| Oracle® Content Database Administrator's Guide 10g Release 1 (10.2) Part Number B31268-02 |
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| Oracle® Content Database Administrator's Guide 10g Release 1 (10.2) Part Number B31268-02 |
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View PDF |
This chapter explains key architectural and administration concepts related to Oracle Content DB.
This chapter provides information about the following topics:
Typically, Oracle Content DB system administrators are responsible for the following tasks:
Planning for Oracle Content DB deployment
Installing and configuring Oracle Content DB
Optionally customizing Oracle Content DB by enabling Oracle Records DB, enabling an antivirus solution, the FTP and FTPS servers, retention hardware, BFILE archiving or aging, and other options
Managing the Oracle Content DB domain, node, service, and server
Performing system tuning and troubleshooting
Adding, deleting, and managing Site
Managing custom BPEL workflows
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Note: Oracle Content DB application administrators are responsible for tasks related to a particular Site, such as managing users, quotas, categories, and content. There are a variety of application administration roles, such as the Category Administrator, Configuration Administrator, and Security Administrator. Users with one or more application administration roles should refer to Oracle Content Database Application Administrator's Guide for information about application administration tasks. |
System administrators need to have the following skills:
Basic Oracle Database administration experience. Because the file system is stored in an Oracle database, you need to understand the basics of how to administer the database, including knowledge of Oracle Text.
Knowledge of Internet and intranet protocols. You need to understand how HTTP, WebDAV, and the other networking protocols work.
Oracle Application Server administration experience. You need to understand how to administer the various components of Oracle Application Server, such as Oracle HTTP Server, OracleAS Web Cache, and Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J), using administrative tools such as the Application Server Control, opmnctl, and the Grid Control.
Table 1-1 is a summary of the administrative accounts used by system administrators.
Table 1-1 Administrative Accounts
| Account Name | Purpose | Notes |
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Used to access the Application Server Control and the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Database Control. |
The password is set during OracleAS Infrastructure and Oracle Content DB middle-tier installation. |
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Used to access the Grid Control. |
The password is set during Grid Control installation. |
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Used to administer a single Oracle Identity Management realm. |
This user is the superuser for a single Oracle Identity Management realm and is the bootstrap user for a particular Oracle Content DB Site. For the superuser of the default realm, the password is set during OracleAS Infrastructure installation. For the superuser of any additional realms, the password is set when a realm is created. You can also use this account to access the Oracle Internet Directory Self-Service Console ( |
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Used to administer Oracle Identity Management. |
This user is the superuser for Oracle Identity Management and can manage multiple realms. The password is set during OracleAS Infrastructure installation. |
Several administration tools are provided with Oracle Content DB, including browser-based management tools and command-line tools. Using these administration tools, you can:
Start and stop domains and nodes
Manage service and server objects
Work from the command line
Monitor domain, service, and node performance
The following sections describe the administration tools available to Oracle Content DB administrators.
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control (Application Server Control) provides access to basic Oracle Content DB process management and monitoring functions, such as starting, stopping, monitoring, and dynamically tuning the domain, nodes, services, and servers. See Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide for information about how to access the Application Server Control.
The Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control (Grid Control) is a Web-based tool that provides centralized management for Oracle Application Server middle tiers, OracleAS Infrastructure tiers, and Oracle Database hosts.
Oracle Content DB Administration Mode provides access to application administration functions such as allocating quota and assigning roles. See Oracle Content Database Application Administrator's Guide for more information.
There are several Oracle Identity Management tools you can use to manage users in Oracle Content DB:
The Oracle Internet Directory Self-Service Console is an application that enables administrators to manage users, groups, and realms.
Oracle Directory Manager is a Java-based tool used to manage most functions in Oracle Internet Directory. Use it to configure password policies.
You can also use command-line tools like ldapmodify from the OracleAS Infrastructure tier.
See Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide for information about the Oracle Internet Directory Self-Service Console, Oracle Directory Manager, and the Oracle Internet Directory command-line tools.
You can also use these Oracle Application Server tools:
opmnctl - Manages Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server (OPMN). Used to start and stop Oracle Content DB, OC4J processes, Oracle HTTP Server, and OracleAS Web Cache. Can be accessed from ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/.
emctl - Manages the Application Server Control. Can be accessed from ORACLE_HOME/bin/.
See Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server Administrator's Guide for more information about using the opmnctl tool. See Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide for more information about using the emctl tool.
Some Oracle Content DB system administration tasks are covered in other guides. The following table explains what these tasks are, and where to go for more information.
Table 1-2 System Administration Tasks and Information Not Covered in This Guide
| Task | Where to Go for More Information |
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Oracle Content Database Installation Guide for your platform |
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Oracle Content Database Installation Guide for your platform |
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Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide |
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OracleMetaLink ( |
The following sections describe the underlying technology for Oracle Content DB, and explain how the Oracle Content DB nodes and other processes interact. In addition, information about Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle Content DB Sites is provided.
This section contains the following topics:
Oracle Content DB offers a comprehensive set of Web services that developers can use to build and enhance applications to provide sophisticated content management capabilities.
These Web services provide a large number of API calls for content and records management. The Web services also support the extensive business process automation capabilities provided by Oracle BPEL Process Manager.
Developers can use the Oracle Content DB Web services to:
Build custom applications that leverage Oracle Content DB to manage unstructured data
Script and automate content-based operations
Build custom BPEL-based workflows and use them to drive and respond to Web service invocations
See the developer documentation for more information about the Web services.
A Java API layer provides a uniform interface that encompasses both content management business logic and records management business logic. This layer is the foundation for the Oracle Content DB Web application, protocol servers, and Web services. The Java API layer ensures that all components interfacing to Oracle Content DB do so at an abstraction level that respects the application business logic.
Figure 1-1 Oracle Content DB Application Architecture
An Oracle Content DB domain is a logical grouping of Oracle Content DB node and an Oracle Database instance that contains the Oracle Content DB data. The nodes run on Oracle Application Server. The Oracle Content DB node processes and the database can be physically configured on a single computer or across several, separate computers.
The Oracle Content DB schema is created in the Oracle Content DB database during the configuration process. The schema owns all database objects, including metadata about Oracle Content DB and configuration information.
Figure 1-2 shows the Oracle Content DB domain.
An Oracle Content DB node is the application software that comprises the product, along with the underlying Java Virtual Machine (JVM) required to support the software at run time.
Important concepts to understand about nodes include:
After installation, each Oracle Content DB middle tier includes two nodes by default: one regular node and one HTTP node. (See Figure 1-3.) An additional HTTP node to support the Oracle Records DB application is also included on each middle tier, but this HTTP node and its OC4J instance are disabled by default after installation.
The regular node supports protocol servers, such as FTP, and agents, such as the Garbage Collection Agent.
Each regular node is monitored by OPMN, which automatically restarts the node when it is stopped unexpectedly.
The HTTP nodes support the Oracle Content DB and Oracle Records DB applications, WebDAV, and the Web services using servlets that are configured to work with OC4J.
The OC4J process for each HTTP node is guarded by OPMN, which restarts the OC4J process if it is stopped unexpectedly.
The node manager is a process that is started when the node is started. It is responsible for starting the default services and servers for the node. It also provides an administrative API for the node that lets you find information about node log levels, locale information, available free memory, and the Oracle home for the node.
Figure 1-3 shows the Oracle Content DB nodes.
Each node supports a service that has specific configuration parameters, such as credential managers, connections to the database, and cache sizes. By default, a single service starts on each node, and that service supports all protocol servers and agents for that node.
The server supported by the service can be either protocol servers or agents. The protocol servers listen for requests from clients on a specific port and respond to requests according to the rules of the protocol specification. By default, each protocol server listens on the industry standard well-known port (for example, FTP listens on port 21) and adheres to the specification of the protocol server.
