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Oracle® Real User Experience Insight Release Notes Release 5.1 for Linux x86-64 Part Number E14600-04 |
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# Oracle® Real User Experience Insight

Release Notes

Release 5.1 for Linux x86-64

E14600-04

July 2009

Oracle Real User Experience Insight (RUEI) provides you with powerful analysis of your network and business infrastructure. You can monitor the real-user experience, define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and trigger alert notifications for incidents that violate them.

RUEI is a powerful Web-based utility to report on real-user traffic requested by, and generated from, your network. It measures the response times of pages and transactions at the most critical points in your network infrastructure. Powerful session diagnostics allow Application Managers and IT technical staff to perform root-cause analysis.

This document provides information about the changes introduced to Oracle Real User Experience Insight (RUEI) in release 5.1. Known issues and limitations are also described. It is recommended that you review its contents before installing the product or upgrading to this version of the product.

This document contains the following sections:

- Section 1, "New Features Included In The Release"

- Section 2, "Installation/Upgrade Procedure"

- Section 3, "Known Issues And Limitations"

- Section 4, "Compatibility Issues"

- Section 5, "Bugs Fixed"

- Section 6, "Product Documentation"

- Section 7, "Documentation Accessibility"

## 1 New Features Included In The Release

Oracle Real User Experience Insight Release 5.1 contains a significant number of new features and enhancements. They include the following:

- The Session diagnostics facility has been enhanced by fully integrating it with the replay viewer facility. In this way, in addition to being able to perform root-cause analysis of operational problems, it is also possible to track exactly which error messages visitors to the monitored Web site receive, and when. With this ability to recreate application failures, you can accurately and immediately eliminate annoying and problematic parts of your Web pages.

- The facility for trapping functional errors within applications, Web services, and suites has been enhanced with the possibility to define a set of translations for each unique error string.

- RUEI now supports out-of-the-box monitoring of WebLogic Portal applications. It automatically discovers WebLogic Portal Web applications, and translates network objects to business functions.

- The availability of an accelerator package to support the monitoring of JD Edwards-based applications.

## 2 Installation/Upgrade Procedure

The installation procedure, together with the procedure to upgrade an existing RUEI 4.5.x or 5.0.x installation to version 5.1, is fully described in the Oracle Real User Experience Insight Installation Guide.

Important:

The upgrade of existing accelerator packages (such as for Oracle E-Business Suite, Siebel, and PeopleSoft) to release 5.1 must be performed at the same time as the upgrade of the RUEI system to version 5.1.

Important:

If you are upgrading from 4.5.x or 5.0.x, it is not possible to modify the existing installation path or global installation settings.

Note:

Be aware that any manual changes (made by you or an Oracle consultant) to the settings used by the data collection process will no longer be effective after the upgrade procedure. Therefore, any such changes may result in inconsistencies and/or errors in the upgraded system. It is strongly recommended you do not make any manual changes to these settings.

Note:

After upgrading your system, there may be a temporary fall in the level of reported traffic. This is due to the purging of 4.5.x data from the content cache. This can also occur when making changes to content-related configuration items (such as page content checks, functional errors, and so on). Generally, any temporary decrease in reported data is related to the changed item. For example, changing the page tagging specified for an application may result in a temporary decrease in reported pageviews.

## 3 Known Issues And Limitations

Currently, the following issues are known to exist:

- URL form posted information only available in problem analysis groups

  In 5.0, URL form posted information is reported separately, and is no longer available in the page-URL.full-URL and object.URL.full-URL dimension levels. It is now only reported in the Problem analysis groups (failed pages and URLs, and slow URLs). Note historical data is reported as "unknown".

- Protocol dimension reports "unknown" for historical data

  The Protocol dimension level has been added in 5.0. Historical data is reported as "unknown".

- Long dimension level names are truncated

  All dimension level names are limited to 254 characters. If a name is longer than this, it is automatically truncated. Note truncated data is indicated by ending with an ellipse (…).

- Report and KPI filters containing multibyte characters

  Some report and KPI filters that contain multibyte characters are not convertible to 5.1. It is recommended you review the operation of all filter definitions that contain multibyte characters.

- HTML entities are now decoded

  User ID, client ID, custom dimensions based on the contents of a page which contained HTML entities in 4.5.x will be HTML entity decoded in 5.1. Therefore, it is recommended you review the operation of any filters that contain HTML entities.

- Decoding of special characters in URLs

  Entries in the page-URL.group, page-URL.URL, object-URL.group, and object-URL.URL dimension levels which contain the characters /, ?, ;, %, =, and # are not decoded in 5.1. While the upgrade procedure attempts to convert these entries, the problem remains that the original entry is not known. Therefore, it is recommended you review the operation of any filters that contain these special characters.

