MySQL's first release was 20 years ago. And now the most popular open source database is used by a huge number of individuals and companies across the globe.

Join us in celebrating 20 years of MySQL.

If you are a MySQL expert, you might want to prove your knowledge through a MySQL certification.

Those who want to improve and prove their MySQL knowledge could take advantage of the Discount Value Packages, getting 20% off the price of a live-virtual class plus a certification.

• MySQL Database Administrator Certification Discount Package - MySQL for Database Administrators training course + Oracle Certified Professional MySQL 5.6 Database Administrator certification exam
  

• MySQL Developer Certification Discount Package  - MySQL for Developers training course + Oracle Certified Professional MySQL 5.6 Developer certification exam
  

Oracle's certifications are a recognized proof of your knowledge and the MySQL certifications are at expert level. Therefore, to pass one of these certification exams, you must do significant preparation.

The MySQL certifications have been created by MySQL engineers and technical consultants with 10 or more years of experience working with MySQL users. So by taking an Oracle MySQL certification, you are measuring yourself against a serious bank of MySQL knowledge.

Here are some steps when preparing to take a MySQL certification:

1. Go to the web page for the certification you are preparing for: Oracle Certified Professional MySQL 5.6 Database Administrator or Oracle Certified Professional MySQL 5.6 Developer.
2. Click on the Exam Topics tab to see what subjects will be covered in the exam and do a self-assessment to determine your knowledge gaps. These are the areas you need to concentrate on during your preparation.
3. Click on the Exam Preparation tab. You will see the recommended training and additional resources such as the MySQL Reference Manual.
   
4. In addition to the Recommended Training course(s), your exam preparation plan must include significant hands-on practice or on-the-job experience performing the tasks described on the Exam Topics tab. Oracle University courses may not cover all exam topics and an integrated exam preparation approach is recommended.

For full information on the authentic MySQL Curriculum, go to http://education.oracle.com/mysql.

A while ago I came into touch with ThreadLogic. Most of the people whom I was talking about it, did not know the tool. This unfamiliarity with ThreadLogic made me decide to write this blog. I think that every WebLogic Administrator should know ThreadLogic and that it is also a very interesting tool for Fusion Middleware Developers.

But let me start at the beginning. A while ago Michael Sahadat, a SOA/Integration Architect at Oracle, came over to help me solve a performance issue. He was using ThreadLogic and explained me how it helped us at the end to detect the performance bottleneck. But that I will explain later on. First I will tell about ThreadLogic.

What is ThreadLogic?

ThreadLogic is a Thread Dump Analysis tool. Thread Dump Analysis is a key tool for performance tuning and troubleshooting of Java based applications.

Most TDA tools dont mention the type of activity within a thread, should it be treated as normal or deserving a closer look? Can a pattern or anti-pattern be applied against them? Any possible optimizations? Are there any hot spots? Any classification of threads based on their execution cycles? ThreadLogic is created by the Oracle Fusion Middleware Architect Team (A-Team) to address these deficiencies.

Once a thread dump is parsed and threads details are populated, each of the thread is then analyzed against matching advisories and tagged appropriately. The threads are also associated with specific Thread Groups based on functionality or thread group name.

The current version of ThreadLogic is V2.0.217. Since version 2.0.215 it contains support for SOA 12c.

How did ThreadLogic help us?

After creating two threaddumps in WebLogic we loaded them in ThreadLogic. ThreadLogic immediately gave a Warning. Bottleneck among threads.

Opening the dump tree and selecting the Advisory Map show a Map with information about the health of the system under investigation. Each of the advisory has a health level indicating severity of the issue found, pattern, name, keyword and related advice. As you can see in the picture below, our system has a number of FATAL and WARNING issues. Read the complete article here.

WebLogic Partner Community

For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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Microservices. Big deal? No deal? For more than a year the conversation about microservices has been percolating -- and on occasion boiling over. This new series of OTN ArchBeat Podcast programs jumps into that conversation with a panel of community members who have skin in game, and well-reasoned opinions on the potential impact microservices will have on enterprise IT.

Listen to the podcast here.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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At some point in the past I followed directions in "Oracle Database Client Installation Guide for Apple Mac OS X (Intel)" so that I could use sqlplus on my MacBook. Following the directions, I set the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable in my .bashrc.

