My first Experience of OSB11gR1PS2 artifact harvesting into OER 11.1.1.4

Oracle Enterprise Repository 11.1.1.4.0 (OER) comes with its instance of harvester tool, which is supposed to be used to harvest assets into OER. To use this tool you will have to unzip the 11.1.1.4.0-OER-Harvester.zip file that comes with the OER installation into a directory ($HARVERSTER_HOME). The 11.1.1.4.0-OER-Harvester.zip file can be found under <Repositoryxxx_Home>\core\tools\solutions directory.  After you have exploded the contents of the zip file in $HARVERSTER_HOME, you can find the directories and files that are used to configure the harvester framework. The files/directories listed below must not be modified.

  - lib/*

  - plugins/*

  - L10N/*

  - *.jar

  - adapters.xml

  - types.properties

This folder also contains the following:

- encrypt.*                [Command line script to encrypt passwords in the HarvesterSettings .xml  document]

- log4fl.properties        [ Describes logging configuration ]

- HarvesterSettings.xml    [ default settings file used by the harvester]

- setenv.*                 [ Command line scripts to set the environment ]

- osb11g-harvest.*         [ Command line scripts to run the harvester ]

- osb11g-harvester-ant.xml [ ANT build file defining the default ANT targets

                               that can be used to harvest ]

- wlst.*                   [ Command line scripts to execute WLST scripts ]

As per Oracle documentation you will need to set  JAVA_HOME and BEA_HOME environment variables on your local environment as a pre-requisite. Then you can harvest using either of the following methods:

·         Command Line harvesting

·         WLST harvesting

·         ANT harvesting

I used the Command Line harvesting which by far is the simplest way to harvest. For that you would need to update the HarverterSetting.xml file under $HARVERSTER_HOME with OER, OSB connectivity information and information about the OSB Project artifacts to be harvested and run the harvest.bat or harvest.sh command. You may also create your own harvester setting file and specify that as an input to the harvest script with –settings argument along with connectivity and project details for the OSB server and OSB project respectively as follows:

[$HARVERSTER_HOME]>harvest.bat -settings <HarvesterSettingsFileName.xml> -remote_url <httpURLofOSBServer>  -remote_username <UserIdToConnectToOSBServer> -remote_password <EncryptedPasswordToConnectToOSB> -remote_server_type OSB -remote_project <OSBProjectNameToHarvest>

Eg:

[$HARVERSTER_HOME]>harvest.bat -settings HarvesterSettings.xml -remote_url http://localhost:6005 -remote_username weblogic -remote_password v2_1.X5z9eOEncryptedOT+UwdA== -remote_server_type OSB -remote_project MyOSBProject

When I ran this command I stumbled across the following exception:

com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.MetadataIntrospectionException: com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.MetadataIntrospectionException: Unable to read plugin file: C:\Brajesh\Projects\11gUpgrade\OER\11.1.1.4.0-OER-Harvester\harvester\.\plugins\bpmn.introspector

        at com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.MetadataManager.init(MetadataManager.java:310)

        at com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.Introspector.<init>(Introspector.java:201)

        at com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.Introspector.main(Introspector.java:428)

Caused by: com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.MetadataIntrospectionException: Unable to read plugin file: C:\Brajesh\Projects\11gUpgrade\OER\11.1.1.4.0-OER-Harvester\harvester\.\plugins\bpmn.introspector

        at com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.impl.DefaultPluginManager.processIntrospector(DefaultPluginManager.java:127)

        at com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.impl.DefaultPluginManager.<init>(DefaultPluginManager.java:73)

        at com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.MetadataManager.init(MetadataManager.java:308)

        ... 2 more

Caused by: com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.MetadataIntrospectionRuntimeException:

Error: Unable to find asset type in OER: c1b66c2b-a0a5-11df-a365-576b3399627c.

Please make sure that the Harvester Solution Pack is installed in OER.

        at com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.MetadataManager.putAssetType(MetadataManager.java:213)

        at com.oracle.oer.sync.framework.impl.DefaultPluginManager.processIntrospector(DefaultPluginManager.java:104)

        ... 4 more

While googling  to find a solution for this exception, you might find posts saying that this could be because the 11.1.1.x.0-OER-Harvester-Solution-Pack was not imported properly. But that was not the case with me.  After some more R&D I came to know that OSB11gR1P2 comes with its own harvester tool and Oracle recommends using that harvester to harvest assets from OSB11gR1 to OER. So I went ahead and used the OSB11g instance of Harvester which could be located under <OSB11g_HOME>/harvester directory. It has got a README.txt file which gives the details of how to use this version of harvester specially tuned for OSB11g (and that’s why the script is also named as osb11g-harvest.bat and osb11g-harvest.sh for Windows and Linux respectively). It is very simple to use this tool. Just browse to the harvester directory under <OSB11g_HOME> and first execute the setEnv.bat.  That will set all the pre-requisite environment variables required for the harvester tool. Then execute the osb11g-harvest.bat as follows:

[$OSB11g_HARVERSTER_HOME]>osb11g-harvest.bat -settings <HarvesterSettingsFileName.xml> -remote_url <httpURLofOSBServer>  -remote_username <UserIdToConnectToOSBServer> -remote_password <EncryptedPasswordToConnectToOSB> -remote_server_type OSB -remote_project <OSBProjectNameToHarvest>

If everything goes fine (which luckily happened for me unexpectedly) you will see the console output starting with:

[WARN ][jrockit] MaxPermSize=128m ignored: Not a valid option for JRockit

MetadataLoggerConfigurator.initUsingProperties(): Could not find resource [log4fl.properties].

