SOA BPEL 11g (11.1.1.3.0) - Using encapsulated retries in fault-policy file

Question

Hi,
We are using oracle SOA suite 11g (11.1.1.3.0)
I'm trying to configure a fault-policy file so that it first retries 20 times every 20 secs, then reties 20 times every 10 minutes, then retries 23 times every hour, then retries 24 times every 6 hours and if the fault persists call a java action to send an email and then go to human-intervention. It seems however that only the first retry is executed. The rest ones are ignored and the action following the first retry failure is the Java Action. The fault-policy is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<faultPolicies xmlns="http://schemas.oracle.com/bpel/faultpolicy">
<faultPolicy version="0.0.1" id="TransferResponsibilityRequestProcessFaults"
xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns="http://schemas.oracle.com/bpel/faultpolicy"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Conditions>
<faultName xmlns:freeze="http://rom/cosmote/bpel/webservice/util" name="freeze:BpelWSFault">
<condition>
<action ref="ora-human-intervention"/>
</condition>
</faultName>
<faultName xmlns:retry="http://rom/cosmote/bpel/webservice" name="retry:PendingRequestsFault">
<condition>
<action ref="ora-retry-20sec"/>
</condition>
</faultName>
</Conditions>
<Actions>
<Action id="ora-retry-20sec">
<retry>
<retryCount>10</retryCount>
<retryInterval>20</retryInterval>
<retryFailureAction ref="ora-retry-10min"/>
</retry>
</Action>
     <Action id="ora-retry-10min">
<retry>
<retryCount>10</retryCount>
<retryInterval>600</retryInterval>
<retryFailureAction ref="ora-retry-1hour"/>
</retry>
</Action>
<Action id="ora-retry-1hour">
<retry>
<retryCount>23</retryCount>
<retryInterval>3600</retryInterval>
<retryFailureAction ref="ora-retry-6hour"/>
</retry>
</Action>
     <Action id="ora-retry-6hour">
<retry>
<retryCount>24</retryCount>
<retryInterval>21600</retryInterval>
<retryFailureAction ref="ora-java"/>
</retry>
</Action>
<Action id="ora-java">
<javaAction className="gr.cosmote.bpel.util.JavaActionInCaseOfRetryFails"
defaultAction="ora-human-intervention">
<returnValue value="RETURNED" ref="ora-human-intervention"/>
</javaAction>
</Action>
<Action id="ora-human-intervention">
<humanIntervention/>
</Action>
</Actions>
</faultPolicy>
</faultPolicies>
Is retrying with various intervals only done by using the tag <exponentialBackoff/>?
Thanks for any response.

Answer 1

I had a similar requirement, although not as elaborate as yours. After I failed to figure it out myself I filed a SR. Basically, you cannot restart a retry block after the first execution to avoid an infinite loop.
If you need to send the e-mail after the 23rd hour, why not just retry until the 23rd hour and send an e-mail?