How to Fix formsweb.cfg When Fusion Middleware Enterprise Manager Is Not Accessible

Recently for one of my customer  I ran into a tricky situation while Fusion Middleware Enterprise Manager (EM) 12c was completely inaccessible. Normally, any configuration changes in Oracle Forms, reports or for weblogic  we use Fusion Middleware Enterprise Manager (EM) . Our requirement was to update especially formsweb.cfg which generally is changed through EM. But when EM itself is down, we had to find a way out.

Below is exactly what we did to safely make the change and bring the environment back without causing configuration corruption.

 

Step 1 — Shut Down the Required Services

First, we stopped the Forms managed server and Admin Server to avoid any configuration lock or file corruption.

• Shutdown WLS_FORMS
• Shutdown Admin Server

 

Step 2 — Navigate to Domain Home

[appltest@testapp ~]$ cd $DOMAIN_HOME [appltest@testapp ~]$ pwd [appltest@testapp ~]$ /u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.1.4/user_projects/domains/prd

 

Step 3 — Clear Configuration Lock (edit.lok)

WebLogic sometimes leaves an edit session lock if a previous configuration change did not complete properly.

If the following file exists, remove it

[appltest@testapp ~]$  rm -rf edit.lok

 

Step 4 — Clear Pending Changes

WebLogic stores in-progress configuration updates inside a pending directory. If this folder contains files, the Admin Server assumes an edit session is still active.

Delete any files inside $DOMAIN_HOME/pending/*

[appltest@testapp ~]$ rm -rf $DOMAIN_HOME/pending/*

 

Step 5 — Clear Temporary and Cache Directories

To ensure a clean startup, we removed temporary and cache files. These directories will be recreated automatically when servers restart.

[appltest@testapp ~]$ $DOMAIN_HOME/servers/AdminServer/tmp/ [appltest@testapp ~]$ $DOMAIN_HOME/servers/WLS_FORMS/tmp/ [appltest@testapp ~]$ $DOMAIN_HOME/servers/WLS_FORMS/cache/

 

Step 6 — Edit formsweb.cfg Manually

After cleanup, we updated the required configuration directly in the file:

[appltest@testapp ~]$  vi $DOMAIN_HOME/config/fmwconfig/components/FORMS/instances/forms1/config/formsweb.cfg   userid=new_username/new_password@orcl

 

Step 7 — Restart serivces and Verify

1. Start the Admin Server
2. Wait until it reaches RUNNING state
3. Start Forms services and verify changes.