MetadataLoggerConfigurator.initUsingDefault(): Using default settings as Log4flproperties file [log4fl.properties] not found...

log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (org.apache.axis.i18n.ProjectResourceBundle).

log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.

14:41:53,578  INFO [Main Thread] MetadataManager.?(?) - Oracle Enterprise_Repository_Harvester version: v11.1.1.2.0-100119_0001-1293556

<Jan 19, 2012 2:41:57 PM IST> <Info> <OSB Offline> <BEA-000000> <Initialing ALSB in offline mode. Install dir: C:\OSB11gR1\ORACLE~2 config dir: C:\Users\BRAJES~1\AppData\Local\Temp\OSB11gConfig>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:41:59 PM IST> <Alert> <OSB Security> <BEA-387042> <There is no user password credential mapper provider configured in your security realm. Oracle Service Bus service account management will be disabled. Configure a user password credential mapper provider if you need OSB service account support.>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:02 PM IST> <Info> <ALSB Kernel> <BEA-397001> <Initializing type definitions for module "Resource SDK".>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:02 PM IST> <Info> <ALSB Kernel> <BEA-397002> <Type definitions for module "Resource SDK" initialized.>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:02 PM IST> <Info> <ALSB Kernel> <BEA-397001> <Initializing type definitions for module "Custom Resource SDK".>

And ending with:

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:04 PM IST> <Info> <ALSB Kernel> <BEA-397004> <Services for module "FLOW Resource" started.>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390020> <Config Service is initializing for the first time>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390021> <Creating out-of-the-box location: Project System>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390021> <Creating out-of-the-box location: Project _static>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390021> <Creating out-of-the-box location: Project default>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390021> <Creating out-of-the-box location: Folder System/JNDI Providers>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390021> <Creating out-of-the-box location: Folder System/Operator Settings>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390021> <Creating out-of-the-box location: Folder System/Proxy Servers>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390021> <Creating out-of-the-box location: Folder System/SMTP Servers>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390021> <Creating out-of-the-box location: Folder System/UDDI>

<Jan 19, 2012 2:42:09 PM IST> <Info> <ConfigFwk> <BEA-390022> <Creating out-of-the-box resource: Operations System/Operator Settings/GlobalOperationalSettings>

14:42:10,528  INFO [Main Thread] OSBReader.?(?) - Remote OSB Config Jar export starting.

14:42:11,632  INFO [Main Thread] OSBReader.?(?) - Remote OSB Config Jar export complete.

14:42:11,904  INFO [Main Thread] OSBReader.?(?) - OSB Config Jar Import / Validation starting.

14:42:13,716  INFO [Main Thread] OSBReader.?(?) - OSB Config Jar Import / Validation complete.

14:47:59,913  INFO [Main Thread] MetadataManager.?(?) - Successfully completed the harvest

Starting OERWriter Shutdown and Clean up...

Now if you login to the OER console, you can see your harvested assets there. If you are using the default HarvesterSetting.xml file, the harvested assets would appear in Unsubmitted state

Happy Harvesting !!

Oracle Enterprise Repository (OER) for SOA Governance

Oracle Enterprise repository (OER) is one of the tools from Oracle for SOA governance. This can be setup to authenticate users against the corporate LDAP to allow access for all authenticated users . In OER all artifacts are regarded as Assets. Once logged into OER, users can do the following:

• Search for existing asset to re-use
• Propose and submit new assets

A simple to use web interface allows users to search assets in OER based on simple and advance criteria. This tool comes with a pre-configured set of Asset Types well suited for governance of different SOA artifacts. The Asset Type defines the object model for different types of SOA artifacts like Service, WSDL, XSD, XQuery, Application etc. New asset types can be added and existing ones can be modified and extended to adapt to the enterprise needs. Asset Type Metadata helps to capture meta data for different assets. For example metadata for a 'Service'  asset type includes information about the service labels, version, transport protocol, interface definition, service end-point, messaging patterns, contacts, documentations, support information, categorizations , security requirements, packaging information, estimated time to re-use etc.  OER also allows to build the relationship between different assets.  Information about the functional and performance test results, user guide, design doc etc. can also be published in OER. Availability of all these information about any asset through an easy to use searchable interface can help maximize asset re-use.  The taxonomy information helps to categorize services based on a pre-ordained classification system based on their alignment with business, technology platforms service types etc. Asset relationship helps to track dependencies and simplifies change management.

Oracle Enterprise Repository makes service life-cycle more evident as new services are added to the repository and promoted to various life-cycle statuses. Support and contact information stored can prove to be handy in case of any operational or development support required for using the asset. OER also helps to track the progress and value of SOA initiatives by providing metrics of services that are being planned, in development and ones already in production. Operational information related to the service consumer, helps to track the re-use of services and calculate savings on SOA investments due to re-use. This is something which any senior management folks would be interested in.

Users can propose and submit new assets into OER. This tool comes with a simple to use and pre-configured workflow that allows to accept or reject, review and approve assets.  The workflow can also be customized. Preconfigured user roles like User, Advanced Submitter, Registrar helps to control the privileges and access rights of the user by assigning a role to them. The Automated harvesting capabilities of OER helps to reduce the time to harvest assets at design time into OER compared to manual submission. However, there are some limitations that needs to be addressed before Harvester can be effectively used for automated harvesting of assets. 

With all these features OER can be effectively used to implement a major part of SOA governance and take an enterprise to its next level of SOA maturity.