Oracle mix

Just before the new year, I found this site...

https://mix.oracle.com/

We all know Linkedin or Plaxo. Now Oracle has it's own network site (beta..)
Check it out and login using your Oracle sso account (otn account)

Oracle EBS R12 Applications DBA Beta Exam

Today I received an email from Oracle in which they announced the Oracle EBS R12 Applications DBA Beta Exam. This exam is open to register and this beta period runs from January 03 – April 04, 2008
The exam is called :
Oracle EBS R12: Install, Patch and Maintain Applications [1Z0-238]
This new exam is required as part of earning the new Oracle EBS R12 Applications Database Administrator Certified Professional certification.

I am not sure if I am going to participate in this beta exam....

Enterprise Manager

We had a problem using OEM 10g. During the day a database proces (ora_j001) was consuming 100% cpu. Because of this OEM coud not be reached, oms down. Looking for a solution, I ran into the job_queue_processes database parameter. This parameter was set to 10 in our database. I searched the net and could only find out that the value of this parameter should be > 0, if you want to use OEM. Prefered value is 10 (our original value...), but it looks like a value of 10 leads to the 100 % cpu problem.
I changed the job_queue_processes parameter to 2, also changed the aq_tm_processes parameter to 1. The OEM database seems to be more stable, but I don't know if everthing still works in OEM....
Has anyone got any experience with this ??

Colors in vi

So after turning off the colors in the 'ls' command on linux, I also had to deal with the colors using vi...
When reading a logfile for example, the file is presented in 5 or 6 different colors..
To turn off these colors edit the following file (as root)...

/usr/share/vim/vim60/macros/vimrc

In this file you will see the following lines:

" Switch syntax highlighting on, when the terminal has colors
" Also switch on highlighting the last used search pattern.
if &t_Co > 2 has("gui_running")
syntax on
set hlsearch
endif

You can disable coloring by placing " in front of these lines..

" Switch syntax highlighting on, when the terminal has colors
" Also switch on highlighting the last used search pattern.
"if &t_Co > 2 has("gui_running")
" syntax on
" set hlsearch
"endif

Now all colors are gone, and I believe reading is much easier ....

Colors in linux terminal

This week I started my new job with Smartapps. The first thing I usually do is check out the excisting EBS environments. I also did the same starting here...When starting a putty session on one of the EBS nodes, I noticed the different colors when using the ' ls' or 'll' commando. I find it very annoying, so I decided with my new colleagues to remove this.
I found this was caused by the use of aliasses.

alias cp='cp -i'
alias l.='ls -d .[a-zA-Z]* --color=tty'
alias ll='ls -l --color=tty'
alias ls='ls --color=tty'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'
alias vi='vim'

So, all I had to do was unalias the ' ls' and the 'll' commando (and make a new alias for ' ll' )

Upgrade R12

a few months ago, I had an EBS R12 poll on my blog. The question was if anyone already upgrade their EBS environemnt from 11i to R12. The results of the poll showed me that nobody had upgraded or was going to...
For those who are planning to upgrade their 11i environment, Steven Chan has writen an article abouot this on his blog.
Check it out !! http://blogs.oracle.com/schan/2007/11/29#a2268

Last day

Today is my last day at the customer site. I am leaving Amis after almost two years. Last Friday I had diner with my customer colleagues. Almost everyone of them is external. Because I had a great time working with them I decided to place some pictures of Friday night on this blog. In the following order you see : René Kuss, Siwa Soekhoe, Robbert Wolters and Ali Akgurbuz. Missing on the photos is Arian Stijf, who could not be there....

Thanks guys !!!

Trace Analyzer

Today I installed to Trace Analyzer (note 224270.1 from Metalink) to see if
this tool could make my trace files easier to read.
You can download the tool from Metalink in zip format (trca.zip)

Install the tool...
unzip the trca.zip file
in the trca directory start a sqlplus session as sysdba...
[oracle@vamisux32 trca]$ sqlplus /nolog
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production on Sat Nov 10 17:02:08 2007
Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
SQL> conn / as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> @install/tacusr.sql (askes for pwd and default tablespaces)
SQL> @tactab.sql
... Creating TRCA$_TRACE_ID Sequence
... Creating TRCA$... tables
NOTE:
TACTAB complete. Please check tactab.lis for any errors.
SQL> @tacpkg.sql
Taking a snapshot of DBA_EXTENTS (may take several minutes)
NOTE:
TACPKG complete. Please check tacpkg.lis for any errors.