- Collectors do not support SSL wildcard certificates

  Currently, although SSL wildcard certificates can be imported into Collector systems (select Configuration, then Security, and then SSL keys), their use is not supported. While you can specify a key for the certificate and, optionally, a key activation password to secure the private key and certificate on the system, the key is not used to decrypt network traffic.

- Non-application traffic not represented in Traffic summary

  Currently, the Traffic summary facility (select System, then Status, and then Data processing) is based on application logic. Therefore, non-application traffic (such as suites, services, and SSOs) are not represented in the processing overviews.

- Mismatches between previewed reports and generated PDFs

  Some characters are not rendered in the generated PDF file as they appear in the preview. This is because the preview facility uses locally installed client fonts, while the PDF generation facility uses the RUEI server installed fonts. The default font will cover must customer requirements. However, there are known issues with Asian and Eastern European bold characters. If necessary, you can install a suitable alternative font to resolve this issue. For further information, see the Oracle Real User Experience Insight Installation Guide.

- Password security

  In release 4.5.1, password security was enhanced to prevent users reusing their last three passwords. After upgrading to release 5.1, information regarding the last three passwords is not available. Therefore, this aspect of password security cannot be enforced until there are three new remembered passwords.

  Currently, any defined password security policies are not applied until user logon. For this reason, it is recommended you carefully review all defined users and password security policies. In addition, you should remove all disabled user accounts prior to upgrade.

- URL reporting

  RUEI attempts to report URLs in a human-readable format. This means the reported URLs, although they appear to be real URLs, cannot always be copied and pasted into the browser address bar. It is not possible to distinguish between the raw format (received by the Web server) and the more readable format (reported by RUEI). As a result, the following characters might receive a different meaning:, (comma), [, ], :, @, !, $, ', (, ), *, and +.

- Deleting suites can lead to reported errors (bug 8418638)

  When suites are deleted via the Reporter interface (select Configuration, then Applications, and then Suites), although the deletion is performed correctly, processing errors can sometimes be reported in the error log. For example:

      2009-04-08 13:22:41 30890   [wg] (rtpage) cop -cbmap=spspsf.map
      condense=spspsf.condense append -d wg_rtpage_ev_today1315 wg_spspsf_dy
      _20090408
      2009-04-08 13:22:41 30890      cannot open mapping file spspsf.map
       (-cbmap)
      2009-04-08 13:22:41 30890      exit(-1) of cop append ....

      2009-04-08 13:22:41 30892   qjob[r=255] cop -cbmap=spspsf.map
      condense=spspsf.condense append -d wg_rtpage_ev_today1315 wg_spspsf_dy
      _20090408

      2009-04-08 13:22:41 30907   [wg] (rtpage) cop -cbmap=spssbl.map
      condense=spssbl.condense append -d wg_rtpage_ev_today1315 wg_spssbl_dy
      _20090408
      2009-04-08 13:22:41 30907      cannot open mapping file spssbl.map
       (-cbmap)
      2009-04-08 13:22:41 30907      exit(-1) of cop append ....

      2009-04-08 13:22:41 30909   qjob[r=255] cop -cbmap=spssbl.map
      condense=spssbl.condense append -d wg_rtpage_ev_today1315 wg_spssbl_dy
      _20090408

  These error messages can safely be ignored.

- Errors when running set-admin-password script

  You may receive error messages when running the `set-admin-password` script after selecting the Reset to factory defaults option. These error messages are caused by the working directory no longer existing, and can safely be ignored. To prevent receiving them, either change to another directory before running the script, or logon to the system after selecting the Reset to factory defaults option.

- Error reported when attempting to upload WebLogic Portal configuration file

  Currently, is it not possible to upload a suite configuration file for WebLogic Portal applications. If you attempt to do so, an error is reported. In addition, there is no configuration file creation script.

## 4 Compatibility Issues

If you are upgrading from release 4.5.x to 5.1, you should be aware of the following reporting differences:

- Enriched Data Exchange Facility

  The Enriched data exchange facility enables the alternative analysis of the data collected by RUEI. In particular, it allows you to combine the data collected by RUEI with other warehouse data. For example, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Business Intelligence (BI) system. The exported data is based on pageviews, and is in XML format. The XSD file that defines the structure of the exported XML files has changed in 5.x. Therefore, If you have systems that use data derived from the 4.5.x Enriched data facility, you will need to review the new XML structure, and modify the operation of these systems as necessary. The Enriched data exchange facility is fully described in the Oracle Real User Experience Insight User's Guide.