Today, I noticed this:

$ brew doctor
Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry and just ignore them. Thanks!

Warning: Setting DYLD_* vars can break dynamic linking.
Set variables:
    DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: :/Applications/instantclient_11_2

Hmm, what to do? Ignore? Fix? Google?

The top google hit was "Oracle sqlplus and instant client on Mac OS/X without DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH".

Everything is Casey's blog checked out:

$ which sqlplus
/Applications/instantclient_11_2/sqlplus

$ otool -L /Applications/instantclient_11_2/sqlplus
/Applications/instantclient_11_2/sqlplus:
    /ade/b/1891624078/oracle/sqlplus/lib/libsqlplus.dylib (compatibility version 0.0.0, current version 0.0.0)
    /ade/b/2649109290/oracle/rdbms/lib/libclntsh.dylib.11.1 (compatibility version 0.0.0, current version 0.0.0)
    /ade/b/2649109290/oracle/ldap/lib/libnnz11.dylib (compatibility version 0.0.0, current version 0.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 159.1.0)

When I unset the variable, sqlplus stopped working:

$ unset DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

$ sqlplus
dyld: Library not loaded: /ade/b/1891624078/oracle/sqlplus/lib/libsqlplus.dylib
  Referenced from: /Applications/instantclient_11_2/sqlplus
  Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

SIMPLE SOLUTION: I was about to follow Casey's instructions when a simpler solution popped into my mind. I removed the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable from my ~/.bashrc and replaced it with an alias:

alias sqlplus="DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/Applications/instantclient_11_2 sqlplus"

After killing the OS X Terminal and restarting, and verifying that the environment variable was gone and alias present, both "brew doctor" and "sqlplus" were happy.

DISCLAIMER: My alias only addresses sqlplus usage. If you are using more Instant Client functionality, you may need to use Casey's solution or bluebinary's solution. I can't vouch for either Casey's solution or bluebinary's solution, but both approaches seem reasonable.

Let's integrate javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer in a NetBeans Platform application so that you can, for example, have an interesting TopComponent like the below.

Steps:

1. Copy this class into a NetBeans module.
   
   
2. In your TopComponent, which here is named 'NBMediaPlayerTopComponent':

   public NBMediaPlayerTopComponent() {
   
       initComponents();
   
       setName(Bundle.CTL_NBMediaPlayerTopComponent());
       setToolTipText(Bundle.HINT_NBMediaPlayerTopComponent());
   
       setLayout(new BorderLayout());
       JPanel playerpanel = new JPanel();
       final JFXPanel jFXPanel = new JFXPanel();
       playerpanel.add(jFXPanel);
       add(playerpanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
   
       Platform.setImplicitExit(false);
       Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
           @Override
           public void run() {
               initFxLater(jFXPanel);
           }
       });
   
   }
   
   private static void initFxLater(JFXPanel panel) {
       MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer(new Media(MEDIA_URL));
       mediaPlayer.setAutoPlay(true);
       mediaPlayer.setVolume(20.0);
       panel.setScene(new Scene(new MediaControl(mediaPlayer)));
   }
   

References:

http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/swing/MediaControl.java.htm

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22364461/swing-and-javafx

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15479821/javafx-mediaplayer-volume-trouble-why-the-volume-of-mediaplayer-do-not-chang

https://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-javafx.html

The last time I reported on the status of the mFX project was in July last year.

The biggest problem at that time was that the mouse didn't work on the menus. I ran the project again today and I guess my JDK is different (newer) than what I was using at that time because now that problem is fixed, without any changes in my code, i.e., something has been enhanced on the JavaFX level.

Click to enlarge the image below to see a JavaFX application on top of mFX:

The remaining problem is that the window system is still in Swing. If the tabs could somehow be rewritten to JavaFX (and I have tried several things without success) then the entire application would be stylable via CSS.

Aside from that, it's looking pretty good. Above, you see a CSS-styled label that updates itself, via NetBeans Lookup, based on whatever the user has chosen in the selector window in the top right. There's an editor module, a viewer module, and a domain module, in other words, mFX truly enables you to do modular JavaFX development, using all the techniques provided out of the box by the NetBeans Platform, i.e., modularity, loose coupling, and pluggability.