Now the Trace Analyzer is installed in the EBS database.

I decided to create a trace file in EBS when querying journals in General ledger.

So, the trace file is created in the udump direcory. Lets see how it looks like

without analyzer....

*** TRACE DUMP CONTINUED FROM FILE ***
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
ORACLE_HOME = /ebs/oatestdb/9.2.0
System name: Linux
Node name: vamisux32.amis.local
Release: 2.6.9-42.0.0.0.1.ELsmp
Version: #1 SMP Sun Oct 15 14:02:40 PDT 2006
Machine: i686
Instance name: oatest
Redo thread mounted by this instance: 1
Oracle process number: 39
Unix process pid: 12460, image: oracle@vamisux32.amis.local (TNS V1-V3)
*** 2007-11-10 17:52:00.876
*** SESSION ID:(85.37029) 2007-11-10 17:52:00.874
APPNAME mod='FNDSCSGN' mh=375781535 act='General Ledger Super User' ah=3773307719
=====================
PARSING IN CURSOR #65 len=70 dep=1 uid=47 oct=42 lid=47 tim=1166712422731428 hv=2110961874 ad='6746d1e4'
alter session set events='10046 trace name context forever, level 12'
END OF STMT
EXEC #65:c=2000,e=45848,p=0,cr=0,cu=0,mis=1,r=0,dep=1,og=4,tim=1166712422729192
WAIT #0: nam='SQL*Net message to client' ela= 9 p1=1952673792 p2=1 p3=0
WAIT #0: nam='SQL*Net message from client' ela= 1217 p1=1952673792 p2=1 p3=0
RPC CALL:FUNCTION APPS.FND_TRACE.GET_TRACE_FILENAME() RETURN VARCHAR2;
RPC BINDS:
bind 0: dty=1 bfp=0af28a20 flg=0a avl=00 mxl=32767 val=""

You see, the trace file looks like any other trace file. Difficult to read and also not easy to understand. When using the analyzer...

