Oracle^® Internet File System

Release Notes

Release 9.0.2.1.0 for Microsoft Windows NT/2000

May 2002

Part No. A97398-01

Overview

This document is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. Information that is discovered subsequent to publication will be available through regular support channels. You can access the latest information and additions to Release Notes on the Oracle Technology Network at:

http://otn.oracle.com/products/ifs/content.html

This document is specific to Oracle Internet File System Release 9.0.2.1.0 (Oracle 9iFS) for Microsoft Windows NT/2000. It includes information about:

• Changes and New Features

• Certification and System Requirements

• Deprecations and Changes in the Oracle 9iFS Java API

• Configuration Issues

• General Issues

• Oracle Internet Directory Issues

• Oracle Text Issues

• Client-specific Issues

• Documentation Issues

• Known Bugs

Changes and New Features

This release provides several new features, including integration with Oracle9i Application Server, which includes support for Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle9iAS Containers for J2EE (OC4J). This release also supports AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP), enabling Macintosh users to connect to Oracle 9iFS just as they do to an AppleShare file server. See "Integration with Oracle9i Application Server" and "AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP) Support" for details.

Integration with Oracle9i Application Server

Oracle 9iFS is integrated with Oracle9i Application Server and is especially designed to integrate with Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle Enterprise Manager, specifically with the new Oracle Enterprise Manager Web site that enables Web-browser-based monitoring and administration.

Support for Oracle Internet Directory (LDAP Support)

Oracle Internet Directory is Oracle's LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) v.3-compliant directory service implementation. Oracle Internet Directory can provide user authentication and other directory-service features to Oracle9i Application Server components, and to Oracle 9iFS. If you use Oracle Internet Directory with Oracle 9iFS, user management will be a very different process than in previous releases. Both system administrators and Oracle 9iFS may have to take different initial steps before using Oracle 9iFS.

For example, system administrators will need to create an Oracle Internet Directory Credential Manager (OidCredentialManager) if they want the Oracle 9iFS instance to authenticate Oracle 9iFS users. See the Oracle Internet File System Installation and Configuration Guide for information about configuring an Oracle Internet Directory credential manager.

Note that existing Oracle 9iFS user accounts can be migrated to Oracle Internet Directory by using the Migration Tool provided with Oracle 9iFS. See Appendix B of the Oracle Internet File System Installation and Configuration Guide for additional information.

See "Running Oracle Internet Directory Replication Server to Purge Oracle Internet Directory Change Log" for additional information specific to this release of Oracle 9iFS and integration with Oracle Internet Directory.

Support for Oracle9iAS Containers for J2EE (OC4J)

Oracle9i Application Server provides a J2EE-compliant application server with support for JavaServer Pages (JSP), Java Servlet, Enterprise JavaBeans, and many other APIs from the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). Support for these APIs is provided in Oracle9i Application Server by the Oracle9iAS Containers for J2EE (OC4J) component.

OC4J replaces Apache JServ as the Java Servlet and Java Server Page runtime environment for Oracle 9iFS; Oracle 9iFS uses OC4J to support its servlets, specifically, the HTTP/DAV Servlet and the portlet servlet.

After installing and configuring Oracle 9iFS, you must deploy these servlets to OC4J using a command-line utility provided with Oracle 9iFS. See the Oracle Internet File System Installation and Configuration Guide, Chapter 4, for information about deploying Oracle 9iFS servlets to OC4J.

OC4J is also used to support the new Web-based Oracle Enterprise Manager software (sometimes referred to as Enterprise Management Daemon, or EMD). See "Web-based Management" for more information.

Web-based Management

You can now use a browser to connect to all the nodes that comprise the Oracle 9iFS domain, on a host-by-host basis, using the EMD (Enterprise Management Daemon), a new component of Oracle9i Application Server. The software infrastructure that supports Web-based management (specifically, the Oracle9iAS Containers for J2EE (OC4J) component of Oracle9i Application Server) is configured for Oracle 9iFS automatically at the end of the Oracle 9iFS configuration process.

See Oracle9i Application Server Concepts for information about Oracle9iAS Containers for J2EE and the role it plays in Oracle9i Application Server. See the Oracle9i Application Server Administrator's Guide for information about administering, managing, and monitoring Oracle9i Application Server.

AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP) Support

Oracle 9iFS includes an AFP 2.2-compliant AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP) server. MacOS 9.2 and MacOS X clients can use this AFP Server just as if it were an AppleShare server. See the Oracle Internet File System Setup and Administration Guide for additional information about the new AFP protocol server support, including information about configuration parameters.

Long Filenames Truncated in AFP 2.2

Because AFP 2.2 does not support filenames with more than 31 characters, the Oracle 9iFS AFP Server will truncate long filenames. However, the AFP Server generates a unique name by appending a number at the end of the filename, as is standard practice with this protocol.

Certification and System Requirements

Several high priority bugs are fixed in the 9.0.1.3 release of Oracle9i Database Server. You should upgrade to this release of the database as soon as it is available.

Oracle Internet File System Release 9.0.2.1.0 is also certified to use the 9.2.0.1.0 release of Oracle9i Database Server.

Client Certifications

The following client software has been tested and certified for Oracle 9iFS:

Microsoft Windows

• Microsoft Windows Client Operating Systems (for access to an Oracle 9iFS server through Windows Utilities; NTFS; and Web interface):
  • Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation or Server (Service Pack 6 and higher)

  • Microsoft Windows 95, 98, and ME

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Server

• Web Browsers (for FTP, IMAP4, SMTP, HTTP, and the Web interface):
  • Netscape Communicator 4.72 (and higher). Netscape 6.x is not supported in this release.

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 and 5.5, and Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0. Internet Explorer 6.0 is not yet certified.

• Email Clients:
  • Netscape Messenger 4.7.2 and above for IMAP, STMP

  • Outlook Express 5.5 for IMAP, STMP

  • Eudora 4.3 for IMAP, SMTP

  • PINE 4.33 for IMAP, SMTP

• FTP Clients:
  • OnNet FTP 4.0

  • Ipswitch WS_FTP32

• NFS Clients:
  • Hummingbird NFS Maestro 6.0 (Windows 95, 98, NT)

  • Hummingbird NFS Maestro 7.0 (Windows NT/2000)

  • OnNet 7.0 (Windows 2000 only)

Apple Macintosh

• Mac OS 9.0.4, Mac OS 9.1, and Mac OS X.
  • Netscape Communicator 4.73 release and higher (for the Web interface and email). Netscape 6.x is not supported in this release.

  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0.

Commandline Utility Client

• MS Windows NT

• MS Windows 2000

• Sun Solaris 2.6, Solaris 7, Solaris 8

UNIX NFS Client Support

• Sun Solaris 2.6, Solaris 7, Solaris 8

• Red Hat Linux 6.2

Deprecations and Changes in the Oracle 9iFS Java API

As the Oracle 9iFS Java API grows to take advantage of new features and technology, certain classes, attributes, and methods may be deprecated. You should expect these deprecated elements to be deleted in the following major release. This provides you with a full release cycle to modify your applications to use the supported classes, attributes, and methods.

To see what is deprecated in this release, go to the "Deprecated" link in the Javadoc. Each deprecation has a comment indicating the equivalent supported usage. You can also check if your application is using any deprecated classes, fields, or methods by compiling your Java application with the -deprecation flag.

Collections Improvements

In this release, the Oracle 9iFS implementation of java.util.Collections is changed to improve scalability. Notable changes include the following:

• Not all items in a collection are cached.

• Collection was modified from a class to an interface.

The methods of the new Collection interface have the same signatures as the methods of the old Collection class.

New implementation classes.

The following classes implement Collection:

oracle.ifs.common.Collection (interface)
|
+---oracle.ifs.common.CachedCollection (abstract)
| |
| +--- oracle.ifs.common.CachedSelectorCollection
| |
| +--- oracle.ifs.common.CachedResolverCollection
|
+---oracle.ifs.common.UncachedResolverCollection

The declared return values of the get*Collection() methods of LibrarySession and S_LibrarySession are changed to reflect the appropriate Collection subclass.

Changed error codes.

