Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i & Release 12 Apps DBA 101
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PREFACE ............................................................................................ 7 CHAPTER 1 – THE BASICS ................................................................. 11 CHAPTER 2 – THE ARCHITECTURES ................................................... 13 EBS RELEASE 11I AND EBS RELEASE 12 MULTI-TIERED ARCHITECTURES........ 13 PLANNED RELEASE 12.2 MULTI-TIERED ARCHITECTURE .............................. 14 What is WebLogic? ..................................................................... 15 WebLogic Benefits ...................................................................... 15 Do You Need to be a Guru to Support WebLogic?...................... 15 Online Patching Features ........................................................... 16 COMPARISON OF THE ARCHITECTURE TIERS FOR R11I, R12.0/R12.1 AND R12.2 ........................................................................................................ 17 Desktop Tier ............................................................................... 17 Application (Middle) Tier ............................................................ 18 Oracle Process Management and Notification (OPMN)................... 19
Database Tier – Oracle 10gR2 or Oracle 11gR2 ......................... 20 Oracle 10gR2 Improvements ........................................................... 20 Oracle 11gR2 Improvements ........................................................... 21
Multiple Oracle Homes ............................................................... 24 CHAPTER 3 – LIFETIME SUPPORT ..................................................... 25 APPLICATIONS UNLIMITED ..................................................................... 25 FUSION MIDDLEWARE SUPPORT, INCLUDING DISCOVERER ........................... 30 ORACLE DATABASE SUPPORT ................................................................. 30 MANDATORY EXTENDED SUPPORT BASELINE PATCHING .............................. 30 So What’s the Risk? .................................................................... 32 Can I Pick and Choose Which Patches I Apply? .......................... 32 Why are There So Many Patches to Apply? Why is This So Complicated?.............................................................................. 33 Can I Unlicense Modules? .......................................................... 34 CHAPTER 4 – UPGRADING THE DATABASE ....................................... 35 WHY UPGRADE TO ORACLE 11GR2?....................................................... 35 SHOULD WE UPGRADE EVERYTHING AT ONCE? ......................................... 35 MUST WE UPGRADE? .......................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 5 – UPGRADING THE APPLICATIONS ................................. 39 SHOULD WE UPGRADE TO RELEASE 12? .................................................. 39 MUST WE UPGRADE TO RELEASE 12.1? .................................................. 40
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UPGRADE PATHS ................................................................................. 40 SHOULD YOU WAIT FOR RELEASE 12.2? .................................................. 41 UPGRADE BY REQUEST .......................................................................... 41 CHAPTER 6 - RELEASE 12 ADMINISTRATION AND MAINTENANCE TOOLS: OEM, OAM AND OCM ......................................................... 43 E-BUSINESS SUITE ADMINISTRATION AND MAINTENANCE TOOLS .................. 43 LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT ...................................................................... 44 WHAT IS ORACLE ENTERPRISE MANAGER (OEM)? .................................... 44 WHAT IS ORACLE APPLICATIONS MANAGER (OAM)?................................. 45 Applications Patching with OAM ............................................... 47 AutoConfig with OAM ................................................................ 48 iSetup with OAM ........................................................................ 49 License Manager with OAM ....................................................... 51 Oracle eBusiness Suite Diagnostics with OAM ........................... 51 Other OAM Tools ........................................................................ 54 WHAT IS ORACLE CONFIGURATION MANAGER (OCM)? ............................. 54 CHAPTER 7 - HOW DO OEM AND OAM AND THE E-BUSINESS SUITE PLUG-IN WORK TOGETHER? ............................................................ 57 WHAT IS THE E-BUSINESS SUITE PLUG-IN? ............................................... 58 Discovery .................................................................................... 59 Monitoring ................................................................................. 60 Cloning ....................................................................................... 61 DEALING WITH CUSTOMIZATIONS, PATCHING AND SETUP ........................... 62 WHAT CAN YOU DO WITHOUT THE E-BUSINESS SUITE PLUG-IN? ................. 64 WHAT CAN’T YOU DO WITHOUT THE E-BUSINESS SUITE PLUG-IN?............... 65 IS THE E-BUSINESS SUITE PLUG-IN WORTH THE EXTRA MONEY? .................. 66 CHAPTER 8 - TOOLS THAT ARE STILL RUN FROM THE COMMAND LINE ........................................................................................................ 69 Rapid Install Wizard ................................................................... 69 adadmin ..................................................................................... 69 Database and CPU/PSU Patching............................................... 70 CHAPTER 9 - APPLICATIONS PATCHING ............................................ 71 RELEASE 12 APPLICATIONS PATCHING CHANGES ........................................ 71 Codelines and Codelevels ........................................................... 71 TYPES OF APPLICATIONS PATCHES ........................................................... 72 Release Update Pack (RUP) ........................................................ 72 Critical Patch Update (CPU/PSUs) .............................................. 74
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Oracle Database Vault ............................................................... 76 Applications Technology Group (ATG) ....................................... 76 MORE APPLICATIONS PATCHES............................................................... 79 AUTOPATCH (ADPATCH) ...................................................................... 80 APPLIED PATCHES AND PATCH WIZARD .................................................... 81 PATCH APPLICATION ASSISTANT (PAA) .................................................... 82 DATABASE AND CPU/PSU PATCHING ..................................................... 83 CHAPTER 10 - ORACLE INTEGRATION REPOSITORY (IREP) ................ 85 CHAPTER 11 – HOW FUSION FITS IN ................................................ 87 TERMINOLOGY .................................................................................... 87 FUSION APPLICATION DESIGN PRINCIPLES................................................. 88 FOCUS ON BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT AND IMPROVEMENT ............... 90 FUSION MIDDLEWARE IS THE “ENABLER” ................................................. 90 FUSION MIDDLEWARE AREAS ................................................................. 91 FUSION COMPONENTS TO KNOW ............................................................ 92 APPLICATIONS ROADMAP OVERVIEW ..................................................... 101 HOW THE FUSION APPLICATIONS FIT IN ................................................. 102 THE ROAD TO FUSION - ROADMAP CONCEPTS ......................................... 103 CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 105 LINKS AND MY ORACLE SUPPORT (MOS) NOTES AND DOCUMENTS ............ 107 ABOUT THE AUTHORS ......................................................................... 113
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Preface This guide describes the new features, functionality and utilities available to Applications DBAs with Release 12 of the E-Business Suite of Applications. We will start by comparing the Release 11i and Release 12 architectures to lay the foundation for understanding the wide assortment of tools available to manage and maintain the Release 12 environment (and most are available for use for Release 11i environments as well). The tools include Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM), Oracle Applications Manager (OAM), Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM), the E-Business Suite Plugin (aka Oracle EBS Application Management Suite 4.0), Rapid Install Wizard, Rapid Clone, AutoConfig, Patch Wizard with the Patch Information Bundle (PIB), AutoPatch, OPatch and n-apply CPU/PSU patching, Oracle E-Business Suite Diagnostics, and the Oracle Integration Repository (iRep). This guide also discusses the considerations for upgrading your database to Version 11gR2, and the E-Business Suite of Applications to Release 12, and includes a brief discussion about Fusion Applications and where they appear to be heading.
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Available at: http://www.redriversolutions.com
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Chapter 1 – The Basics We’ll start with a list of things you need to know about the E-Business Suite of Applications:
Release 12 is also known as R12
Each new point release of R12 is packaged in a RUP (Release Update Pack)
Current R12 RUPs are 12.0.1, 12.0.2, 12.0.3, 12.0.4, 12.0.5, 12.0.6, 12.1.1 (aka EBS 12.1 RUP 1), 12.1.2 (aka EBS 12.1 RUP 2), and 12.1.3 (aka EBS 12.1 RUP 3)
RUPs may include new applications, performance improvements, security fixes and new or enhanced functionality for existing modules
You should read the Release Content Documents (RCDs) on My Oracle Support (MOS) to see what changed between RUPs
Release 12 is constantly changing, and it is the Applications DBA’s job to be constantly vigilant, watching MOS for changes
You should check MOS often, even if you think you don’t have any problems!
When you install Release 12, you install all modules, whether you license specific modules or not (over 220+ modules)
Release 11i had 200,000 objects and Release 12 has over 300,000 objects
You should expect your Release 12 disk space requirements to go up by a minimum of 20% or more over Release 11i because of new modules and functionality (even if you don’t plan to use those new modules or additional functionality) 11
Certain additional patches should be applied on a regular schedule (e.g., Quarterly Critical Patch Updates (CPU/PSUs) – For simplicity use the PSU Method for Database and Applications (starting with the January 2010 Quarterly CPU)
Quarterly Release 12 Upgrade Packs (RUPs) can change, add and remove functionality along with adding, upgrading or removing specific technology components – significant testing is required for every RUP
The Applications Technology (ATG) Group or pseudo product modules are an integrated set of modules used by all of the other modules: FND, OAM, OWF, FWK, JTT, JTA, TXK, XDO, ECX, EC, AK, ALR, UMX, BNE, and FRM
Oracle now has minimum mandatory patching requirements to ensure Extended Support for both Release 11i and Release 12.0.x
Oracle announced modified support timelines for Release 11i and Release 12 that allow customers more time to prepare for Release 12 and more time on Extended Support once they have upgraded to Release 12. See Steven Chan’s EBS 11i and 12.1 Support Timeline Changes for more details.
The following chapters fill you in on all of the details for the above basics.
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Chapter 2 – The Architectures EBS Release 11i and EBS Release 12 MultiTiered Architectures If you look at Figures 1 and 2, you can see that Release 12 has changed considerably from Release 11i, specifically within the Technology Stack, or, more appropriately, the Application Tier:
* JInitiator is no longer supported for the Desktop. ** Oracle 9i comes as part of the install, Oracle 10.2.0.5 and Oracle 11.2.0.3 are the latest certified database versions.
Figure 1 – Current Release 11i Architecture Components
* RDBMS Versions 10.2.0.5 and 11.2.0.3 are the latest certified database versions.
Figure 2 – Current Release 12 Architecture Components
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Planned Release 12.2 Multi-Tiered Architecture Release 12.2 will include significant changes. Release 12.2 will replace several of the Application Server technology components with WebLogic components. On the Application Tier, Oracle plans to replace the OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME with Fusion Middleware 11g. Fusion Middleware 11g will include Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) and WebLogic Server (WLS). The Database Tier will also change, because it will need to use RDBMS Version 11.2.0.2 or higher to enable Edition Based Redefinition for hot patching, also called online patching. Online Patching will allow users to continue to use the E- Business Suite while a DBA applies patches. This will reduce downtime to minutes instead of hours or days, and will make the downtime windows very predictable. Patches will be applied while the Production environment remains online. Patching will change significantly thanks to an RDBMS Version 11gR2 database feature called Edition Based Redefinition, and cloning will change by necessity because the cloning scripts will need to be rewritten to support WebLogic instead of OracleAS 10.1.3.
* RDBMS Version 11.2.0.3 will be included for Release 12.2
Figure 3 – Future Release 12.2 Architecture Components
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See Minimizing Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Downtimes, Santiago Bastidas, Principal Product Manager, Elke Phelps, Sr. Principal Product Manager, Oracle Corporation for more details about Release 12.2.
What is WebLogic? WebLogic is a tool acquired by Oracle when they purchased BEA in 1998. The E-Business Suite Release 12.2 will replace the 10.1.3 Oracle Home with the Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) and WebLogic Server (WLS). OC4J will be replaced by WebLogic. The Application Technology Stack’s 10.1.2 Oracle Home will stay the same. This will be a major technology change and learning challenge for Applications DBAs – even those with years of experience managing and maintaining the E-Business Suite.
WebLogic Benefits End users will experience “always on” applications and services. WebLogic includes comprehensive, low-overhead application monitoring and deep diagnostics. WebLogic will integrate with Oracle RAC to provide the highest levels of application availability. WebLogic will enable rapid development of applications without lost time due to system restarts. Comprehensive tooling will simplify customization development and speed new application delivery.
Do You Need to be a Guru to Support WebLogic? You’ll follow the My Oracle Support upgrade documentation (when it is released) to upgrade to Release 12.2, and that will install WebLogic. You may want to take training to learn how to configure WebLogic to take advantage of more advanced features – you may need a WebLogic Administrator on your staff. Fortunately, there
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are experts in the field – WebLogic is widely used in the industry.