[oracle@vamisux32 trca]$ sqlplus apps/*****
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production on Sat Nov 10 18:01:52 2007
Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
SQL> start run/trcanlzr.sql oatest_ora_12460_SYSADMIN.trc
Value passed: oatest_ora_12460_SYSADMIN.trc
~~~~~~~~~~~~
...generating trcanlzr report into UDUMP server directory
Trace Analyzer Report "trcanlzr_12460_1.html" has been created in /ebs/oatestdb/9.2.0/admin/oatest_vamisux32/udump
...trcanlzr report has been generated into UDUMP server directory
...copying trcanlzr report into local SQL*Plus client directory
...trcanlzr report was copied from UDUMP into local SQL*Plus directory

When opening the html file, you see the difference....

Oracle's own virtual machine...

Oracle announces a new Oracle Virtual Machine..
Instead in vmware (for example), you can now use the Oracle VM.
Read all about it in this article...

http://www.oracle.com/corporate/press/2007_nov/ovm-ga-111107.html?msgid=5803830

EBS DBa homepage

Some time ago I created my own EBS Dba home page. This homepage is a collection off all the links I once visited because of my work as an EBS Dba. So, maybe there are some use full links for you also...and if you are missing a link..let me know and I will place it on the homepage.

url EBS Dba homepage http://oappsdba.jouwpagina.nl/

Missing responsibilities after cloning EBS

From my great colleague Siwa Soekhoe I received the following tip.

After we had cloned an EBS environment (11.5.9), it seemed some application users were missing some or all responsibilities they had in the original environment.

When checking the EBS, you could see the responsibilities were granted to the specific application users. No end date, nothing strange in the application.

So, why don't they see their responsibilities at login ??

It seems the problem was that the start_date and end_date in WF_LOCAL_ROLES did not match the information in the FND_RESPONSIBILITY table for roles/responsibilities assigned.

This issue is being solved by running the concurrent program FNDWFDSURV "Workflow Directory Services User/Role Validation" on the target environment.

Custom sql scripts in OAM

I noticed Oracle Applications Manager has some very handy sql script you can use when monitoring your EBS environment.

When starting up OAM, navigate to Site Map ----> Monitoring ----> SQL Extensions
The following scripts are available...











There is also a way to add your own personal sql scripts to this page. When you follow the steps mentioned in Metalink note 216816.1, you will find your own scripts on this page.

So, here is what you should do.

1. create a custom directory in the $APPL_TOP/admin directory


2. now create a directory called 'sql' in this custom directory

/appl/oatestappl/admin/custom/sql

[oracle@vamisux32 sql]$ ls

oa_info.sql patchlevel_ebs.sql


3. Now place your custom sql scripts in this directory


4. Bounce Apache to see the scripts in OAM


I have tested it with two custom scripts, and after bouncing Apache,
the two scripts are visible under 'Custom Extensions'...














You can run the custom scripts by clicking the 'run report' button.

Back again...

After two weeks laying down on my back because of a back injury, I started at work today.
I did not post anything the last two weeks because I could not sit down to do it :)

Hope things will be better from now on...

Maintenance wizard

Yesterday I noticed an announcement on Metalink of the 'Maintenance wizard' for the EBS R12 upgrade.
I had no idea what the Maintenance wizard looked like, or what it was supposed to do.
So, I decided to install the latest full version (2.05) of this wizard.

The wizard can be installed by downloading patch 6398371 from Metalink.
According to note 329476.1, this version only runs with a 10g database and a 10g iAS...
Here is what I did..

1. Install 10.2.0 database software
2. Install 10.1.3 iAS (choose 'Web Server and Process Management' option..)
3. create 10g database using dbca
4. create new tablespace NEWEOF
5. define new $EOF_HOME as $ORACLE_HOME/eof
6. unzip the patch in the $EOF_HOME and run the setup.sh from the config directory

So what does the wizard really do ??

According to the user's guide at least the following :


Maintenance Wizard:
• Presents a consolidated, personalized set of instructions in a step-by-step format
• Enables validation of important activities to prevent downstream issues
• Maintains log and status information for all tasks
• Enables Project Administrators to assign different groups of upgrade tasks to different users
• Downloads, merges, and installs many required patches automatically
• Provides access for Web-based operating system (OS) commands to check the upgrade processes, logs, and OS status during patch upgrades.
• Provides project management utilities to record the time taken for each task and its completion status
• Enables maintenance of multiple customer systems


I checked the wizard out, and post my experience with it very soon..

Survey added

I have added a survey to see how the readers of this blog feel about certain subjects concerning Oracle EBS..

