Laurent Schneider

After table maintenance, like move or split partition, underlying indexes are marked as unusable.

This boils down to segment reorganisation, not dictionary change.

For instance :

CREATE TABLE t(x NUMBER)
PARTITION BY RANGE(x)
(PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (MAXVALUE));

CREATE INDEX i ON t (x);

INSERT INTO t VALUES (1);

ALTER TABLE T SPLIT PARTITION p1 AT 
  (100) INTO (PARTITION p2, PARTITION p3);

SELECT index_name, status 
FROM user_indexes 
WHERE index_name = 'I';

INDEX_NAME STATUS  
---------- --------
I          VALID

The partition p1 is splitted into two p2 and p3, all rows from p1 belongs to p2, p3 is created empty, no data manipulation, the index remains valid

delete from t; 
INSERT INTO t VALUES (250);

ALTER TABLE T SPLIT PARTITION p3 AT 
  (200) INTO (PARTITION p4, PARTITION p5);

SELECT index_name, status 
FROM user_indexes 
WHERE index_name = 'I';

INDEX_NAME STATUS  
---------- --------
I          VALID

delete from t; 
INSERT INTO t VALUES (250);
INSERT INTO t VALUES (350);

ALTER TABLE T SPLIT PARTITION p5 AT 
  (300) INTO (PARTITION p6, PARTITION p7);

SELECT index_name, status 
FROM user_indexes 
WHERE index_name = 'I';
INDEX_NAME STATUS  
---------- --------
I          UNUSABLE

One row goes to p6, one row to p7, the index is invalidated.

To avoid this, use ALTER TABLE T SPLIT PARTITION p5 AT (300) INTO (PARTITION p6, PARTITION p7) UPDATE INDEXES;

What are the consequences?

INSERT INTO t VALUES (320);
1 row inserted

It does not prevent DML in this case.

select * from t where x=320;

         X
----------
       320

Execution Plan
---------------------------------------------------
 0   SELECT STATEMENT Optimizer Mode=ALL_ROWS
 1 0   PARTITION RANGE SINGLE
 2 1     TABLE ACCESS FULL SCOTT.T

The row is retrieved, but the unusable index is not used.

In some case, DML may be prevented.

alter index i rebuild;
alter table t modify (x primary key using index);
ALTER TABLE T SPLIT PARTITION p7 AT 
  (330) INTO (PARTITION p8, PARTITION p9) ;

insert into t values (450);
ORA-01502: index 'SCOTT.I' or partition of such index is in unusable state

The index can no longer be used for constraint enforcement and the INSERT fails.

If the index is partitioned, the index is not marked as unusable as a whole, only the affected (sub)partitions are marked.

Check all your indexes status in dba_indexes.status, dba_ind_partitions.status and dba_ind_subpartitions.status.

Rebuild them with alter index i rebuild, alter index i rebuild partition p and alter index i rebuild subpartition sp.

Not easy to detect, and depending on the product (agent/database), it may have only limited side effects.

Like external jobs not running, operating systems statistics not collected.

But it is not always easy to diagnose.

For instance if you patch from OMS 12cR2 to 12cR3, and you run the root.sh only in 12cR2, they are very few statistics missing (one is the OS_STORAGE_ENTITY).

Running the root.sh doesn’t generate a log file or an entry in the inventory.

To check if it was executed, check what it is supposed to do. It is a bit different in each version. One think it always does is changing the ownership to root and set the sticky bit for a few binaries. For the database, this is done in sub-scripts called rootadd.sh (10g) or rootadd_rdbms.sh (11g/12c).

eval ls -l $(find $ORACLE_HOME -name "rootadd*sh" -exec awk '$1="$CHOWN"&&$2=="root"{print $3}' {} \;|sort -u)

-rwsr-x--- root dba .../product/11.2.0/db_4/bin/extjob
-rwsr-x--- root dba .../product/11.2.0/db_4/bin/jssu
-rws--x--- root dba .../product/11.2.0/db_4/bin/nmb
-rws--x--- root dba .../product/11.2.0/db_4/bin/nmhs
-rws--x--- root dba .../product/11.2.0/db_4/bin/nmo
-rwsr-x--- root dba .../product/11.2.0/db_4/bin/oradism
-rw-r----- root dba ...11.2.0/db_4/rdbms/admin/externaljob.ora

