Using the Oracle Repository Creation Utility on RDS for Oracle

You can use Amazon RDS to host an RDS for Oracle DB instance that holds the schemas to support your Oracle Fusion Middleware components. Before you can use Fusion Middleware components, create and populate schemas for them in your database. You create and populate the schemas by using the Oracle Repository Creation Utility (RCU).

Supported versions and licensing options for RCU

Amazon RDS supports Oracle Repository Creation Utility (RCU) version 12c only. You can use the RCU in the following configurations:

Before you can use RCU, make sure that you do the following:

Fusion MiddleWare supports repositories on Oracle Database Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition 2. Oracle recommends Enterprise Edition for production installations that require partitioning and installations that require online index rebuild.

Before you create your RDS for Oracle instance, confirm the Oracle database version that you need to support the components that you want to deploy. To find the requirements for the Fusion Middleware components and versions you want to deploy, use the Certification Matrix. For more information, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations in the Oracle documentation.

Amazon RDS supports Oracle database version upgrades as needed. For more information, see Upgrading a DB instance engine version.

Requirements and limitations for RCU

To use RCU, you need an Amazon VPC. Your Amazon RDS DB instance must be available only to your Fusion Middleware components, and not to the public Internet. Thus, host your Amazon RDS DB instance in a private subnet, which provides greater security. You also need an RDS for Oracle DB instance. For more information, see Creating and connecting to an Oracle DB instance.

You can store the schemas for any Fusion Middleware components in your Amazon RDS DB instance. The following schemas have been verified to install correctly:

Guidelines for using RCU

The following are some recommendations for working with your DB instance in this scenario:

Running RCU

To create and populate the schemas to support your Fusion Middleware components, use the Oracle Repository Creation Utility (RCU). You can run RCU in different ways.

Running RCU using the command line in one step

If you don't need to edit any of your schemas before populating them, you can run RCU in a single step. Otherwise, see the following section for running RCU in multiple steps.

You can run the RCU in silent mode by using the command-line parameter -silent. When you run RCU in silent mode, you can avoid typing passwords on the command line by creating a text file containing the passwords. Create a text file with the password for dbUser on the first line, and the password for each component on subsequent lines. You specify the name of the password file as the last parameter to the RCU command.

export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.1.0/fmw
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_65
${ORACLE_HOME}/oracle_common/bin/rcu \
-silent \
-createRepository \
-connectString ${dbhost}:${dbport}:${dbname} \
-dbUser ${dbuser} \
-dbRole Normal \
-honorOMF \
-schemaPrefix ${SCHEMA_PREFIX} \
-component MDS \
-component STB \
-component OPSS \
-component IAU \
-component IAU_APPEND \
-component IAU_VIEWER \
-component UCSUMS \
-component WLS \
-component SOAINFRA \
-f < /tmp/passwordfile.txt

For more information, see Running Repository Creation Utility from the command line in the Oracle documentation.

Running RCU using the command line in multiple steps

To manually edit your schema scripts, run RCU in multiple steps:

To run RCU in silent mode, specify the command-line parameter -silent. When you run RCU in silent mode, you can avoid typing passwords on the command line by creating a text file containing the passwords. Create a text file with the password for dbUser on the first line, and the password for each component on subsequent lines. Specify the name of the password file as the last parameter to the RCU command.

export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.1.0/fmw
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_65
${ORACLE_HOME}/oracle_common/bin/rcu \
-silent \
-generateScript \
-connectString ${dbhost}:${dbport}:${dbname} \
-dbUser ${dbuser} \
-dbRole Normal \
-honorOMF \
[-encryptTablespace true] \
-schemaPrefix ${SCHEMA_PREFIX} \
-component MDS \
-component STB \
-component OPSS \
-component IAU \
-component IAU_APPEND \
-component IAU_VIEWER \
-component UCSUMS \
-component WLS \
-component SOAINFRA \
-scriptLocation /tmp/rcuscripts \
-f < /tmp/passwordfile.txt

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_65
${ORACLE_HOME}/oracle_common/bin/rcu \
-silent \
-dataLoad \
-connectString ${dbhost}:${dbport}:${dbname} \
-dbUser ${dbuser} \
-dbRole Normal \
-honorOMF \
-schemaPrefix ${SCHEMA_PREFIX} \
-component MDS \
-component STB \
-component OPSS \
-component IAU \
-component IAU_APPEND \
-component IAU_VIEWER \
-component UCSUMS \
-component WLS \
-component SOAINFRA \
-f < /tmp/passwordfile.txt

For more information, see Running Repository Creation Utility from the command line in the Oracle documentation.

Running RCU in interactive mode

To use the RCU graphical user interface, run RCU in interactive mode. Include the -interactive parameter and omit the -silent parameter. For more information, see Understanding Repository Creation Utility screens in the Oracle documentation.

export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.1.0/fmw
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_65
${ORACLE_HOME}/oracle_common/bin/rcu \
-interactive \
-createRepository \
-connectString ${dbhost}:${dbport}:${dbname} \
-dbUser ${dbuser} \
-dbRole Normal

Troubleshooting RCU

Be mindful of the following issues.

Oracle Managed Files (OMF)

Amazon RDS uses OMF data files to simplify storage management. You can customize tablespace attributes, such as size and extent management. However, if you specify a data file name when you run RCU, the tablespace code fails with ORA-20900. You can use RCU with OMF in the following ways:

Object privileges

Because Amazon RDS is a managed service, you don't have full SYSDBA access to your RDS for Oracle DB instance. However, RCU 12c supports users with lower privileges. In most cases, the master user privilege is sufficient to create repositories.

The master account can directly grant privileges that it has already been granted WITH GRANT OPTION. In some cases, when you attempt to grant SYS object privileges, the RCU might fail with ORA-01031. You can retry and run the rdsadmin_util.grant_sys_object stored procedure, as shown in the following example:

BEGIN
  rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.grant_sys_object('GV_$SESSION','MY_DBA','SELECT');
END;
/

If you attempt to grant SYS privileges on the object SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY, the operation might fail with ORA-20199: Error in rdsadmin_util.grant_sys_object. You can qualify the table SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ and the view SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY with the schema owner name, which is SYSTEM, and retry the operation. Or, you can create a synonym. Log in as the master user and run the following statements:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY 
  AS SELECT * FROM SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$;
CREATE OR REPLACE PUBLIC SYNONYM SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY FOR SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY;
CREATE OR REPLACE PUBLIC SYNONYM SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ FOR SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY;

Enterprise Scheduler Service

When you use the RCU to drop an Enterprise Scheduler Service repository, the RCU might fail with Error: Component drop check failed.