Online Patching Features Online Patching will allow users to continue to use the EBusiness Suite while a DBA applies patches. This will reduce downtime to minutes instead of hours or days, and will make the downtime windows very predictable. Patches will be applied while the Production environment remains online. Online Patching will allow an application to efficiently store multiple editions of its Application Definition in the same database. This will provide an isolation mechanism (The Edition) that allows pre-upgrade and post-upgrade schemas to co-exist. The client code will choose the particular “Edition” that it wants to connect to. To use online patching, users will continue to use the Applications while the Applications DBA creates a Patch Edition, patches it, and synchronizes any changes between the Run Edition and the Patch Edition. When patching is done, the Apps DBA will set the Patch Edition as the new Run Edition and restart the application servers so users point to it. For more details, see Technical Preview of EBS 12.2 Online Patching: Kevin Hudson, Senior Director and one of the Online Patching architects, discusses one of the cornerstone new features in our upcoming Oracle EBusiness Suite 12.2 release. This ground-breaking feature is based upon Edition-Based Redefinition, a new 11gR2 Database feature that was built to Oracle Applications division specifications to allow the E-Business Suite's database tier to be patched while the environment is running. Online Patching combines the use of EditionBased Redefinition and new E-Business Suite technologies to allow patching to the E-Business Suite's database and
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application tier servers while the environment is being actively used by its end-users. (June 2012)
Comparison of the Architecture Tiers for R11i, R12.0/R12.1 and R12.2 Desktop Tier On the desktop tier, Release 11i uses a browser and either JInitiator or the Sun J2SE Plug-In for the user interface, while Release 12 requires Sun’s J2SE Plug-in. There are two types of “forms” that can be accessed when running the Applications. The first is an HTML-based form that looks just like a web page. The second is an Oracle Professional form, and it is accessed using a java applet. Called the Java desktop client, the JInitiator or the Sun J2SE Browser Plugin are automatically downloaded to a user’s PC the first time they log into an Oracle Professional form within the Applications. As Release 11i users prepare for Release 12, there are a number of reasons to get the migration to Sun J2SE Plug-in out of the way early in the upgrade process. First, there are the usual desupport issues: both JInitiator 1.1.8 and JInitiator 1.3 for Release 11i are no longer supported. Most importantly, JInitiator is a modified version of Sun’s original java product and has been desupported by Oracle for quite some time. The Sun J2SE includes all the features that Oracle enhanced for the JInitiator to support Oracle Forms. Be aware that J2SE is software and, therefore can have bugs that affect its functionality – monitor Steven Chan’s blog frequently for the most up to date information at: http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/
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If your company is still using JInitiator, it is time to upgrade to the Sun J2SE Browser Plug-in.
Application (Middle) Tier The Application Tier hosts the many different services that process the business logic and manage communication between the Desktop Tier and the Database Tier. For Release 11i, the Application Tier contains the Web Services, the Forms Server, the Report Server, the Concurrent Processing Server and an Admin Server. Release 11i runs iAS 1.0.2.2.2 (Apache and JServ) for its web services, and the 8.0.6.3 ORACLE_HOME handles the admin, concurrent processing, reporting and forms services. The Release 11i JServ component is a simple Java applications server that supports Java Server Pages (JSP) and Servlets and little else. For Release 12.0 and Release 12.1, the Application Tier contains the Web Services, the Forms Server, the Concurrent Processing Server and an Admin Server. Components of the Web Services, which runs the 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME, include the Web Listener, OC4J and the Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server (OPMN). Please note that starting with Release 12.1.2, all Oracleseeded reports utilize the XML (BI) publisher. Release 12.0 and Release 12.1 now use 10gAS Version 10.1.2 for Forms, which replaces Release 11i’s Version 8.0.6 ORACLE_HOME. Release 12.0 and Release 12.1 use 10gAS Version 10.1.3 for the Web Server with Oracle Containers for Java (OC4J), which is the equivalent to Release 11i’s Version 8.1.7 ORACLE_HOME. Release 12.2 will use Fusion Middleware 11g, which includes the Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) and WebLogic Server (WLS) in place of the OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME. 18
10gAS can run multiple containers of OC4J, not for scalability (which was why you could configure multiple JServ instances), but for division of processing. Each instance of OC4J is used as a compartment to contain one portion of the OAS 10g functionality. This allows the individual instances to be tuned for their actual workload, and helps to prevent them from competing for resources. 10gAS also supports Oracle Identity Management, running Oracle Internet Directory (OID) Versions 10.1.4 and 11g (11.1.1.5.0) for security. With OID, it will be easier to integrate into corporate security infrastructure for companies that use LDAP directories. Oracle is now recommending the Oracle Access Manager (OAM) for Single Sign-on. A key difference between the Release 11i and Release 12.0/Release 12.1/Release 12.2 Application Tiers is that 10gAS positions us to take advantage of new Fusion Middleware features, which in turn prepares us for the next Release after Release 12 – the Fusion Applications. Oracle Process Management and Notification (OPMN)
Oracle Process Management and Notification (OPMN) is automatically installed and configured with every Oracle Application Server. This tool is essential for running the Oracle Application Server by providing an integrated way to manage all Oracle Application Server components, including Discoverer and OC4J. OPMN checks to see if a service has terminated and tries to restart the service automatically (this is called death detection). OPMN creates a file for each managed process and can rotate log files. You can customize process management by using Dynamic Resource Management (DRM). For example, you could modify OPMN to spawn an additional OC4J process if
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average response time exceeds a threshold and if there are less than four processes already running. Or you could start an additional OC4J process to run every day at 5pm during peak hours. The Resource Management Directive (RMD) tells DRM when and what to do. Directives are configured in the opmn.xml file. You can see examples of code to do these types of customizations in section 3 of the manual Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server Administrator’s Guide 10g Release 3 (10.1.3.). Note: If you encounter issues with the Oracle Application Server 10.1.3, check out MOS Doc. ID: 454178.1, Oracle Application Server Diagnostic Tools and Log Files in Applications Release 12. This document covers common problem scenarios and Oracle Application Server Diagnostic tools for OPMN, Java Object Cache, Forms Servlet and Class Loads and includes where to find log files for OPMN, the HTTP Server, and J2EE Application Modules. Another MOS Note, Doc. ID: 373548.1, Using Forms Trace in Oracle Applications Release 12, describes debugging tools available for Forms.
Database Tier – Oracle 10gR2 or Oracle 11gR2 The Database Tier for Release 11i runs Oracle 9iR2, but can be upgraded to Oracle 10gR2 (which moved to Extended Support on July 31, 2010) or 11gR2. Release 12.0 and Release 12.1 are certified to run Oracle 10gR2 (in Extended Support) or 11gR1 or 11gR2 (preferred). Release 12.2 will require RDBMS 11gR2 to support Online Patching. Oracle 10gR2 Improvements
Oracle 10g offers a number of improvements over Oracle 9i, including improvements in performance - PL/SQL runs two times faster; manageability, including tools like the 20
Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) and Automatic SGA Tuning; and optimizer improvements. The latest (and terminal release) version of Oracle 10g, Version 10.2.0.5, is certified with Release 11.5.10.2 and 12.0.X, with later releases (12.1.X) not certified as Oracle 10gR2 moved to Extended Support at the end of July 2010. Oracle 11gR2 Improvements
Oracle’s Database Version 11gR2 offers a number of exciting new features that specifically benefit the current EBusiness Suite Releases (11i and 12), including Database Replay, SQL Performance Analyzer, Data Pump improvements, Advanced Compression, and Active Data Guard.
Database Replay and SQL Performance Analyzer are two tools in Oracle’s Real Application Testing database pack:
Database Replay – Allows you to record all database operations and then replay them, so that you can more effectively test the effects of a change to your database environment. See http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/orac le-database-11g-top-features/11g-replay.html for more details.
SQL Performance Analyzer – Allows you to capture specific SQL statements and replay them, which can help with performance tuning.
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Figure 4 – Upgrading to 11g Best Practices by Ashish Agrawal, Oracle Corporation
SQL Plan Management - You can use SQL Plan Management to control resource consumption more effectively than the way we used to do this, with hints, stored outlines, or initialization parameters. With SQL Plan Management, you can create a SQL Baseline of trusted execution plans and then force the optimizer to use those trusted plans or take recommendations provided by the SQL Plan Management feature.
Data Pump Improvements – Oracle has improved the performance of Data Pump Export and Data Pump Import, particularly compared to the Export and Import utilities. Data Pump uses multiple worker processes and parallelism to use all available resources and maximize throughput. See Oracle Database Utilities 11g Release 2 (11.2), Part Number E10701-02 for more details.
Advanced Compression – Delivers compression rates of two to four times across all types of data and
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applications. Advanced Compression improves query performance by reading fewer blocks from disk. Savings include the database space itself, as well as improved database and network performance and backup times. If you’re curious to see how much of a space savings you might see, check out the Oracle Compression Advisor. You can run this tool against Oracle 9i to 11g databases to determine the potential impact of advanced compression on your specific data.
Active Data Guard – Use Active Data Guard to offload resource intensive activities from a production database to a synchronized standby database. Active Data Guard also enables fast incremental backups, high availability and disaster recovery. For those customers who have considered Active Data Guard to create a mirror of an E-Business Suite database for hardware or software failure, it would be really valuable to be able to use that database for reporting. For Active Data Guard to work for querying, you would have to break the mirror. However, Oracle has completed a series of enhancements to ADG that allows you to run reads against the real-time copy of the database. This functionality requires either RDBMS Version 11.1.0.7 or 11gR2 with the Active Data Guard database option, and EBS Release 12.1.3. The one catch is that not all E-Business Suite reports will work in this environment; EBS reports that perform writes against the database are not supported. For more details, see Steven Chan’s Offloading (Some) EBS 12 Reporting to Active Data Guard Instances.
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Multiple Oracle Homes These changes in software do not decrease the number of ORACLE_HOMES that you will support – with Release 12 you’ll have at least three ORACLE_HOMEs: 10gAS ORACLE_HOME (10.1.3) on the Application Tier, a 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME on the Application tier, and a 10.2.0.2 or 10.2.0.3 ORACLE_HOME on the database tier. There is now also an “Instance” specific tier for the database that is using the software. The Instance Top is designated as $INST_TOP and includes the database SID. Supporting and maintaining multiple ORACLE_HOMES is here to stay. In fact, if you use Discoverer, you’ll have a fourth ORACLE_HOME. Oracle has also renamed the Server Partitioned or Split Configuration terminology that we used to describe for the 8.0.6/8.1.7 relationship. Now it is correct to state that you are running a “Mixed Platform Architecture”.
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Chapter 3 – Lifetime Support You’ll notice that this guide does not talk much about Release 12 functionality. For an Applications DBA, if your end user community decides they need to upgrade because of functionality that is included in a higher release, then your decision about whether to upgrade or not is made for you. The area where you may need to influence your company’s decision making comes down to Oracle’s support strategy for the database, technology and EBusiness Suite, called Applications Unlimited, and how much support your company needs or is willing to pay.
Applications Unlimited Oracle offers three types of support, Premier, Extended and Sustaining: Premier Support includes certification with new third party products/versions and Oracle products. Extended Support provides certification with most existing products instead of new third party products / versions and Oracle products. Extended Support may not include certification with some new third-party products/versions. If you’re still running Oracle 9i and have purchased extended support from Oracle, then if you find a new problem with an existing certified configuration, Oracle will help you resolve the problem. Just keep in mind that Extended Support for Oracle 9i ended in July 2010, and Oracle RDBMS 10gR2 moved to Extended Support on August 1, 2010. Extended Support only lasts for three years, so after that if you do not upgrade, you move to Sustaining Support. Sustaining Support does not include new updates, fixes, security alerts, data fixes and Critical Patch Updates (CPU/PSUs); new tax, legal and regulatory updates; new 25
upgrade scripts; certification with new third-party products/versions; or certification with new Oracle products. If you have a question and there’s already an answer on MOS, Oracle Support will point you to it. If you’re still running Release 11.0.3, you’re on Sustaining Support (which ended in January 2009). NEW! Extended Sustaining Support (ESS) for Release 11.5.10.2 was announced at Oracle OpenWorld (OOW) 2012. ESS is an exception to Oracle’s support policies covering the first 13 months of Sustaining Support on Oracle EBS Release 11.5.10 from December 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014. For more details, see Steven Chan’s EBS 11i and 12.1 Support Timeline Changes. ESS includes three components: 1. New fixes for Severity 1 production issues 2. United States Form 1099 2013 year-end updates 3. Payroll regulatory updates for the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia for fiscal years ending in 2014 Note, however, an important caveat – to receive Severity 1 support, you must be on the Release 11i Extended Support Minimum Baseline, covered in MOS Doc. ID: 883202.1, Patch Requirements for Extended Support of Oracle EBusiness Suite Release 11.5.10. If you are not on the minimum baseline, patching current is a significant effort that requires careful planning and testing. You might wonder why support levels are important to you, the DBA. The answer is that if your company hits a technical or functional show-stopping issue and you do not have Premier Support or Extended Support or Extended Sustaining Support from Oracle in resolving it (Oracle cannot reproduce the same error in their support 26
environments), you might find yourself having to patch or perform an upgrade in a big hurry – and, since patches and upgrades require so much testing, this is certainly not a good position for any customer to find themselves. The following chart shows the current plans for support. If you are still running on Release 11.0.3, the fact that even Sustaining Support has an end date – January 2009 – should be particularly important/alarming to you. If you are running releases prior to Release 11.5.10.2, you should be concerned that Oracle does not offer Extended Support. From our perspective, the biggest issue with staying on these earlier releases is that without Premium Support, you may not be able to stay current on the security patches provided by the Quarterly Critical Patch Updates (CPU/PSUs). But there’s another issue – we’ll talk later in the guide about upgrade paths – the further behind you are, the more complicated your upgrade path will be.
