Oracle RAC Test on VMWare Linux + openfiler SAN/NAS storage

For some of you who don't want to spend much money on SAN storage just for the purpose of testing Oracle RAC feature.
One of the option you can do is install VMWare to set up Linux on it. And you need openfiler to act as SAN storage. for more information on how to do this you can drop in to http://www.oracledba.ca/ there are step by step + image guide for you.

Simple Oracle Auditing

Oracle's RDBMS is a functionally rich product and there are a number of auditing alternatives available to the reader. Because auditing Oracle is such a huge subject, doing all of it justice would take an entire book, so this paper will cover the basics of why, when and how to conduct an audit. It will also use a couple of good example cases to illustrate how useful Oracle audit can be to an organization.....
read more here http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1689

Oracle Introduction

By Sharon White
Oracle Corporation is the number two software company in the world. It was founded in 1986 in USA and now has representatives in about 70 countries all over the world. Its main competitors are Microsoft and IBM. Oracle consists of two businesses: software development and services. Corporation aims to provide its customers with business applications and secure database programs.

This report is prepared with interest of the shareholders as the primary stakeholders in mind. The analysis will try to cover the areas of maximization of the shareholders values.

Investors are mainly interested in liquidity and profitability of a company, what the risk factors are and what key issues the company is facing. How the management plans to handle these issues and what steps they are taking in relation to that. How they use their resources and what is their efficiency in maintaining the resources in the future for their competitive advantage.

On June 9, 2003, Oracle commenced an unsolicited tender offer of approximately $5.1 billion for all the outstanding shares of common stock of PeopleSoft Inc. which is now revised to approximately 7.7 billion. In connection to the tender offer the US dept of justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit.

Strengths- They have sufficient cash on hand including internally available cash and investments, $1.5 billion revolving credit facility or issuance of securities to pay offer price for all shares in offer.

Weaknesses- There are doubts about the sincerity of the bid and some consider it to be a publicity stunt. PeopleSoft’s CEO Craig Conway is an ex-Oracle employee. He believes that the bid is a plan to wreck PeopleSoft’s business.

Opportunities- It can be a biggest step towards expansion by acquiring PeopleSoft with its large customer base and one of the best application software. It will also remove one of their biggest competitors in the application software business and give them a competitive advantage to other application software competitors.

Threats- If they are not successful in the lawsuit, they won’t be able to acquire PeopleSoft and department’s analysis may impact on their acquiring other companies. This lawsuit could result in substantial cost and divert the attention of the management. Even if they are successful, difficulty in integrating with the core company is a main threat.

4.2 Competition

In their core database business Oracle was having a tough competition with IBM and Microsoft which increased much more due to reduced price and improved quality offerings from competitors and decline in database software market. Oracle is planning to expand in the highly competitive market of application software.

Strengths- They have a high customer base of their database and most of the application providers depend on their database area to base their applications on. Huge cash reserves and plans to invest highly in Research & Development to have competitive advantage.

Weaknesses- Their core business of database software is already past its peak and there has been decline in this business. They don’t have much experience in other areas of software business and the market perception is of a database and tools providing company.

Opportunities- With acquisition of PeopleSoft, Oracle will become No. 2 in the application software business and will have a huge customer base.

Threats- Rapid technology changes and changing customer demands and reduced price offerings of the competitors are major threats facing the company.

The article was produced by the member of masterpapers.com. Sharon White is a senior writer and writers consultant at term papers. Get some useful tips for thesis and term paper writing .

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sharon_White

The Oracle Hacker's Handbook: Hacking and Defending

by Kalpesh Sharma

Passion or Madness: Now days, it has become a passion to learn about hacking and information security. Sometimes I do not understand that whether it is a passion or a kind of madness. This passion has resulted due to several news articles, media stories and the excitement showing hacking related thrills in films. But, on the other hand there is a fact also that very few peoples know anything in-depth about the topic of hacking and information security. So, I would suggest that without adequate knowledge please do not get mad behind passion. Sometimes this passion may become dangerous from the legal point of view. There is nothing wrong to gain expertise, but there is need to realize a fact about incorrect issues behind hacking. I will come to this topic in depth, later in the same chapter.

