Skip to main content
J
JimTVancouverCa1-Visitor
1-Visitor
May 12, 2014
Question

Automated rehosting. Bugs and problems help request.

  • May 12, 2014
  • 25 replies
  • 9376 views

Hello all,


I am attempting to do my first system rehost. I want to use the Windchill Rehosting Utility. I have fully read the guide and made detailed notes and the necessary configuration files. I must have missed something because I am receiving an error when I try to run. The error is:


[DBValidator] 2014-05-12 13:04:32,335 ERROR [main] com.ptc.wc.rehost.validate.DBConnectionValidator - Failed to validate db connection:[DBValidator] java.sql.SQLException: ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

My projects.properties contains:


# Defines the modules for each use scenario. Modules are separated using a comma.

#rename.modules=StartProcessTask:${rehost.script.task1},IERehostTask,StartProcessTask:${rehost.script.task2},DBRehostTask# rename.modules=IERehostTask,ApacheRehostTask,DBRehostTask,OrgRehostTask,StartProcessTask:rehost.script.task1,VaultTaskrehost.modules=StartProcessTask:StartProcessTask:rehost.script.PTCFolderCopy,StartProcessTask:rehost.script.LDAPImport,IERehostTask,ApacheRehostTask,StartProcessTask:rehost.script.ORACLEDBCopy,StartProcessTask:rehost.script.ORACLEDBImport,DBRehostTask,StartProcessTask:rehost.script.WindchillOracleStart,VaultTask,FileServerTask,InstallerRegistryRehostTask

My renamed rehost.properties is attached. Note password lines are all referenced to encrypted passwords set by the setAuth.bat utility as directed in the Windchill Rehosting guide.



For the Oracle database connection I have verified both the PDMLink user account password and the system manager account password, and I have tried both with the setAuth.bat utility and re-ran the rehost.bat utility. Neither of these are successful.



I am working with PTC on this issue, but currently I am in a wait state so thought I'd reach out here for the record.



Has anyone successfully used the automated rehosting utility? If you have did you encounter this '[DBValidator] java.sql.SQLException: ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied' error?



Thanks again!




25 replies

S
SteveVinyard1-Visitor
1-Visitor
May 12, 2014
Hi Jim, your Target and Source Database names are mixed up.

Source = (Original name)
Target = (new name)

You have these reversed I think. Worth a shot
M
22-Sapphire I
MikeLockwood22-Sapphire I
22-Sapphire I
May 12, 2014
We put many hours' effort into attempting to use the (highly advertised) rehosting tool.
Also posted to the world wondering if anyone got it to work - many replied that they were interested if we could get it to work but they had not.

Attempted to do so for an OTB all-on-one-host PDMLink install with just one test product and one test WTPart.
Couldn't get square one.

Tech support advised "doesn't work very well - wait for the next release."

How can this possibly be released to the world?
J
JimTVancouverCa1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
May 13, 2014

Hello Steve,


Thx for the note. I think I have it right. I am going from production (windchill.oceanworks.com) to our test server (owi-ca-vpdmtest.oceanworks.cc). We do have another project coming up where people more skilled than I will rename our aliased production from owi-ca-vpdmapp.oceanworks.cc to windchill.oceanworks.com. But this case is separate.


I'll keep digging and working with PTC and post the eventual answer here for the record.


- Jim

J
JimTVancouverCa1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
May 13, 2014

Hmm, thanks Mike! I'll see if I get the same response. I do see the Release 2 is out for 10.2.

J
jmomber12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
May 13, 2014

For what it's worth, I had the same experience as Mike when PTC first released the tool.At the time itonly supported one rehost scenario, and after that failed, tech support said they really don't use the tool internally - they do it manuallybecause they know how to do it that way so it's easier. That was a year and a half ago at least, so maybe it has changed. However, it caused such issues for us, we haven't tried the tool since.


~Jamie

K
kstevens1-Visitor
1-Visitor
May 13, 2014
I use the rehosting tool once a quarter to keep up with our SAP system refresh schedule. It takes a lot of time and effort to develop a process that will work for you. I have found that running the rehost tool in stages (a few tasks at a time) we get better results. Lately we''ve been able rehost our Production system back to Test/Sandbox in about 4 hours.

Jim...to answer your question, I ran into a similar issue (unable to connect to db) where Tech Support was unable to find a cause. What I ended up doing was renaming the rehost folder and downloading the tool again. Copy your rehost and project property files from the old directory to the new and run setAuth again. It worked for me.
D
DanielReid12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
May 13, 2014
We have a new WC admin here who similarly was successful in using the rehost tool at her last job. Her process also involved running in stages and the total time was about the same. However, though her process mostly worked here, in the end it didn't quite work because it messed up in the Active Directory LDAP connections we have. However, I was able to take some lessons from what she had done and merge that with the manual rehost process (partly scripted) I developed to come up with a new rehost procedure that also works in a few hours (well, about 2 hours after the database and application copy are complete).

I was also told, in troubleshooting the rehost utility, to just avoid it for now. In the end, my current process isn't much more hands-on than the rehost utility anyway, and the time is pretty much the same.

I am happy to share my process, though I suspect it will similarly crash and burn in other environments. Mike Lockwood could perhaps speak to that.
M
22-Sapphire I
MikeLockwood22-Sapphire I
22-Sapphire I
May 13, 2014
Being able to rehost is fundamental to being able to use Windchill. It's got to rank up in the top 3 to 5 processes that you absolutely have to have available and trustable. We now routinely rehost in < 3 hours and with very few manual steps (all home grown though).