Figure 5 – Oracle E-Business Suite Support – Note that Release 11.5.10 now includes “Extended Sustaining Support” to help ease the transition to Release 12, and Release 12.1 Extended Support has been pushed out to December, 2018.
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The following chart is from Oracle Lifetime Support Policy for Oracle Software. It shows features that are included in each support level:
Figure 6 - Key Features Provided With Support Levels
Premier Support for Oracle E-Business Release 11.5.10.2 ended November 30, 2010. Some (most?) of us still on Release 11.5.10.2 have moved into the Extended Support window starting December 1, 2010 and can stay on Extended Support for three years (2011, 2012 and 2013) assuming that we apply the minimum technology and application patches (also referred to as the MANDATORY minimum patch baseline) as required by Oracle support (MOS Notes: 883202.1 and 1116887.1). With the recent addition of “Extended Sustaining Support” for Release 11.5.10.2, we have a little more time to do the Release 12 upgrade, but still need to be running The Mandatory baseline patches to receive Severity 1 support.
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There are a significant number of patches to be applied especially if you have not maintained your patch levels. For HRMS customers, there are three additional MOS documents that you’ll want to closely review: R11.5.10.2 – MOS Doc. ID: 111499.1, Oracle 11i Human Resources (HRMS) US and Canadian Payroll Mandatory Patch List, R12.0.x – MOS Doc. ID: 386434.1, Oracle EBS US and Canadian Payroll - 12.0.x Mandatory Patches R12.1.x – MOS Doc. ID: 858794.1, Oracle EBS US and Canadian Payroll - 12.1.x Mandatory Patches. You should track MOS Doc. ID: 883202.1 carefully because Oracle does update it. The Extended Support window fee waiver for Oracle’s EBusiness Suite Release 11.5.10.2 and Oracle RDBMS Version 10gR2 was announced two years ago by Oracle at the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) Collaborate conference for the first year of Extended Support only for Release 11.5.10.2 AND RDBMS Version 10gR2. Now that Oracle has extended the fee waiver again, customers can avoid additional fees for Release 11.5.10.2. If you stay on Release 11.5.10.2 after Extended Support ends on November 30, 2013 and move to Extended Sustaining Support (ESS), there are no additional fees for Sustaining Support but you then have a significant support and maintenance risk that you have to accept. While Extended Sustaining Support us a much-needed lifeline, customers should begin planning their upgrades to R12.1.3 immediately. This applies to the 10gR2 database support as well; customers should be planning their upgrade to RDBMS 11gR2 now.
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Fusion Middleware Support, Including Discoverer If you use Discoverer, another area that you should track for your environment is the Oracle BI Discoverer Support Policies. Discoverer Support is covered under Oracle’s Fusion Middleware Policy. According to the Oracle Fusion Middleware document of the Oracle Lifetime Support Policy, Oracle will not provide Extended Support for Oracle 10g, and Premium Support ended in December 2011. Discoverer users should consider upgrading to Discoverer 11g as soon as feasible. Premier Support for Discoverer 10g ended on November 30, 2011. There will be no Extended Support. Upgrade to Discoverer 11g or continue with Sustaining Support.
Oracle Database Support Premier Support for the 10gR2 database ended on July 31, 2010. We have moved into the Extended Support window which started August 1, 2010 and we can stay on Extended Support for three years (2011, 2012 and 2013). However, a fair number of customers will, have moved back to the Premier Support window for the 11gR2 RDBMS until January 31, 2015 (The 11gR1 Premier Support window ended on August 31, 2012). To continue with Oracle 10gR2, you must patch to Version 10.2.0.5, the terminal release for Oracle 10gR2.
Mandatory Extended Support Baseline Patching There was a time, not so long ago, when customers could hold off patching their E-Business Suite environments for 30
as long as they wanted. Those times are gone, not just for Release 11i customers, but also for Release 12 customers. You might think this is an unreasonable requirement by Oracle, but if you’ve ever looked under the hood at your Oracle environment, then you know how complicated the environment has become. Patching one module can affect several others. The software footprint is so large that no DBA can reasonably expect to make rational decisions about which patches really are necessary without spending countless hours investigating how those patches work with the existing codeset. Going forward, these are the rules of patching Oracle’s EBusiness Suite software: For Release 11i, customers should reference MOS Doc. ID: 883202.1. This document tells us: To be eligible for Extended Support of 11.5.10, the customer's system must be patched to the patch levels indicated in the table under Section 1 below, requirements 1 through 6. Additionally, it is important to note that the patch requirements indicated at a product level in Section 2 of this note must also be met. For Release 12, see Steven Chan’s excellent blog entry Heads-Up: Preparing for E-Business Suite 12.0 Extended Support, which states that Release 12.0 will transition from Premier to Extended Support in February, 2012. Release 12 customers are cautioned to apply at least the 12.0.6 Release Update Pack (Note ID 743368.1) and the Financials CPC July 2009 (Note ID 557869.1) by that date. The most likely upgrade path is to upgrade to the latest version of Release 12, currently Release 12.1.3. This too requires a substantial effort in planning and testing.
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These mandatory upgrades for both Release 11i and Release 12.0.X customers mean that we must now plan upgrades in shorter timeframes than was possible in the past.
So What’s the Risk? Well, if you don’t have any issues, then you’re fine. But what if you’re in the middle of year end close and you run into a problem that requires a substantial patch? Say, a Family Pack upgrade? Or, worse, how about if you find out you need to upgrade to RUP 7 to solve your problem? That’s the risk that the business has accepted because of the decision you made not to apply the minimum patches. Realistically, we have to tell you about one more risk. Have you ever applied a patch and had it create problems, rather than fix them all? Your users will have to test your patched environment as thoroughly as they would an upgrade, and it is possible that they’ll find new bugs when they do so.
Can I Pick and Choose Which Patches I Apply? Can you? Well of course you can! Should you? Well, that’s another question entirely. Everything with choosing to selectively patch comes down to risk and your ability to move quickly if you hit an issue. Oracle does offer one “out” in MOS Doc. ID: 883202.1: Extended Support is available on a product family by product family basis. What this means is, a Customer can choose to patch one Applications Product Family area, but not another. This allows a Customer to leave areas of code that might be extensively customized at their current levels, but gives that same Customer the option to receive Extended Support on other modules that are eligible.
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Why are There So Many Patches to Apply? Why is This So Complicated? Here are some more rules: You must apply patches for all Installed, Shared and Pseudo modules. If you run patchsets.sh, you can see the list of products at the top that Oracle thinks you have licensed. In all likelihood, if you’ve been running the E-Business Suite for several years, then the list has more products that your company is actually using. To understand why there are so many patches, particularly in Section 2 of MOS Doc. ID: 883202.1, let’s start with a short history lesson about the origins of the Oracle Applications. In the early days of the Oracle Applications, customers only installed the modules they used. As more modules were released, supporting unique configurations where every customer could have a different set of software installed became too cumbersome for Oracle. There were places where data needed to be shared, and it didn’t make sense to have the same tables associated with each module, so Oracle introduced Shared Modules. Shared Modules may have data, like customer information, that many other modules need to access. This issue is not unique to Oracle – any vendor who offers a suite of functionality will have to deal with this problem. Nowadays, customers install every module, whether used or not. You install everything, but you license only the modules that you have purchased from Oracle. Unfortunately, in the early days of the Oracle Applications, the License Manager often had groupings of modules, in addition to individual modules that could be selected. The groupings were likely bundles that reflected some aspect of Oracle’s sales process. The License Manager interface was confusing, and it was very easy for a customer to inadvertently over-install modules. And, at the time, there
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weren’t that many modules, so over-installing didn’t seem like a big deal. Years later, many of Oracle’s customers have a long list of over-installed modules. And since the database sees them as Installed, Shared or Pseudo modules, those modules have to be patched. You might ask, “Can I just patch the ones we use?” That’s where risk is introduced – how can you tell for sure that there isn’t some code or data that is part of what you consider an over-installed module that is necessary for you to run the Applications? It would be nice if Oracle could help you out here, and we’ve noticed that users are logging SRs asking if they need to patch specific modules. It can’t hurt to ask, but if you have dozens of modules, it may take Oracle a while to come up with an answer, and you may not be satisfied with what they tell you. The standard response is, if you installed it, you must patch it. You might wonder just how many patches we’re talking about here. We’ve actually gone through the exercise for Release 11i for the worst case scenario, where you patch every module listed in MOS Doc. ID: 883202.1 for a Release 11i Vision instance, and we came up with more than 400 patches, though that included pre-requisite and post patches. Most customers have dozens of patches to apply, rather than hundreds, but the research (yes, you’ll have to read every Readme as you search for pre-requisites and post patches and superseded patches) is tedious and time consuming.
Can I Unlicense Modules? Oracle does not provide that functionality. And, in terms of risk, you’d be taking on quite a big risk. What if you’re wrong? What if there’s something in a module that really is used by your other modules?
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Chapter 4 – Upgrading the Database Why Upgrade to Oracle 11gR2? In addition to the new features available with 11gR2, one of the most compelling reasons for upgrading to Oracle 11gR2 is that it is in Premier Support until January 2015, while Extended Support for Oracle 9i ended in July 2010, and Oracle Premium Support for Oracle 10gR2 ended in July 2010. Additional good news is that Oracle 11gR2 appears very stable.
Should We Upgrade Everything at Once? You could argue that upgrading everything at once – your database as well as your Applications - comes down to two issues: timing and risk. You absolutely can upgrade the database and applications at the same time. The only way you’ll know if you can do so within your company’s downtime window is to try it out. The biggest issue, once you’ve ensured that you can complete all the tasks within that timeframe, is the potential underlying risk that something may go wrong and you may not be able to isolate if the issue is a database upgrade or an applications upgrade issue. An argument in favor of splitting up your upgrade and completing the database upgrade first is that it will allow your technical staff to work with the new database version and try out some of the new features that we’ve described, separately from the applications upgrade. This is the time for your DBAs to take 11gR2 training, to experiment with test instances, and to consider modifications to your current database environment – perhaps fine tuning backups, for example, and practicing cloning and recovery. DBAs might find that by implementing Advanced Compression and Active Data Guard in advance of the applications upgrade, and using Data Pump as part of the applications upgrade for 35
data that needs to be migrated separately, the upgrade performance time could be improved and the downtime window reduced. If you add the performance improvements that Oracle’s new tools provide to their recommendation to preserve as much information about performance as you can before the upgrade, you may be able to avoid an issue that Oracle says affects many customers after the upgrade: “90% of highly visible problems attributed to an upgrade do not occur while upgrading but appear as unanticipated performance degradations days or weeks after the upgrade” (Upgrading to 11g Best Practices, by Ashish Agrawal, Oracle Corporation). If your DBA gathered information about current performance, they could then use Database Replay and SQL Performance Analyzer to quickly respond to those unanticipated performance issues that appear after the upgrade. Note, however, that if you separate the database upgrade from the applications upgrade, your users will have to test both upgrades. With a single database/applications upgrade, the business users test only once. Testing for the database upgrade, though, is considerably different for users than testing for the applications upgrade. For the database upgrade, rather than worrying about functionality issues within the applications, users will focus primarily on performance issues. And wouldn’t it be nice to get some of those issues out of the way ahead of time?
Must We Upgrade? The Database Tier for Oracle E-Business Applications Release 11i installs Oracle Database Version 9iR2, but should be upgraded to Oracle Database Version 10gR2 or, preferably, 11gR2. Oracle E-Business Applications Release 12 is certified to run Oracle Database Version 10gR2, 36
11gR1 and 11gR2. All of these database versions are stable, so in theory, if you aren’t experiencing technical problems, you don’t have to upgrade. However, you must keep in mind that your database represents the inner workings of your company. Eventually, Oracle must move their attention and support to newer releases of the database, so eventually Oracle stops supporting earlier releases. Oracle’s support plans are detailed in their Lifetime Support Policy at: http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-supporttechnology-069183.pdf Knowing what is included with Oracle’s Extended Support and Sustaining Support, and at what price, is important for customers to understand. With Extended Support, you can still log a P1 problem - but there's no guarantee that the resolution will come quickly - it might take months. Even within Premier Support, Oracle supports only the current and previous database releases for 12 months after the current database has been released. That's a subtle point that could cause big issues for customers - if you are running Oracle Database Version 10.2.0.5, you were supported with Premier Support until July 2010 now that database Version 11gR2 is generally available. If you are running Oracle Database Version 10.2.0.3, thinking you are supported based on what you read on the support page, you aren't - that support stopped in February, 2009. These policies override the E-Business Suite support agreements.