At our WebLogic Community Workspace (WebLogic Community membership required) we published the Mobile Bootcamp training material from the Community Forum in Budapest.

Oracle Mobile Application Framework (Oracle MAF) is a framework for building on-device mobile application, allowing you to embrace a mobile strategy whilst exploiting your current enterprise skills.  Based around Java, HTML5, JavaScript and CSS, you will be able to quickly build and deploy applications to both iOS and Android mobile platforms.  This workshop will take you step-by-step through the creation of a mobile application using Oracle Mobile Application Framework (MAF), building pages, page flows, building data services, consuming REST services, security and device integration.

For more information please visit the MAF tag here (WebLogic Community membership required)

WebLogic Partner Community

For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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One of the key parts of Oracle Mobile Suite 12c offering is Service Bus product. This is logical choice - Service Bus allows to transform complex SOAP Web Service data into simplified REST format, preferred by mobile client. I think it is essential to use Service Bus, when implementing enterprise mobile applications. It makes sense to learn how Oracle Service Bus works. I would recommend to start from Steven Davelaar excellent tutorial article, available here - Creating a Mobile-Optimized REST API Using Oracle Service Bus – Part 2.
I have created my own ADF BC application with SOAP WS - findEmployees method (filters by first and last name). Here you can download both applications - MobileServiceBusApp_v1.zip. Keep in mind, for some reason Service Bus server doesn't start with JDEV 12c BPM Default Domain, it works only with JDEV 12c SOA Default Domain. Make sure to check, which JDEV you are using, you can check the list features installed: ADF BC SOAP service is implemented to support Master-Detail (Employee - Department Managed by Employee) structure: Read the complete article here.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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IMAdvisor can analyze imported AWR data.

Release of Oracle Database In-Memory Advisor (Oracle Database In-Memory)

In-Memory Advisor identifies analytic workloads by analyzing Active Session History (ASH) and AWR data.

So, I followed this step.

Gathering Database Statistics

awrextr.sql script extracts AWR data for a range of snapshots from the database into a Data Pump export file. After it is created, you can transport this dump file to another database where you can load the extracted data.

I also learned that SQL Developer can create AWR report from imported AWR repository.

Without any AWR import, you don't have multiple databases to select from.

Oracle, users and the development community worldwide are celebrating 20 years of Java. Today, Java serves as the critical backbone of software that touches both our work and personal lives. From innovations in enterprise big data, cloud, social, mobile and the Internet of Things, to connected cars, smartphones and video games, Java continues to help developers push the boundaries in technology innovation.

See here for more information, and here for the Java Timeline since 1991!

Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud是全球首个专门设计的中间件云服务器集成系统。Exalogic旨在为企业提供一个安全、关键任务的私有云基础平台，用以支持几乎无限大的规模、无与伦比的性能和超乎想象的管理简便性。虽然Exalogic 是针对企业Java、Oracle 融合中间件和Oracle融合管理软件的优化产品，但它也是运行当今广泛部署的成千上万第三方和定制Linux 及Solaris 应用的优秀环境。Exalogic 是由硬件和软件组件构成的一个集成系统平台，每个组件都是Oracle 产品组合中的战略技术。那么，Exalogic到底是什么样的呢？今天我们就来看一下Exalogic的硬件架构。

Exalogic硬件是预先装配好的集成系统，并按标准的19英寸42U机架配置交付。每个Exalogic 配置都是一个支持计算密集型工作负载均衡的中间件云服务器容量单元。每个Exalogic 配置都包含多个热插拔计算节点、一个集群式高性能磁盘存储子系统和一个高带宽互连架构，该架构包含了连接配置内各个组件以及外部其他Exalogic 或Exadata 数据库机机架所需的交换机。此外，每个配置还包含多个用于与数据中心服务网络集成的10 Gb 以太网端口和用于与数据中心管理网络集成的千兆位以太网端口。所有Exalogic 配置在各个层次都是完全冗余的，并且其设计消除了单点故障。