The error codes of the methods in Collection are also modified. If the specified name is invalid, the exception stack thrown by Collection.getItems(String) is as follows:

iFS 9.0.2:
IFS-12200 ("Invalid item name specified")
IFS-12214 ("Unable to get item in collection by name")
IFS-12200 ("Invalid item name specified")

Using Collection classes differently.

For an example of this modification to the error codes in Collections, consider a test of an error code such as this:

if (e.getErrorCode() == 12200)

For this release, it should be changed as follows:

if (e.containsErrorCode(12200))

In general, it is better to use containsErrorCode() if you are expecting a specific error. In this manner, you code is protected if the error code, in a future release, ever changes its position in the exception stack. For more information about these classes, see the Javadoc.

Change in Delimiters for Service Configuration Properties

For better readability, Oracle 9iFS now accepts spaces in service config properties. For example, a property value can have the following value:

IFS.SERVICE.CREDENTIALMANAGER.Oid.Subscribers = DEFAULT SUBSCRIBER

Before this release, spaces were used to separate alternate values of a property. In this release, commas alone function as delimiters. If an existing property uses a space as a delimiter, you will need to change it to a comma.

interMedia Methods

The following methods now return an object, rather than an intrinsic value (int, long, or double). This change was made to support returning NULL if no attribute value was present. If you have used any of these methods in your custom applications, you must now modify your code to accept the correct return value.

interMediaAudio

int getAudioBitsPerSample()

int getAudioNumChannels()

int getAudioSampleRate()

interMediaAudioCDTrack

int getAudioCdTrackFrame()

int getAudioCdTrackLBA()

int getAudioCdTrackMinute()

int getAudioCdTrackSecond()

interMediaImage

int getImageBitsPerPixel()

int getImageCount()

long getImageHeight()

double getImageHorizontalRes()

double getImageVerticalRes()

long getImageWidth()

interMediaSource

long getMediaBitRate()

long getMediaSize()

interMediaVideo

int getVideoDepth()

long getVideoFrameRate()

long getVideoFrameSize()

int getVideoHorizontalRes()

long getVideoSrcHeight()

long getVideoSrcWidth()

int getVideoVerticalRes()

Configuration Issues

Here are some issues to be aware of before you attempt to install and configure Oracle 9iFS.

Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle 9iFS Issues

Before you attempt to install and configure this release of Oracle 9iFS, be sure to upgrade the database instance supporting Oracle Internet Directory to release 9.0.1.3.

IfsDefault.properties Issues

Some additional manual steps are required to enable launching Oracle 9iFS Manager, Dashboard, and Credential Manager Configuration Assistant from the command line (ifsmgr, ifsdashboard, and ifsoidcm) on middle-tier machines. Briefly, if you configure an additional middle-tier node to an existing domain (by choosing the "Reuse existing schema" from the Oracle 9iFS Configuration Assistant) and you are using Oracle Internet Directory for credential management, you must run Credential Manager Configuration Assistant first, on the middle-tiers, before using Oracle 9iFS Manager and Dashboard. Running the Credential Manager Configuration Assistant synchronizes the IfsDefault.properties file with the existing credential managers (OidCredentialManagers) associated with the instance of Oracle 9iFS. Be sure to select the correct schema name when you run the Credential Manager Configuration Assistant.

The Admin-only configuration of Oracle 9iFS requires manual modifications to the IfsDefault.properties file to support the command-line versions of ifsmgr, ifsdashboard, and ifsoidcm. See item 2320292 in the "Configuration Bugs" section for more information; also see the "Administration-only Configuration" instructions in Appendix B of the Oracle Internet File System Installation and Configuration Guide.

Oracle9i Application Server, Unified Messaging Install Type

If you use the Oracle9i Application Server, D. Unified Messaging install type with Oracle 9iFS, you should be aware of possible port conflicts for SMTP and IMAP servers.

Oracle9i Application Server, D. Unified Messaging provides both IMAP and SMTP servers. Oracle 9iFS also provides an IMAP server, and, through integration with Sendmail, provides mail transfer through an SMTP server.