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Chapter 5 – Upgrading the Applications Should We Upgrade to Release 12? The E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10 software is 8 years old this year. There are no plans to add another CU (Consolidated Update #3), so the only way to stay current is to apply Family Packs to Release 11i. E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10 Premier Support lasted six years from November 2004. That means at the end of November, 2010, Premier Support ended and all customers still on Release 11i (11.5.10.2) moved to Extended Support. To stay supported on Oracle’s E-Business Release 11.5.10.2 after that, you would normally have to pay an additional fee for support to run in "Extended Support," but Oracle waived the fees. Oracle strongly recommends not running production in Extended Support mode unless you have no other choice. There is also a “Minimum Patch Baseline” for the software that must be met for the Extended Support. You should review MOS Doc. ID: 883202.1 and 1116887.1 to make sure that you are staying at the minimum patch baseline. Also, Oracle updates these documents, so you should recheck them periodically. In terms of functionality, Release 12 includes new and improved modules. In fact, the biggest difference for Release 12 is on the functional side; much more so than on the technical side. Release 12 uses a new user interface called the Swan Interface. If you are planning an upgrade, you should consider upgrading to Release 12.1. You’ll be positioned to upgrade to the Fusion Applications when an upgrade path is provided. If the software is stable, always upgrade to the latest release if you need the new features and functionality. Release 12.1 is stable! 39
Must We Upgrade to Release 12.1? Oh for the days when we could linger on an E-Business Suite release for years and years! Those days are over, mostly because Oracle is constantly changing the Applications, as much to add new functionality as to correct issues with existing functionality. With the need to apply security patches added into the mix, your company will need to consider what your overall patching strategy will be, and then plan to follow that strategy. Decisions about how long to wait to upgrade will affect the cost for Oracle’s support, as well as how difficult the upgrade will be. Stragglers on releases earlier than Release 11.5.7, for example, will have to follow a much more complex upgrade path than those who have stayed more current with patching.
Upgrade Paths There are two upgrade paths for upgrading to Release 12.1; the two phased and single phased upgrades. Two Phase - Unfortunately, if you are running a release prior to Release 11.5.7, you must first upgrade to Release 11.5.10.2 and then upgrade to Release 12.1. If you are not already running Oracle 10g or Oracle 11g, then you must upgrade the database before upgrading to Release 12.1. This upgrade path is called a dual phase upgrade. The good news is, the two phases do not have to occur during the same critical downtime. As part of this upgrade, if you haven’t already converted to the Oracle Applications Tablespace Model (OATM), you’ll need to convert your data at some point in the near future. Although it is not a requirement as part of the upgrade, all of the new product modules are in the OATM format. OATM features include automatic restart of the generation and execution of migration commands, configurable default extent size and a new “Tools” tablespace for products such 40
as Oracle Portal, Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On. Single Phase - If you are running Release 11.5.7 or later, you’ll need to upgrade to Oracle 10g or Oracle 11g and Release 12.1 during the same critical downtime. For both upgrades, we recommend that you upgrade to the latest certified version of Oracle 11g (currently 11gR2), and that you upgrade to the latest certified version of Release 12 (currently 12.1.3).
Should You Wait for Release 12.2? The new technical features of Release 12.2 are exciting and will have a significant impact on patching downtime, but Oracle does not recommend that you wait. Upgrade to 12.1.3, and when Release 12.2 is released, consider the timing and training requirements and plan accordingly.
Upgrade by Request Upgrade by Request is an option that allows you to limit how much data you upgrade during the Release 12.1 upgrade. The default is about six months of a fiscal year’s data. You can come back to the remaining data and upgrade it later. If you have a narrow upgrade window, Upgrade by Request can help you reduce the scope of the upgrade and then process less essential historical data later, after the upgrade is complete. Currently, Upgrade by Request covers historical data within financials and procurement, projects, supply chain management, and CRM. The upgrade depends on which module you are upgrading. For some products, only SLA data is upgraded, while for others, both transactions and accounting data will be upgraded. To use Upgrade by Request, you’ll choose the range of periods of historical data you want to upgrade before you 41
run the Release 12 upgrade, and you’ll run a pre-upgrade concurrent program. After you’ve finished your upgrade, you’ll run an SLA post upgrade concurrent program to complete the processing for the rest of your data. The details for Upgrade by Request are covered in Appendix G of the Release 12 Upgrade Manual.
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Chapter 6 - Release 12 Administration and Maintenance Tools: OEM, OAM and OCM E-Business Suite Administration and Maintenance Tools Oracle offers a number of tools to manage the E-Business Suite environment, including Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM), Oracle Applications Manager (OAM), Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM), the E-Business Suite Plugin, Patch Wizard, AutoConfig, AutoPatch, iSetup, OPatch, and napply CPU/PSU, Diagnostics, and Oracle Integration Repository (iRep). Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM), Oracle Application Manager (OAM) and Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) are included free with the database and Applications software. Oracle Applications Manager integrates with several tools that are also provided free, including AutoConfig, AutoPatch, iSetup, Diagnostics and Oracle Integration Repository. There are a few tools that are still run from the command line, including adadmin, OPatch and napply CPU/PSU. And, finally, there is the Oracle E-Business Suite Plug-in 4.0 for OEM 11g (11.1.0.1), which used to be two separate additional cost Management Packs, the Application Management Pack and the Application Change Management Pack. The E-Business Suite Plug-in integrates with Oracle Enterprise Manager and Oracle Applications Manager to add additional functionality. This chapter focuses on the features, functionality and utilities provided by Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle Applications Manager, and Oracle Configuration Manager. The next chapter will describe how the e-Business Suite Plug-in fits into the picture. And the chapter after that will cover the tools that are still run from the command line. 43
Lifecycle Management Let’s start by discussing the reason you might need all these tools. Lifecycle Management is Oracle’s term for how we install, maintain, monitor, manage and upgrade our E-Business Suite Applications. Because the Applications are so complex, they require a number of different tools. Over the years, many of us have written our own sets of scripts and procedures to deal with the different tasks necessary for managing the Applications. Third party vendors have also offered products to simplify certain tasks. And Oracle provides a number of tools to help. Some of the tools, like OEM and OAM, are included with the Applications licenses. Others, called Management Pack Plug-ins, like the E-Business Suite Plug-in, cost extra. To understand whether the E-Business Suite Plug-in is necessary for your environment, we need as a foundation to understand how the different tools work together, what you can do without the E-Business Suite Plug-in, and what you can’t do unless you have licensed the E-Business Suite Plug-in.
What is Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM)? Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control and OEM 11g Grid Control allow you to monitor E-Business Suite performance, availability and configuration changes. You can monitor multiple E-Business systems and drill down into Oracle Applications Manager (OAM). You can read more about OEM in MOS Doc. ID: 787749.1, Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Release Notes for Solaris (SPARC) 10g Release 5 (10.2.0.5), which includes details about known problems. OEM features described in The Oracle Enterprise Manager Concept manual for 10g Release 5 (10.2.0.5), Part Number B31949-10 include enhanced management and monitoring
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support for new 11g features including ADDM for RAC, Real-time SQL Monitoring, Partition Advisor, Automatic SQL Tuning, Database Replay, Cloning, Enhanced Data Masking, High Availability features and security features. Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control includes additional features, including My Oracle Support integration, the Oracle Virtual Manager (VM) Pack, and the ability to discover and monitor WebLogic domains. See http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11857_01/em.111/e1 1982/whats_new.htm for more details about Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control new features. In addition to all these features, OEM is also integrated with the E-Business Suite Plug-in that we will describe later. If you choose to implement the E-Business Suite Plug-in, you’ll have an integrated suite of tools that provide end-to-end monitoring and management for your entire EBusiness Suite environment.
What is Oracle Applications Manager (OAM)? Oracle Applications Manager (OAM) is a tool included with the E-Business Suite that extends your Applications management capabilities. To run OAM, log onto the applications as the System Administrator responsibility and then choose from the list of Oracle Application Manager options:
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Figure 7
Figure 8 - Choose "Dashboard" from the list under Oracle Applications Manager
If you’re an old hand at managing the E-Business Suite Applications, then you probably know the commands to run several of these tools from the command line. OAM provides a framework to make it simpler to manage your Applications. Notice that OAM is focused on managing one instance. While it does have some summary reporting capabilities, it does not have features for comparing 46
instances, or for applying changes to multiple instances at the same time.
Applications Patching with OAM Applications patching is Oracle’s way of releasing code fixes, functionality enhancements or new functionality. Patches can update or create new file system objects like forms, reports and sql scripts. Patches can also execute code within the database to change seeded data. To upgrade an E-Business Suite environment from Release 11i to Release 12, or to apply a Release 12 RUP, Family Pack, Mini-Pack, or other applications patch, you’ll use the AutoPatch (adpatch) tool. You can use OAM’s Patch Wizard with the Patch Information Bundle (PIB) file to help decide which patch to apply and to determine what code or data it will change. The PIB file is updated nightly by Oracle and a current copy of the file should be downloaded before any patch impact analysis. You can also use the Patch Application Assistant to help track and apply manual patch steps. Oracle has a new manual called Oracle Applications Patching Procedures that covers the details you’ll need to know to patch your applications. OAM’s Patch Wizard helps you determine what patches to apply, what code the patches will change, and can download the patches. You then use AutoPatch to apply patches. Tracking customizations, packaging a customization into Oracle’s patching format, interfacing with Source Control Software, and change control are accomplished using the E-Business Suite Plug-in.
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AutoConfig with OAM AutoConfig automatically configures an Oracle Applications Release 12 instance. All the necessary information is saved in the Applications Context File or the Database Context File. The Applications Context File is an XML repository in $INST_TOP that contains the configuration information for the Applications tier. The Database Context File is an XML repository in the RDBMS ORACLE_HOME that holds database tier information. AutoConfig logfiles are stored under $INST_TOP/admin/log for the Application Tier and $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/log/ for the Database Tier. AutoConfig Template files have named tags that are replaced with instance-specific information located in /admin/template. Note that this file should not be edited. You can create a custom template file by copying the template file and then editing it. To do so, create a directory named “custom” in the same directory as the template file you are customizing. Copy that customized template file into the directory you just created and AutoConfig will recognize that it is a custom template that supersedes the original template file. When AutoConfig detects a custom template file, it uses it. AutoConfig comes with a set of scripts that include:
adchkcfg.sh – run this program before running AutoConfig to review changes. It generates a report showing the differences between the current and modified AutoConfig file
adtmplrpt.sh – provides information about the location of AutoConfig templates
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restore.sh – use this script to roll back an AutoConfig session
See MOS Doc. ID: 387859.1, Using AutoConfig to Manage System Configurations in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 for more details about AutoConfig. Changes to AutoConfig configurations can be made through OAM (highly recommended), or by manually making changes to files and running scripts.
Figure 9 – Use OAM to make changes to your AutoConfig context files
iSetup with OAM So – your developers have been working on creating some new concurrent programs in your test environment. Or perhaps they’ve got some new request groups, printer setups, new responsibilities or other customized objects that need to be migrated out of the test environment and into 49
production. Or perhaps you’d like to add users to a test environment that are already set up on production. It turns out you have three options: 1. Manually - Open up a screen pointing to your test environment and a screen pointing to your production environment, and manually copy (type) everything you want to move. Uggh – that’s how we did it in the olden days, but it is certainly not how we want to do it today. Manually making the changes takes too long, and it’s too easy to make mistakes. A thorough and timeconsuming test of each migration would have to be included in your project plan. 2. FNDLOAD – Oracle’s command line utility can be used to download application data from an Oracle Applications instance into a portable, editable text file (.ldt file). The data in the FNDLOAD .ldt file can then be uploaded into another Oracle E-Business Suite instance. With FNDLOAD, you’re working from a Unix account and have to have a thorough understanding of the objects that you want to move. You’ll still need to do a thorough test of the objects that you’ve migrated, but errors are less likely than if you hand-typed the information. 3. iSetup – iSetup is a module provided within the EBusiness Suite that allows you to easily migrate setups using a user-friendly interface. You’ll work through EBusiness Suite screens rather than at the Unix level, so you do not have to be a programmer or DBA to feel comfortable using this tool. iSetup includes templates that make it easy to move commonly migrated objects, and, unlike our other two options, iSetup documents the configuration changes to allow you to compare changes across instances and timelines.
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OAM allows you to use iSetup to make configuration changes. The E-Business Suite Plug-in supports simultaneous iSetup changes across multiple E-Business Suite instances.