- URL Arguments

  The handling of URL arguments within applications and custom dimensions definitions, as well as user ID matching, has changed in 5.1. Each URL argument has a name=value combination. In 4.5.x, the name part was decoded by RUEI. Therefore, all URL argument names had to be specified in their formatted version. For example, `foo$bar$baz`. In 5.1, URL argument names are no longer decoded, but reported in their raw (original) form. Therefore, they must also now be specified in their raw form. For example, `foo%24bar%24baz`. Note the upgrade procedure automatically converts all URL argument name definitions to the new format. Therefore, it is not necessary to manually update them. However, be aware the reporting of these URL argument names will appear different in 5.1.

- Session Diagnostics

  In version 4.5.x, URL strings were reported in their raw format (for example, `/doc/My%20Document.html`). In 5.0, URL-encoded bytes are removed, and URL strings are formatted. For example, the previous URL would now be reported as `/docs/My Documents.html`. Note how the `%20` part is replaced by a space character. In addition, any NLS character encoding (such as Chinese) is now used to report the URL, rather than its URL- encoded form. There is one exception to this: the special characters /, ?, ;, %, =, and #, when present in the encoded form, are not decoded, but left "as is".

  In order to minimize disruption, the upgrade procedure creates a new filter, based on the existing 4.5.x filter, for each defined filter. Hence, after upgrading, you will notice there are two filters: the 4.5.x filter will be applicable to the legacy 4.5.x data, and 5.0 filters will be used for monitoring 5.1 data. It is recommended you review all KPIs, SLAs, and reports that include URL-based definitions (such as filters or requirements). You are free to delete the 4.5.x filters whenever you decide 4.5.x data no longer needs to be reviewed.

- Conversion of Monitored Strings

  The functionality that allows you to monitor strings that appear on pages (such as functional errors and page content checks) has changed in 5.1. All defined strings are automatically converted to their Unicode (UTF-8) equivalent.

## 5 Bugs Fixed

The following bugs have been fixed in this release:

- Within the Collector statistics window, traffic levels below 1 MB/s are shown as 0 on the dials (8262413).

- Within an application with the page-tagging scheme HTML title, the correct title is not always correctly detected (8425539).

- OCI_EXECUTE error reported when trying to remove the first defined application (8435842).

- The grouping of options within the User ID menu is confusing. The Cookie option is listed under Server response. However, the value can also appear in the client request (8438844).

- User IDs within cookies are not reported correctly (8439062).

- The default values configured as part of the Reporter data retention policy settings cannot be changed (8443731).

- The keypage standard reports are missing from the reports library (8460361).

- The first URL argument is omitted when a custom dimension for a URL argument is defined (8463263).

- The percentage indication for the transaction-completion metric is too high (8489118).

- When upgrading from 4.5.1 to 5.0, and switching rule ordering from automatic to manual, the rule list is empty (8496849).

- The client browser freezes after defining a functional error for a suite (8513649).

Enhancement requests

In addition to the above bug fixes, the following enhancement requests have been implemented in this release:

- Add translation facility for functional errors (7513569). See Section 1, "New Features Included In The Release" for more information on this facility.

- Remote database dependency for remote Collectors (7522333).

- It should be able to lock a new user account at creation (8367537).

- The KPI facility has been extended to support the monitoring of database time per page and database load time (8514786).

## 6 Product Documentation

The latest version of the product documentation is available via the link below:

`http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/realuserei.html`.

The page referred to above contains the following documents:

- Oracle Real User Experience Insight Installation Guide.

- Oracle Real User Experience Insight User's Guide.

- Oracle Real User Experience Insight Accelerator for Oracle E-Business Suite Guide.

- Oracle Real User Experience Insight Accelerator for Siebel Guide.

- Oracle Real User Experience Insight Accelerator for PeopleSoft Guide.

- Oracle Real User Experience Insight Accelerator for JD Edwards.

- Oracle Real User Experience Insight Accelerator for WebLogic.

- The latest version of this document.

## 7 Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to all users, including users that are disabled. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at `http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/`.

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing Access to Oracle Support Services

To reach Oracle Support Services, use a telecommunications relay service (TRS) to call Oracle Support at 1.800.223.1711. An Oracle Support Services engineer will handle technical issues and provide customer support according to the Oracle service request process. Information about TRS is available at `http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/trs.html`, and a list of phone numbers is available at `http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/trsphonebk.html`.

Oracle Real User Experience Insight, Release 5.1 for Linux x86-64

E14600-04

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