Exalogic根据部件配置的多少可分为八分之一配、四分之一配、半配和满配等。下图是一个Exalogic满配（full rack）的全景图。

Exalogic的硬件架构主要由以下几部分组成：

• X86计算节点
• ZFS存储节点
• Infiniband交换机
• Cisco管理网交换机
• 电源

下图就以满配为例简单的表示了一下Exalogic的基本组成部分。

有了以上的简要介绍，相信您已经对Exalogic的硬件架构有了一些初步了解了。下面我们较为详细的介绍下Exalogic的几个主要组成部件。

X86计算节点

每个 Exalogic 计算节点都是一个配有多核x86 Xeon 处理器或SPARC-T3 处理器、冗余电源、快速ECC DIMM 内存和冗余InfiniBand 主机通道适配器的完全独立的计算容量单元。因此，每个计算节点都可以理解成一个独立的物理服务器。下图是一组计算节点的近景图。

每个计算节点还包含两个固态硬盘 (SSD)，它们托管着用于引导节点的操作系统映像，并作为系统在故障管理过程中所生成诊断数据的高性能本地交换空间和存储。

因为多计算节点的存在，在Exalogic上配置高可用性应用变得非常容易。您可以配置应用群集以横跨两个或多个计算节点，在一个节点上出现问题或者需要进行维护时，其他节点仍可为最终用户提供应用服务。

ZFS存储节点

每个Exalogic主机都包含有ZFS存储节点，以供存储用户的应用程序、数据、应用日志以及其它任何对用户有用的数据。每个计算节点都可以很容易的挂载存储节点中的一个分区以支持节点上应用的运行。下图是存储节点的近景图，用红框标明的部分即为存储节点。

Exalogic的存储节点包含两个物理上完全独立的存储机头。每个存储机头都是使用InfiniBand与Exalogic的其他组件相连，并使用完全冗余的active/standby配置以实现存储的高可用性。

Infiniband交换机

Infiniband交换机是Exalogic的一个重要组成部分。Exalogic的所有部件都是通过Infiniband来连接的。Exalogic使用基于四倍速率的InfiniBand构建起Exabus I/O通讯接口以连接Exalogic系统中的所有硬件和软件。如下图所示，所有的部件都是通过Exabus连接起来并实现通讯的。

InfiniBand对中间件云服务器系统很重要。除了在部署的所有硬件设备之间提供极快的高吞吐量互连外，它还提供极大的规模、极高的应用隔离度和灵活性。

Exalogic系统所用的无损切换的InfiniBand I/O 架构将所有系统连接成了一台大型计算机。可以从八分之一机架（Eighth Rack）开始，然后扩展到四分之一机架（Quarter Rack）或者半机架（Half Rack），再到一个大型全机架（Full Rack），此外，还可以将多达八个全机架的Exalogic 硬件（或Exalogic 和Exadata 配置的任何组合）连接在一起构成组合机架（Multi-Rack），且无需任何外部交换机。如需八个以上的Exalogic 或Exadata 硬件机架，Oracle 允许使用若干个高容量数据中心交换机来创建包含数百个机架和数万个处理器的Exalogic 云。

下图以Exalogic的最新版本X5-2为例，展示了Exalogic的扩展过程以及每一阶段的配置参数。

Exalogic系统的横向扩展意味着增大云规模的同时系统性能不会下降。同样重要的是，Exalogic 云是可以动态细分为安全容量单元的资源池。这种能力植根于InfiniBand 自身的设计中，而这也正是InfiniBand的设计初衷。

Cisco管理网交换机

每个Exalogic主机都包含了一个管理网交换机。有了这个交换机，Exalogic的各个主要部件就可以通过它来连接到客户的管理网了。下图是一个交换机的背面图。

这个管理网交换机可以说是Exalogic对客户数据中心管理网的安全接口。有了这个交换机，客户对Exalogic的管理可以和服务网络完全独立开来，可以在完全不影响应用访问的情况下对设备进行管理。这种设计对于服务器的维护是非常方便的。

小结

讲到这里，相信您已经对Exalogic的硬件架构有一定了解了吧。欢迎访问Exalogic中间件服务器中文网站获得更多关于产品与解决方案的资讯。

后续的问题欢迎点击链接参与我们在中文社区的讨论

Oracle为符合认证的白金配置提供一年四次免费的远程补丁升级服务，客户需要：
(1)与Oracle联系进行远程补丁安装的规划
(2)同意所要安装的补丁. 补丁安装所需的时间需在安装前协商好并记录在门户网站上. 可以通过下面的链接查看到认证的白金配置,被升级的程序以及远程补丁安装的范围: Remote Patching Deployment Scope