License Manager with OAM You can run License Manager from OAM to enable licensed E-Business Suite modules.
Figure 10 - You can run License Manager from OAM
You can use License Manager within OAM, or you can manually run License Manager scripts from the command line.
Oracle eBusiness Suite Diagnostics with OAM The Oracle eBusiness Suite Diagnostics are free utilities. New diagnostics are delivered in a standard Oracle Patch and are applied using AutoPatch. The diagnostics don’t alter data or setup, and the latest patch is included in 51
Release 12.1.3 (Patch 9239092). While Diagnostics were not initially required, Oracle now expects you to have the Diagnostics installed and will often ask you to run a particular Diagnostic to help problem solve a Service Request (SR). You should stay current on Diagnostic patches, as the Diagnostic programs are useful in troubleshooting. To Run Diagnostics: 1. Login to the E-Business Suite using an account that has the “Oracle Diagnostics Tool” responsibility 2. Select the "Oracle Diagnostics Tool" responsibility 3. Choose a diagnostic test from the Test Summary list. You can see which tests are available for an Application by clicking on the number under “Registered Tests”:
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Figure 11 - Diagnostics
4. Enter input parameters if there are any for the test that you have selected 5. Click on the 'Run Test' button 6. To review the test output, click on the 'Report' icon displayed in the status line Access Diagnostics through OAM.
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Other OAM Tools You can also use OAM to administer concurrent managers and workflow components, including starting and stopping concurrent managers and controlling workflow services. OAM includes Diagnostic Wizards for Concurrent Manager Recovery, Service Infrastructure, GCS and Forms Monitoring, CP Signature and Dashboard Collection Signature. The Dashboard Collection Program collects metrics for many services, web components and other features of an Oracle Applications instance. OAM includes a Dashboard Setup Wizard that can be used to enable or disable the monitoring of individual metrics. The CP Signature Wizard performs many key Concurrent Processing related data collections and gathers important configuration and log files to be saved to the Support cart for more efficient interaction with Support. Release 12.1.1 added Advanced Configuration Wizards that Enable/Disable HTTP load balancing, SSL, and SSL Accelerator to reduce the SSL traffic and workload off the web servers, and Forms Socket Mode (R11i) and Servlet Mode (R12).
What is Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM)? Let’s face it, the Oracle environment is a complicated beast. Now, imagine how hard it must be for Oracle Support to draw important information out of a person who has logged a Support Request. Does everyone in your company who might log a Support Request know all the configuration information about your environment? Do they know your environment’s:
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Hardware configuration (CPU, memory, storage, network, etc.)
Operating System patches, kernel parameter settings and installed packages
Oracle software (databases, middleware and applications) details such as patches, patch sets, init parameters and configuration settings
Oracle Application Server details such as patches, patch sets, components and configuration settings
Oracle WebLogic Server configuration settings such as ports in use, resource usage settings, deployed applications and JDBC resources
Probably not. That’s why Oracle includes another toolset that gathers information about your Oracle configuration; the Oracle Configuration Manager. This toolset gathers the information, and when you log a Service Request, you can either automatically or manually upload the information to Oracle Support. While the tool isn’t mandatory yet, Oracle Support will often request that you run it when you log a Service Request, so you might as well make sure you have the latest version and start using it.
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Chapter 7 - How Do OEM and OAM and the E-Business Suite Plug-in Work Together? OEM Grid Control allows you to monitor multiple Oracle E-Business Suite systems from a single console. You can drill down into Oracle Applications Manager (OAM) to control, configure, troubleshoot, and maintain individual EBS systems. If you want to have the ability to take a step back and see and manage all of your instances, you’ll need to consider adding another product to your toolset – the EBusiness Suite Plug-in, Version 4.0, which was formerly called Application Management Pack (AMP) and the Application Change Management Pack (ACP). Implementing this set of tools can help lower your maintenance and administration costs for the highly complex E-Business Suite environment. We will cover the features and functionality available in Version 4.0, the most recent version of the E-Business Suite Plug-in. We’ll also discuss the value add of the Plug-in. In Figure 12, you can see that OEM, OAM, and the EBusiness Suite Plug-in work together to provide end-to-end management and monitoring of E-Business Suite environments. To make all three products work together, there are a few caveats: 1. If you license the E-Business Suite Plug-in, you’ll need to apply an interoperability patch on OEM to make the Plug-in update information that comes from OAM. 2. You need to set the Preferences global link in OAM, or metrics won’t be updated.
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Figure 12 - Based on Application Management Pack and Application Change Management Pack 3.1 Now Available, by Steven Chan, Oracle. Also see Application Change Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite An Introduction, by Ken Baxter, Biju Mohan, Oracle
What is the E-Business Suite Plug-in? With Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) setting out to show the big picture in monitoring your Oracle environments, and Oracle Applications Manager (OAM) giving you a detailed view of each E-Business Suite instance, it seems only natural for the E-Business Suite Plug-in to integrate OEM and OAM together to provide a bird’s eye view of your entire environment. The E-Business Suite Plug-in 4.0 extends Oracle Enterprise 11g Grid Control to help monitor and manage EBS systems and provide a consolidated end-to-end E-Business Suite management solution (the earlier release, Version 3.1 of AMP and ACP, works with Oracle Enterprise 10g Grid Control). It integrates Oracle Application Manager with Grid Control and provides advanced features to monitor
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and manage EBS systems, including Cloning, Application Service Level Management, Extended Performance Metrics, Data Scrambling and links from Grid Control to OAM. The Plug-in has six main features: Discovery, Monitoring, Cloning, Customization Manager, Patching Manager, and Setup Manager. The E-Business Suite Plug-in monitors the Oracle Applications Service, the Oracle Applications Infrastructure Service, the Concurrent Processing Service, the Forms Applications Service, the Concurrent Manager, Workflow, Custom Objects, and Patch Information. The Plug-in monitors your system for security problems, usage characteristics, configuration changes and performance. Its key capabilities include automated cloning, including cloning of very complex configurations, automatic discovery of E-Business Suite Systems, configuration management, service level management, extended performance metrics, and links from OEM Grid Control to OAM. It includes the ability to use either the Enterprise Manager Grid Control User Interface or a Command Line Interface to discover and register components of the EBusiness System. You can read more about System Management for EBusiness Suite in MOS Doc. ID: 1224313.1, Getting Started with Oracle E-Business Suite Plug-in, Release 4.0, and on Steven Chan’s blog, Oracle E-Business Suite Plugin 4.0 Released for OEM 11g (11.1.0.1).
Discovery The Discovery Wizard dashboard uses OEM Grid Control to discover/register each database instance. The Discovery Wizard will by default enable discovery and monitoring of Workflow and create an Oracle Workflow Service, Forms Service, SSA Service, Patching Information Object, Custom Objects, and Order Management Services. The 59
Wizard adds a new Oracle Applications tab under the Targets tab of Grid Control, and once you apply the Oracle Applications Enterprise Manager interoperability patch, you can drill down to OAM. In addition to applying the interoperability patch, you need to set the Preferences global link in OAM, or metrics won’t be updated. The Discovery Wizard locates the Database Context and Applications Context, and then discovers the Oracle Forms and JVM Usage for the Applications Context.
Monitoring The E-Business Suite Plug-in’s monitoring features include the Concurrent Processing Dashboard, which provides a detailed overview of the efficiency of Concurrent Managers and Programs. You can build a watch list of specific concurrent managers and concurrent programs. The Plug-in also allows end to end tracing, including the ability to analyze the E-Business Suite database load. You can also easily trace top database sessions back to the end user. Another unique feature of the Plug-in monitoring is the ability to view and compare E-Business Suite configurations. You can see what products are installed, take advantage of new internal system alerts, review which patches have been applied, see site level profile options that have changed, and see which context files have been edited. Because the Plug-in is integrated with OEM, you can drill down to the OEM Grid Control host and drill down to OAM as well. A feature that is relatively new to the Plug-in is Service Level Monitoring. You can define Service Models that represent business functions or applications in your enterprise, and then measure the performance and
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availability of critical business functions. You can set up alerts to notify you when there is a problem, and identify common issues and diagnose causes of failures. For those companies who provide internal Service Level Agreements, the Service Level Monitoring feature can be particularly helpful in determining if you are meeting those agreements.
Cloning You can clone an E-Business Suite instance using RapidClone or the E-Business Suite Plug-in. RapidClone is the most commonly used tool for cloning. Oracle continues to refine it and releases new patches periodically. See MOS Doc. ID: 406982.1, Cloning Oracle Applications Release 12 with Rapid Clone, to stay current on available patches. MOS Doc. ID: 603104.1, Troubleshooting RapidClone issues with Oracle Applications R12 is also highly recommended. The intention with the E-Business Suite Plug-in’s cloning feature is to provide automated cloning that will also support cloning with data scrambling (data masking). The Plug-in allows the following methods of cloning:
Clone Source to Target: the source system data is extracted and applied on to a target system. On completion of the clone process, the source and target systems will have the same data and patch set level. The benefit of this procedure is that it creates an identical copy of production system.
Clone Source to Image: the source system data is extracted and stored. The image extracted can be applied to any number of target systems. The benefit of this procedure is that it facilitates periodic backing up of the source system.
Deploy Image to Target: an image is deployed on to a target system. The benefit of this procedure is that it 61
allows for rapid deployment of standard pre-configured target systems.
Hot Mode Clone Source to Target, Source to Image and Image to Target, where the source system does not need to be shut down.
A Clone Status page shows the status of all clone jobs (In Progress, Scheduled, Saved, Completed). You can add comments to the status of any clone job, and the cloning procedure includes a step-by-step interview process. With the Plug-in’s Smart Clone capability, you can use a database target cloned using an external solution (EMC, NetApp FlexClone, certain IBM tools) as an input to the Plug-in’s cloning procedures. Smart Clone also supports more complex, advanced E-Business Suite deployments, including configuring a single instance database, a RAC database, cloning a single-node applications tier to a singlenode applications tier, creating a scale-down clone of a multi-tier applications tier with a shared file system node to a single-node applications tier, and creating a scale-down clone of a multi-tier applications tier without a shared file system node to a single-node applications tier.
Dealing With Customizations, Patching and Setup The E-Business Suite Plug-in provides a feature that has been sorely needed in the Applications world: a sophisticated tool that manages changes introduced by customizations, patches and functional setups during implementation or maintenance activities. This tool shows that Oracle recognizes that its customers do, in many cases, have to customize the Applications, and that providing a framework to help track and manage those changes will make upgrading to new releases simpler, and easier to accomplish. The Plug-in also allows DBAs to apply
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patches simultaneously across multiple instances, and includes a Change Approval mechanism so that both customizations and Oracle-provided patches can be applied using a rigorous approval process. The Plug-in also uses iSetup to migrate changes between Applications environments. The Plug-in includes three toolsets: Customization Manager, Patch Manager and Setup Manager.
Customization Manager – With Customization Manager, you can monitor and manage E-Business Suite changes, register new custom applications, and track and validate existing custom applications in a standard way. Reporting options include the ability to report on a single package, compare two packages, or compare a package against an instance. Customization Manager integrates with most source control systems, and includes a change approval framework that provides an audit trail which can be particularly useful when preparing to upgrade, and improves user productivity by automating change deployment. This tool validates customized code against software coding best practices, and packages changes so they can be applied like any other Oracle application patch.
Patch Manager automates applying application patches across multiple instances. Patch Manager recommends application patches, provides details about what a patch will change, and shows what patches have modified a specific file. A unique feature is Prerequisite Patch Impact Analysis, which determines if there are prerequisites, and allows adding prerequisites to the patch job if they aren’t already available. Patch Manager also allows scheduling application patch application, and allows you to enter comments in the Patch Run Details, including the Patch Run Name, Description, Justification, Requester, and Notification 63
E-mails. Patch Manager is integrated with Customization Manager as well as with My Oracle Support, which makes downloading patches a simple task.
Setup Manager is the next generation of iSetup. You can extract and load data from one E-Business Suite instance to another, use “Projects” to control the sequence of a load, schedule timing of a load, and manage simultaneous loads to multiple instances. Setup Manager also allows Offline Transformation – users can download setup data into Excel, edit or add to it, and then upload it.
What Can You Do Without the E-Business Suite Plug-in? You don’t have to buy the Plug-in. In all likelihood, you’ve developed your own set of procedures to deal with managing the E-Business Suite. For example:
Customization – You can continue to follow your company’s current procedures for how to design, test, and roll out customizations. If you have a lot of customizations, or if you are preparing to upgrade and need to migrate your customizations, you may want to look closer at the Plug-in.
Patching – You can research and apply patches using OAM. If you have multiple E-Business Suite instances and need to apply changes to those other instances simultaneously, the Plug-in could be useful. The Plugin is also very useful if you’d like to standardize your patch process so that all patches look the same – just like an Oracle patch. And if you need a change control process, the Plug-in provides that, including the ability to have specific users sign off on changes and be notified when patches are applied.