Agents perform operations periodically (time-based) or in response to events generated by other Oracle Content DB servers or processes (event-based). For example, the Content Garbage Collection Agent deletes content no longer associated with any document in Oracle Content DB. It does this based on an activation period parameter specified in the server configuration object.
Although different agents can run on different nodes, each agent must run only on a single node. Exceptions to this rule include:
The Service Warmup Agent and the Statistics Agent must be running on all nodes, both regular and HTTP.
The Event Handler Agent and Oracle Event Handler Agent can run on multiple nodes. See the developer documentation for more information about these agents.
Typically, most of the shipped agents must be run to ensure a stable system. See Appendix E, "Server Configuration Properties" for more information about particular agents.
The Oracle Content DB architecture is flexible: services and servers are not coupled so that you can configure services, protocol servers, and agents across a wide array of hardware. For example, you can run all protocol servers on one node, and run all agents on another node; or, they can all run on the same node.
An initial domain and node configuration is set up for you during Oracle Content DB configuration, but you can change this later. You can configure the protocol servers and other processes at any point using the Application Server Control.
See Appendix D, "Service Configuration Properties" for information about service configuration parameters. See Appendix E, "Server Configuration Properties" for information about server configuration parameters.
Oracle Content DB uses Oracle Internet Directory to store and manage users.
To administer the Oracle Internet Directory associated with Oracle Content DB, use the Oracle Internet Directory Self-Service Console, Oracle Directory Manager, or other associated Oracle Internet Directory tools. See Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide for more information.
After users have been created in Oracle Internet Directory, they are automatically provisioned in Oracle Content DB every 15 minutes by the Oracle Internet Directory Credential Manager Agent.
You can change the default provisioning time period by changing the IFS.SERVER.TIMER.ActivationPeriod parameter of the Oracle Internet Directory Credential Manager Agent. You can choose a time period anywhere from 5 minutes to 24 hours. See "Modifying Server Configurations" for information about changing agent parameters.
Additionally, after a user has been created in Oracle Internet Directory, signing on to Oracle Content DB as that user will immediately provision the user in Oracle Content DB, regardless of the time interval specified for the Agent. This feature, known as on-demand provisioning, can be enabled or disabled through the IFS.DOMAIN.CREDENTIALMANAGER.AutoUserProvisioningEnabled domain property. See "Changing Domain Properties" for more information.
Oracle Content DB and Oracle Records DB share the same provisioning model. After a user has been provisioned in Oracle Content DB, that user will be provisioned in Oracle Records DB, and the reverse. Oracle Records DB also supports on-demand provisioning.
When you delete a user account in Oracle Internet Directory, the user is disabled in Oracle Content DB, and the base user information is removed from Oracle Internet Directory. Once a user account has been deleted, the only way to recover that user account is to restore a backup of Oracle Internet Directory, and then reprovision the user account in Oracle Content DB.
Because all files in Oracle Content DB reside in Libraries, users do not own content. All content belongs to the Library in which it is located. When users are deleted from Oracle Content DB, any data that was uploaded by that user remains in the Oracle Content DB repository.
In some cases, you may want to delete the Personal Library of a deleted user. To do this, you must sign on to Oracle Content DB as a user with the Library Administrator role and switch to Administration Mode. You can then navigate to the appropriate Personal Library and delete it.
In Oracle Content DB, a Site is a discrete organizational entity whose users can collaborate on files and folders. Users in one Site do not have access to the content of users in another Site. Oracle Content DB Sites are based on identity management realms.
During Oracle Content DB installation and configuration, a default Site is created, based on the default realm in Oracle Identity Management. You can create and manage additional Sites using the Application Server Control. See Chapter 11, "Managing Oracle Content DB Sites" for more information.
If you create more than one Site, users who are not members of the default Site must specify the corresponding realm name when they sign on to Oracle Content DB.
