Troubleshooting Oracle Portal SSO OHS Webcache OAS

Oracle Portal is part of Oracle Application Server which is part of Oracle Fusion Middle-ware product. In today’s post I am going to cover how to troubleshoot Oracle Portal Issues including Web Cache, Oracle HTTP Server or OC4J_Portal.

 To know more about Oracle Application Server (OAS) visit 

  • Installing Oracle Application Server 10g OAS
  • Start/Stop 10g Oracle Application Server OAS
      
    1. First thing to check for trouble shooting to check if all components for Oracle Portal are up and running
    – Database  (on Infra Tier)
    – Database listener (on Infra Tier)
    – OID (Component OID on Infra tier)
    – SSO (HTTP_Server & OC4J_Security on Infra Tier)
    – Portal (HTTP_Server, Web-Cache and OC4J_Portal on Middle Tier)

    * HTTP_Server on middle tier is different from HTTP_Server on Infra tier (later is used for Single Sign-On)

    Once you are sure that all services are up & running now follow below procedure

    2. Check Web Cache – When User type URL for Oracle Portal which is of format http://hostname.domainname:port/pls/portal request first hits web-cache($ORACLE_HOME/webcache) on middle tier. So check if request is hitting till web-cache by checking $ORACLE_HOME/webcache/access_log   , access_log will record any request coming to web cache.   

    For any issues on Web Cache check $ORACLE_HOME/webcache/event_log . If you don’t see request in access_log in under $OH/webcache/logs directory, check firewall or load balancer configuration (If Load Balancer is configured)

    3. Check OHS – Oracle HTTP Server ->  Web-cache then forward this request to Origin Server which is listening on different port (usually one higher than Web Cache Listen Port). This request is against recorded in access_log but this time access_log of OHS which is under $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs/  so check if you see request coming from web cache to OHS.
      For any issues in OHS check logs at error_log & error_log_pls in above directory.

    4. OHS mod_rewrite -> Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) checks in httpd.conf to see where /pls/portal maps. In httpd.conf there is redirect rule which redirect any /pls/portal to /portal/.. like (RewriteRule (^/pls/portal$) /portal$1 [PT]) so request to HTTP Server (Apache Server) internally changes to /portal..

    5. OHS to OC4J_Portal-> Apache again try to find where /portal maps which is defined in file ($ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf/mod_oc4j.conf ) entry like

        Oc4jMount /portal OC4J_Portal
        Oc4jMount /portal/* OC4J_Portal    which means request will hit be served by OC4J_Portal hence OHS forwards request to OC4J_Portal

    6. OC4J_Portal then goes to database and pulls out various portion of page (header, footer, sidebar – depending on how you user has defined portal page) from database.

    For any issues in OC4J_Portal check logs at $ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/application-deployments/portal/
    OC4J_Portal_default_island_1/application.log
    and
    $ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_Portal/log/
    OC4J_Portal_default_island_1/server.log 

    7. Parallel Page Engine (PPE) component in OC4J then assemble this page and return it back to user.

  • If any page requested by user is protected then Portal will redirect it to Single Sign-On HTTP Server which is another Oracle HTTP Server on Infrastructure Tier.

    Stay tuned for process flow in Oracle Single Sign-On and steps on how to troubleshoot Oracle Single Sign-On Issues …..

    • About the Author Masroof Ahmad

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