I had to struggle to get my Oracle ODBC connection to work with the Oracle Instant Client - the full-install worked out-of-the-box, but who the faq wants to install 700MB of unneeded software if there's an "only-what-I-need" Oracle Instant Client available ;). I created a complete howto which is online now as OpenOffice Writer (odt) document here and as PDF file here.
Recently in VMware Category
After some days of struggling with a VMware VirtualCenter installation I wanted to share some information on the Error-Message 25003 which the VC-setup gave me while trying to recreate/update the VC-Database. The solution in my environment (VC-2.5.0u3 + Oracle 10.2.0.3 with Oracle Instant Client 10.2.0.4 + Oracle Instant Client ODBC Addon 10.2.0.4) was simple (but very difficult to find ;):
I only got the problem if there was still an active VC connected to my OracleDB while trying to recreate/update the VC-Database. This happened because I tried to reproduce another error. So I still had a VM with VC running while I tried to install a new VC with the same DB in a different VM. Simply shutting down the VM with the old (outdated) VC solved the error.
So in short: if you get the Error 25003 while trying to install VMware VirtualCenter check if there's still another connection to the database in which you try to install VC.
For some time I wanted to write a quick reference card for the service console commands of VMware's ESX Server Service Console. While I was about finishing it VMware released ESX3.5.0-Update2. So this may be already outdated ;) Nevertheless you can download my QuickRef card here. The latex source code is also available here. If you want to use it (e.g. to create a quickref card sorted by topic rather than alphabetically) you can use if you keep me as origin somewhere in the fine-print ;)