If you want to use both the Oracle 9iFS IMAP and Oracle9iAS Unified Messaging IMAP servers on the same machine, you must change the port number on one of these servers, because by default, both of them use port 143. You can change the Oracle 9iFS IMAP server to a different port number during configuration. You can change the Oracle9iAS Unified Messaging IMAP server port through the Oracle9iAS Unified Messaging Email Server administration tool. Be aware that if you change the port number on either of these IMAP servers, the IMAP client application that you intend to use must be able to be configured for the specific port number you selected. If your IMAP client cannot be configured to this extent, you must install the Oracle9iAS Unified Messaging IMAP server and the Oracle 9iFS IMAP server on two different middle-tier machines, to avoid this port conflict.

By default, both the Sendmail component used by Oracle 9iFS and the Oracle9iAS Unified Messaging SMTP servers use port 25. You cannot modify this port number on the Oracle 9iFS, so you cannot run both Oracle9i Application Server SMTP server and Oracle 9iFS with Sendmail on the same middle-tier machine.

Sendmail for Windows

Please install Sendmail 3.0 for Windows NT or Sendmail 3.0.2 for Windows 2000 before installing and configuring Oracle 9iFS if you wish to use the Oracle 9iFS email components.

General Issues

Here are some general operations and administration issues.

Oracle 9iFS 'analyze.sql' Script Should be Run Frequently

Oracle 9iFS uses Oracle's Cost-Based Optimizer (CBO) to determine the most efficient way to execute SQL statements. For CBO to work properly, the Oracle 9iFS 'analyze.sql' script should be run as part of regular Oracle 9iFS operations, especially after large volume changes to the data, such as after users have loaded a large number of files into Oracle 9iFS.

Run the script during non-busy periods to avoid impeding performance for users.

Oracle strongly recommends that you export schema statistics before running analyze.sql, as follows:

cd %ORACLE_HOME%\9ifs\admin\sql
sqlplus ifssys/<password>
SQL> call dbms_stats.create_stat_table 
    ('ifssys', 'my_stat_backup_table', null);
SQL> call dbms_stats.export_schema_stats
         ('ifssys', 'my_stat_backup_table',
         to_char(sysdate,'DD-MON-YY HH24:MI.SS'),'ifssys');
SQL> @analyze.sql ifssys

Note that the script may take some time to complete, especially when there are a large number of documents in Oracle 9iFS. For more information about the Cost-Based Optimizer, see the Oracle Performance Guide.

If for any reason you need to restore the old statistics, you can do so by executing the following statements:

SQL> select stat_id from my_stat_backup_table;
SQL> call dbms_stats.import_schema_stats 
       ('ifssys', 'my_stat_backup_table', <name of stat id>,'ifssys'); 

Oracle 9iFS User Names Cannot Contain Multi-byte Characters

Although Oracle 9iFS supports multi-byte character sets, it does not effectively support user account names created using multi-byte characters. When you create user accounts for Oracle 9iFS, you should create the names using single-byte characters only. Users whose account names are created with multi-byte characters are unable to access content through many of the Oracle 9iFS protocol servers.

Oracle Internet Directory Issues

See the Oracle Internet Directory Release Notes for complete information on all known issues. This section covers only those issues specific to Oracle 9iFS.

Use Oracle 9iFS-specific Passwords with Certain Protocol Servers

Many protocols, including AFP, CUP, FTP, and IMAP, transmit unencrypted passwords over the network. Other protocols, such as HTTP, also transmit user passwords in the clear (unencrypted, as cleartext) in some configurations.

From a security standpoint, transmitting unencrypted passwords becomes a concern when Oracle 9iFS uses Oracle Internet Directory to manage user passwords because the same password that provides access to Oracle 9iFS also provides access to all other applications using Oracle Internet Directory for authentication.

To address this issue, Oracle Internet Directory supports an alternate, application-specific password for each user. Oracle 9iFS supports this feature of Oracle Internet Directory. The alternate password for Oracle 9iFS is referred to as the "Oracle 9iFS-specific password." Thus, each Oracle 9iFS user can have two passwords: an Oracle Internet Directory common password, and an Oracle 9iFS-specific password.

