Posts Tagged ‘E-Business Suite’


What Oracle is Doing Right

August 3rd, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

For a change of pace I thought it would be good to  mention a few of the things I think that Oracle is doing right.   Over the last several years I continue to be impressed with what I see coming out of Oracle related to their product directions and new products.  Here’s my take on the things I see Oracle doing right.

The first one I’ll note is that Oracle is doing a great job at maintaining a Leadership Role in software innovation.  It’s obvious if you look at various evaluations such as the “Magic Quadrant” by Gartner that Oracle’s products are consistently in the top right quadrant where market leaders are found.  Here are a few Oracle products that I’ve had the opportunity to work with.

  • E-Business Suite R12 – R12 is more evolutionary than revolutionary but it significantly improves on what was a solid release in 11i by expanding the international capabilities of this massive applications suite.  With over 224 separate modules, R12 is mind-boggling in it’s scope of capabilities.  Oracle gets some dings for the bugs that were found in the first year  but they’ve quickly addressed the core issues in the releases leading up to release 12.1.  While there is an improved user interface the real changes are beneath the surface and which improve the productivity of everyday users.
  • 11g Database – there are many people who are better qualified to speak on this product than I but as one who has been working with the Oracle database since the last legs of version 6 I’m amazed that  Oracle continues to add useful and valuable capabilities to this workhorse of a database system.  In the areas of performance, operating systems supported, scalability and reliability the Oracle database keeps most of the world’s business working smoothly.  Yes the management interfaces are not as slick as they could be but the newer versions of Oracle Enterprise Manager tend to overwhelm me with information.  The power of PL/SQL remains a constant in the middle of all of the changes we have seen over the years.  Each new release allows more parameters to be changed on the fly rather than requiring downtime.  Recently introduced capabilities that I think will change the future of data management include Real Applications Testing, Active Data Guard, Database Vault and Total Recall.  There’s much more and I’ll probably get dinged in my comments for leaving it out but enough said.
  • Fusion Middleware 11g – Just released and while most of us are still trying to digest it all let me summarize it as a significant statement of Oracle’s capabilities to innovate dozens of products and continually integrate them in ways that architects, developers and management can better deliver business solutions that evolve more and more quickly.  The introduction of better technologies from the BEA acquisition has positioned Oracle to be the dominant player in this market.
  • JDeveloper 11g – This IDE has to compete with dozens of other great Java IDE’s like Eclipse and Aptana but still is a stand out.  This product offers all the bells and whistles including the ability to interact with all areas of the database and middleware environments that Oracle offers.  Additionally the capabilities of the Application Development Framework simplify the development of very robust user interfaces incorporating the best Web 2.0 goodies.  Using JDeveloper I can do Use Case design, write code, test, develop a database design and still not delve all of its capabilities.
  • Fusion Applications – Though not yet  released this coming Applications Suite will introduce an innovative User Interface that is a mash-up of the best of Web 2.0 and what Oracle has learned from it’s product acquisitions (such as PeopleSoft).  Built on Oracle Fusion Middleware capabilities this application will bring Service Oriented Architecture and more industry-standards to the underlying technology stack.    The focus on improving user productivity already seen in the UI will be much appreciated by those who do the real daily work of running the details of a business.
  • Miscellaneous - Kudos to Oracle for supporting the Open Source community by releasing versions of products that they have developed (see here).

Ok, it’s time to take a rest from this area of adulation and move to the second item I think Oracle has done well.  I’ll cover that in the next post.

Tags: · · · · · · · ·

No Comments »

 

OAUG – Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE) and Oracle Data Integrator

May 3rd, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

At the Special Interest Group (SIG) for Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing there was discussion about some changes affecting OBIEE.  I haven’t confirmed yet but it was mentioned that Oracle has announced the ability to use Oracle Data Integrator (formerly Synopsis) as the ETL engine for OBIEE rather than Informatica.

Why is this of interest?  The Informatica product(s) were considered much more expensive and more complex to manage than ODI for handling Extraction, Translation and Loading (ETL) data.  With the ability to begin using ODI there is now another supported option when considering the backend for OBIEE.

In the announcement last week, only 4 or 5 of the 10 data warehouse modules are apparently supported by ODI, but the remaining are being developed.  This limits what data can be loaded into the OBIEE data warehouse with ODI but the good news is that Oracle is working on the remaining features.

More information about ODI can be found here

I’ll dig up more information about this announcement and post it after the OAUG conference.

Tags: · · ·

No Comments »

 

Internet Explorer 8 not certified for EBS

March 30th, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

Recently Stephen Chan noted that many E-Business Suite users are going to be tempted to load the new version of Internet Explorer which was release several weeks ago.  The results of installing IE8 (and replacing IE7) could be headaches for those of us who are supporting users.