Blows my mind that there is not a straight forward, standard procedure and tool to execute rehosting.

I'll buy a lobster dinner with all the trimmings (I'm serious) for any PTC employee who is generally familiar with Windchill but who has not yet ever done a rehost in their life if they can successfully rehost a system using PTC documentation and tools. This goes double for anyone in PTC management.

J
JimTVancouverCa1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
May 13, 2014

Hello all, Hello Kevin,


Thanks for the suggestion Kevin. I tried that, and the setAuth worked better in that it accepted my renamed rehost.properties, and it set the password encryption. But the rehost still fails. Doing some digging here is what I think is happening:


Recall the error is:


validate:[DBValidator] 2014-05-13 11:26:47,934 ERROR [main] com.ptc.wc.rehost.validate.DBConnectionValidator - Failed to validate db connection:[DBValidator] java.sql.SQLException: ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

I think it has something to do with setting up the database user properly.


This may have to be done during import, or maybe it can be done after import. I ran the imp tool last night (I know it's deprecated in favour of impdp, but our backup is via exp and not expdp so I can't use impdp yet. I found this nugget yesterday in Oracle documentation:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e23633/expimp.htm#BABIFFHB ).


When I ran the imp tool I used the following command:


imp system/manager file=pdmlink.dmp FULL=y commit=y


What leads me to this conclusion is that on the target test system I can't login to sqlplus with the username and password that works on the source production system.


If this causes any ideas in anyone, please share it here for the record. I'll post an update based on my current idea of setting the database user name or something like this.


- Jim

R
RandyJones20-Turquoise
20-Turquoise
May 13, 2014
On 05/13/14 12:56, Lockwood, Mike wrote:
>
> Being able to rehost is fundamental to being able to use Windchill. It's got to rank up in the
> top 3 to 5 processes that you absolutely have to have available and trustable. We now routinely
> rehost in < 3 hours and with very few manual steps (all home grown though).
>

Windchill 10.2 M010 CPS05
I have a home grown script in which I can rehost (rehost refresh) in < 10 minutes. This includes our
4 replica sites. Since my Windchill is running on Solaris I am using zfs snapshots, zfs clones, and
zones to accomplish this task.

Rehosting can be actually thought of at 2 types.
- The initial rehost (everything)
- a rehost refresh (ldap, Oracle, and vaults)

The rehost refresh I can do in under 10 minutes. The initial rehost takes anywhere from 1 to 3 hrs
depending on if I have a brand new rehost (new host names and new zones) or I am "reusing" an
original rehosted setup.
>
> Blows my mind that there is not a straight forward, standard procedure and tool to execute rehosting.
>

A generic "doall" rehosting script would be very difficult to come up with. There are a lot of
differences in what is needed at each site. For example:

* Are there replicas?
* Are you giving the target(s) new hostname(s) or using the same hostname(s)
* Are you rehosting to the same architecture?
* What OS's are involved?
o with Windows you are limited in the administrative tools available
o with Windows you are hampered with drive letters as opposed to a true root file system
* Do you have "smart" file systems such as zfs with snapshot/cloning?
* Do you have a Windchill cluster?
* Is Windchill already installed on the target(s)?
* Is Oracle already installed on the target?
* And many many other items...

A set of rehosting "task" scripts that can do some of the tasks such as changing oracle, ldap,
properties, and xml files note controlled by properties however is doable. This is what the current
rehosting ant projects do. These currently do not work for Windchill 10.2 so my homegrown script now
does these.


> I'll buy a lobster dinner with all the trimmings (I'm serious) for any PTC employee who is
> generally familiar with Windchill but who has not yet ever done a rehost in their life if they can
> successfully rehost a system using PTC documentation and tools. This goes double for anyone in
> PTC management.
>

Make sure you clarify that to read "...using PTC documentation and tools *available to customers*."
I would pitch in on that meal if that employee exists.

> *From:*Daniel Reid [
> *Subject:* [solutions] - RE: Automated rehosting. Bugs and problems help request.
>
> I use the rehosting tool once a quarter to keep up with our SAP system refresh schedule. It takes
> a lot of time and effort to develop a process that will work for you. I have found that running
> the rehost tool in stages (a few tasks at a time) we get better results. Lately we''ve been able
> rehost our Production system back to Test/Sandbox in about 4 hours.
>
> Jim...to answer your question, I ran into a similar issue (unable to connect to db) where Tech
> Support was unable to find a cause. What I ended up doing was renaming the rehost folder and
> downloading the tool again. Copy your rehost and project property files from the old directory to
> the new and run setAuth again. It worked for me.
>
> *From:*Jamie Momber [
> *Subject:* [solutions] - RE: Automated rehosting. Bugs and problems help request.
>
> For what it's worth, I had the same experience as Mike when PTC first released the tool. At the
> time it only supported one rehost scenario, and after that failed, tech support said they really
> don't use the tool internally - they do it manually because they know how to do it that way so
> it's easier. That was a year and a half ago at least, so maybe it has changed. However, it caused
> such issues for us, we haven't tried the tool since.
>
> ~Jamie
>
> -----End Original Message-----
>
> -----End Original Message-----
>
> -----End Original Message-----
>
> -----End Original Message-----


--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Randy Jones
Systems Administrator
Great Plains Mfg., Inc.
1525 E North St
PO Box 5060
Salina, KS USA 67401
email: -
Phone: 785-823-3276
Fax: 785-667-2695
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Show more replies
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement