Configure WebSphere Portal Express to use Oracle RAC

This section provides information on how to manually transfer data to the Oracle RAC database you have installed and set up. Follow these steps to transfer WebSphere Portal Express, Member Manager, and DB2 Content Manager databases to Oracle.

Before you begin:
Ensure that the following prerequisites are met:

Supported database software is installed.
Databases and users are correctly set up.

Tips:

The steps for transferring data to another supported database section provides instructions for manually transferring data. Instead of performing the following steps, you can use the configuration wizard, which is a graphical user interface, to transfer data to another supported database.
A configuration template might exist to support these instructions. Refer to the wp_profile_root/ConfigEngine/helpers directory for available configuration templates. Use the configuration template to update the wkplc.properties, wkplc_comp.properties, and wkplc_dbtype.properties files, as described in the topic Configuration program, according to the property descriptions and recommended values provided. If you do not want to use a configuration template, follow the steps in this task.
If you are transferring from Oracle, the open_cursors setting should be set to 1500 by default. If you are using Java Content Repository, this value might need to be increased based on the table count in the Java Content Repository schema.

Working with properties files:

The WebSphere Portal Express database can be used to hold information for applications such as Personalization, Feedback and LikeMinds. Use similar naming conventions for property values such as release.DbName, jcr.DbName, feedback.DbName, and likeminds.DbName. For example:
- release.DbName=wpsdb
- jcr.DbName=jcrdb
- feedback.DbName=fdbkdb
- likeminds.DbName=lkmddb
If you are using a remote database, enter the values for the remote server.
Use forward slash (/) instead of backslash (\).
There might be additional database properties other than those listed here. Only change the properties within this task and skip all other properties.
The recommended value listed for each property represents the specific information that is required to configure WebSphere Portal Express to your target database.
Depending on which database domain has to be configured, replace dbdomain with:
- release
- customization
- community
- jcr
- feedback
- likeminds
The values for at least one of the following properties must be unique for the release, customization, community, and jcr domains:
- dbdomain.DbType
- dbdomain.DbName
- dbdomain.DbUrl
- dbdomain.DbSchema
If you use the same values for all four properties across the release, customization, community, and JCR domains, the database-transfer task fails because of ambiguous database object names. If DbUser, DbUrl, and DbPassword are not the same across domains, the value for DataSourceName must differ from the DataSourceName of the other domains. In other words, this value must be unique for the database domain.

The WebSphere Portal Express server must explicitly connect to one RAC node during database transfer. You need to specify the information of one Oracle RAC node as if it is the only database server. For example, the Oracle database URL should look like the following: jdbc:oracle:thin:@PRIMARY_NODE_HOSTNAME:1521:PRIMARY_NODE_INSTANCENAME. When database transfer is completed, the WebSphere Portal Express server will be configured to use this single database server.
Manually specify an RAC datasource URL in the WebSphere Application Server console. The URL should look like the following: jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=PRIMARY_NODE_HOSTNAME)(PORT=1521))(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=SECONDARY_NODE_HOSTNAME)(PORT=1521)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=DATABASE_SERVICENAME))).
When doing a single database, single user, and multi schema database transfer, there can be only one user for each domain (release, community, customization, JCR, Feedback, and LikeMinds), and the schema for each database must be different. The user must be a superuser or DBA and must have authority over all other schemas for the transfer to work.

Steps for transferring data to another supported database

Locate the following files and create a backup copy of each before changing any values:
- wp_profile_root/ConfigEngine/properties/wkplc.properties
- wp_profile_root/ConfigEngine/properties/wkplc_comp.properties
- wp_profile_root/ConfigEngine/properties/wkplc_dbtype.properties
Default values are listed in these files. Unless otherwise noted, all values are of type alphanumeric text string. Print out the steps below for reference before modifying the properties files. Make sure to enter the appropriate values for each instance of each property. In wkplc_comp.properties, most properties are repeated for each domain.
Use a text editor to open the properties file wkplc_comp.properties and modify the values to correspond to your environment.
1. For dbdomain.DbType, type oracle.
2. For dbdomain.DbName, type the name of the WebSphere Portal Express domain database and schema.
  Note: This value is also the database element in the dbdomain.DbUrl property.
3. For dbdomain.DbSchema, type the schema name of the database domain.
  Note: Follow the documentation of the target database management system in order to define a valid schema name as restrictions apply for some database management systems.
4. For dbdomain.DataSourceName, type the name of the data source that WebSphere Portal Express uses to communicate with its databases.
5. For dbdomain.DbUrl, type the database URL used to access the WebSphere Portal Express database with JDBC. The value must conform to the JDBC URL syntax specified by the database.
  Note: The database element of this value should match the value of DbName.
  