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Setup – Migrate setups using iSetup, FNDLOAD, or other third-party tools. If you need to migrate setups to multiple instances, the Plug-in could cut down the time to apply those changes with its ability to apply setups simultaneously across multiple instances.
Monitoring – OAM comes with a number of seeded monitoring metrics for an individual instance, including New Internal System Alerts, Patches Applied, Patch Wizard, Site Level Profile Options Changed, and Context Files Edited metrics. The Plug-in includes even more monitoring metrics, including Service Level Agreement monitoring.
Cloning – Oracle has provided cloning procedures (including Data Scrambling) that are well-tested and continue to be enhanced. Those procedures are manual, though, and the Plug-in’s ability to deal with so many different configuration scenarios is very appealing.
What Can’t You Do Without the E-Business Suite Plug-in? You can do all the things that the Plug-in supports Customization, Patching, Setup, Monitoring, and Cloning – but…
The devil is in the details – it is easy to lose track of where a customization has been applied or whether a setup has been correctly cascaded. And going back several years to prepare to migrate customizations, when it’s time to do an upgrade, can be a formidable task.
Oracle is providing a supported framework and toolset that allow you to manage your applications more easily, with an audit trail, reporting features, and the ability to compare and contrast multiple E-Business Suite
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environments more easily in an automated fashion to reduce overall maintenance costs. The E-Business Suite Plug-in provides an automated framework and packaging methodology that eliminate manual work and make processes more productive and efficient. With the Plug-in’s automated cloning features, much of the manual effort required by the DBA when using RapidClone is eliminated. Outside of the E-Business Suite Plug-in, Metric Collection, Comparison Reporting, and the ability to see all your environments from inside Grid Control does not exist, and does not have the Oracle proprietary information needed to support highly complex E-Business Suite Applications topologies. There are also certain things that you can only do with the E-Business Suite Plug-in:
Integrated Customization Management
Automated Service Level Management
Automated Cloning using a supported toolset, rather than scripts or manual procedures
Automated Change Control Notification
Apply your customized patches that look and run just like your E-Business Suite patches
Is the E-Business Suite Plug-in Worth the Extra Money? The Applications DBA and Applications System Administrator’s jobs are very complex and require attention to detail and, often, managing multiple tedious but necessary tasks. Anything you can do to automate tasks and leave an audit trail is well worth considering. With these tools in place, your next DBA or SA will have a better view 66
of the history of changes and setups and may not have to recreate or invent tools to handle tasks that should be automated already.
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Chapter 8 - Tools That Are Still Run From the Command Line Inside the framework that OEM, OAM, and the E-Business Suite Plug-in provide are links to several tools that we’ve been using all along with Release 11i and Release 12, including Rapid Clone, AutoConfig, AutoPatch, iSetup, and Oracle E-Business Suite Diagnostics. There are a few tools that haven’t been integrated, including patchsets.sh, adadmin, OPatch and napply CPU/PSU. The direction Oracle is heading shows their goal of providing an end-toend administration suite that can simplify the management of Oracle’s many moving parts.
Rapid Install Wizard You’ll use the Rapid Install Wizard if you are installing a fresh install of the E-Business Suite. The Rapid Install Wizard installs the ORACLE_HOMEs and databases, and the APPL_TOP and COMMON_TOP directories that contain the Applications code. A new concept for Release 12 is the Instance Home, or $INST_TOP. Located at $ORACLE_BASE/inst/apps/context_name, where context_name is the dbsid_host, the Instance Home facilitates setting up a shared application file system for multi-node configurations and creates a common location for all objects specifically related to an instance (logs, some config files, concurrent manager output, etc.).
adadmin The adadmin toolset handles tasks required for maintaining and administering an Oracle E-Business Suite instance. Typical tasks include generating applications files, maintaining applications files, compiling and reloading applications database entities, and enabling or disabling Maintenance Mode.
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Database and CPU/PSU Patching We’ll talk about database and CPU/PSU patching later in the next chapter.
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Chapter 9 - Applications Patching Applications patching is Oracle’s way of releasing code fixes, functionality enhancements or new functionality. Patches can update or create new file system objects like forms, reports and sql scripts. Patches can also execute code within the database to change seeded data. To upgrade an E-Business Suite environment from Release 11i to Release 12, or to apply a Release 12 RUP, Family Pack, Mini-Pack, or other applications patch, you’ll use the AutoPatch tool. You can use OAM’s Patch Wizard to help decide which patch to apply and to determine what code or data it will change. You can also use the Patch Application Assistant to help track and apply manual patch steps. Oracle has a new manual called Oracle Applications Patching Procedures.
Release 12 Applications Patching Changes With Release 12, Oracle keeps major new features and bug fixes separate. In fact, major new functionality is now reserved for point releases. Oracle creates a new maintenance branch for each point release of the Applications. New feature introduction into maintenance branches is limited and requires executive approval (by Oracle executives). To provide better change control, Release 12 introduced some new terminology for patching called codelines and codelevels that should make checking for prerequisites easier.
Codelines and Codelevels Patches are grouped into codelines. A codeline begins with a point release and progresses to include all patches required to maintain that point release. So Release 12.0 would be Codeline A, and Release 12.1 would be called Codeline B. The unique set of product features for a point release or a product family are a codelevel. In Release 11i,
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patches could require other individual patches as prerequisites, making it difficult to determine if a new patch included all the functionality of an older patch. In Release 12, patches can only require a codelevel as a prerequisite. Read MOS Doc. ID: 459156.1, Oracle Applications Patching FAQ for Release 12 to learn more about Release 12’s patching features.
Types of Applications Patches As the Applications DBA, you will need to be particularly aware of three types of Applications patches provided for Release 12: RUPs, CPUs and the ATG.
Release Update Pack (RUP) Each new point release of Release 12 is packaged in a RUP (Release Update Pack), and current Release 12 Release Update Packs are Releases 12.0 and 12.1. Oracle has muddied their list of acronyms with the Release Update Pack, because for years they have been releasing Release Update Patches, also called RUPs, which are an entirely different animal. ATG_PF.H RUP 6 is an example of a Release 11i Release Update Patch. For Release 12, the point releases for Release 12.1 are called Release 12.1 RUP 1 (12.1.1), Release 12.1 RUP 2 (Release Update Patch 12.1.2) and Release 12.1 RUP 3 (Release Update Patch 12.1.3). Confusing? Just a little. For those of you who were in the trenches with Releases 11.5.1 through 11.5.4, we’re happy to say that Release 12.1+ is exponentially more stable. A Release Update Pack for Release 12 is similar to a Release 11i CU, or Consolidated Update; it’s a point release. Like the Release 11i CU2, also called Release 11.5.10.2, a Release Update Pack may include stub applications, performance improvements and new or enhanced functionality. To get an idea of the changes 72
between RUPs, read the Release Content Documents (RCDs) on My Oracle Support. To find the RCDs and other Release 12 documentation, click on the Knowledge Tab at the top of the screen when you first log into My Oracle Support, then the Tools and Training tab, toward the bottom left, then E-Business Suite, and then the release that you are researching (in the example below, we chose Release 12.1 Info Center.
Figure 13 - You can access RCDs from My Oracle Support
Figure 14 shows what the screen looks like that has links to the RCDs:
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Figure 14
Critical Patch Update (CPU/PSUs) Unlike Release 11i, Release 12 RUPs contain the latest EBusiness Suite portion of the CPU (Critical Patch Update) available at its release (it does not contain the Opatch portion, so you still need to research the CPU and determine what additional pieces need to be applied). A CPU is Oracle’s answer to the ongoing security issues plaguing our society. With hackers seeking access to companies’ critical data, Oracle now releases a set of patches every quarter to fend off attacks. Since CPUs generally have been implemented at the same time as the latest RUP, when you apply the latest Release 12 RUP your environment will also be current on the E-Business Suite security patches included in the latest CPU. You still have to check, though – Release 12.1.2, for example, was released the month before the January 2010 CPU, so the later CPU had to be applied separately. The Release 12.1.3 RUP was announced in the Application Technology Group 74
(ATG) Newsletter – Issue July, 2010 Volume 10 (Doc ID 1158513.1.). Because Oracle currently has no plans to implement a CU3 for Release 11i, you need to apply each new CPU as it is released to remain current on security patches on your Release 11i environments. Oracle also now releases PSU patches, which minimize the number of individual patches that need to be applied. Note that once you start applying PSU patches, you must stay with that approach indefinitely. With Oracle’s recent announcement of an EBS Exception to Sustaining Support, you might wonder if there will be CPUs released for Release 11i. Elke Phelps notes in Critical Patch Updates During EBS 11i Exception to Sustaining Support Period that CPUs will continue to be released:
Oracle will continue to provide CPUs containing critical security fixes for E-Business Suite 11i. CPUs will be packaged and released as as cumulative patches for both ATG RUP 6 and ATG RUP 7. As always, we try to minimize the number of patches and dependencies required for uptake of a CPU; however, there have been quite a few changes to the 11i baseline since its release. For dependency reasons the 11i CPUs may require a higher number of files in order to bring them up to a consistent, stable, and well tested level. EBS 11i customer will continue to receive CPUs up to and including the October 2014 CPU.
You might wonder why staying current on CPUs is so critical. If Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is important to your company, can you afford to fall behind on security updates?
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And of course, if you know there’s a Critical Patch Update, and you know what vulnerabilities it fixes, so do hackers.
Oracle Database Vault While the CPUs are intended to help fend off hackers, Oracle Database Vault is a tool intended to protect data from insider attacks by building internal controls to support segregation of duties and privacy requirements. Oracle Database Vault Version 11.1.0.7 is certified for both Release 11i and Release 12. You can read more about Oracle Database Vault at Database Vault 11.1.0.7 Certified with Oracle E-Business Suite.
Applications Technology Group (ATG) For both Release 11i and Release 12, there is a set of modules that are used by all of the other E-Business Suite modules. These modules are also called Pseudo Products and are part of the Applications Technology Group, or ATG. Keeping current on the latest ATG patch is yet another DBA concern, since these modules affect every aspect of the E-Business Suite. Release 12 ATG modules are FND (Application Object Library), OAM (Oracle Application Manager), OWF (Oracle Workflow), FWK (Oracle Applications Framework), JTT (Oracle CRM Technology Foundation), JTA (Oracle Common Application Components), TXK (Oracle Applications Technology Stack), XDO (Oracle XML Publisher), ECX (Oracle XML Gateway), EC (Oracle E-Commerce Gateway), AK (Oracle Common Modules – AK), ALR (Oracle Alert), UMX (Oracle User Management), BNE (Oracle Web ADI), and FRM (Oracle Report Manager). To complicate matters just a little more, Oracle follows strict compliance with their ATG_PF RUP policy (N-1), which states that the latest CPU will only support the last two ATG RUPs (where the ATG RUP in this case is a
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Release Update Patch). The January 2011 CPU will only support ATG RUP 6 and RUP 7. So if you are running Release 11.5.10.2 with ATG RUP 5, you must upgrade to at least ATG RUP 6 to be able to apply the latest security patch, the January 2011 CPU. To stay current on security, you must stay relatively current on ATG RUPs, which means you must stay relatively current on which release of the Applications you are running. We HIGHLY encourage customers move to ATG RUP 7 as soon as possible. The introduction of CPU/PSUs is actually one of the most important drivers for forcing a need to update your EBusiness Suite environment. While you may choose not to upgrade because you don’t need new functionality or fixes to code, choosing to hold off on applying a security patch can have devastating consequences for your business. With Release 12, Oracle would like you to apply RUPs and CPU/PSUs quarterly and to upgrade to the latest ATG RUP whenever a new one is released, though you may find that this is simply too aggressive a schedule to maintain because of testing considerations. You might think that upgrading to a higher ATG RUP is only a concern for your technicians, but because the ATG modules are so deeply integrated within the Applications, you really must test the entire EBusiness Suite every time you apply a new ATG RUP. This guide covers patching considerations in much more detail later on, but you can already see how important staying current on the E-Business Suite will be for your company. As the DBA, it is your job to understand and mitigate, if possible, the risks your company is taking if your management chooses not to stay current. One of the things we like to say about Release 12 is that it is constantly changing. As the Applications DBA, we must warn you that it is your job to be constantly alert for important patches – and changes to existing patches - that
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may affect your E-Business Suite environment. Here are five examples of changes that you might not have noticed if you weren’t actively watching My Oracle Support:
Oracle released EBS Release 12.1.2 in December 2009, and in March 2010 announced a mandatory CUP for anyone upgrading to 12.1.1 (thus, users on the CUP ended up running EBS R12.1 RUP 2 CUP 1!) Users who had already completed the upgrade, or were upgrading to Release 12.1.2 or higher didn’t need CUP 1.