除了Oracle数据库11.2.0.4，为了确保是认证的白金配置，客户必须在6个月内升级至白金认证配置的最新补丁包版本，并且不能低于最新补丁包版本2个版本，可参看Certified Platinum Configurations；针对 Oracle 数据库11.2.0.4，客户必须在12个月内升级至白金认证配置的最新补丁包版本，并且不能低于最新补丁包版本4个版本。

（1）远程补丁安装不包括Oracle数据库版本升级（如：11.x至12.x）。
（2）远程补丁安装服务不适应于运行 SAP 应用的 Oracle 数据库。
（3）原则上远程补丁安装不包含 Oracle 数据库补丁集的版本升级（如：11.2.0.2至11.2.0.3）。但是，如果客户要求，并且Oracle也同意提供此项服务，那么Oracle数据库补丁集的版本升级服务（如：11.2.0.2至11.2.0.3）将被视为一次独立的远程补丁安装，会占用Oracle每年为客户提供的免费远程服务的次数。

远程补丁安装包括以下服务：
（1）支持行为讨论——每季度一次，Oracle会通过电话与客户的技术联系人之一讨论每季度所有的认证白金补丁安装行为，包括客户技术人员登记的服务请求、状态报告、未完成的行为；并为您的升级方案提供一份评估。
  a.Oracle会在客户的认证白金配置处于在线状态时进行远程补丁安装。补丁会被安装在每个应用、服务器、存储服务器或是存储阵列上。补丁将会以滚动方式每次在一个服务器上进行安装。
  b.Oracle会在客户的认证白金配置处于在线状态时进行远程补丁安装。为了完成补丁安装，认证白金配置可能需要关闭，硬件系统可能需要重启并且认证白金配置需要进行备份。
（2）远程补丁安装——根据补丁，Oracle将通过以下方式之一或是相结合进行补丁安装

    在规划远程补丁安装时，各方需讨论确定Oracle进行远程补丁安装的方式和远程补丁安装的时对认证白金配置的预期影响。文档Remote Patch Instalation详细介绍了执行Oracle 白金服务远程补丁安装期间可能需要完成的一些活动。

Ready, set, mark your calendars for our Oracle FY16 Global Partner Kickoff!

This year's live, virtual event will be hosted by Oracle executives Mark Hurd, John Fowler, Thomas Kurian & Shawn Price, as well as well as A&C executives. These thought leaders will provide our partners an opportunity to better understand Oracle's cloud transformation, as well our updated go-to-market and sales strategies for the upcoming fiscal year.

Save the date for June 23 at 5pm GMT - 6pm CET - 7pm EET, and encourage your partners to register today.

You can also join the conversation with thoughts/questions before the event, as well as live the day-of via Twitter.

Ready, set, mark your calendars for our Oracle FY16 Global Partner Kickoff! This year's live, virtual event will be hosted by Oracle executives Mark Hurd, John Fowler, Thomas Kurian & Shawn Price, as well as well as A&C executives. These thought leaders will provide you an opportunity to better understand Oracle's cloud transformation, as well our updated go-to-market and sales strategies for the upcoming fiscal year. Save the date for June 23 at 9am PDT and register today. You can also join the conversation with thoughts/questions before the event, as well as live the day-of via Twitter.

Today, it’s easier to get specialized in IT Architecture Release 3. Pre-requisites for this specialization have become more flexible with the newest versions of Database (12c), Linux (6), Solaris (11) and Cloud Application Foundation. Take advantage of this updated pre-requisite criteria!

• Financial Services – SAS High Performance Analytics (HPA) customer, Garanti Bank, discusses why they implemented Oracle Big Data Appliance and Exadata Database Machine for SAS HPA –Watch here

Save the date for a LIVE event at Oracle Headquarters with Larry Ellison & Thomas Kurian as they increase momentum for existing cloud platform services, announce new cloud platform services and present the roadmap for future cloud platform services. Registration information coming soon!

• Forza Consulting’s SCANMAN achieves Oracle Validated Integration with Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne –Read more