First guest post....

So, yesterday I wrote my first guest post for the EBS OCP/OCE certification blog.
Check the blog for more interesting posts....

http://ebizocp.blogspot.com/

10g OCA certification

After waiting a few weeks, I finally received the OCA certificate....

guest posts...

A colleague blogger of mine, Mohan Dutt, asked me to write some posts on his own blog.
His blog (http://ebizocp.blogspot.com/) is about Oracle EBS OCP and OCE. Very interesting stuff. I accepted his invitation and agreed to write some posts for his blog.
I am going to share my OCE and OCP experience with his blog readers also....

So, be sure to visit his blog also.

Upgrade jinitiator

a simple tip I ran into at work.
We were working on a jinitiator upgrade (1.3.1.25 to 1.3.1.28), and the upgrade must be tested on both test and production environment.

How can we be sure only a few people will test the new jinitiator, while the rest is still working with the old jinitiator ??

The answer is easy. By using a profile option at user level.
The profile is : 'ICX: Forms Launcher ' , and will have the following value... http://host.domain:port/dev60cgi/f60cgi
When you want a few users to work with another version than the default jinitiator (for example 1.3.1.28), adjust the url like this :
http://host.domain:port/dev60cgi/f60cgi?config=jini13128 at user level.
This way only that user is working with the new jinitiator....

Also be sure to adjust the appsweb.cfg and add the second new jinitiator...

MO: Operating Unit not set....

This morning I was asked to look at a EBS login problem.

The customer received the following error when logging in :


oracle.apps.fnd.framework.OAException: Application: FND, Message Name: SQL_PLSQL_ERROR. Tokens: ROUTINE = AppsConnectionManager.appsInitialize(int,int,int,int,Connection):-1,-1,-1,0,oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleConnection@1d12d84; REASON = java.sql.SQLException: ORA-20001: Oracle error -20001: ORA-20001: FND-ORG_ID PROFILE CANNOT READ: N, OPTION, MO: Operating Unit has been detected in FND_GLOBAL.INITIALIZE.ORA-06512: at "APPS.APP_EXCEPTION", line 70ORA-06512: at "APPS.FND_GLOBAL", line 64ORA-06512: at "APPS.FND_GLOBAL", line 1028ORA-06512: at "APPS.FND_GLOBAL", line 541ORA-06512: at line 1; ERRNO = 20001; (Could not lookup message because there is no database connection) at oracle.apps.fnd.framework.server.OAExceptionUtils.processAOLJErrorStack(OAExceptionUtils.java:988) at oracle.apps.fnd.framework.OACommonUtils.processAOLJErrorStack(OACommonUtils.java:866) at oracle.apps.fnd.framework.webui.OAPageBean.validateUser(OAPageBean.java:4572) at oracle.apps.fnd.framework.webui.OAPageBean.preparePage(OAPageBean.java:687) at oracle.apps.fnd.framework.webui.OAPageBean.preparePage(OAPageBean.java:497) at oracle.apps.fnd.framework.webui.OAPageBean.preparePage(OAPageBean.java:418) at _oa__html._OA._jspService(_OA.java:88) at oracle.jsp.runtime.HttpJsp.service(HttpJsp.java:119) at oracle.jsp.app.JspApplication.dispatchRequest(JspApplication.java:417) at oracle.jsp.JspServlet.doDispatch(JspServlet.java:267) at oracle.jsp.JspServlet.internalService(JspServlet.java:186) at oracle.jsp.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:156) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:588) at org.apache.jserv.JServConnection.processRequest(JServConnection.java:456) at org.apache.jserv.JServConnection.run(JServConnection.java:294) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)

So it seems the profile option 'MO:Operating Unit' is not set, or is set with a wrong value.
I decided to query the fnd_profile_option_values table and check how the profile was set. The query did not produce any rows, so the profile option is empty ??

Anyway, a colleague of mine showed me a sql script to restore the old value of the profile option.

DECLARE
stat boolean;
BEGIN
dbms_output.disable;
dbms_output.enable(100000);
stat := FND_PROFILE.SAVE('ORG_ID',, 'SITE');
IF stat THEN
dbms_output.put_line( 'Stat = TRUE - profile updated' );
ELSE
dbms_output.put_line( 'Stat = FALSE - profile NOT updated' );
END IF;
commit;
END;

The script did put a value for the MO:Operating Unit in the fnd_profile_option_values table. After bouncing Apache, the problem was solved.

Oracle Database 10g: Administration I (1z0-042)

Today I passed the 1z0-042 exam, Oracle Database 10g: Administration I.
One step closer to OCP EBS Dba...

The next exam will be Oracle Database 10g: Administration II, the final one to become a OCP Dba 10g. Offcourse, there is also the hands on after both exams, but first I will try to pass the OCP exam.

After preparing for the OCA exam, it's now time for a holiday. I will be gone for a week, visiting France..

Troubleshooting Single Sign On.....

During the bootcamp and the SSO setup, I ran into some errors when trying to log in Oracle EBS.
One of the problems you can encounter is that the redirection to your SSO login page is not working. To find out what's the problem you can check the following :

1. Is OID running ? You can log on to OID using the orcladmin account, http://as10g.test.com:7779/oiddas