For that reason he’s recommending that users continue using IE7 until IE8 is certified.

You can read more here.

Tags: ·

No Comments »

 

Experiences with 12.0.6 Release Update Pack (RUP6)

February 5th, 2009 by Anonymous • 4 Comments »

Special thanks go to Jeff Vold, the Apps DBA at Hazelden Foundation, who wrote this article about RUP6.

Hazelden Foundation is running Release 11.5.9 in production and is in the midst of a Release 12 upgrade. We recently applied the 12.0.6 Release Update Pack (RUP6) on top of our 12.0.4 development environment, and were asked to share our experiences. Here are some quick facts on RUP 6: According to Metalink Note:743368.1, RUP 6 is cumulative and delivers error corrections and system updates included in 12.0.1, 12.0.2, 12.0.3, 12.0.5, or FIN and HRMS family RUP5 along with those in 12.0.6.

Our patching consisted of the following: 7305220 – R12.AD.A.DELTA.6, 7505241 -  PRC Rollup November 2008, 6728000 – RUP6, 7109200 – Consolidated Help, and the two November CPC’s for Payables and Receivables.  I applied this set of patches three separate times on top of a clean Release 12.0.4 instance to eliminate all possible adworker job failures.

Prior to starting the patching, I followed Metalink Note: 372180.1 to delete an extra record from fnd_profile_option_values where profile_option_name=’PRINTER’ so an adworker program running the script afadmprf.sh for the R12.AD.A.DELTA.6 patch didn’t fail. Next I followed Metalink Note: 744973.1 so an adworker running script zpbremcwm.sql for the RUP6 patch didn’t fail.

I also had to open a couple of SR’s for failed workers with RUP6 and this is what I found:

RUP6 adworkers failed while running b6892753.sql. This was due to the column LONG_DESCRIPTION in table MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_TL, which was sized at 2000 and needed to be 4000. The support rep recommended applying patch 7505241 and then applying RUP6. I started with a clean Release 12.0.4 environment and applied R12.AD.A.DELTA.6, PRC Rollup November 2008, and RUP6. Again the RUP6 adworkers failed while running b6892753.sql due to another bug 7623243. Oracle is providing patch 7691702 to resolve this issue.
RUP6  adworker failed while running script gcs_hr_re_update.sql.  MetaLink Doc. ID: 601803.1 documents the error, but since we are not using the Financial Consolidated Hub, this failed adworker job was skipped using adctrl.

Once the patches were completed, I followed the post-update steps. See Oracle E-Business Suite Release Update Pack Readme, Release 12.0.6 MetaLink Doc ID: 743368.1.

After the post-update steps were completed, we ran into a few other issues that needed to be resolved. A partial list is detailed below.

When first logging into the app, I received the error “The Page Cannot be displayed”.  The solution that resolved this error was setting the parameter

LONG_RUNNING_JVM=false

in $INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/oacore/config/oc4j.properties.

After selecting a responsibility upon login, the message  “APP-FND-01540: Unsuccessful logins since your last session” appears. This occurs no matter which user logs in. Metalink note 736799.1 states this is a Release 11.5.10 issue and recommends setting the system profile  “Sign-On:Notification” to “No”, but this will disable all notifications and may not be desirable for all users. We opened an SR to find a resolution.

We also ran into a MOAC bug and had to apply patch 7649893. There are two bug fixes in this patch.

I hope you’ve found this overview of our experience helpful.

Tags: · · · · ·

4 Comments »

 

Cleaning up Tablespaces after OATM has Completed

December 29th, 2008 by Robert McMillen • 1 Comment »

Often after running Oracle Application Tablespace Migration (OATM) you will find that there are still indexes, tables and objects left in some of the old tablespaces.  You want to clean them up so you can delete the old tablespaces and recover the space used by the datafiles.  In the OATM documentation there’s no clear instructions on how to do this since it assumes that OATM will handle it for you.

I recently had this situation and here’s some steps I took to resolve my problem.  This example assumes that I have some tables, indexes and objects left in the old FNDD and FNDX tablespaces.  I wanted to move everything over to one of the new APPS_TS_* tablespaces so I could drop these two old tablespaces and recover the disk space.

Before I got started I found this nice article that outlines options with working on Large Objects (which I had).  The syntax examples are nice.

First I wanted to list all objects left in FNDD so I knew what to move.  I used this script and modifed the Tablespace Name to list all objects (including “free space” segments).

Next I wanted to list any tables left in FNDD so I did this.

select table_name from dba_tables where tablespace_name = ‘FNDD’;

Before you move the table (and any associated LOB segments), you may want to verify you have enough space in the destination tablespace.  You can query dba_segments to find out how many bytes are currently being used for the segments that you are planning to move.  Then verify you have enough free space at the destination.