You can configure Oracle 9iFS to use the Oracle Internet Directory common password or to use the Oracle 9iFS-specific password on a protocol-by-protocol basis. By default, AFP, CUP, FTP, and IMAP use the Oracle 9iFS-specific password; all other protocols use the Oracle Internet Directory common password. Consequently, users cannot access Oracle 9iFS using AFP, CUP, FTP, or IMAP protocols until they have set their Oracle 9iFS-specific password, using either Oracle 9iFS Manager or the Oracle 9iFS Web user interface.

The default configuration may not be appropriate for all Oracle 9iFS deployments. You can change the configuration using the Oracle 9iFS Credential Manager Configuration Assistant. See Appendix B in the Oracle Internet File System Installation and Configuration Guide for additional information.

Using the Oracle Internet Directory User Migration Tool

When the Oracle Internet Directory User Migration Tool migrates users from the Oracle 9iFS Credential Manager to the Oracle Internet Directory Credential Manager, it does not remove the migrated users' information from the Oracle 9iFS Credential Manager. If a migrated user is subsequently deleted and a new user with the same distinguished name is then created using the Oracle 9iFS Credential Manager, the following exception is thrown:

 IFS-10154: Unable to create user (username) 
 IFS-10172: Distinguished name not unique 

To workaround this, the Oracle 9iFS administrator must explicitly delete the Oracle 9iFS Credential Manager information for the deleted user by calling the DYNCredentialManagerDeleteUser method of oracle.ifs.server.S_LibrarySession.

Running Oracle Internet Directory Replication Server to Purge Oracle Internet Directory Change Log

Oracle 9iFS relies on the Provisioning Integration Service provided by the Directory Integration Platform to be notified of user and group changes in Oracle Internet Directory. These changes are stored in the Oracle Internet Directory change log and are appropriately filtered by the Provisioning Integration Service before being delivered as change events to this application. Even if you are not deploying the Oracle Internet Directory server in replication mode, make sure that the directory administrator starts up the replication server in order to periodically purge unnecessary change-log entries.

This can be done by starting the following NT/W2K service:

Oracle<O-H>Internet Directory_<SID>

Without this periodic cleanup, the Oracle Internet Directory change-log can potentially grow to occupy the entire file system, which may cause unavailability of the Oracle Internet Directory service. The need to start the replication server to purge the change-log is only a temporary restriction and will be removed in a future release.

For more information on starting and stopping the replication server, see Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide.

Oracle Text Issues

Here are some issues relevant to Oracle Text and Oracle 9iFS. See the Oracle Internet File System Setup and Administration Guide, Appendix E, for more information about using Oracle Text with Oracle 9iFS.

Monitoring Oracle Text Indexing of Oracle 9iFS Documents

Administrators can see which documents generated errors during Oracle Text indexing by examining the example:
%ORACLE_HOME%\9ifs\admin\sql\ViewContextErrors.sql.

To monitor each document as it is indexed by Oracle Text, use the procedure ctx_output.add_event()prior to synchronizing the Oracle Text index. See the example:
%ORACLE_HOME%\9ifs\admin\sql\SyncContextIndex.sql.

For an example of viewing more information about the documents after Oracle Text indexing, see:
%ORACLE_HOME%\9ifs\admin\sql\ViewDocumentByRowID.sql.

New Search Timeout Parameter

A new service configuration parameter has been introduced that indicates the default timeout period for any executing search that has not yet returned results. In the default service configurations, this parameter (IFS.SERVICE.SESSION.DefaultSearchTimeoutPeriod) has the value of 60 seconds.

Change the IFS.SERVICE.SESSION.DefaultSearchTimeoutPeriod parameter to select a different default timeout period. See the Oracle Internet File System Setup and Administration Guide for more information.

Client-specific Issues

Here are some issues that you should be aware of before using Oracle 9iFS.

Oracle 9iFS FileSync Utility Issues

The FileSync utility is able to detect changes made by you on your local machine and by you or others on Oracle 9iFS and, generally, is able to resolve any conflict in these changes. However, certain types of changes may conflict and cannot currently be resolved by FileSync. In these cases, FileSync only gives you the option to "skip" synchronizing these file changes.

