So Confident, but SO WRONG!

Watch NextGenHacker101 explain what the command tracert does.

On Windows, he runs the command:
tracert    google.com

He pronounces the command: “tracer T”, calls the colon a “dot dot”. Incredibly, he concludes that there are (only) 10 people looking at the Google.com website at the moment, and that he can see their IP addresses!

This of course, is not what the command, trace route does.

He is so confident of himself. But so incredibly wrong! It’s another example of the Dunning Kruger Effect.

Do you know anyone like this? How would you evaluate the quality of the systems that they produce?

Installing OBIEE on 64 Bit Redhat Linux 5.5 The Big Picture

Unfortunately, installing OBIEE on 64 bit Redhat Linux 5.5 is neither simple or straightforward. It is a complex multistep process. Usually requiring that you read dozens of documents and webpages, sometimes for one detail alone.

Here is the big picture, or  high level steps on what to do. And some detail, on a few of the gotchas I had.

For more gory details, you can see:

Oracle’s online document:
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E14571_01/doc.1111/e14770/biee.htm

And, the 120 page installation document from Oracle: e10539.pdf
Oracle Fusion Middleware
Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence
11g Release 1 (11.1.1)
E10539-02

And the many other links referenced below.

—

Prerequisites:

A Linux server, with lots of memory, disk space, and CPU power
Redhat Linux 5.5 installed on the server. Install -every- package on the DVD.

—

Steps:

Read the OBIEE certification matrix
Download the appropriate software
Double check that the Linux installation has the required packages
Install the Oracle database software, if it is not installed already
Install Java JDK, 64 bit
Create a database for the repository
Run the Repository Creation Utility (RCU)
Install WebLogic with generic .jar
Install OBIEE as “software only”
Run configuration assistant to configure OBIEE
Write scripts to start and stop OBIEE

—

First, check the OBIEE certification matrix, and compare it to your environment. This can keep you busy for a while. I used: bi-11gr1certmatrix-166168.xls

Building Better Systems Through Better Analysis

From Reqs to Specs.

In my other piece, I wrote how business requirements documents don’t work very well, how they create a trial and error process, and prototypes make it into production.

Much of the reason is that there is no analysis, general design, or detailed design. Nor is anyone in charge of these areas.

Much of my work in development has been doing the analysis and design that were not done in the first place. Here are some of the techniques that I’ve used. And some that have been very useful when others have done them for me.

Why “Business Requirements” Don’t Work

From Reqs to Specs

One aspect of IT Development that I’ve noticed for a very long time is that no one is thinking things through.

The result, is not a solid piece of software, but just a prototype. Unfortunately, these prototypes make it into production too much of the time.

Is it any wonder that so much software does not work? How many days since the last glitch in some website or software that you worked with? I’ll bet not many.

Why does this occur? A lot of it is the way that IT work is divided now. Think of the classic Waterfall Method and the responsibilities for the tasks:

Task	Responsibility
Requirements	User, Business Analyst
Analysis	???
General Design	???
Detailed Design	???
Build	Developer
Maintain	DBA

VMWare Player Versus Virtual Box: One Works, The Other Doesn’t

Trying to get a Virtual Machine to work on 64 bit Redhat 5.5?  You may want to read these reviews of Virtual Box, and VMWare Player first.

Virtual Box:

Over many hours over a number of weeks, I struggled to install Virtual Box on 64 bit Redhat 5.5. Please read about these struggles first. It was version:

rpm -qa | grep -i “virtual”
VirtualBox-4.1-4.1.8_75467_rhel5-1

I’ve also installed the extension pack.
4.1.8 r75467

Interestingly, Virtual Box does not have a simple –version or -v flag!  Unlike the majority of commands and RPMs on Linux.

You can see the struggle I had just to install Virtual Box in another post. Four very fundamental things were documented wrong, or not documented at all! Surprise! Finally I got it installed.

Then I tried to create a Windows XP virtual machine. But Virtual Box just didn’t want to work.

Gmail Suddenly Connects To 30 Ports On My Machine!

One personal machine I have is a 32 bit Windows XP Pro Machine. It still works fine.

With it, I open up Safari. One browser, and one window only. Check gmail. Logout.

Then, I open up a DOS/CMD window and run netstat.

——

netstat -ab

TCP blue:1423 74.125.212.52:http ESTABLISHED 2684
[Safari.exe]

TCP blue:1393 mail.google.com:https TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1394 accounts.l.google.com:https TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1395 yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1396 accounts-cctld.l.google.com:https TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1397 http://www.l.google.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1398 http://www.l.google.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1399 http://www.l.google.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1400 iad04s01-in-f95.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1401 yyz06s05-in-f27.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1402 http://www.l.google.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1403 iad04s01-in-f132.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1404 iad04s01-in-f132.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1405 iad04s01-in-f132.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1406 http://www.l.google.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1407 yyz06s07-in-f13.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1408 yyz06s07-in-f13.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1409 ssl.gstatic.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1410 yyz06s07-in-f31.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1411 yyz06s07-in-f31.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1413 yyz06s07-in-f27.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1414 yyz06s07-in-f27.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1416 a205-200-78-78.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1417 video-stats.l.google.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1418 video-stats.l.google.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1419 yyz06s07-in-f9.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1420 yyz06s07-in-f8.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1421 www3.l.google.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1424 yyz06s07-in-f9.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:1426 yyz06s05-in-f27.1e100.net:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:2869 .:54497 TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:6591 .:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:17987 .:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:23244 .:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:54473 .:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP blue:echo blue:0 LISTENING 1296
[tcpsvcs.exe]

——

Wow! Look at all the network connections. If you count “HTTP”, google created 30 HTTP connections!

What Version of Weblogic Is It?

Ever wonder what version of weblogic is on your server? Here is how to find out.

————-

First, set the environment variables in $DOMAIN_HOME