Each Oracle Content DB Site has a designated set of application administrators to manage quota, specify Site settings, and perform other tasks. See Oracle Content Database Application Administrator's Guide for more information.
Oracle Records DB shares the Oracle Content DB Site model. Each Records Administrator role is specific to a particular Site, and users of nondefault Sites must specify the realm on which their Site is based when they access Oracle Records DB.
Oracle Content DB uses the capabilities of both the Oracle Database and Oracle Application Server.
This section contains the following topics:
Oracle Content DB uses Oracle Database to store all content and metadata.
All content and metadata about the Oracle Content DB instance is stored in an Oracle database. These objects, including tablespaces, tables, indexes, views, sequences, and procedures owned by the schema, provide the underpinnings of a fully functioning system.
There are additional schemas created to ensure secure connectivity to other systems. These additional schema names are derived from the Oracle Content DB schema name. For example, if the Oracle Content DB schema name is CONTENT, the additional schemas are CONTENT$CM and CONTENT$ID.
User content, such as word processing files, spreadsheets, sound files, and presentations, is stored by Oracle Content DB in the database as large objects (LOBs).
LOBs enable fast access and optimized storage for large bits of content, often binary, stored in the database. Otherwise, all content in the Oracle Content DB schema is stored as standard data types in various tables.
Oracle Text is full-text retrieval technology built into Oracle Database for indexing and searching text and documents. Oracle Text supports mixed languages and character sets in the same index. Oracle Content DB uses the text indexing and retrieval features of Oracle Text.
Oracle Streams Advanced Queueing provides an infrastructure for distributed applications to communicate asynchronously using messages. Oracle Streams Advanced Queueing is built into Oracle Database.
Oracle Content DB uses Oracle Streams Advanced Queueing to integrate with Oracle Workflow and Oracle BPEL Process Manager.
A cluster is a group of computers that work together and behave as a single system. Clustering requires both hardware (interconnect) and software (clusterware) support. In the past, clusters were used in high availability read-only applications, such as data warehouses. Now, clusters are increasingly becoming a lower-cost approach for computing applications that require high availability and scalability.
An Oracle Real Application Cluster consists of two or more computers configured to interact and provide the appearance of a single Oracle database. These Oracle RAC nodes are linked by an interconnect. The interconnect serves as the communication path between each node in the cluster database. Each Oracle Database instance uses the interconnect for the messaging that synchronizes each instance's use of shared resources. Oracle also uses the interconnect to transmit data blocks that are shared by the multiple instances. The data files accessed by all the nodes are the primary type of shared resource.
Oracle RAC requires that all nodes have simultaneous access to the shared disks to give the instances concurrent access to the database. The implementation of the shared disk subsystem is based on your operating system: you can use either a cluster file system, or place the files on raw devices. Cluster file systems simplify the installation and administration of Oracle Real Application Clusters.
When you add or remove Oracle RAC nodes for Oracle Content DB, the Oracle RAC databases are automatically registered in Oracle Internet Directory. Oracle Content DB uses the information stored in Oracle Internet Directory to connect. Although you do not need to specify database connection information on middle tiers, you must restart the Oracle Content DB domain after you add or remove an Oracle RAC node.
For more information about Oracle RAC, see Oracle Database Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide.
Oracle Content DB is designed to integrate with several components from the Oracle Application Server product family, including Oracle Internet Directory, the Application Server Control, and OC4J.
OC4J is a J2EE-compliant application server that supports Java Server Pages (JSP), Java servlets, and many other APIs from the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). Services are deployed to an OC4J instance using XML-based configuration files as standard Web Application Archive(.WAR), Enterprise Application Archive (.EAR), Resource Adapter Archive (.RAR), and Java Archive (.JAR) files. Oracle Content DB uses the Java Servlet and the run-time environment of OC4J to support the HTTP/DAV servlet, application servlet, and Web services.
