Hail ! Microsoft Windows 7 – Official Release

Vast ! Yes , Gospel about good Internet world …. It is on 3rd day after Microsoft announces its official release pack for Windows 7 . Previously I was using Windows 7 build 7100 Ultimate edition . Now 7600 full and final OEM pack come in its way .I am not too familiar about the lingo in Microsoft world like … OEM , Beta , RC , RTM,Final Retail etc .But being a fond of typically testing any new versions of OS as and when come hence googling around if I could get any copy for 7600 build version (AFAIK , this one is full RTM release) ! Strange … So big the Open world ! Couple of pirated versions are flowing around for desktop home users with lots of lingo’s not known .Yes , definitely all those are at torrent , share , direct access vault,warez etc . I am not giving the link due to obvious reason of litigation .Bit confusing at first shot which one to download !!! But need to familiarize with the terminology to strap thorugh correct and latest one….

Caution !  It has been encouraged by Microsoft to purchase a genuine copy rather using a pirated version because pirating is exploiting the softwares and it is an identity theft  . Indeed !

After couple of experiment gather below info which could be helpful for someone and lemme put in gist :

Microsoft official Windows 7  launched on October 22nd , 2009 .

Windows 7 RC ( Release Candidate ) is the current officially available version although a lot of internal builds have leaked after that. Windows 7 RC is still available for download from Microsoft.

RTM stands for Release to Manufacturers. RTM means that the code for Windows will be finalized and partners will receive it and start preparations to launch new PCs. The version of a software product that is given to manufacturers to bundle into future versions of their hardware products. RTM versions are typically released to manufacturers before they are released to the general public so that the manufacturers can work out any bugs the software may encounter with hardware devices. The release of an RTM version does not necessarily mean that the creators have worked out all the problems with the software; there still may be more versions of the product before it is released to the general public.Windows 7 will hit RTM this August 2009 .

OEMs will receive Windows 7 RTM software images beginning approximately 2 days after official RTM release, as a little time is required to release and distribute these images. After that the Multilingual copy of OEM is build .

OEM stands for “original equipment manufacturer” and OEM software is a phrase that refers to software that is sold to computer builders and hardware manufacturers (OEMs) in large quantities, for the purpose of bundling with computer hardware. The third-party software that comes with your digital camera, graphics tablet, printer or scanner is an example of OEM software.The end-user license agreement (EULA) for fully functional OEM software may state that it is not allowed to be sold without the accompanying hardware.

The AIO copy is All in one copy where Windows 7 Home, Professional , Ultimate all editions ISO image will be available .(both pre-compiled for 32bit-x86 and for 64 bit i.e x64 hardware configurations ) .

Latest RTM build is : Windows 7 Ultimate Build 7600.20510 .However couple of RTM come with build 7600.16385 and it could be upgraded tp 20510 after applying the online patch available from Microsoft .Both of these are known to be Ultimate Retail(Final) x86 and x64 version which is actual sold copy from Microsoft .

Windows 7 Ultimate RTM product that is meant to be pre-installed by the OEM on new PCs to be shipped later this year(2009) .

Windows 7 E will ship in Europe without a browser due to EU legalities. A browser will be provided by the PC manufacturer on a CD or DVD or pre-installed by them on the PC.

Windows 7 N is similar to E but it doesn’t include Windows Media Player – again due to EU legalities.

Hardware requirements for Windows 7?
1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

It’s enough info right ? Now lets jump into it and grab the new features ! Thanks to Microsoft ….. and Enjoy your Windows 7 ! Cheers ..

Step by Step Upgrading Oracle 10g to Oracle 11g

Hell ! Yes , my Oracle 10g in Windows XP SP2 is the older one i.e 10.1.0.2 which doesn’t Support the SOA Suite installation . Oracle suggest to upgrade this to 10R2 (10.2.0.4 or higher ) . But bit lethargic about this upgrade as I do have to again download the Patch from Metalink  i.e of  size ~972 MB . Since I have had Oracle 11g installer so best possible option is to throw my Oracle 10g DB and install 11g afresh . But again the pain is to export all Db objects and again import into new DB .What if the new DB failed to import in 11g ? What if there is Unicode/Non-Unicode character set incompatibility occurs ? I know patchset available but I can’t rely on my knowledge about applying those pathset successfully !

After lots of brainstorming the final thought come is that there might be some way to upgrade the DB from already installed 10g to 11g using the available installer rather using the upgrade patchset for 11g. So finally kickoff  11g installation after executing the setup file and follow the onscreen instruction step by step .

Here you goes …

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So I have installed 11g softwares without having any Database . My aim is to upgrade the existing 10g instance as 11g .

1) Copy file : utlu111i.sql to d:\temp (any temporary location) from “D:\Oradb11g\RDBMS\ADMIN” .

2) Connected into Oracle 10g instance while DB is up and running and execute the .sql file from SQL prompt and get the below stat .

3) To resolve the below warning :

WARNING: –> Database is using an old timezone file version.
…. Patch the 10.2.0.1.0 database to timezone file version 4
…. BEFORE upgrading the database. Re-run utlu111i.sql after
…. patching the database to record the new timezone file version.