On the 12c agent, there is a FULL_BINARY_LIST variable that point to list of root binaries in sbin

eval $(grep FULL_BINARY_LIST= $AGENT_HOME/root.sh)
cd $AGENT_HOME/../../sbin
ls -l $FULL_BINARY_LIST

-rws--x--- root dba nmb
-rws--x--- root dba nmhs
-rws--x--- root dba nmo

If all files exist and belong root, it looks like you did run the root.sh.

I just added a few features to WordPress, please report any bug and test your comments here.

Thanks

if you really need to quickly find the latest partition per table, I have written this little gem

WITH FUNCTION d (b BLOB, len number) RETURN DATE IS
  d DATE;
BEGIN
  IF DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR (b, 1, 1) = hextoraw('07') and len=83
  THEN
    DBMS_STATS.convert_raw_value (DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR (b, 12, 2), d);
  ELSE
    d := NULL;
  END IF;
  RETURN d;
END;
SELECT 
  u.name owner,
  o.name table_name,
  max(d (bhiboundval, hiboundlen)) last_partition
FROM sys.tabpart$ tp
  JOIN sys.obj$ o USING (obj#)
  JOIN sys.user$ u ON u.user# = o.owner#
WHERE u.name='SCOTT'
group by u.name, o.name
order by last_partition desc;

It doesn’t cover all partitioning type, but it is pretty fast and simple

You need to check the high_value from dba_tab_partitions.
Or you you could metadata.

With metadata, it is not a long, it either clob or clob-xml.

  SELECT t.table_name,
         MAX (
            TO_DATE (
               REGEXP_SUBSTR (
                  EXTRACT ( (VALUE (x)), 'HIBOUNDVAL').getStringVal (),
                  ' \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}'),
               'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI;:SS'))
            high_value
    FROM user_tables t,
         TABLE (
            XMLSEQUENCE (
               EXTRACT (
                  xmltype (DBMS_METADATA.get_xml ('TABLE', t.table_name)),
                  '//ROWSET/ROW/TABLE_T/PART_OBJ/PART_LIST/PART_LIST_ITEM/HIBOUNDVAL'))) x
   WHERE partitioned = 'YES'
  HAVING MAX (
            TO_DATE (
               REGEXP_SUBSTR (
                  EXTRACT ( (VALUE (x)), 'HIBOUNDVAL').getStringVal (),
                  ' \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}'),
               'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI;:SS')) < DATE '2015-01-02'
GROUP BY t.table_name
ORDER BY 1;

TABLE_NAME HIGH_VALUE                    
---------- ------------------------------
T1         2015-01-01                    
T11        2000-01-01                    
T20        1436-03-09                    
T6         2000-01-01                    
T7         2014-12-21                    
T8         2015-01-01

Ok, out of xml, I get all HIBOUNDVAL and hazardously try some regular expression to find a pattern.

It already returned most of my table that could have caused me New Eve headache. But partitioned is not that simple. Line 3 for instance is not in a gregorian format (it’s a bug). And it does not cover index partition, subpartitions, interval partitions, neither partition with more than one date column as key.

This sounds a lot, and there is only one HIGH_VALUE for multiple key, and the High_value is something like 0,TO_DATE(' 3543-01-01 00:00:00', 'SYYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS', 'NLS_CALENDAR=GREGORIAN'),MAXVALUE

Okay, if you forget about non-gregorian calendars, and ignore about MAXVALUE, we could use something like

curid := DBMS_SQL.open_cursor;
txt :=
  'select '
  || REPLACE (g.high_value, 'MAXVALUE', 'NULL')
  || ' from dual';
DBMS_SQL.parse (curid, txt, DBMS_SQL.NATIVE);

Then from dba_PART_KEY_COLUMNS (pkc) or dba_SUBPART_KEY_COLUMNS, joined with dba_tab_columns, we could retrieve the datatype (date and timestamp with or without time zone) and the pkc.column_position.

