Posts Tagged ‘Release 12’


E-Business Suite and Database Parameter Recommendations

September 16th, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

I’ve seen several posts recently about changes in the recommended database parameters for use with the E-Business Suite and wanted to pass along this information for your consideration.  In these updates Oracle is recommending that parameters be retired, updated and added.  While the changes might seem minor Oracle is saying that there are significant performance benefits from making them.

For those who are using Release 11i, there is an updated white paper on Oracle Support (216205.1) that provides the latest updates as of August 11th.

The updated white paper for Release 12 (396009.1) was release September 9th.

While I always recommend checking the latest version on Oracle Support (formerly Metalink), I’ve created PDF copies of the white papers for 11i and R12 so that you can download from for your convenience.

Database Initialization Parameters for 11i

Database Initialization Parameters for R12

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 »

 

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 »

 

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 »

 

Looking Ahead to Release 12.1 of the E-Business Suite

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

As noted in a previous post, the current release of EBS R12 is 12.0.5 and a future 12.0.6 is expected that will include a Financials Family Pack.  Soon after that we should expect Release 12.1.

What will R12.1 include?  In one of the sessions today at OOW 2008, a glimpse was provided.

From Oracle’s perspective R12 is stabilizing, with fewer reported bugs and issues, so the focus for 12.1 is to add more functionality.  Some of the areas mentioned in the session were the addition of new capabilities in:

  • Talent Management
  • Warehouse Management/Logistics
  • Asset Utilization (Asset LifeCycle Management)
  • Manufacturing Executing Systems (Discrete and Process Mfg)
  • Supply Chain

One noted item was a new Supplier Self-Service capability that allows Suppliers to update their important information (contacts, etc.)

Another topic was the introduction of the Oracle Site Hub which has some of the characteristics of Master Data Management.  Like MDM, it consolidates information from multiple applications, provides the ability to cleanse the data and then simplifies the ability to manage and share that data, providing a consistent view across the organization.

New changes will be coming to Enterprise Manager with enhancements to the Applications Management Pack.  These include automated “hot” cloning, improved patch automation, better pro-active management, and improvements to help with customization management, and functional setup management.

In summary, Release 12.1 will include bug fixes but focus more on filling out functionality in some specialty areas.

Tags: · · ·

No Comments »

 

Release 12 Tidbits

September 21st, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

This morning’s session with the OAUG Upgrade SIG was accented by the attendance of Stephen Chan, who many of you probably recognize from his well-known blog.

During the session there was a discussion on the future of R12 updates and he noted that there are plans to to release one more Financials Family Pack for Release 12 of the E-Business Suite before Release 12.1 appears.  Currently the base release is 12.0.4 with a RUP 5 that included Family Packs for Financials and Payables.  So plan for another release from 12.0.5 to 12.0.6.

Also discussed was that all reports should be migrated from Oracle Reports formats to XML Publisher format by the time R12.1 appears.  Release 12 included a mixture of reports in both formats, but Oracle continues to migrate the application reports to the XML Publisher format.

One of the panelists works in Oracle support and noted that about half of the support requests are now generated by R12 clients.  John Stouffer noted that could be because 11i is so stable and R12 is still showing growing plans.  Probably true since there have been lots of patches to the new release.

I discussed support issues with him afterward.  He noted that many clients underestimate the need for R12 User Training because they mistakenly assume the the user experience with R12 is very similar to 11i.  “Everyone thinks it’s like upgrading within 11i, and that’s just not the case.” was his best comment.

He noted that he has actually had a customer calling for production support because they couldn’t figure out how to print out Payable’s checks!  He mentioned that changes to the setups in Payables and Receivables have been challenging for users.

Bottom-line, he highly recommends that companies considering an upgrade make time in the schedule to allow the key users plenty of time to get used to the new screens and features before going live.