OC4J is automatically configured for the Oracle Content DB HTTP node and the Oracle Records DB HTTP node as part of the Oracle Content DB configuration process. You can manage OC4J through the Application Server Control.
OPMN manages all the components within an application server instance, including Oracle HTTP Server, OC4J processes, and OracleAS Web Cache. It channels all events from different components to all components interested in receiving them.
OPMN provides the following functionality:
Provides a command-line interface for process control and monitoring for single or multiple Oracle Application Server components and instances.
Provides an integrated way to manage Oracle Application Server components.
Solves interdependency issues between Oracle Application Server components by enabling you to start and stop components in order.
Provides automatic restart of Oracle Application Server processes when they become unresponsive, terminate unexpectedly, or become unreachable as determined by ping and notification operations.
The OPMN server should be started as soon as possible after turning on the computer. OPMN must be running whenever OPMN-managed components are turned on or off.
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Note: On the Microsoft Windows operating system, OPMN is installed as a Windows service(Oracle<OracleHomename>ProcessManager). It starts up automatically when you start or restart your computer. |
You can use the OPMN command-line tool, opmnctl, to manage Oracle Content DB. For complete information about opmnctl syntax and usage, see Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server Administrator's Guide.
Oracle Enterprise Manager is a systems management software application that enables you to manage and monitor Oracle Application Server instances and other Oracle products. You can use the following Oracle Enterprise Manager Web-based interfaces:
Use the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control (Application Server Control) to manage Oracle Content DB middle-tier hosts and OracleAS Infrastructure hosts.
Use the Application Server Control to operate and monitor system processes associated with the Oracle Content DB domain and nodes.
Use the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control (Grid Control) for centralized management of Oracle Application Server middle tiers, OracleAS Infrastructure tiers, and Oracle Database hosts.
If you want to use the centralized management capabilities of the Grid Control, you must install and configure the Grid Control. You must also install a separate Management Agent on each Oracle Content DB middle-tier computer in its own Oracle home. For more information, refer to Oracle Enterprise Manager Concepts.
You can access the Application Server Control using a Web browser from anywhere on the network. The first page you see is the Oracle Application Server Farm Home page, which lets you view the application server instances in your Oracle Content DB deployment. From this page, you can access the Application Server Home page, which shows the Oracle Application Server components configured for the current middle tier.
Use the Grid Control for access to Oracle Content DB metrics, such as document statistics, node statistics, and users, including access to historical metric data. The Grid Control is also used for monitoring system health through alerts that have been defined for some metrics.
Oracle Internet Directory is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) v.3-compliant directory service implementation. Oracle Internet Directory provides user authentication and other directory service features, such as user provisioning, to Oracle Content DB. See Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide for more information.
Oracle BPEL Process Manager provides a framework to design, deploy, monitor, and administer processes based on BPEL standards. You can define custom BPEL workflows in Oracle BPEL Process Manager, and then register them for use in Oracle Content DB. Custom workflows are only available to the default Site in Oracle Content DB; additional Sites cannot use the custom workflows. See Chapter 6, "Using Custom BPEL Workflows in Oracle Content DB" for detailed information.
The Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) is an XML-based language for enabling task-sharing across multiple enterprises using a combination of Web services. BPEL is based on the XML schema, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Web Services Description Language (WSDL). Using BPEL, you design a business process that integrates a series of discrete services into an end-to-end process flow. For more information about BPEL and Oracle BPEL Process Manager, see Oracle BPEL Process Manager Developer's Guide.
Oracle Workflow is business-process automation software. You can use Oracle Workflow to automate the process of routing and approving information, according to business rules you specify. Oracle Content DB integrates with Oracle Workflow to support the default workflow processes shipped with Oracle Content DB.
You can view workflow notifications by accessing the Oracle Content DB Reports feature, or you can configure Oracle Workflow to send e-mail notifications. See Chapter 6, "Using Custom BPEL Workflows in Oracle Content DB" for more information.