Be Alert and Aware: Do you think that hacking is an expert level work? Do you think that information security and hacking are one and same things? If yes! Then you are absolutely wrong. Many children in the age group of 14-16 years are having sufficient knowledge to hack any website or collect important data facts from the internet. So, internet being the big source of information it's a child game to perform hacking related activities. Many hackers whose aim is to just earn money from you, they give seminars and workshops along with misguide you that, "learn hacking in an ethical way for a brilliant career". But, I am not going to explain in this way, to any of you. Instead, I would like to explain the fact in a positive way with a positive attitude. A teacher's task is to show right path to students and not misguide them for gaining their personal benefits. So I would suggest that instead of going for the knowledge of hacking, gain the knowledge by learning something, which is said to be an expert level job. And this expert level job is known as information security expertise in technical terms. Hope you might have understood the difference between hacking (not expert level job) and information security (expert level job) from this topic. So, be alert from such misguidance.

Other then passion, one more side of coin also exists. Many institutes and independent peoples call themselves hacker and/or information security experts. But the reality behind their expertise and skills gets displayed in front of non-technical peoples and the victims who undergo for training, courses, certifications, seminars and workshop with such types of self-claimed hackers or institutes, when such victims and non-technical peoples realize that they are not satisfied for which they have spent time and money. The actual reality behind fooling is that the peoples who undergo for such seminars, workshops, courses, etc. most probably undergo through a psychology that, "the person or institute from which we will receive knowledge during the training sessions is an expert or is providing quality education as he was published by media agencies or that it's a branded name in market for related subject talent or that he is an author of any book". I believe in practical, official and those tasks or actions for which evidence lies in front of my eyes. Thus, I am trying to explain to everyone that always be alert and aware, so that your hardly earned income does not get spend in such unnecessary waste of time.

I will give you my own example here! I have several articles about me in various newspapers and media agencies, but this doesn't mean that I am showing you the right path or that I am an expert. For example may be possible that I am a hacker, but this does not prove that I am an expert. So, expert level job is a totally different matter. The explanation about difference between hacking and expertise will come in next chapters So, first check out the level of my knowledge, how much practically I am able to prove my expertise, whether I am official & legal while undergoing for such tasks and finally the evidence part that whatever actions I undertake are proved right in front of eyes, instead of just talking theoretically. Always confirm yourself first, that you are learning with right person or institute or just wasting your time and money. May be possible that peoples might be receiving fees from you and in turn give you the knowledge of something(any other subject or topic about information technology field), which is not even single percent part of hacking or information security related topics. This happens most probably with non-technical peoples or fresher in information technology field.

False Publicity: Secondly, confirm that you are at least gaining the knowledge up to a level for which you have paid a particular amount. Don't just go behind false publicities before you confirm yourself and your inner feelings say that you are moving on right path. As concerns to book publishers, media agencies and films, I would like to confirm that none of them might be having full and fledge technical knowledge about information security field as concerns to my knowledge. It's similar to following examples on me:

A person comes and tells me that you are an expert please suggest me some medicines which can eradicate my serious disease of cancer. I am a technical professional and not a biological professional who is going to solve this problem. A person comes and tells me that suggest a good lawyer who can defend my case in court. Now tell me how do I give suggestion as to which lawyer can prove this person innocent in court of law. Thus, I can't do anything or have any knowledge about any field which is not my subject or area of work. Similarly, even media peoples, book publishers and film makers does not have adequate or complete knowledge and they believe the statement to be true which is explained to them by many misguiding self-claimed hackers and/or reputed institutes. So, these peoples are also not responsible for some of these kinds of activities published by them on any medium.