  Recommended value: { jdbc:oracle:thin:@YourDatabaseServer:1521:wpsdb }
6. For dbdomain.DbUser, type the user ID for the database administrator.
7. For dbdomain.DbPassword, type the password for the database administrator.
8. For dbdomain.DBA.DbUser, type the database administrator user ID for privileged access operations during creation of the database.
9. For dbdomain.DBA.DbPassword, type the database administrator password for privileged access operations during creation of the database.
10. For dbdomain.DbHome, type the root location for the database.
  Note: This value is used to specify the location to create the tablespaces.
Save and close the file.
Update the following properties in the file wkplc_dbtype.properties.
1. For oracle.DbDriver, type the name of the class that SqlProcessor uses to import SQL files.
  Recommended value: oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
2. For oracle.DbLibrary, type the directory and name of the .zip or .jar file that contains the JDBC driver class.
  Recommended value: <Oracle>/jdbc/lib/ojdbc14.jar
3. For oracle.JdbcProviderName, type the name of the JDBC provider that WebSphere Portal Express uses to communicate with its databases.
  Recommended value: wpdbJDBC_oracle
Save and close the file.
Update the following property in the file wkplc.properties.
1. For WasPassword, type the password for the WebSphere Application Server security authentication used in your environment.
Save and close the file.
Open a command prompt and change to the directory wp_profile_root/ConfigEngine.
Enter the following commands to validate configuration properties.
- ConfigEngine.sh validate-database-driver -DTransferDomainList=release,customization,community,jcr,feedback,likeminds
- ConfigEngine.sh validate-database-connection -DTransferDomainList=release,customization,community,jcr,feedback,likeminds
From the same command prompt as the previous steps, change to the directory wp_profile_root/bin.

Stop both WebSphere Application Server and the WebSphere Portal Express server:

Option	Description
WebSphere Application Server	`./stopServer.sh server1 -user admin_userid -password admin_password`
WebSphere Portal Express	`./stopServer.sh WebSphere_Portal -user admin_userid -password admin_password`

Transfer the database:
1. Change to the directory wp_profile_root/ConfigEngine.
2. Enter the following commands:
  ./ConfigEngine.sh database-transfer -DTransferDomainList=release,customization,community,jcr,feedback,likeminds
3. After running this task, a message is added to the log files to verify that this task was successful. Check the log files. If the configuration fails, verify the values in the wkplc.properties, wkplc_comp.properties, and wkplc_dbtype.properties files and then repeat this step.
After transferring the database tables, execute the dbms_stats.gather_schema_stats command to avoid slow database response. Example:
```
SQL> execute dbms_stats.gather_schema_stats(ownname=> 'icmadmin', cascade=> TRUE);
```
Specify the JDBC URL to connect to the cluster:
1. Login to the WebSphere Application Server Administrator Console
2. Navigate to Resources > JDBC Providers
3. If there is a value in the Node field, remove it and click Apply.
4. For each Oracle JDBC provider, repeat the following steps:
  1. Click the provider name.
  2. Select Data Sources.
  3. Click the name of the data source.
  4. Under the Oracle data source properties, modify the URL attribute according to Oracle RAC configuration: jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=PRIMARY_NODE_HOSTNAME)(PORT=1521))(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=SECONDARY_NODE_HOSTNAME)(PORT=1521)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=DATABASE_SERVICENAME)))
  5. Save your changes
Change to the directory wp_profile_root/bin.
Enter the following command to start the WebSphere Portal Express server: startServer WebSphere_Portal -profileName profile_root