MDS in Oracle SOA Suite: Real-World Interview Prep (Scenario-Based Guide)

By -
Oracle MDS (Metadata Services) questions into realistic admin/developer scenarios—with answers tailored to reflect actual usage and problem-solving.

🔍 Scenario 1: “Why is the shared XSD not updating across composites?”

Interviewer Framing:

You deployed an updated XSD file into MDS, but the composites that depend on it still use the old version. What’s going wrong?

What They're Testing:
Your understanding of versioning, MDS cache, and deployment lifecycle.

Answer Strategy:

MDS artifacts are cached both on the server and at design time.
After updating MDS, the dependent composites must be redeployed or refreshed in JDeveloper.
In some cases, the SOA server may need to be restarted or its cache cleared.

🧠 Extra Tip: Use ant scripts or WLST to automate MDS uploads and maintain consistency across environments.

🧰 Scenario 2: “Where exactly does MDS live?”

Interviewer Reframe:

Can you explain the two types of MDS repositories and when to use each?

Real-Life Breakdown:

File-Based MDS: Local dev testing. Stored under .adf or JDeveloper file system paths. Great for experimentation.
DB-Based MDS: Enterprise-grade, shared environment. Used for all runtime services in production.

Use Cases:

Use File-Based in JDeveloper during development.
Deploy to DB-Based MDS for production composites using soa-infra or Enterprise Manager


Scenario 3: “We need to reuse a common WSDL in multiple projects. How would you design that?”

Core Concept Being Tested: Artifact reuse with MDS.

Answer Angle:

Store shared WSDL in a logical folder like /apps/shared/wsdls/.

URI scheme:

oramds:/apps/shared/wsdls/MyService.wsdl


🔐 Scenario 4: “How do you secure access to MDS?”

Security-Context Explanation:

MDS (DB version) follows WebLogic security.
Access is controlled through deployment privileges and authentication into the WebLogic console or via WLST.
ADF policies can also control who can upload/read metadata.

Advanced Mention: "We maintain a deployment user group for MDS uploads, with restricted access on production."

Scenario 5: “You deployed MDS artifacts but they aren’t visible in EM Console. What’s the catch?”

Possible Issues:

Incorrect path: Ensure it's uploaded under the right root folder like /apps/, /soa/shared/, etc.
Deployment method mismatch: EM UI uploads vs. WLST deployments might not sync if versions differ.
Cache not refreshed: Some artifacts require a redeploy of composites to reflect updated metadata.

Verification Steps:

Check soa-infra MDS under /soa/composer.

Use WLST to list contents of MDS:

listMetadata(appName='soa-infra', server='AdminServer', metadataPath='/apps/shared')

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interview question for File and FTP Adapter

By -
1)  Why File Adapter is used in SOA Suite tool ?.  File adapter is used to read and write file from and to local system. 2)  Why FTP Adapter is used in SOA Suite tool ?. FTP adapter is similar to File adapter with one difference that this adapter is used to read/write the file from/to remote system. 3)  What all differences we have between File and FTP adapters.  Following are the major differences between File and FTP adapter. File Adapter 1. It is used to deal with local systems only. 2. Do not require any configuration to make this adapter work. FTP Adapter 1. It is used to deal with remote systems. 2. Outbound Connection Pool needs to be configured with FTP details to make this adapter work. 4)  File & FTP adapters are known and Transactional or Non-Transactional adapters?.  These adapters are known as non-transactional adapters as these adapters does not support transactions. 5)  Can we read flat files using these adapter...
Read more

What is boot.properties file and how to create

By -
Boot.properties is a file, it containing  weblogic server username and password . If your server is in production mode then only you have to create manually this boot.properties file. If your server is in Development then you no need to create this file because server it self create this file while creating Domain. A boot identity file contains the user credentials for starting and stopping an instance of WebLogic Server. An administration server or managed server can refer to this file for user credentials instead of prompting at the command line to provide them. To Create boot.properties: Go to below location Win :   C:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\test_domain\servers\AdminServer\ Linux : Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\test_domain\servers\AdminServer\ 1.First you have to create security folder under AdminServer 2.Create boot.properties file under security folder. 3.Open notepad and write the below two lines username=********** password=*****...
Read more

SSL Exceptions in Admin Server and Node Manager.

By -
javax.net.ssl.SSLKeyException: [Security:090482]BAD_CERTIFICATE alert was received from oracle.test.com – xx.xxx.xx.xx. Check the peer to determine why it rejected the certificate chain (trusted CA configuration, hostname verification). SSL debug tracing may be required to determine the exact reason the certificate was rejected. <WARNING> <Uncaught exception in server handlerjavax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host closed connection during handshake>javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host closed connection during handshake at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:849) at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1170) The above exceptions are  the most common exceptions encountered during the setup of Weblogic Server in an environment. The stack does suggest what could be the reasons but the diagnostics are not mentioned. To debug this issue, first we need...
Read more