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Archive for January, 2022

Oracle Container User

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After you create and provision the Oracle Database 21c Express Edition (XE), you can create a c##student container user with the following two step process.

  1. Create a c##student Oracle user account with the following command:

    CREATE USER c##student IDENTIFIED BY student
    DEFAULT TABLESPACE users QUOTA 200M ON users
    TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp;

  2. Grant necessary privileges to the newly created c##student user:

    GRANT CREATE CLUSTER, CREATE INDEXTYPE, CREATE OPERATOR
    ,     CREATE PROCEDURE, CREATE SEQUENCE, CREATE SESSION
    ,     CREATE TABLE, CREATE TRIGGER, CREATE TYPE
    ,     CREATE VIEW TO c##student;

As always, I hope this helps those looking for how to do something that’s less than clear because everybody uses tools.

Written by maclochlainn

January 31st, 2022 at 5:58 pm

MongoDB on macOS

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It’s important to document things before I ask my students to do them. This walks through a native installation of MongoDB on the macOS. At least, it does when you’ve already installed Xcode. If you installed Xcode sometime ago, you should update it otherwise you may get an installation error like the following:

==> Installing mongodb-community from mongodb/brew
Error: Your Xcode (11.1) is too outdated.
Please update to Xcode 13.1 (or delete it).
Xcode can be updated from the App Store.

The core MongoDB installation document is in the MongoDB 5.0 installation manual. The following is a step-by-step set of instructions for those new to installing something like MongoDB without using the macOS standard package management software.

  1. The first step requires you install Home Brew, as qualified by the Home Brew Installation page. Before you can install Home Brew, you need to install Xcode on your macOS. After installing Xcode, you need to launch a Terminal session on your macOS and run the following command from the macOS command-line interface (CLI):

    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

    After the installation, which may take several minutes, you should see this final message on the console:

    ==> Next steps:
    - Run brew help to get started
    - Further documentation:
        https://docs.brew.sh
  2. Now that Home Brew is installed, the next step requires you to update the Homebrew formulat for MongoDB. You use the following command to do that for MongoDB 5:

    brew tap mongodb/brew

    You should see something like the following on your console when you update the Homebrew formula:

    Running `brew update --preinstall`...
    ==> Homebrew is run entirely by unpaid volunteers. Please consider donating:
      https://github.com/Homebrew/brew#donations
    ==> Auto-updated Homebrew!
    Updated 1 tap (homebrew/core).
    ==> Updated Formulae
    Updated 5 formulae.
     
    ==> Tapping mongodb/brew
    Cloning into '/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/mongodb/homebrew-brew'...
    remote: Enumerating objects: 825, done.
    remote: Counting objects: 100% (322/322), done.
    remote: Compressing objects: 100% (236/236), done.
    remote: Total 825 (delta 165), reused 140 (delta 83), pack-reused 503
    Receiving objects: 100% (825/825), 180.91 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
    Resolving deltas: 100% (403/403), done.
    Tapped 14 formulae (30 files, 246.8KB).
  3. Assuming your Xcode is curent, you now install MongoDB with the necessary supporting packages:

    brew install mongodb-community@5.0

    You should see something like the following on your console after you install MongoDB 5:

    ==> Summary
      /usr/local/Cellar/mongodb-community/5.0.5: 11 files, 181.5MB, built in 6 seconds
    ==> Running `brew cleanup mongodb-community`...
    Disable this behaviour by setting HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP.
    Hide these hints with HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS (see `man brew`).
    ==> Caveats
    ==> mongodb-community
    To start mongodb/brew/mongodb-community now and restart at login:
      brew services start mongodb/brew/mongodb-community
    Or, if you don't want/need a background service you can just run:
      mongod --config /usr/local/etc/mongod.conf
  4. MongoDB really requires a background service, so I suggest you use the following to create the service:

    brew services start mongodb/brew/mongodb-community

    You should see something like the following on your console after you install MongoDB 5:

    ==> Successfully started `mongodb-community` (label: homebrew.mxcl.mongodb-community)

    The installation gave you three key binaries:

    • The MongoDB Server Daemon – mongod
    • The MongoDB sharded cluster query router – mongos
    • The MongoDB Shell – mongosh

    The installation also creates configuration, data, and log files based on physical CPU-Chip hardware:

    • Intel Processor
      • Configuration File: /usr/local/etc/mongodb.conf
      • Log Directory: /usr/local/var/log/mongodb
      • Data Directory: /usr/local/var/mongodb
    • Apple M1 Processor
      • Configuration File: /opt/homebrew/etc/mongodb.conf
      • Log Directory: /opt/homebrew/var/log/mongodb
      • Data Directory: /opt/homebrew/var/mongodb
    • You can now start the MongoDB Shell with the following command in a Terminal window:

      mongosh

      You should see the following when you connect to the MongoDB Shell

      Current Mongosh Log ID:	61e4e2c98f023c2b5fc5a905
      Connecting to:		mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/?directConnection=true&serverSelectionTimeoutMS=2000
      Using MongoDB:		5.0.5
      Using Mongosh:		1.1.8
       
      For mongosh info see: https://docs.mongodb.com/mongodb-shell/
       
       
      To help improve our products, anonymous usage data is collected and sent to MongoDB periodically (https://www.mongodb.com/legal/privacy-policy).
      You can opt-out by running the disableTelemetry() command.
       