Oracle released the January 2010 CPU, then modified the January 2010 CPU in February with a mandatory change. So if you applied the January CPU, and it wasn’t the later version, you needed to apply the February version of the January 2010 CPU. Tracking not only which CPU version you are running, but also when you downloaded it increases the complexity for DBAs.
PSUs – Take a look at MOS Doc. ID: 854428.1 and 850471.1. Oracle has introduced a new patching strategy called a PSU (Patch Set Update) that allows you to choose only “recommended” or “proactive” patches, rather than all of the patches provided in the quarterly Critical Patch Update (CPU).
Oracle released RDBMS 11gR2 in October, 2010, and then released an updated version in November, 2010 because of a security issue with MetaLink Authentication.
Oracle released five patches to JRE in 2010 until finally resolving a functionality issue with JRE 1.6.0_23. Then in 2011, JRE 1.6.0_24 was released. New JRE versions are released several times a year, so you should watch for new ones and be prepared to upgrade more than once a year.
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Our conclusion? Even if you aren’t planning to upgrade, you still have to check My Oracle Support periodically to stay on top of changes like these.
More Applications Patches We’ve already talked about Release 11i Consolidated Updates (CUs) and Release 12 Release Update Packs (RUPs). CUs can be released after a Release 11i point release (like 11.5.10.2), and Release 12 RUPs can only be applied to an existing Release 12 environment. Following are additional types of patches:
Maintenance Packs are a collection of the latest product family patchsets. Release 11.5.10 is the latest Release 11i Maintenance Pack. Consolidated Updates (CUs) are applied to a maintenance pack, so the latest CU for Release 11i brings 11.5.10 up to Release 11.5.10.2.
Technology Layer Updates are patchsets or mini-packs that change the underlying services. The latest for Release 11i is 11i.ATG_PF.H Rollup 7.
Family Packs or Product Family Release Update Patches (RUPs) provide patches for a specific, individual product family for a specific point release.
Product Mini-Packs are bug fixes for a specific applications module, rather than product family.
One-off Patches/Individual Bug Fixes/Emergency Patches are rare. A one off patch is one that fixes one issue. An example is One-off Patch 6812211, which fixes a potential data corruption issue in Release 12 Oracle Assets.
Pre-upgrade patch – upgrade related, high priority patches consolidated from all the products within a product family.
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Pre-install patch – patches that if applied before the upgrade will proactively correct issues. If you miss the pre-install patch, you may not be able to recover and will have to search for patches that can be applied after the fact.
Steven Chan’s blog article Products and Families and Versions – Oh, My! describes the different types of patches that you might need to apply to a Release 12 environment in addition to Release Update Packs. As you consider applying patches to your E-Business Suite environment, it is important that you understand the thoroughness of Oracle’s testing. Consolidated Updates (CUs) and Release Update Packs (RUPs) are the most thoroughly tested by Oracle. Family Packs, on the other hand, are tested only by their product teams. Where possible, you may want to wait for a RUP rather than apply another type of patch between RUPs. Since Oracle has done well at meeting their quarterly dates for RUPs, if you are staying current on patching, you should only have to apply a non-RUP patch in limited situations. If possible, stay current on CPUs and Technology Layer Updates, even if you can’t stay current on Release Update Packs.
AutoPatch (ADPatch) AutoPatch applies Applications patches (not database patches, operating system patches, or CPU/PSUs) and records the patch details in the OAM Applied Patches Database. OAM includes tools like Applied Patches, Timing Reports and Patch Wizard to help determine what patches have already been applied, how long they may take to apply, and which ones are available. Using OAM’s Patch Wizard, there is no excuse for not knowing exactly what – right down to the SQL code – is being changed by a patch. See MOS Doc. ID: 225165.1, Patching Best Practices and Reducing Downtime. 80
You can use AD Merge Patch to group patches together for application, then apply the merged patch using AutoPatch. You can also use AutoPatch Non-interactive Mode to automate patch application. You should use a Shared Application Tier File System for multi-node systems to apply patches only once. MOS Doc. ID: 181665.1, Release 11i AutoPatch Basics covers patching strategies.
Applied Patches and Patch Wizard OAM includes two very useful tools for patch research. First, there’s Applied Patches, which allows you to query on whether you’ve applied a patch or not.
With Applied Patches, you enter a Patch number and it will tell you in the lower section if you’ve already applied the patch.
Figure 15
An alternative to check if you have applied a patch is to query the tables directly: select * from ad_bugs where bug_number = ‘9860329’; Second, there’s Patch Wizard, which looks at the patches that you’ve applied and then compares your list with Oracle’s list of available high priority patches, and 81
recommends patches that you can apply. Patch Wizard also allows you to automatically download patches, which can save time over the traditional method of searching for a patch on My Oracle Support and then downloading it. Patch Wizard also lets you create filters or use existing filters to limit what patches are recommended. To support the E-Business Suite Release 11i Extended Support Mandatory Patching exercise, Oracle created a special filter, called Support, that will limit the patch recommendations to those required for the mandatory patching.
Figure 16 - The "Patch Wizard" option
Patch Application Assistant (PAA) Oracle Patch Application Assistant (PAA) helps you track and perform manual steps during patching. For patches with manual steps, PAA generates a customized set of instructions specific to your installation and displays the relevant manual steps. For merged patches, PAA
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automatically merges the contents of the individual patch readme files. If you need to use PAA, the patch readme will ask you to run admsi.pl.
Database and CPU/PSU Patching You use the OPatch utility to apply patches to the RDBMS. OPatch is also used to apply patches to the E-Business Suite Plug-in. Critical Patch Updates (CPUs) and Patch Set Updates (PSUs), the quarterly security patches that patch the ORACLE_HOMEs, use n-Apply CPU/PSU (aka napply). n-apply uses OPatch, but groups security fixes to simplify patch conflict resolution procedures. Note: MOS Doc. ID: 466181.1, 10g Upgrade Companion Version 2 documents how to upgrade from Oracle 9i to 10g. MOS Doc. ID: 785351.1, Oracle 11gR2 Upgrade Companion documents how to upgrade from Oracle 9i to 11gR2.
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Chapter 10 - Oracle Integration Repository (iRep) You can use the Oracle Integration Repository (iRep) to view all the interfaces in the E-Business Suite in one place. The iRep catalog can be searched using keywords and can be navigated by product family, interface type and integration standard. Interface types include concurrent request, java, java service interface, PL/SQL, Service Data Object, Web Service, XML Gateway Map and EDI. You need the Integration Repository responsibility to use iRep. Read more about iRep in MOS Doc. ID: 421170.1, R12 Oracle Service Contracts And Integration Repository Access. 1. Login to the E-Business Suite from an account that has the “Integration Repository” responsibility 2. Select the "Integration Repository" responsibility 3. Select a Product Family and explore
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Figure 17 - iRep
Figure 18 - Exploring Product Families with iRep
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Chapter 11 – How Fusion Fits In Many companies who have purchased best of breed applications solutions over the years find themselves facing a difficult problem - should they keep each product as a separate entity, or is there a way to integrate the products, choosing the best qualities of each while taking advantage of new features and technology advancements? The answer, of course, is what we will be discussing in this chapter. This chapter describes a technical roadmap that shows how Oracle Fusion Middleware, the E-Business Suite Release 12, and Oracle’s Fusion Applications will fit together. By understanding how these three pieces work together, you can plan your organization’s strategy for dealing with Fusion.
Terminology What is Fusion Middleware? Oracle’s Fusion Middleware offers a full suite of tools for building a service-oriented architecture. These tools are standards-based and take advantage of leading edge technology solutions. These software tools enable different applications to work together, even if they weren’t originally designed to do so. Fusion Middleware tools are based on a modular architecture and follow industry standards. Oracle calls Fusion Middleware “hot-pluggable”, which means customers will be able to protect their current investments in technology and still have long-term flexibility. For example, for those customers who have invested in Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle’s hot-pluggable Oracle Content Management will allow users to continue to use the SharePoint interface that they’ve become accustomed to, while also searching and browsing for Oracle Universal Content Management files – all from within the SharePoint interface. 87
What is E-Business Suite Release 12? Oracle’s E-Business Suite Release 12 is Oracle’s latest version of their business applications. Not all E-Business Suite customers are running this latest release – Oracle has customers still using Releases 10.7/11.0 (though hopefully not many), and a lot of customers are running on various point releases of Release 11i, Release 12’s predecessor. Oracle also supports customers running other business applications, including the JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel product lines. What are the Fusion Applications? The Fusion Applications will unify best-of-breed capabilities from all Oracle Applications in a complete suite delivered on Oracle’s open technology. For those of us who only support the E-Business Suite of Applications, when Oracle says “all Oracle Applications”, they mean the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, JD Edwards World, Oracle EBusiness Suite, PeopleSoft and Siebel product lines. These new applications will focus on end-to-end business processes like Order2Cash, Procure2Pay, and Hire2Retire. They will provide more cost effective integration, flexible business processes and extensibility and they will fuse processes, people, and products to leverage the best parts of each. The Fusion Applications will embrace a serviceoriented and standards-based information architecture.
Fusion Application Design Principles The application design principles for Fusion are straightforward. First, Fusion Applications must improve business insight by offering real-time operational analysis to enable taking action. Oracle accomplishes this by using Oracle’s Event Driven Architecture, BI Tools, and Dashboards. Second, the Fusion Applications must mirror Adaptive Industry Processes to make it simpler to integrate
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and customize the applications to match your business requirements. Oracle will accomplish this by using ServiceOriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Management (BPM). Finally, the Fusion Applications must provide a better ownership experience. Oracle’s goal is to provide applications that allow zero downtime and increased automation. To do this, Oracle is investing heavily in lifecycle management. The following diagram based on E-Business Suite Technology Stack Roadmap (April 2010) Now Available, Steven Chan, Oracle Corporation, shows Oracle’s roadmap to Fusion:
Figure 19
Some points to keep in mind as you prepare for the arrival of the Fusion Applications:
The current version of the Fusion Applications does not include all EBS modules
Oracle guarantees that you will be able to migrate directly from Release 12 to the Fusion Applications. There is no direct upgrade path from Release 11i.
You should probably upgrade to Release 12 and then see what happens next
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Focus on Business Process Management and Improvement With Business Process Management (BPM), the various stakeholders, from business analysts to developers to end users can work together to make process improvements using existing applications. Business Process Analysis (BPA) tools simulate business and process models before implementation using real customer data. Business Process Execution (BPE) tools allow customers to implement new processes and then monitor and optimize those processes using Business Process Monitoring (BAM) tools.
Figure 20
Fusion Middleware is the “Enabler” Oracle has coined the term “the Fusion Effect”, and defines it as “the sustainable competitive advantage achieved by continuous blending of business insight and adaptable processes”. This effect depends on Fusion Middleware and its family of more than 40 software products. Fusion Middleware leverages the Oracle Application Server 10g or 11g and takes advantage of software from many Oracle acquisitions. Of course, Fusion Middleware is built on industry standards, which is what makes it so flexible and adaptable. 90
Fusion Middleware Areas Fusion Middleware solutions address several areas, including Development Tools, User Interaction, Enterprise Performance Management, Business Intelligence, Content Management, SOA and Process Management, the Application Grid infrastructure, Enterprise Management and Identity Management:
Figure 21 – Oracle Fusion Middleware Technologies From Building a SOA Solution with Oracle Fusion Middleware for Oracle E-Business Suite, by Basheer Khan, Innowave Technology, Samuel Tong, Forsythe Technology, and Juliana Button, Oracle Corporation.
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Fusion Components to Know
Figure 22
Applications Integration Architecture (AIA) Oracle’s Applications Integration Architecture (AIA) provides an open standards-based framework for creating cross-application business processes that support the way you run your business today, while paving the way for your long term, strategic business transformation plans. Powered by Fusion Middleware, the AIA includes a pre-built SOA Integration Layer for BPEL. Best Practice Processes are represented as abstract models and extensible execution flows. Enterprise Business Objects provide a standard definition of business objects. Enterprise Business Services provide a common service definition. Best of Breed Application Service Components provide logic and data. Hubs are used to Consolidate Key Entities to a common definition. The AIA components are the Foundation Pack, the Process Integration Packs and the Industry Reference Models. The Foundation Pack leverages SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) to allow customers to create custom process integrations more quickly and cost-effectively than traditional approaches. The Process Integration Packs
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provide flexible out-of-the-box process integrations that can be easily extended and evolved as business requirements change. Oracle’s Industry Reference Models provide customers with tools and documented business process flows to adapt to specific marketplace requirements by using industry best practices. This architectural model provides an open, standards-based architecture that accelerates time-to-value. The model provides pre-built, sustainable integrations to reduce implementation risk and cost. The extension framework protects your investment from upgrades. Documented best practice reference models help you optimize business operations. The application independent design makes it easy to plug and play new applications, including the Fusion Applications. Oracle Application Integration Architecture Figure 23 shows the Application Integration Architecture:
Best Practice Processes - Optimize business performance leveraging Oracle’s extensive experience and best practices
Process Integration Packs - Pre-built, out of the box, integrated Oracle Applications for quick implementation of business processes, without the risk. (i.e. Siebel CRM to Oracle E-Business Suite)
Foundation Packs - Create custom business processes across any of your applications utilizing predefined, application independent object and service definitions
Powered by Oracle Fusion Middleware - Industry leading, open standards based SOA Middleware platform
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Figure 23 – Oracle Application Integration Architecture From Building a SOA Solution with Oracle Fusion Middleware for Oracle E-Business Suite, by Basheer Khan, Innowave Technology, Samuel Tong, Forsythe Technology, and Juliana Button, Oracle Corporation.