Language Troubling: There is one more part of cheating called use of useless and complicated language in order to misguide students and especially technically sound professionals. This is a very intelligent part of stunt used by many self claimed security peoples to misguide others. Usually when any self claimed hacker or institute doesn't know anything about complicated or expert level topic, and in such situation they want to include expert level topics in their study material without having any expert level knowledge; such peoples use very complicated words of English and prepare the contents in such a manner that it becomes very difficult to understand even for the persons who are fluent in English. A very complicated coding and useless technical terms are used in their study material, so that the victims cannot understand or claim against such self claimed hackers and so called specialized institutes, in a legal way. When any victim (user of such material) goes through such study materials and courses as well as certifications, they become helpless to understand such complicated and misguiding language, filled up of useless and non-understandable technical terms. Now, when they don't understand anything the common psychology of such victims understands that, "it's a part of expert level work and that's why they are unable to understand the matter or that he won't be able to complete this job successfully as he is not talented" and so on. In this way, the victims think themselves responsible for not understanding the expert level work. But they do not know that they have never been taught anything, which can be called an expert level education or job. This is what I am trying to explain you that it is not your fault, instead it is a stunt used by such self claimed hackers and institutes who tries to sell their services and materials by misguiding others with the help of language troubling. So here also there is a need to be aware and alert of any services or material offered by any self claimed hacker and specialized institutions. They just have an intention of earning a huge amount from you and do not have any feelings for the information security field, students or the nation in any way. This is the reason they use difficult word, complicated terms and technical coding in order misguide others so that no one knows about their level of their knowledge.

Finally: Thus, finally the topics should be very clear that

Don't get mad behind passion and be serious about legal activities. Be alert that you are receiving right knowledge for which you have paid. Be aware of what you are undergoing for is the right one for which you have paid and that too join after checking out. Be practical, official and believe only that which happens only in front of your eyes. You should have the guts to demand for evidence. Check the simplification of language used in the study material whether you can go through it and understand it or not, before purchasing any services or materials from self claimed hackers or so called expert level institutes which claims to be specialized in information security area. Try to understand the difference between a truth and a false, correct and incorrect, etc. by going in depth about every fact related to services, products or materials you are offered by any self claimed hacker or so called specialized institutes. Even if this is in my case, first check out with my study material, then get into the depth of my work background and then only purchase any services, products or material offered by me or on behalf of me. Don't get misguided behind media hype or false publicity of any person or institute without checking through it.

Kalpesh M. Sharma 6, Shri Ram Park Society, On Chandola Canal, Near Jawahar Chowk, Maninagar, Ahmedabad-380 008 (Gujarat) Tel. (Res.) +91-79-25351208 Email: shrishanidev@yahoo.co.in Security Site - www.kalpeshsharma.page.tl

Oracle E-Business Suite Customization & Integration: New Directions

by: Riccardo Lanzuolo

ou probably have heard about the new directions of Oracle concern on Java and J2EE Technology. Oracle has announced the commitment with Java and also kept the “traditional development tools” community happy, promising they will continue to invest on them. But at the same time, Oracle recommends to their E-Business customers the following strategies (have a look at the Oracle Statement of Direction at http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/forms/pdf/10g/ToolsSOD.pdf):

• Move from client-server to the Web

• Upgrade to the latest versions

• Interoperate with Java/J2EE

• Develop new modules using JDeveloper

It’s clear that Oracle is aligning everything to Java and also recommending its customers to do just the same. So, it becomes very important to the customers to also adhere to the same technology. This will guarantee its investments at the long run. If you consider that Java Technology is the choice of many IT companies, like IBM, Sun, and Oracle itself, and also that the market is recognizing (maketshare, downloads, highest growth) its benefits, this will be a good movement.

It does not mean you need to change everything to Java: it is just a recommendation that the new modules could be done using Java. Oracle E-Business will run Forms for a long time. Oracle itself has not converted the entire E-Business itself to Java, and this will probably take a long time. Remember, they still have PeopleSoft, JDEdwards, Retek and now Siebel, a recent agreement on acquisition. They will “fuse” all in one architecture call “Fusion”.

Well, if your company has not written any application in Java yet, it is time to start. The next articles will focus on this technology, its principles and, mainly, the strategy the E-Business customers should take.