      ------
         The server generated these startup warnings when booting:
         2022-01-16T20:26:18.320-07:00: Access control is not enabled for the database. Read and write access to data and configuration is unrestricted
      ------
       
      test>

As always, I hope the instructions are helpful and clear. If you find an issue let em know about it.

Written by maclochlainn

January 16th, 2022 at 8:45 pm

Tiny SQL Developer

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The first time you launch SQL Developer, you may see a very small or tiny display on the screen. With some high resolution screens the text is unreadable. Unless you manually configure the sqldeveloper shortcut, you generally can’t use it.

On my virtualization on a 27″ screen it looks like:

As an Administrator user, you right click the SQLDeveloper icon and click the Compatibility tab, which should look like the following dialog. You need to check the Compatibility Mode, which by default is unchecked with Windows 8 displayed in the select list.

Check the Compatibility Mode box and the select list will no longer be gray scaled. Click on the select list box and choose Windows 7. After the change you should see the following:

After that change, you need to click on the Change high DPI settings gray scaled button, which will display the following dialog box.

Click the Override high DPI scaling behavior check box. It will change the gray highlighted Scaling Performed by select box to white. Then, you click the Scaling Performed by select box and choose the System option.

Click the OK button on the nested SQLDeveloper Properties dialog box. Then, click the Apply button on the SQLDeveloper Properties button and the OK button. You will see a workable SQL Developer interface when you launch the program through your modified shortcut.

Written by maclochlainn

January 9th, 2022 at 9:11 pm

Protocol adapter error

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One of the errors that defeats a lot of new users who install the Oracle Database on the Windows operating system is a two-step event. The first step occurs when you try to connect to the database and it raises the following error:

SQL*Plus: Release 18.0.0.0.0 - Production on Fri Jan 7 21:00:42 2022
Version 18.4.0.0.0
 
Copyright (c) 1982, 2018, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
 
ERROR:
ORA-12541: TNS:no listener

The second step may occur after you get the “no listener” error when you try to start the Oracle listener and it fails to start. The Oracle listener control command is:

lsnrctl start

When it returns the following error:

LSNRCTL FOR 64-bit Windows: Version 18.0.0.0.0 - Production ON 07-JAN-2022 21:02:20
 
Copyright (c) 1991, 2018, Oracle.  ALL rights reserved.
 
Starting tnslsnr: please wait...
 
Unable TO OpenSCManager: err=5
TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error
TNS-00530: Protocol adapter error

The problem is generally in two configuration files. They are the listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files. This typically occurs when the developer fails to set the localhost in the Windows operating system hosts configuration file. The chain of events that causes these errors can be avoided when the user puts the following two lines:

127.0.0.1      localhost
::1            localhost

in the following hosts file:

C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

You can typically avoid these errors when you configure the hosts configuration file correctly before installing the Oracle Database. That’s because the Oracle database installation will use localhost keyword instead of the current, and typically DHCP assigned, IP address.

The loss of connectivity errors typically occur when the IP address changes after the installation. DHCP IP addresses often change as machines disconnect and reconnect to a network.

You can fix a DHCP IP installation of an Oracle database by editing the listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files. You replace the IP addresses with the localhost keyword.

The listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files look like the following for an Oracle Database 21c Express Edition (provided you installed them in a C:\app\username directory:

listener.ora

# listener.ora Network Configuration File: C:\app\username\product\21.0.0\dbhomeXE\NETWORK\ADMIN\listener.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.
 
DEFAULT_SERVICE_LISTENER = XE
 
SID_LIST_LISTENER =
 (SID_LIST =
   (SID_DESC =
     (SID_NAME = CLRExtProc)
     (ORACLE_HOME = C:\app\username\product\21.0.0\dbhomeXE)
     (PROGRAM = extproc)
     (ENVS = "EXTPROC_DLLS=ONLY:C:\app\username\product\21.0.0\dbhomeXE\bin\oraclr21.dll")
   )
 )
 
LISTENER =
 (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
   (DESCRIPTION =
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1521))
   )
 )

tnsnames.ora

# tnsnames.ora Network Configuration File: C:\app\mclaughlinm\product\21.0.0\dbhomeXE\NETWORK\ADMIN\tnsnames.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.
 
XE =
 (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
   (CONNECT_DATA =
     (SERVER = DEDICATED)
     (SERVICE_NAME = XE)
   )
 )
 
LISTENER_XE =
 (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
 
 
ORACLR_CONNECTION_DATA =
 (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS_LIST =
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1521))
   )
   (CONNECT_DATA =
     (SID = CLRExtProc)
     (PRESENTATION = RO)
   )
 )

As always, I hope this helps those looking for a solution to something that can take more time than it should to fix.