Execute :

SQL> select * from v$timezone_file;

SQL> SELECT CASE COUNT(DISTINCT(tzname))
WHEN 183 then 1
WHEN 355 then 1
WHEN 347 then 1
WHEN 377 then 2
WHEN 186 then case COUNT(tzname) WHEN 636 then 2 WHEN 626 then 3 ELSE 0 end
WHEN 185 then 3
WHEN 386 then 3
WHEN 387 then case COUNT(tzname) WHEN 1438 then 3 ELSE 0 end
WHEN 391 then case COUNT(tzname) WHEN 1457 then 4 ELSE 0 end
WHEN 392 then case COUNT(tzname) WHEN 1458 then 4 ELSE 0 end
WHEN 188 then case COUNT(tzname) WHEN 637 then 4 ELSE 0 end
WHEN 189 then case COUNT(tzname) WHEN 638 then 4 ELSE 0 end
ELSE 0 end VERSION
FROM v$timezone_names;

If the output of this is < 4 then prior to upgrade we need to apply the Timezone patch .So I need to apply it prior to go ahead . For my Windows 32 bit the patch(5731187) could be found at Metalink.

Download the file : p5731187_10105_WINNT.zip and un-archive to location as : D:\temp\5731187 .

4) Copy the files from location : D:\temp\5731187\files\oracore\zoneinfo and paste it to existing Oracle 10g location “D:\oracle\oracore\zoneinfo” . Make sure to keep backup of existing folder so that you  could revert if any problem occurs .

5) Stop the DB instance and Start . After that execute Step 2&3 again and the warning should be removed and timzone file version should be upgraded. Otherwise assist Oracle Support .

6) To remove below warning execute the below command from sysdba users .

WARNING: –> Database contains stale optimizer statistics.
…. Refer to the 11g Upgrade Guide for instructions to update
…. statistics prior to upgrading the database.
…. Component Schemas with stale statistics:
…. SYS
…. SYSMAN

Gather Dictionary stats:

Connect as sys user and gather statistics
SQL> EXEC DBMS_STATS.GATHER_DICTIONARY_STATS;

SQL> EXEC DBMS_STATS.GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS(’SYS’);

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> EXEC DBMS_STATS.GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS(’SYSMAN’);

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

7) I skip the other warnings .To avoid showing other warnings use Oracle Documentation about Pre-Upgrade Information

Final) Now lets perform the Database upgrade steps using : Database Upgrade Assistant(DBUA) a GUI to upgrade the DB and it can be found under Start -) All Programs -) Oracle 11g Home -) Configuration and Migration Tool and follow through the onscreen steps ….

N.B : You if are interested about the Manual upgradation using the scripts rather using the DBUA you can take the reference of onlineappsdba or Advait Blog .

After running for quite a long time (more than ~1 hr) the upgrade finishes . But alas ! life is no longer easy and another problem crops up .Enterprise Manager console is not getting configured as  there are some problem with 11g TNS service .Apart from this, everything looks fine after post upgradation messages ! 🙂

So lets wash hands and think more . The problem was I supposed to delete the Oracle11g TNS Service for 11g from Windows Registry after Software installation only and before creating the DB using DBUA .That is the reason why the TNS fails and this inturn cause the configuration failure for EMCA . The nuisance created by me and need to solve by me only 😦 . This problem might not crops up in your case ,I suppose .Otherwise follow the below steps to create the TNS . Run the “Net Configuration Assistant” from Program files OracleHome entry of start menu .Otherwise run : D:\Oradb11g\bin\launch.exe .

Create the TNS service is pretty easy there .Add new service with a name and the entry will be added automatically in Windows service list . Check by running : services.msc from Windows Run option .

N.B : Dont try to tweak registry and copy 10g TNS listener or modify it to point to 11g . Its pretty hard believe me until you dont know the impact in Windows Heart … i.e at Registry ! Also don’t try to create service manually by using sc.exe windows utility . Rely on Oracle Native Net Config Assistant all time 🙂

Hence … My Oracle 11g TNS is ready …DB is up and running fine…See below :

Now lets resolve the problem of EMCA.Follow the below command line utilities to drop the Enterprise Manager Repository and reconfigure it .Its pretty simple …again if you know the right way of doing it and finally reconfigure it .

And finally all is done and lets Cheers ! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Oracle XE installation in Windows 7

After installation of OBIEE ,if there is no DB it has no meaning to work only with default Oracle provided samplesales.rpd and the backend XML data.Hence tried to run Oracle 10g DB version in Windows 7 running the 10g installer after changing the mode to Windows XP Service pack 2 compatibility. Alas ! tried couple of times but unfortunately not succeeded . Typical reason behind this might be Windows 7 latest security features and there must be some problem happening with my account “Debashis” though it is having full admin rights. The entire installation works except while cloning the DB it suddenly throws exception that “TNS-Can’t connect-Permission Denied” . Looks strange ! Even for me … I can see the TNS created and DB service created in Windows Services but still hopeless . Tried to google somewhere and suggested tweaks not work for me . (I might be doing something wrong … definitely will reinvent and dig to the issue later some time).

Anyway give up hope to install 10g for the time being (maybe try with 11g some time later) and suddenly come out my mind to install the Oracle smaller DB version which is enough and good compatibility with Windows 7 .

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/xe/htdocs/102xewinsoft.html

Its pretty cool except some of the typical features are missing in this small release of only 157 MB . Table Partitioning is not working in this version . Also iSqlplus , DB Console etc . is missing .Obviously I can’t expect everything in this non-business personal DB version .

So all setup is now in place to work-out with OBIEE with back-end OracleXE database.

However clean out the previous incomplete and erroneous DB installation by running Oracle 10 g De-install wizard and found still some entry in Windows Services and wipe them out straightway from Registry and Windows Environment  variables. This is very handy tweak specially for the service that creating nuisance and clutters your services list . Type Regedit in run window and goto the below path and remove the entry your wish for . (Do it very cautiously after understand the impact ) . Here my concern is ‘Oracle service for 10g’ and I remove that.