2. Is the iAS10g for your SSO running ? Check $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl status
3. Can you login EBS using the AppsLocalLogin.jsp url....(to check if the EBS services are running)
4. If this is working fine, check your config document again. Maybe something went wrong when administrating your EBS node with SSO (txkSetSSOReg.pl script)

Also check Metalink
- note 376811.1 :'Integrating Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 with Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle Single Sign-On '
- note261914.1 : Integrating Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i with Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle Single Sign-On
- note 444573.1 : Basic checks for user integration when using Oracle E-Business Suite 11i with Oracle AS 10g
- note 295606.1 : Oracle Application Server 10g with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i Troubleshooting

Back home

Last Friday I returned home from two weeks in Montpellier. Until the last day, we worked with EBS R12 and had some great discussions regarding Single Sign On. I had configured Single Sing On with EBS R12 and tested some features the last day.

I wanted to know what would happen if a user did exist in OID, but not in EBS . There is a profile option which takes care of this issue. If the profile 'APPS_SSO_OID_IDENTITY ' is set to 'enabled', OID will create the EBS user if it does not exist..
I also noticed that when the user password is changed in EBS, this password is also transferred to OID. But I don't think passwords should be changed in EBS anymore when using Single Sign ON.....

And after two weeks of working with R12, I returned home with more R12 experience and also with more friends !
I would like to thank the staff of the Oracle/IBM Joint Solution Center in Montpellier for making the bootcamp possible. Especially Paul Bramy, for his enthusiasm and help. I also want to thank my fellow bootcampers for sharing knowledge and experience, Pascal Labrevois and Andrea Cobis. I hope to speak them soon again...

Last week - RAC week

So, the last week of the bootcamp in Montpellier arrived. Yesterday I spend some time installing Oracle Portal, but from today I am concentrating Oracle RAC 10g. I am planning to install a RAC database using ASM. Because I have little experience with these Oracle products, it seems valueable to me.
At the same time a colleague is working on a DMZ implementation with EBS R12, so I will be looking over his shoulder also.
Last week I also installed Oracle Discoverer and maybe we can also look at the integration of Discoverer with EBS R12. I already performed the steps mentioned in note 373634.1. Since Oracle Discoverer is not part of the EBS R12 rapid install anymore, we are curious how it is working with EBS R12....

SSO and EBS R12

First week is almost over here in Montpellier. What have I done till now ?

1. - I have installed GRID control 10gR2 and upgraded it to R3. But the EBS plugin is not yet available for AIX, so I could not go on with GRID.
2. - I have installed Oracle AS10gR2 and implemented Single Sign On the EBS R12.
3. - I have installed Oracle Discoverer and configured it with SSO, so that you can also login to Discoverer using your SSO account
4. - I have managed to configure a cloned R12 environment in SSO.

Also EBS R12 was cloned from a multi node configuration to a single node configuration.
Next week I will be focusing on RAC.

EBS R12 on AIX

To start this post I would like to sum up our IBM hardware setup, on which we are working with EBS R12

Hardware:
2 4-node AIX cluster with on each 2 DB servers + 2 APPS servers
+ 1 Apps server for a Single Sign On installation and Grid Control.

Software:
- EBS release 12 for AIX
- EBS release 11.5.10.2 for AIX
- 10gR2 DB + 10.2.0.3 patchset
- 10gAS R3 ( 10.1.0.2.2 )
- 10gGrid Control (R3)
- ASM
- CRS

We have started with two multinode installations of EBS R12 on AIX. One with a vision database and the other one with an empty database. The environment with an empty database is going to be used for cloning. But after installing EBS R12 we ran into a forms problem. When creating a forms session in EBS, a FRM-92101 error occurs. We are investigating what the problem could be. I also found out OPMNCTL does not work from the command line..

opmnctl status
Unable to connect to opmn.
Opmn may not be up.

Could be same problem.
From an IBM colleague in the US we received a solution we are about to test.
More to come....

Montpellier

I have arrived in Montpellier. I got stuck in Paris for more then a hour, but around 01:00 this morning I arrived at my hotel.
After a few hours of sleep, I hooked up with another EBS dba, and together we went to IBM France for the bootcamp.

We first designed our strategy for the coming 2 weeks as you can see on the picture.
Next we divided the tasks and made sure everybody was able to login the machines.
We are now starting with an EBSR12 install, both vision and an empty database.
Also we are installing a Grid control 10GR3 to manage the databases....unfortunately the EBS plugin is not yet available for the IBM platform...(only Linux and Solaris..)

Program EBS R12 Bootcamp