The following types of conflicts are currently not resolvable ("source" means the original file; "target" means the resulting file):

• NEW/DELETE (when target of NEW conflicts with source of DELETE). For example, when a local folder and an Oracle 9iFS folder are in sync, and a user creates a new file in the local folder, but the folder on Oracle 9iFS is deleted. This conflict is not currently resolvable.

• NEW/COPY (when target of NEW conflicts with source or target of COPY).

• NEW/EDIT (when target of NEW conflicts with target of EDIT).

• NEW/MOVE (when target of NEW conflicts with source or target of MOVE).

• MOVE/EDIT (when target of EDIT conflicts with source or target of MOVE).

• MOVE/DELETE (when source of DELETE conflicts with source or target of MOVE).

• MOVE/MOVE (when both source and target of both MOVEs cause possible conflict).

• COPY/COPY (when both source and target of both COPYs cause possible conflict).

• COPY/DELETE (when source of DELETE conflicts with source or target of COPY).

• COPY/EDIT (when target of EDIT conflicts with source or target of COPY).

• COPY/MOVE (when both source and target of COPY and MOVE cause possible conflict).

Web UI Issues

Here are some general Web UI issues.

Uploading via Drag-and-Drop Function in Multi-byte Locales

Due to a bug with Internet Explorer running in multi-byte environments, attempting to upload using the drag-and-drop function works only when the default character set for the Oracle 9iFS server matches the character set of the client machines.

Web Proxies for FTP Drag-and-Drop Function

Users may need to edit their web browser preferences so that they do not use a proxy for FTP. Using a web proxy may cause problems when using the drag-and-drop function in the Web interface to upload files to the server.

Documentation Issues

In Chapter 12, Web Interface Customization, of the Oracle Internet File System Developer Reference, the Servlet should be deployed to OC4J, not JServ. References to JServ should be replaced with references to OC4J.

In Chapter 5 and Chapter 10 of the Oracle Internet File System Setup and Administration Guide, replace references to JServ with OC4J.

Starting and Stopping the Oracle 9iFS Domains and Nodes from the Commandline

You can also start and stop domains and nodes from the Commandline.

Start the Domains and Nodes from the Commandline

On the machine where you want to run the Domain Controller:

1. Launch the Domain Controller using the ifslaunchdc.bat script, located in %ORACLE_HOME%\9ifs\bin. You must be a user with Administrator privileges to run this script.

2. On the machines that you want to run the node, launch the node using the ifslaunchnode.bat script located in %ORACLE_HOME%\9ifs\bin. You must be a user with Administrator privileges to run this script.

3. Start the Domain Controller using the ifsstartdomain.bat script located in %ORACLE_HOME%\9ifs\bin. You should run this as the same user that ran ifslaunchdc.bat.

See Chapter 2, "Administering an Oracle 9iFS Domain" in the Oracle 9iFS Setup and Administration Guide, for more information.

Stop the Oracle 9iFS Domain from the Commandline

Run the ifsstopdomain.bat script located in %ORACLE_HOME%\9ifs\bin. You should run this as the same user who ran ifsstartdomain.bat.

Known Bugs

The following bugs are known to exist in this Oracle 9iFS release. Workarounds are given when appropriate. The known bugs are grouped by process or component:

• Configuration Bugs

• Administration Bugs

• AFP Bugs

• E-mail Bugs

• Generic Oracle 9iFS Bugs

• HTTP Bugs

• Web Interface Bugs

• NTFS Bugs

• Windows Utilities Bugs

• XML Bugs

Configuration Bugs

IFS.SERVICE.JDBC.Schema=<SCHEMANAME>
IFS.SERVICE.JDBC.DatabaseURL=jdbc:oracle:oci8:@
<NETSERVICENAME>

Administration Bugs

AFP Bugs

E-mail Bugs

Generic Oracle 9iFS Bugs

HTTP Bugs

Web Interface Bugs

NTFS Bugs

o:\public\filename.xml
This file is on a network drive with create but 
no modify privileges. Ask the admin of this 
network to change this condition.

OracleIfsd driver failed to start.

If an Oracle iFS installation has just been 
completed then a system restart may be needed 
to complete the installation of the OracleIfsd 
driver.

Windows Utilities Bugs

XML Bugs

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