Now APEX 4.0.1 is GA and most of the people would like to upgrade. It’s very simple.

1. Download APEX from OTN

2. Unzip it making sure you don’t change the name of the apex folder inside the zip.

3. Connect to your XE installation

4. Run the installation script

5. Wait 10-15 minutes then connect again as sysdba and import images

!do not put the “apex” folder in the path there

That’s it, no more unlock account, set password, set port, you already did this on the previous installation.

Enjoy!

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Installation of 10g Express Edition should not take more than 10 minutes and the steps are below:

1. Prepare the swap space
If you have less than 1GB memory run the following commands to create swap space:

2. Add new Aptitude source and get the GPG key for Oracle
2.1. First modify /etc/apt/sources.list file:

2.2. Append following line:

2.3. Save and close the file. Next import GPG key:

2.4. Update package database:

3. Install Oracle 10g XE:

4. Post-install configuration
4.1. You must configure Oracle TCP/IP port and other parameters. Simply type the following command:

4.2. Add environment variables in .profile

Add the following lines:

Good luck,
Andrei

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A bit of background information: SQL Developer is connecting to SQL Server through JTDS opensource driver. The driver said that it cannot support named instances. On the other hand, in the connection string, there is a syntax for named instance, like “instance=your_instance“.

What you’ll have to do to connect to a named instance is not putting the instance name in the server name, like ADANEASA-RO/SQLEXPRESS, but concatenate everything in the port field.
Your port should be like [PORT]/[DB_NAME];INSTANCE=[INSTANCE_NAME]

Good luck!

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So what are the disadvantages of using 10g XE database? :

• it’s not supported by Oracle support
• it is working on just one processor core, no matter how many you have
• it will not use more than 1 GB of RAM, no matter how much RAM you have
• you cannot store more than 4 GB of user data, hard-coded limitation
• you’ll not find patches for it
• not yet a 11g version

Of course there are lots of advantages:

• very lightweight installation kit (~150 MB vs ~1700 GB for 11gR1)
• very easy installation
• not very intrusive, much less memory used compared to 11gR1
• very recommended for the application development process
• very recommended as a MySQL replacement
• same code as paid versions, just with some hard-coded limitations (see above)

As an example, I am using on my laptop both 10g XE and 11gR1 EE.
If I need to do a quick migration or something simple, I am starting 10g XE.
If I need to prove/test/play with some 11gR1 features, I am using 11gR1.

Good luck!

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According to the last statement of direction, the timeframe for certification/support of 11g on Windows Server 2008 is 1st quarter 2009.

However, probably most of you know the difference between compatible and supported. In the end we’ve got both 10gR2 and 11gR1 successfully installed.

Last but not least I want to share a specific issue that appeared (Metalink note 729744.1): when trying to run DBCA to create the database, it get stucked at 2% and throws a strange ORA-12560 error. This is due to the AD controller installed on the same machine.
You’ll hit this issue when trying to install any OTN-downloaded version (10.2.0.3, 11.1.0.6).

How to overcome this:

1. save the AD settings, uninstall it, install Oracle Database and reinstall AD.
2. install on a non-controller machine
3. (recommended) install the Oracle DB software.
   - If 10gR2 install 10.2.0.4 Patch 14 or patch 7677780 and then use DBCA to create the database
   - If 11gR1 install 11.1.0.7 Patch and then use DBCA to create the database (I didn’t test this version, but should work).

Good luck! … and please share with me your experience

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Of course I will need to take the upgrade exam to 11g and I am pretty sure I will forget some of the things if I am not facing them on a daily basis but it was a very good lecture.
What will be the benefits? Don’t know… a diploma and a certification card for sure, 40% discount on some Oracle press books and maybe knowledge and confidence…

I’m open to share my experience with anybody interested in taking this certification

I’ve been asked many times if there is possible to install Oracle Application Express on Express Edition of 10g database, both of them being free products. The answer is YES, and the procedure is quite simple, as very well indicated on Oracle website

The steps would be:

• Download the latest version from APEX website
• Unzip the archive in a convenient location on your hard-disk
• Start a SQL*Plus from that location( C:\apex\> sqlplus / as sysdba )
• Install apex:
  @apexins SYSAUX SYSAUX TEMP /i/
• Change admin password:
  @apxchpwd
• Set images path (APEX_HOME is the folder where you unziped the archive):
  @APEX_HOME/apex/apxldimg.sql APEX_HOME
• Run the following script where “password” is the admin password set 2 steps before:
  @APEX_HOME/apex/apxxepwd.sql password

Good luck