DBMS_SQL.DEFINE_COLUMN (curid,
  f.column_position,
  'date',
  12);

Casting to date should be fine.

Then we fetch and retrieve the Nth column

IF DBMS_SQL.FETCH_ROWS (curid) > 0
THEN
  DBMS_SQL.COLUMN_VALUE (curid, f.column_position, namevar);
END IF;

If you read me that far, you probably can write the rest of the code for yourself.

Could be useful to do this before end-of-year

Many many moons ago I vaguely remember having a similar issue with java keystore / truststore and microsoft certificates stores.

When you start using SSL for your listener, you could potentially face a large number of issues amoung your toolsets. In my opinion, the most disastrous one is that you cannot monitor your database with Enterprise Manager and a TCPS listener. I tried with 10g, 11g, 12c and I seriously doubt it will come in 13c, even a dozen of ERs have been filled. The best workaround I found is to use a separate listener to monitor your database and monitor the ssl-listener itself with IPC.

Today I had to deal with a driver from Datadirect, which finally works perfectly fine with SSL, but the challenge was to know what to put in the keystore and truststore…

In SQLNET, you use the single-sign-on wallet (cwallet.sso) created by OWM/orapki or ldap.

In Java, per default, you use a java keystore, that you generate with keytool (or even use the default cacerts). There is only a lexical difference between a keystore and a truststore, they could both be the same file. As documented in the JSSE Ref
A truststore is a keystore that is used when making decisions about what to trust

But for some other tools, the java keytool won’t do the trick, if the truststore cannot be of the type JKS.

One common type is the PKCS12. This is the your ewallet.p12 you get with the Wallet Manager.

E.g. from java :

  -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=ewallet.p12
  -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStoreType=PKCS12
  -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=***

To use single-sign-on, use trustStoreType=SSO as I wrote there : jdbc-ssl

Other command formats are X509 base64 or DER file. The openssl command line allows you easy conversion

openssl pkcs12 -in ewallet.p12 -out file.pem
openssl x509 -outform der -in file.pem -out file.der

or in Windows Explorer, just click on your p12 file and then click on the certificate to export in the certificate store.

If you configure your listener for encryption only, you do not really need authentication.

It works pretty fine until 11.2.0.2, I wrote multiple posts on ssl.

You add SSL_CLIENT_AUTHENTICATION=FALSE to your server sqlnet.ora and listener.ora and specify an “anon” cipher suite in your client. You do not need to validate the certificate, so a default wallet will do.

orapki wallet create -wallet . -auto_login_only

WALLET_LOCATION=(SOURCE=(METHOD=FILE)(METHOD_DATA=(DIRECTORY=.)))
ssl_cipher_suites=(SSL_DH_anon_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA)
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH=(TNSNAMES)

DB01=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCPS)(HOST=srv01.example.com)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=DB01)))

or if you use java, the default truststore -usually located in $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts, will also do.

    System.setProperty("oracle.net.ssl_cipher_suites", "SSL_DH_anon_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA");

On some plateform however you may get something like : IBM’s Client TrustManager does not allow anonymous cipher suites.

So far so good, but if you upgrade your listener to 11.2.0.3/4 or 12c, the anonymous suites won’t be accepted if not explicitely set up in sqlnet.ora. This is documented in Note 1434966.1

You will get something like “ORA-28860: Fatal SSL error”, “TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error” in Oracle or “SSLHandshakeException: Received fatal alert: handshake_failure”, “SQLRecoverableException: I/O-Error: Received fatal alert: handshake_failure” in java.

There are two -obvious- ways to fix this. The preferred approach is to not use anonymous suite (they seem to have disappeared from the supported cypher suites in the doc).

