host followed Managed Server startup. While startup the boot.properties will be read and immediately JSAFE_PaddingException: Could not perform unpadding: invalid pad byte was fired.

After some google it was stated that all domain as different salt [SerializedSystemIni.dat] for encryption so sometime if you miss to update the encrypted password with the new salt you get this error.

[Management:141191]The prepare phase of the configuration update failed with an exception

I found one of the DataSource in my domain was in Suspended state, giving "unable to allocate resources to the application" errors while testing it. I tried to untarget and re-target the DataSource so that it can create fresh connections to the database killing all pending connections and avoid restarting the servers but the untarget changes took so long to be activated so I navigated away from the page and tried to activate the changes one more time and it won't activate any changes that I made and the Error displayed on the console is as below. Restarting AdminServer did not solve the problem.

An error occurred during activation of changes, please see the log for details.
Message icon - Error [Management:141191]The prepare phase of the configuration update failed with an exception:
Message icon - Error java.lang.NullPointerException:
 

Steps to configure Apache HTTP Server Plug-In with Weblogic Server

Considering the Apache HTTP Server [Apache2.2] is already running as Windows service on port 8089 we shall continue to configure Apache HTTP Server Plug-In with Weblogic Server.

I am making use of Apache 2.2 and Weblogic 10.3 for this Post and demonstrating to access the Weblogic Console via Apache HTTP Server.

Steps to configure SunOne WebServer with Weblogic Server Proxy Plug-In

Before proceeding with Configuring SunOne WebServer with Weblogic server Proxy Plug-In we shall learn "What is a Weblogic Web Server Plug-In" and "How Web Server Plug-Ins Work with WebLogic Server"

WebLogic Server startup Hangs at IIOP subsystem enabled

If your WebLogic Server startup Hangs at IIOP subsystem enabled then this post will help you demonstrate the solution to this issue.

Below are last few logs of stack trace.

<Info> <Socket> <BEA-000436> <Allocating 129 reader threads.>
<Info> <Socket> <BEA-000446> <Native IO Enabled.>
<Info> <IIOP>     <BEA-002014> <IIOP subsystem enabled.>

Solution

If there is NO activity after the IIOP subsystem enabled then there is some problem with the Initialization of some Security configuration(s). Usually after enabling IIOP subsystem weblogic server initiates "security" data located under ("\servers\<server_name>\data" folder) might have been corrupted. So you will have to rename the ldap folder located under ("\servers\<server_name>\data") and start the Weblogic Server.

WebLogic Server LifeCycle and Server States

The series of states through which a WebLogic Server instance can transition itself from one state to next state is called the WebLogic Server life cycle. At any time, a WebLogic Server instance is in a particular operating state. Commands such as start, stop and suspend sources specific changes to the operational state of a server instance.

Configuration Auditing for Weblogic Domain

In an organization with more than one Administrator working on a typical Weblogic domain(s) there is a possibility of changes being made without one others knowledge [might not be at the same time] and might cause some issues. This post will demonstrate a step-by-step configuration on how to have an audit of all the configuration changes made. 

Resolving XAER_NOTA : The XID is not valid

The below Error occurs if you are using two different JDBCConnection Pools for the same Oracle Database or two DataSources for the same pool. This post will help you understand and resolve the below issue.

Cause: java.sql.SQLException: Unexpected exception while enlisting XAConnection java.sql.SQLException: XA error: XAResource.XAER_NOTA start() failed on resour

ce 'jdbc/TestDB': XAER_NOTA : The XID is not valid

oracle.jdbc.xa.OracleXAException

        at oracle.jdbc.xa.OracleXAResource.checkError(OracleXAResource.java:938)

Steps to Configure HermesJMS console to monitor Weblogic JMS resources

HermesJMS is a open-source tool developed by Colin Crist. It is used to interact with JMS providers making it easy to browse or search queues and topics, copy messages and delete them. This tool has ability to work with many JMS Providers like JBoss MQ, Active MQ, OpenJMS, Weblogic JMS, Tibco JMS, WebSphere MQ, WebMethods etc...

This post will demonstrate the detailed step-by-step "How to get HermesJMS installed and configured for use with WebLogic JMS". There is web-recording provided in HermesJMS Website to setup HermesJMS with Weblogic. Please click here to go through the web-recording.

JNDI Objects under JNDI tree is not listed for Weblogic Instance?

As most of us know Weblogic Applications make use of naming services to locate objects in data sources, EJBs, JMS, MailSessions, and so on. A naming service associates names with objects and finds objects based on their given names. JNDI is defined to be independent of any specific naming or directory service implementation. It supports the use of a number of methods for accessing various new and existing services.

Securing the Weblogic Admin Console

It would be very easy to hack [see Google search below] and access your Domain resources very easily. So one should think of Securing your Weblogic Admin and its Domain resources.
 
Just type in "Administration Console" "Sign in" WebLogic inurl:"console" in your Google Search engine and you would find a number of Weblogic Console URL's across globe.

Steps to Configure Weblogic Connection Filters

Connection Filters allow you to deny access of UNWANTED Connections at the network level. Connection Filters can be used to protect server resources on individual servers, server clusters, or an entire internal network or Intranet. Connection filters are particularly useful when using the Administration port. Depending on your network firewall configuration, you may be able to use a connection filter to further restrict administration access. A typical use might be to restrict access to the Administration port to only the servers and machines in the domain.

Steps to Configure Global Trust between Weblogic Domains

WebLogic Server enables you to configure Weblogic Domains to inter-operate each other via Cross Domain Security Between WebLogic Server Domains & Global Trust between Domains. In this post I am going to demonstrate the "Steps to Configure Global Trust between Weblogic Domains".