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SOA Enablement of Oracle E-Business Suite: For Business Integration Architectures
Figure 24
Figure 25 shows the E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway. The EBS interfaces are natively exposed as web services. These out-of-the-box services are part of the SOA Provider. They consume standard web services with the Service Invocation Framework. The integration is nonintrusive with public business events in the Integration Repository. Visibility is provided through the SOA Monitor.
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Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway
Figure 25 – Oracle E-Business Suite SOA Gateway From Building a SOA Solution with Oracle Fusion Middleware for Oracle E-Business Suite, by Basheer Khan, Innowave Technology, Samuel Tong, Forsythe Technology, and Juliana Button, Oracle Corporation.
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Business Benefits: Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway
Figure 26
Business Intelligence Tools Business Intelligence (BI) is the process of getting information about your business from available data. Oracle provides a number of different BI tools, including:
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) – formerly Siebel Analytics, OBIEE is a comprehensive suite of enterprise BI products that deliver a full range of analysis and reporting capabilities
BI Publisher – formerly XML Publisher, is an enterprise reporting solution that allows users to create, manage and deliver all kinds of highly formatted documents
Oracle Discoverer – use this tool for creating and maintaining a business-oriented view of relational data
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Business Activity Monitor (Dashboards) – allows executives to monitor key business services and processes and to quickly make changes in business process to take corrective action
Oracle Business Intelligence Warehouse Builder – use this tool to design, implement and maintain a data warehouse environment and the metadata for building reports
Daily Business Intelligence – a set of reporting and analysis applications that deliver accurate, timely, actionable information to executives, managers and front-line workers
Event Driven Architecture (EDA) Oracle’s Event Driven Architecture (EDA) is built into the Fusion Middleware products. It allows customers to monitor, analyze and respond to business events and requires minimal coding to do so. Creating a new user, for example, might create a business event that triggers emailing the new user a user guide, or shipping a security token, or scheduling training. EDA is designed to control Workflow, and does so by working outside the Application Suites. EDA leverages Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) and uses Enterprise Messaging (JMS). Best of all, EDA will be interoperable with non-Oracle applications, providing a tremendous amount of flexibility for customers. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) A Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implements applications as a small series of building blocks, each of which performs a discrete step or function. These blocks are then combined using another software component to create a complete application. By building this solution in a Java Enterprise toolkit, it is possible to create a solution that is based upon vendor-neutral standards, has the
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potential to interoperate with other applications, and can exploit Grid Computing to its best potential.
Figure 27 – Service Oriented Architecture
Figure 28 – Oracle SOA Platform From Building a SOA Solution with Oracle Fusion Middleware for Oracle E-Business Suite, by Basheer Khan, Innowave Technology, Samuel Tong, Forsythe Technology, and Juliana Button, Oracle Corporation.
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Figure 29 – Fusion Middleware Areas
Figure 30 - Oracle E-Business Suite: Business Integration Technologies
Master Data Management (MDM) Master Data Management (MDM) tools allow customers to consolidate/federate master information from disparate systems and business lines into one repository. Users can cleanse and enrich data centrally, and distribute data as a 100
service from a single point of truth to consuming applications, enterprise business processes and decision support systems. Identity Management Components Identity management solutions provide the security backbone for Oracle Fusion Middleware. These tools assist with administration, configuration management, provisioning, end-to-end monitoring, service level management and security capabilities. Identity Management Components provide a centralized console that manages and monitors both Oracle and non-Oracle products. Tools include:
Web Access - Oracle Access Manager
Provisioning - Oracle Identity Manager
Federation - Oracle Identity Federation
Password Synch - Oracle Identity Manager
Virtual Directory - Oracle Virtual Directory
Meta-Directory - Oracle Directory Integration Platform
Directory - Oracle Internet Directory
Authentication/PKI - Oracle Certificate Authority
Web Services - Oracle Web Services Manager
Enterprise SSO - Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite
Applications Roadmap Overview The following chart shows the upgrade paths for Oracle’s different product suites:
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EOne 8.12
EOne 9.1
EOne 9.0
World A9.2
World A9.1 9.0
R12
8.0
9.1
9.x
R12.1
R12.x
8.1
8.2
V1.0
Figure 31
How the Fusion Applications Fit In You might say that the Fusion Applications will be just another Applications product line, just like JDE, EBS, PeopleSoft and Siebel are product lines. Customers can choose an end to end solution based on one product line, or they can take a best of breed approach with components for each. For example, a customer could integrate E-Business Suite Financials with PeopleSoft Human Resources and Siebel CRM. It is Fusion Middleware that all customers will use, regardless of the applications product line they choose.
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Figure 32
The Road to Fusion - Roadmap Concepts We leave you with the following recommendations for preparing for Fusion:
Pick Your Fusion Applications “Jump-off Point” – for E-Business Suite, you must be running Release 12. If you are not running Release 12 and want to migrate to the Fusion Applications when they become available, you will have to upgrade first.
Upgrade to Your “Jump-off Point” as soon as possible.
Upgrade to Oracle RDBMS Version 11g as soon as possible.
Implement Standard NAS/SAN Utilities for Snapshots
Implement Standard Oracle Utilities like Oracle Enterprise Manager with the E-Business Suite Plugin
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Stay Current on your “Jump-off Point”. You’ll need to stay current on the ATG Release Update Pack, year-end patches, and Critical Patch Updates (CPUs) especially Release 11i customers (MOS Doc. ID: 883202.1 and MOS Doc. ID: 1116887.1).
Evaluate and document your customizations. Determine what customizations you have, map them to Applications functionality and decommission customizations where possible if the Applications provide the same functionality. You’ll want to convert customizations to Fusion technology-based solutions where decommission is not possible. As an example, since we know that Workflow will be replaced by BPEL for the Fusion Applications, now is the time to learn BPEL. Any existing workflow customizations – or new ones – should be written using BPEL.
Start Leveraging Your Available Fusion Tools. Fusion is already here! Fusion tools that can already be used with the E-Business Suite include XML (BI) Publisher, the SOA Suite and WebCenter, and Business Intelligence tools like OBIEE or DBI and Discoverer 10g or, preferably, Discoverer 11g.
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Conclusion There is no lack of communication on Oracle’s part as to where the Applications are going in the next few years. With what you know about Oracle’s Applications Unlimited support offerings, you can plan your migration to the Fusion Applications today. The Fusion Middleware tools are already here, so you can begin learning to use them now, rather than wait until you have no choice. Oracle has clearly placed a tremendous emphasis on stabilizing their Release 12 products, and is providing us with a wealth of tools to help manage our Release 12 environments. In return, they expect us to patch, and patch often. With Applications Unlimited support options and the requirement that customers stay within the current versions or the one prior on the ATG technology upgrades to be able to apply the latest Critical Patch Update, customers will need to define an upgrade process and stick to it. When we log Service Requests to Oracle Support, we can now expect to be asked to run Oracle Change Management (OCM) and specific Diagnostics programs to provide better information for problem solving. We’re also seeing a tremendous improvement in the availability of documentation and the ease in locating documentation on My Oracle Support. In the end, it’s a tradeoff – Oracle is working very hard to provide tools to encourage us to stay patched current… now all we have to do is learn how to use them and forge ahead.
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Links and My Oracle Support (MOS) Notes and Documents
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 181665.1, Release 11i AutoPatch Basics
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 225165.1, Patching Best Practices and Reducing Downtime
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 373548.1, Using Forms Trace in Oracle Applications Release 12
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 387859.1, Using AutoConfig to Manage System Configurations in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 406982.1, Oracle Applications Release 12 with Rapid Clone
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 421170.1, R12 Oracle Service Contracts And Integration Repository Access
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 454178.1, Oracle Application Server Diagnostic Tools and Log Files in Applications Release 12.
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 459156.1, Oracle Applications Patching FAQ for Release 12
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 466181.1, 10g Upgrade Companion Version 2
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 603104.1, Troubleshooting RapidClone issues with Oracle Applications R12
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 783188.1, Certified RAC Scenarios for E-Business Suite Cloning
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 785351.1, Oracle 11gR2 Upgrade Companion
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My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 787749.1, Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Release Notes for Solaris (SPARC) 10g Release 5 (10.2.0.5)
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 812294.1, Troubleshooting Guide and Known Issues List for the Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle EBusiness Suite, Release 3.0
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 829450.1, Known Issues with the Oracle Application Change Management Pack for E-Business Suite
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 846628.1, Interesting links about Applications Management Pack and Applications Change Management Pack for E-Business Suite
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 854428.1, Patch Set Updates for Oracle Products
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 850471.1, Oracle Announces First Patch Set Update For Oracle Database Release 10.2
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 883202.1, Minimum Baseline Patch Requirements for Extended Support on Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 1116887.1, Critical EBusiness Suite11i (11.5.10) Extended Support Information on Minimum Baseline Patch Requirements
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 1224313.1: Getting Started with Oracle E-Business Suite Plug-in, Release 4.0
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 1495337.1, Announcements: E-Business Suite 11.5.10 Sustaining Support Exception & 12.1 Extended Support Now to Dec. 2018
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Steven Chan’s blog, Oracle E-Business Suite Plug-in 4.0 Released for OEM 11g (11.1.0.1)
My Oracle Support Doc. ID: 982302.1, Getting Started with Oracle Application Management Pack and Application Change Management Pack for Oracle EBusiness Suite Version 3.1
Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle EBusiness Suite User’s Guide Release 3.1, Part No. E14597-02
Oracle Application Change Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite User’s Guide, Release 3.1, Part No. E14530-02
Oracle Lifetime Support Documents:
Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Technology Products (PDF) Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Fusion Middleware Products (PDF) Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Applications (PDF) Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Retail Applications (PDF) Lifetime Support Policy:Oracle Financial Service Products (PDF)
http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenchan - Steven Chan, Director of Applications Technology Integration for Oracle – wonderful articles explaining the nuances of the Applications
www.Integrigy.com – E-Business Suite Security, including CPU vulnerability evaluation. Integrigy now offers free webinars on CPU/PSU patches.
www.OnCallDBA.com – E-Business Suite books and concurrent manager expertise 109
www.justadba.com – John Stouffer’s website
www.drhealthchecks.com and www.redriversolutions.com – E-Business Suite consulting, free E-Business Suite books
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About the Authors John Stouffer has more than 19 years’ experience with Oracle database administration and more than 16 years’ experience supporting Oracle’s E-Business Suite Applications environments, including architectural design, installation, implementations, upgrades and system assessments in the federal, public and commercial industries. John is an Oracle ACE for his contributions in the area of Oracle EBS Applications. John is the past chair of the OAUG Upgrade SIG, was the founding co-chair for OAUG’s Fusion Council and actively participates in other GEO and SIG activities. John is also serving on the 20102011 OAUG Board. Special Thanks To: Neeraj Chauhan – Manager, Product Management, Oracle EBS –ATG, and Vijay Shanmugam – Principal Software Engineer, Development, Oracle EBS –ATG, Peter Um, Oracle – Director, Enterprise Architecture, for allowing us to incorporate several of their slides from their presentation Integration Architecture for Oracle E-Business Suite: Technical Insight Basheer Khan, CEO, Innowave Technology, Samuel Tong, Systems Architect, Forsythe Technology, and Juliana Button, Director, Product Management, Oracle Corporation, for allowing us to incorporate some of their slides from their presentation Building a SOA Solution with Oracle Fusion Middleware for Oracle E-Business Suite Steven Chan, Director of Applications Technology Integration, Oracle Corporation, for allowing us to incorporate material from his blog, http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenchan
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Also Ken Baxter, Senior Product Strategy Manager, and Biju Mohan, Senior Product Manager, Oracle Corporation, for their presentation, Application Change Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite An Introduction, Ashish Agrawal, Oracle Corporation, for “Upgrading to 11g Best Practices” and Tom Kyte, “Oracle Database 11g - What Does it Mean?”
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