For this task, you use another cipher suite. The easiest way is to not specify any or just use one like TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (java) / SSL_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (sqlnet). Even if you do not use client authentication, you will then have to authenticate the server, and import the root ca in the wallet or the keystore.
– sqlnet.ora

# comment out ssl_cipher_suites=(SSL_DH_anon_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA)

// comment out : System.setProperty("oracle.net.ssl_cipher_suites", "SSL_DH_anon_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore","keystore.jks");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStoreType","JKS");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword","***");

Or, as documented in metalink, define the suite in sqlnet.ora and listener.ora if you use 11.2.0.3 or 11.2.0.4.

Let’s check this small script

– foo.sh

#!/bin/sh
echo foo.1:`date` | tee $HOME/tmp/foo.txt
sleep 3
echo foo.2:`date` | tee -a $HOME/tmp/foo.txt

$ $HOME/tmp/foo.sh
foo.1:Thu Nov 27 17:34:53 CET 2014
foo.2:Thu Nov 27 17:34:56 CET 2014

Ok, let’s take another script that would call this script in the background using &

– bar.sh

#!/bin/sh
echo bar.1:`date`
$HOME/tmp/foo.sh &
echo bar.2:`date`

$ $HOME/tmp/bar.sh
bar.1:Thu Nov 27 17:36:32 CET 2014
bar.2:Thu Nov 27 17:36:32 CET 2014
$ 
foo.1:Thu Nov 27 17:36:32 CET 2014
foo.2:Thu Nov 27 17:36:35 CET 2014

bar is printing the date, calling foo in the background, then printing the date, then it returns to you, and foo is still running.

BUT this is only in a relative background …

Let’s try this

$ time $HOME/tmp/bar.sh > /dev/null

real    0m0.01s
user    0m0.00s
sys     0m0.00s

So it takes no time to run bar you believe ?

Let’s try, for instance, over ssh (or cron or whatever)

$ time ssh localhost $HOME/tmp/bar.sh > /dev/null
real    0m3.81s
user    0m0.01s
sys     0m0.01s

running bar suddenly waits 3 seconds for foo to finish.

To be sure the script is sent to the farest background, you need to close the file descriptors, stdin, stdout, stderr

I rewrote it as

– baz.sh

#!/bin/sh
echo bar.1:`date`
$HOME/tmp/foo.sh <&- >&- 2>&- &
echo bar.2:`date`

$ time ssh localhost $HOME/tmp/baz.sh >/dev/null
real    0m0.44s
user    0m0.00s
sys     0m0.00s

Now the script baz is immediately finished and does not wait for foo to complete

A not uncommon issue with firewalls and listeners are timeouts. Your production database may be behind a firewall, you may connect from a remote location, even your Windows workstation may have some firewall activated, possibly you use ssh tunnels or TCPS. All those occasionally lead to timeouts and connection abortion, for instance ORA-03113 end-of-file on communication channel, ORA-03135: connection lost contact, TNS-12547 Lost contact.

The good news is that Oracle 12c now implements Socket Options (see man setsockopt), as documented in Net admin new features and more nicely in Note 1591874.1

I made until now a positive experience with this keepalive behavior, especially with SSL listener. The default value for SQLNET.EXPIRE_TIME is 0, so you must set it to a non-zero value first, the recommended value is 10 (minutes).

just released today http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html

only in Enterprise Edition at the moment, and now available on HPUX, zLinux and AIX

#oracle12c #db12102 is out for a bunch of platform #aix #os390 #hpux #zlinux

— laurentsch (@laurentsch) November 17, 2014

This is the first and last patchset for 12cR1

#oracle 12.1.0.2 is the last patch set for Release 12.1.

— laurentsch (@laurentsch) October 9, 2014

select
  to_char(
    sum(
      power(100,rownum-1)*
      deptno
    ),
    'FM99G99G99G99G99', 
    'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS=,;'
  ) deptlist 
from dept

DEPTLIST       
---------------
40;30;20;10

I also wrote about distinct listagg. The same applies for sum distinct.

select 
  to_char(
    sum(power(1e3,d-1)*deptno),
    'FM999G999G999', 
    'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS=,;'
  ) deptsum, 
  to_char(
    sum(distinct power(1e2,d-1)*deptno),
    'FM99G99G99', 
    'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS=,;'
  ) deptsumdist, 
  to_char(
    sum(power(1e1,d-1)),
    'FM9G9G9', 
    'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS=,;'
  ) deptcount, 
  to_char(
    sum(power(1e4,c-1)*comm),
    'FM9999G9999G9999G9999G9999', 
    'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS=,;'
  ) commlist 
from (
  select comm, deptno, 
    dense_rank() over (order by deptno) d, 
    dense_rank() over (order by comm) c 
  from emp);   

DEPTSUM      DSUMDIST COUNT COMMLIST
------------ -------- ----- -------------------
180;100;030  30;20;10 6;5;3 1400;0500;0300;0000

Powershell is very strong with XML, to convert an XML document to something flat like a CSV file, it is incredibly powerfull.

Let’s take a file called emp.xml

<EMPTABLE>
  <DEPT>
    <DEPTNO>10</DEPTNO>            
    <EMPLIST>
      <ENAME>CLARK</ENAME>
      <ENAME>MILLER</ENAME>
      <ENAME>KING</ENAME>
    </EMPLIST>
  </DEPT>
  <DEPT>
    <DEPTNO>20</DEPTNO>
    <EMPLIST>
       <ENAME>SMITH</ENAME>
       <ENAME>FORD</ENAME>
       <ENAME>ADAMS</ENAME>
       <ENAME>SCOTT</ENAME>
       <ENAME>JONES</ENAME>
    </EMPLIST>
  </DEPT>
  <DEPT>
    <DEPTNO>30</DEPTNO>     
    <EMPLIST>
       <ENAME>ALLEN</ENAME>
       <ENAME>WARD</ENAME>
       <ENAME>MARTIN</ENAME>
       <ENAME>BLAKE</ENAME>
       <ENAME>TURNER</ENAME>
       <ENAME>JAMES</ENAME>
    </EMPLIST>
  </DEPT>
</EMPTABLE>

To get all employees, it is awfully easy
([xml](gc emp.xml)).EMPTABLE.DEPT.EMPLIST.ENAME

CLARK
MILLER
KING
SMITH
FORD
ADAMS
SCOTT
JONES
ALLEN
WARD
MARTIN
BLAKE
TURNER
JAMES

Now I actually want to have each employee together with his department. I create an object for each department add the ename and the deptno

$d=([xml](gc emp.xml)).EMPTABLE.DEPT | % { 
  foreach ($i in $_.EMPLIST.ENAME) {
    $o = New-Object Object
    Add-Member -InputObject $o -MemberType NoteProperty -Name DEPTNO -Value $_.DEPTNO
    Add-Member -InputObject $o -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ENAME -Value $i
    $o
  }
}
$d

DEPTNO     ENAME
------     -----
10         CLARK
10         MILLER
10         KING
20         SMITH
20         FORD
20         ADAMS
20         SCOTT
20         JONES
30         ALLEN
30         WARD
30         MARTIN
30         BLAKE
30         TURNER
30         JAMES

This could be convert to multiple format.

HTML
$d|ConvertTo-HTML

CSV
$d|ConvertTo-CSV

"DEPTNO","ENAME"
"10","CLARK"
"10","MILLER"
"10","KING"
"20","SMITH"
"20","FORD"
"20","ADAMS"
"20","SCOTT"
"20","JONES"
"30","ALLEN"
"30","WARD"
"30","MARTIN"
"30","BLAKE"
"30","TURNER"
"30","JAMES"

JSON
$d|ConvertTo-JSon

[
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "10",
        "ENAME":  "CLARK"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "10",
        "ENAME":  "MILLER"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "10",
        "ENAME":  "KING"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "20",
        "ENAME":  "SMITH"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "20",
        "ENAME":  "FORD"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "20",
        "ENAME":  "ADAMS"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "20",
        "ENAME":  "SCOTT"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "20",
        "ENAME":  "JONES"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "30",
        "ENAME":  "ALLEN"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "30",
        "ENAME":  "WARD"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "30",
        "ENAME":  "MARTIN"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "30",
        "ENAME":  "BLAKE"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "30",
        "ENAME":  "TURNER"
    },
    {
        "DEPTNO":  "30",
        "ENAME":  "JAMES"
    }
]

Or even to xml with ($d|ConvertTo-XML).OuterXml

It is so lightening fast that you could process pretty large files (millions of lines) in just a few seconds

To have the same users in multiple databases and no single sign on is quite a nightmare for password expiration, synchronisation and validation.