I found that I had a table with a LOB column and the two associated LOB and LOB Index segments.  I wanted to move the table and both LOB segments to APPS_TS_MEDIA in one group.  The command to move these three objects was:

alter table OWNER.TABLENAME

move tablespace NEWTABLESPACENAME

lob(COLUMNNAME)

store as (tablespace NEWTABLESPACENAME);

The COLUMNNAME is the column name in the table that contains the Large Object.

After the move I verified that there were no other objects left in FNDD using the same script above.  I also did a:

select owner, table_name from dba_tables where tablespace_name = ‘OLDTABLESPACENAME’; to ensure that the table was gone as well.

Now it was time to check FNDX to ensure that any indexes were moved as well.  I modified the script from above to reference FNDX instead of FNDD.  I also ran a select index_name from dba_indexes where tablespace_name = ‘FNDX’;

Once I identifed the indexes I used this command to move them to the new tablespace.

alter index OWNER.INDEXNAME rebuild NEWTABLESPACENAME;

After verifying that everything was gone from FNDX and now in the new tablespaces I was able to drop the FNDD and FNDX tablespaces freeing up lots of needed space.

Several documents on Metalink were also helpful so I’ve listed them here.

  • Summary Note to LOB’s/BLOB’s/CLOB’s/NCLOB’s and BFILEs DOC ID 198160.1
  • How to move LOB Data to another Tablespace  DOC ID 130814.1

Finally, though I didn’t have to use this syntax, here is the command to move just the Large Object (LOBs) segments to a new tablespace while NOT moving the actual table that uses them.

alter table TABLENAME move lob(LOBCOLUMNNAME) store as (tablespace NEWTABLESPACENAME);

And here’s the syntax to just move a Table which doesn’t have any LOB columns.

alter table TABLENAME move tablespace NEWTABLESPACENAME;

That about wraps it up, so good luck on your tablespace cleaning!

Tags: · · · · · ·

1 Comment »

 

Release 12 Critical Patch Collection for November Available

December 1st, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

In a previous post we discussed the new patching bundle, the Critical Patch Collection (CPC) that Oracle began issuing in October.  As a recap, this is what Oracle says about CPC’s.

R12 Financials Critical Patch Collections (CPC) are consolidated critical patches that all R12 Financials customers must apply to ensure proper operation of their systems. Advantages of applying CPCs over one-off fixes and RUPs are as follows:

  • CPCs are fully quality assured against current RUP levels. Individual one-off patches are not.
  • CPCs are consolidated and only contain critical patches that apply to broad customer usages. They are smaller in footprint and therefore much easier to apply and uptake than RUPs.
  • CPC Readmes have detailed business and functional information about the fixes included. Customers can leverage the Readmes to determine impact and testing required for specific process flows and software components involved.

The header entry for CPC’s is found in Doc 557869.1 which describes all released CPC’s.

Be aware that there is a new CPC for November, release November 12th.  This second CPC applies to just Payables and Receivables.

You can find out more about it in the following documents:

EBS: R12 Payables Critical Patch Collection November 2008, (Doc 745767.1, Patch 7456652, 23Mb)

This first patch requires a minimum of R12.AD.A.delta.2,R12.ATG_PF.A.delta.2 and R12.PJ_PF.A.delta.2

Also there is a pre-requisite for Latin American users you should check in the README.

EBS: R12 Receivables Critical Patch Collection November 2008, (Doc 745769.1, Patch 7387254, 26Mb)

This second patch requires a post-install step of running the “Import Application Accounting Definitions” concurrent request.

We haven’t applied this yet in our environments but will be doing so soon so I’ll update this post when complete.

Tags: · · · ·

No Comments »

 

Applying RUP6 for Release 12.0.6

December 1st, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

I recently applied the latest RUP for Release 12 at a client that is in the midst of a new R12 installation.  I thought I’d recap my experience.

The 12.0.6 patch was released on Friday, November 7th.  We were alerted to it because we ran a fresh version of patchsets.sh during the week and it indicated that everything we had installed was superseded by an unreleased patch.  That got our curiosity going and we checked around Metalink finding that RUP6 was imminent.

The environment was using RedHat Linux 64 bit.  We had recently upgraded the Oracle database from 10.2.0.3 to 10.2.0.4.  They were already on RUP5 and we had recently applied the October CPU and the October Critical Patch Collection patches.  Bottom-line, we were very up-to-date.

Our environment consisted of two Application Servers and a single DB Server.  We were using ASM (10.2.0.4) but not using RAC.  We also had a shared APPL_TOP using OCFS2 for the two Application Servers.

You must start by applying the pre-requisite adpatch, R12 AD.A Delta 6 (Patch 7305520, Doc 736655.1).  It’s about 1.4Mb in size.  After downloading it there was a script to run for adgrants listed in the Patch 7305520 README.  We ran it, the adgrants.sql script, (as sysdba) to grant privileges to selected SYS objects and create PL/SQL profiler objects. We then applied patch 7305520 with adpatch.