Steps to Export & Import Weblogic Embedded LDAP Server [Security Realm]

The Embedded LDAP server is the default security provider database for the WebLogic Authentication, Authorization, Credential Mapping and Role Mapping providers. It contains user, group, group membership, security role, security policy, and credential map information.
Unknowingly the Embedded LDAP data gets corrupted which is not a very good sign in Applications like Weblogic Portal Applications & Applications using Embedded LDAP for there login and if you have created users, groups, roles, etc in your embedded LDAP, you'd have to recreate them manually, after the domain is brought up the with new Embedded LDAP.

Steps to Configure the Cross Domain Security Between WebLogic Server Domains

Cross Domain Security establishes trust between domains such that principals in a Subject from one WebLogic Server domain can make calls in another domain.

WebLogic Server establishes a security role for cross-domain users, and uses the WebLogic Credential Mapping security provider in each domain to store the credentials to be used by the cross-domain users.  

Steps to Reset the password for Weblogic Admin Console

Forgot the password for the Weblogic Admin account and the boot.properties is not available in the domain to recover the password? You might wonder and ask a question to yourself "How do i get the password reset for the Weblogic Admin account?". This post is available to you to help Reset the password for Weblogic Admin Console. Just follow through the blog which provides the steps for the same.

Steps to Recover the lost or not known password for Weblogic Admin Console.

Forgot the password or the password is not known? But the boot.properties is available in the domain and you can start the domain with it. When you try opening boot.properties to find the password and you see the values are encrypted. You might wonder and ask a question to yourself "How do i get the decrypted of those encrypted values". This post is available to you to help Recover the lost or not known password for Weblogic Admin Console. Just follow through the blog which provides the steps for the same.

Steps to remove a Domain for WL10 and onwards

As of now there is no such feature provided by either Oracle or BEA for Weblogic Config wizard or such other utility which can help you to clean remove or delete a domain. It is all manual  if you are looking for deleting a domain for WL10 and onwards.

NodeManager setup and WebLogic startup with NodeManager

This is detailed guide for setting up the WebLogicServer NodeManager service and managing the WebLogicServer instance using this service. Also this post provides you an explanation on how to setup WebLogic Server processes to be automatically managed by Node Manager, when an OS instance is rebooted. When an OS instance is rebooted, WebLogic Server will return to the state as it was prior to the reboot.

WebLogic Server instance as Windows Service

As in UNIX OS we have an option of auto-start [init.d and rc3.d] of WebLogic services immediately after the server is rebooted similarly we can implement the WebLogic services to auto-start in Windows OS as well. "How to do that?". This post provides you details explanation on how to install the WebLogic services [Admin and Managed Nodes] as windows service.

How to get a New License for WebLogic Products

One should be thinking 'How can I get a new License for WebLogic products?'. Well you don't need to worry about the licenses if your Weblogic Product version is not list below because from here on the WebLogic products 10.3 and higher does not require a license file.

BEA WebLogic Server Products - Version 6.1 - 10.0 MP1 

BEA WebLogic Platform Products- Version 7.x - 10.2  

BEA WebLogic Portal Products- Version 7.x - 10.2 

BEA WebLogic Integration Products- Version 2.x - 10.2

for more Click Here

Disabling DNS Caching for Weblogic Server JVM

Weblogic Server doesn't cache any DNS. Rather, it's the Java implementation that caches the DNS. So when a 
Weblogic domain is restarted, each node in the domain caches the DNS with IP Address of Admin/Managed node 
so any subsequent operation will use the old settings even if the real settings have changed. To reset everything, 
you have to restart the Admin/Managed node since the default JVM setting is to cache forever.

This post is very useful in an Organization where the Application Servers move consistently and configuration of DNS gets changed like IP Address.

How to on "Weblogic Admin Console Timeout"

I was just going through the Oracle Weblogic documentation and I came across one interesting thing about WebLogic console where after a time interval on the Weblogic Admin Console will cause user session timeout and will fall back at the login screen. It is possible to short or increase this session timeout for a user session on Admin Console. And at-last I came to know about the location of WebLogic Admin Console application.

How to DISABLE and ENABLE Production Mode in WebLogic domain for WebLogic 9 & above

Sharing my own experience on this post.

I started working a third party product at the client location and there one of the suggestion, to run the product smoothly is to create the WebLogic domain with Production Mode always enabled. But I never noticed that I went wrong while creating the WebLogic domain and selected the Development instead and completed the 60% of the installation, as per the documentation provided by the vendor. Later on when I restarted the WebLogic domain and tailing the logs for Admin server [sitting with the vendor], we realized that domain was running in Development Mode. Vendor refused to support this issue and did not want me continue forward with the rest of the installation until the domain is running in Production Mode. I had to sit late and complete the initial 60% of work with WebLogic domain running in Production Mode because I was not aware of "How to Enable the Production Mode in the domain"

This post is to help others who can come across such situation.

Mapping a Weblogic Port to a PID.

There are multiple ways to map the PID for a running Weblogic Instance when you are running more than one Weblogic instance on a single server/zone. This post explains one of the way to map the Weblogic Port to a PID.

How does WebLogic handle socket muxers ?

Muxer ? What's that ?

Taken from the documentation [http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11035_01/wls100/perform/WLSTuning.html#wp1152246]:

WebLogic Server uses software modules called muxers to read incoming requests on the server and incoming responses on the client. 

WebLogic Notifications – Watch the Log and Send Email

Can WebLogic send an email when a certain message shows up in the WLS log?  The answer is yes and it is pretty straight-forward to configure. The WebLogic Diagnostic Framework or WLDF enables this capability with a sub-feature called Watches and Notifications.  Here is a real simple example to get an email when the server starts in a RUNNING state