You probably were discouraged by the long long route to kerberos, where the 11.2.0.2 bugs are fixed in 11.2.0.4, the 12.1 bugs are fixed in 12.2. And lot’s of system changes that won’t be welcome by your sysadmins / winadmins.

Okay, to partly cover the password expiration issue, you could check in a profile function that the password is the one from AD.

Firstly, without SSL

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION pw_function_AD
(username varchar2,
 password varchar2,
 old_password varchar2)
RETURN boolean IS
  sess raw(32);
  rc number;
BEGIN
  sess := DBMS_LDAP.init(
    'example.com',dbms_ldap.PORT);
  rc := DBMS_LDAP.simple_bind_s(
    sess, username||'@example.com', 
    password);
  rc := DBMS_LDAP.unbind_s(sess);
  RETURN(TRUE);
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    rc := DBMS_LDAP.unbind_s(sess);
    raise;
END;
/
GRANT EXECUTE ON pw_function_ad TO PUBLIC;
CREATE PROFILE AD LIMIT 
  PASSWORD_VERIFY_FUNCTION pw_function_AD;
ALTER PROFILE AD LIMIT 
  PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME 30;
ALTER PROFILE AD LIMIT 
  PASSWORD_REUSE_MAX UNLIMITED;

alter user lsc profile AD;

When the password expires, the user must change it to its AD Password.

If I try with a dummy password, the profile will reject this

SQL> conn lsc/pw1
ERROR:
ORA-28001: the password has expired

Changing password for lsc
New password:anypassword
Retype new password:anypassword
ERROR:
ORA-28003: password verification for 
  the specified password failed
ORA-31202: DBMS_LDAP: LDAP client/server 
  error: Invalid credentials. 
  80090308: LdapErr: DSID-0C0903A9, 
  comment: AcceptSecurityContext error, 
    data 52e, v1db1
Password unchanged
Warning: You are no longer connected to ORACLE.

I need to enter my Windows password

SQL> conn lsc/pw1
ERROR:
ORA-28001: the password has expired

Changing password for lsc
New password: mywindowspassword
Retype new password: mywindowspassword
Password changed
Connected.

Secondly, with SSL.

Maybe simple bind without SSL is not possible (check http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935834). And for sure it is better to not send unencrypted plain text password over the network.

Create a wallet with password with the ROOT Certification Authority that signed your AD. You probably could download this in your trusted root certification authorities in Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer – Tools – Internet Options – Content – Certificates – Trusted root.

Then you create a ewallet.p12 with orapki. No need for user certificate and no need for single-sign-on. Only import the trusted root (and intermediaries if applicable).

Here is the modified code

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION pw_function_AD
(username varchar2,
 password varchar2,
 old_password varchar2)
RETURN boolean IS
  sess raw(32);
  rc number;
BEGIN
  sess := DBMS_LDAP.init(
    'example.com',dbms_ldap.SSL_PORT);
  rc := DBMS_LDAP.open_ssl(
    sess, 'file:/etc/wallet/MSAD', 
    'welcome1', 2);
  rc := DBMS_LDAP.simple_bind_s(
    sess, username||'@example.com', 
    password);
  rc := DBMS_LDAP.unbind_s(sess);
  RETURN(TRUE);
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    rc := DBMS_LDAP.unbind_s(sess);
    raise;
END;
/

If you get SSL Handshake, be prepared, it could be anything! Check your wallet, your certificate, your permission, your wallet password.

One step further could be to expire users as soon as they change their password in AD or when they expire there.

For instance with powershell goodies for active directory

PS> (Get-ADuser lsc -properties PasswordLastSet).PasswordLastSet

Montag, 6. Oktober 2014 08:18:23

PS> (Get-ADuser king -properties AccountExpirationDate).AccountExpirationDate

Mittwoch, 16. Juli 2014 06:00:00

And in the database

SQL> SELECT ptime FROM sys.user$ 
  WHERE name ='LSC';

PTIME
-------------------
2014-11-10_10:33:08

If PTIME is less than PasswordLastSet or if AccountExpirationDate is not null, expire the account.

In conclusion : if you do not want to use Kerberos, nor Oracle “OctetString” Virtual Directory ovid nor Oracle Internet directory oid, this workaround may help to increase your security by addressing the “shared” and “expired” accounts problematic

There an additional hidden benefit. You could set up a self-service password reset function and send a generated expired password per mail, that the user won’t be able to change without its AD password

If you look for the last insert result, check returning into.

Is it identity column, the rowid, any expression, get it back

SQL> var r varchar2(24)
SQL> var x number
SQL> var d varchar2(30)
SQL> insert into t values (default) 
  returning rowid,x,sysdate into :r,:x,:d;

1 row created.

SQL> print

R
--------------------
AAAaFTAAIAAAAILAAD

         X
----------
         6

D
--------------------------------
2014-11-07_13:33:03

It is documented in the SQL Reference. No need for PL/SQL here. I it very usefull if you use sequences too.

SQL> insert into t(x) values (s.nextval) returning x into :x;

1 row created.

SQL> print x

         X
----------
         2

When you grant table access thru a role, you cannot use that role in a stored procedure or view.

create role r;

create user u1 identified by ***;
grant create procedure, create session to u1;

create user u2 identified by ***;
grant create procedure, create session, r to u2;

conn u1/***
create procedure u1.p1 is begin null; end; 
/

grant execute on u1.p1 to r;

conn u2/***

create procedure u2.p2 is begin u1.p1; end; 
/

sho err procedure u2.p2

Errors for PROCEDURE U2.P2:

L/COL ERROR
----- -------------------------------------------
1/26  PL/SQL: Statement ignored
1/26  PLS-201: identifier U1.P1 must be declared

However, If i run it in an anonymous block, it works

declare
  procedure p2 is 
  begin 
    u1.p1; 
  end; 
begin
  p2; 
end; 
/

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

But this only works when my role is active. If my role is no longer active, then it obviously fails.

set role none;

declare 
  procedure p2 is 
  begin 
    u1.p1; 
  end; 
begin 
  p2; 
end; 
/
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-06550: line 4, column 5:
PLS-00201: identifier 'U1.P1' must be declared
ORA-06550: line 4, column 5:
PL/SQL: Statement ignored

It is all written in the doc,

All roles are disabled in any named PL/SQL block (stored procedure, function, or trigger) that executes with definer’s rights

I knew the behavior but not the reason behind it. Thanks to Bryn for bringing me so much knowledge on plsql.

#OOW14, #DB12c, #BikeB4OOW(!) at 14:45 today, #CON8269: "Doing PL/SQL from SQL: Correctness and Performance" http://t.co/A9BKqrKygv

— Bryn Llewellyn (@BrynLite) September 29, 2014

In the past, most of my customers skipped R1 releases. That is, 8.1.7 -> 9.2 -> 10.2 -> 11.2. SAP does the same. For the very first time SAP plans to go to 12.1.0.2 + some PSU in spring 2015. But only to avoid running out of support and without any fancy feature like Multitenant or in Memory.

#oracle 12.1.0.2 is the last patch set for Release 12.1.

— laurentsch (@laurentsch) October 9, 2014

12.1.0.2, which is not available on AIX yet, will be the last patchset of 12cR1. It is the first and only patchset for that release. It is actually more than a patchset, as it introduced in memory database and JSON in the database.

The next release is expected beginning of 2016 on Linux. 11.2.0.4 patching ends January 2018.

Should I I go to an already aborted release or should I buy extended support for 11.2.0.4 until 2018 ?

Probably I will go both ways, depending on the applications.