Next we downloaded the RUP6 (Patch 6728000, Doc 743368.1).  It’s a big one at 2Gb in size.  It is multi-language but since we had an English-only installation we just downloaded the Linux86 version from Metalink.  It comes packaged in four files:

p6728000_R12_LINUX_1of4.zip  498Mb

p6728000_R12_LINUX_2of4.zip 546Mb

p6728000_R12_LINUX_4of4.zip 503Mb

p6728000_R12_LINUX_4of4.zip 429Mb

Looking at the README, it’s a straight-forward install with adpatch.  However if you have HR implemented there are some post-install steps which I didn’t have to do.  More information about that is in Document 145837.1 on Metalink.

The next step was to install the RUP6 Help Files (Patch 7109200, Doc 743368.1).  This is another multi-language patch where we only had to install the Generic version.  This is a simple adpatch install with no pre/post requirements.

In summary, it was a fairly simple patch exercise for our environment.  Hope yours is the same!

Tags: · · · · · ·

No Comments »

 

So That’s What Those Hidden Oracle Parameters Are For!

November 5th, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »
We hit this issue when we were cloning a production RAC environment that had been backed up using RMAN and then restored to a non-RAC test environment. To get past it, we had to add a hidden parameter to the target init.ora file to allow us to open the duplicated database, and then remove it once the database was opened.

The solution turned out to be:

Set the following parameter in the auxiliary init.ora file:

_no_recovery_through_resetlogs=TRUE

Then open with resetlogs;

Once the auxiliary has opened, removed this hidden parameter.

This problem comes from unpublished Bug 4355382 ORA-38856: FAILED TO OPEN DATABASE WITH RESETLOGS WHEN USING RAC BACKUP

According to Oracle Support:

ORA-38856 is the expected error during open database resetlogs when the set of enabled instances (redo threads) in the controlfile does not match the set of enabled instances (redo threads) in datafile checkpoint. This is expected behavior in a normal RAC restore/recover/open resetlogs situation.

However, in a cloning scenario where once the clone database is opened with resetlogs and you would never expect to restore the old (RAC) backup, this check doesn’t matter.

Tags: · · · · · · ·

No Comments »

 

Oracle Critical Patch Updates for this Quarter

October 15th, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

A Critical Patch Update is a collection of patches for multiple security vulnerabilities. It also includes non-security fixes that are required (because of inter-dependencies) by those security patches. Critical Patch Updates are cumulative (with some exceptions) but each advisory describes only the security fixes added since the previous Critical Patch Update.

The Critical Patch Update for October 2008 was released yesterday (October 14, 2008).  This Critical Patch Update contains 36 new security fixes across all products.  As always, Oracle strongly recommends applying the patches as soon as possible.

Here are some highlights:

  • This CPU is the Terminal Critical Patch Update for Oracle Application Server 9.0.4.3, Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10.2.0.3, Oracle Application Server 10.1.2.2, Oracle Database 10.2.0.3, Oracle Application Server 10.1.3.3, and, Database 11.1.0.6.
  • It contains 15 new security fixes for the Database Suite.  1 of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication.
  • It contains 6 new security fixes for the Application Server Suite.  2 of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication.  3 of these fixes are applicable to client-only installations, i.e. installations that do not have Oracle Application Server installed.
  • It contains 4 new security fixes for the Applications Suite.  2 of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication.

The Critical Patch Update Advisory is the starting point for relevant information. It includes the list of products affected, pointers to obtain the patches, a summary of the security vulnerabilities for each product suite, and links to other important documents. Supported products that are not listed in the “Supported Products and Components Affected” section of the advisory do not require new patches to be applied.

Also, it is essential to review the Critical Patch Update supporting documentation referenced in the Advisory before applying patches, as this is where you can find important pertinent information.

You can read more about this CPU at: http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/alerts.htm

The next four Critical Patch Update release dates will be:

  • January 13, 2009
  • April 14, 2009
  • July 14, 2009
  • Oct 13, 2009

Happy Patching!

Tags: · · · ·

No Comments »

 

What Seems Hot at OpenWorld 2008

September 22nd, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

These are the types of presentations that seem hot (in descending order):

  1. Service Orient Architecture Integration/Fusion Middleware
  2. E-Business Suite, Release 12
  3. Functional Seminars (focusing on various E-Business Suite modules)
  4. Hyperion
  5. 11g Database
  6. Enterprise Performance Management

This may change as the week progresses and Oracle continues to make new announcements.  For full-disclosure there are also sessions for BEA, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel so it’s not just EBS….

Tags: · · · · · · ·

No Comments »

 
« Older Entries