Tags: · · · · ·

No Comments »

 

Gauging the Impact of BEA on the Oracle E-Business Suite

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

Today, Oracle provided a view into their plans for the integration of the BEA Aqualogic products into the Oracle product line. Oracle is very experienced at this effort and it showed in the presentation. They focused a lot on reassuring BEA and Oracle customers that there would be no drastic changes and no forced upgrades.

For E-Business Suite users, they mentioned specifically that there will be no forced migrations from the Oracle Application Server. This will only impact those who have upgraded to the 10g version of the Application Server, which would be customers on Release 12 or those who have added new Fusion Middleware components such as Identity Management to their existing Release 11i environments.

Here are the key points that I took away from the presentations which focused, as expected, on Fusion Middleware.

Oracle is extending support of several products for both companies to reduce the upgrade requirements. The integrations of BEA/Oracle products are expected to occur over 12 to 18 months. Oracle will provide a single integrated development toolset that incorporates both BEA/Oracle products. JDeveloper, ADF, and Oracle Forms/Reports will remain. A new Eclipse Pack will be released to help BEA development users migrate.

Oracle Data Integrator, TopLink, Coherence, AIA, Web Services Manager, Service Registry, BPA Designer, BAM, WebCenter, and Business Rules will remain. The Oracle Applications Server will eventually be replaced by BEA’s offering (JRockit, Weblogic) but the OAS will be maintained for some time. Inside the Fusion Middleware, the Oracle Enterprise Service Bus will be merged with BEA’s offering.

BEA’s Aqualogic BPM Designer will be kept and used as an agile process modeling counterpart to the Oracle BPA Designer. Both will be updated to share a common metadata model so that model information can be shared between them.

Oracle will revise their BPEL processing engine and introduce BEA’s Enterprise Repository (SOA governance). Pricing for the BEA products has been simplified and country-specific pricing has been replaced with a worldwide pricing model.

Several BEA products will be included in new Oracle Enterprise Manager Packs. In particular, a new Diagnostics Pack for Java Virtual Machine tuning based on JRockit Mission Control has been added.

Several topics were not discussed, but I want to note them. What about BEA Tuxedo? How will these changes impact the middleware stack for the Fusion Applications?

To summarize, Oracle is not making radical changes that will impact current E-Business Suite users or BEA users. Instead they will be cherry-picking the BEA product line to introduce some new products and bulk up existing products with better technologies from BEA. Existing products will continue to be supported, some up to 9 more years.

Tags: · · · · · · · · · ·

No Comments »

 

Expected E-Business Suite R12 Maintenance Plans

April 21st, 2008 by Robert McMillen • 1 Comment »

We had the opportunity to discuss upcoming R12 releases with our Oracle contacts at the OAUG. There has been some external debate on what the follow-up release will be for the current 12.0.4. The information we got is that there will not be a 12.0.5 release. Instead, Oracle will provide a 12.1 release. R12 customers are highly encourages to apply the planned 12.1 Maintenance Pack or use planned HR/Financial Family Packs for bug fixes. We couldn’tt get a date on 12.1 as expected….

We were also told that the 12.1 Maintenance Pack will NOT require upgrading from the 10g database to the 11g database as some had expected, UNLESS you are doing a fresh install.

More on this as we get updates.

Tags: · ·

1 Comment »

 

E-Business Suite Release 12 Grows Up

February 4th, 2008 by Robert McMillen • 1 Comment »

It’s hard to believe but it’s been a year since Release 12 was introduced. Several weeks agon Oracle announced that Release Update Pack 12.04 is now available. For a great overview of this new pack along with some explanations about how RUP’s differ in Release 12, visit Steven Chan’s blog here.

Since I’ve mentioned Steven, I’d like to also note that he was recognized at Oracle Open World with the OAUG Oracle Ambassador award for his contributions to the Applications community. His blog is a wonderful resource to keep close at hand.

Returning to Release 12 of the E-Business Suite….

Some of you may have also noted that the Federally-certified version of Release 12 was introduced this last October. That’s good news for many federal agencies who currently rely on Release 11i.

All for now…

Tags: · · · ·

1 Comment »

 
« Older Entries