I received the program for the upcoming two weeks in Montpellier. During the EBS R12 bootcamp we will try to investigate the following subjects :

1) Application-tier focus:
· Shared APPL_TOP
· Shared oAS (10.1.2 (forms) or 10.1.3 (oc4j) or both?)
· OAS Load Balancing (10.1.2, 10.1.3, both?)
· DMZ implementation, covering, possibly, Reverse Proxy and APPL_TOP or oAS Cloning
· Single Sign-On
· Integration with Oracle Business Intelligence (Discoverer / OBI EE)
· Upgrade to oAS 10.1.x if and when available

2) DB-Tier focus:
· RAC 10g (how to add an extra node)
· Database Vault with R12

3) General Architecture focus:
· Cloning (Full, Appl_top, oAS 10.1.2 oAS 10.1.3)
· Upgrading from R11 to R12 (no hands on - just review of steps)

4) Additional ideas
· Grid Control plugins
· MLS Impact. This is a time killer, but I would anticipate to document the translation steps, in dotted line, in a document deliverable, if any.
· Cross platform deployment. Looks like we don’t have the hardware ready for that, but maybe Paul may be able to get us some space in a zVM host to move the database here. The blazing speed of an IBM z9 platform is always refreshing.
· OCFS/GPFS
. Java (JRE) Plug-In 1.5.0_12 for EBS 11i

Java (JRE) Plug-In 1.5.0_12 Certified with Apps 11i

For EBS R12 you could already use the Sun Java plugin instead of the Oracle Jinitiator.
Now the standard Sun java plugin is also certified for EBS 11i (11.5.9 and later..)
Version 1.5.0_12 is certified for 11i.
For more about this see the Steven Chan blog

http://blogs.oracle.com/schan/2007/06/26#a1672

EBS R12 bootcamp 2007

I will be blogging about R12 the next two weeks. From 2-7 till 13-7, I am participating in a Oracle/IBM EBS R12 bootcamp in Montpellier (France).
This bootcamp is organized by the Oracle/IBM Joint Solutions Center. At first a colleague of mine was invited, but he could not find the time and suggested I should go in his place....:)

So, for two weeks I will be working with R12 only...and will try to blog this adventure.

What's the use of blogging ??

I ran into the following post on the blog of Adam Darowski. He is talking about the new resume...check it out.

http://www.darowski.com/tracesofinspiration/2007/03/06/the-blog-is-the-new-resume/

Oracle Certified Expert

Because I passed the Oracle 11i System Administrator exam (1z0-232), I can now call myself an Oracle Certified Expert.

Yesterday I received a certificate....

Missing oraInventory

When running the http patch, I received some errors...It seemed the oraInventory was not valid, at least the http entry was missing.
The oraInventory that was incomplete was the global oraInventory. I noticed that the local oraInventory in the $IAS_HOME was complete, but running the patch with this oraInventory did not work. Something about the oraInventory...
In the file oraInst.loc (usually in the /var/opt/oracle directory), the location of the global oraInventory is shown. In the global oraInventory you find the installed ORACLE_HOMES and in the ORACLE_HOME you find the local oraInventory for that ORACLE_HOME.
I find out n Metalink that the global oraInventory can be restored if the local oraInventory is valid.
The perl script OUIsetup.pl in the $ORACLE_HOME/appsoui/setup (IAS_HOME) directory can be used to recreate the global oraInventory.
After recreating the global oraInventory the http patch was successfully applied.

new templates after patch

The other day I patched a database and I had to run autoconfig at the end.
It seemed a template was modified by a patch, and this template had a customized version.
The following lines were produced by autoconfig...

Starting Utility to Report Version Conflicts at Fri Jun 01 00:19:04 MEST 2007Using VersionConflictListGenerator.java version 115.4
[ INFO_REPORT ]
[ AD_TOP ]
[ VERSION CONFLICTS INFORMATION ]
Template shipped by oracle is having a version different than the template lying in custom directory.Template shipped by Oracle : /opt/software/applmgr/SID/appl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/APPLSYS_ux.env(version: 115.89)Custom template : /opt/software/applmgr/SID/appl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/custom/APPLSYS_ux.env(version: 115.88)Please resolve the differences between the two templates or refer to metalink note 165195.1 for further details.

So, autoconfig shows me which templates have a different version. Now I have to find out which customizations are made to this template and update the customized template to the higher version of the template. You can use the unix 'diff ' command to compare the two templates.
Adjust the customized template and run autoconfig again..
You can also look into the patch logfile to find out which templates are modified....

Blog value

A half year ago (December 2006) I posted the value of my blog. At that moment It was worth
564.54 dollar...
A half year later...

My blog is worth $3,951.78.
How much is your blog worth?

Merging patches

I had to install the CPU April 2007 patches to a test environment.
I started with the e-Business Suite patches, you also have to patch all other environments that work with the EBS. Every part of the EBS environment has to be patched. Oracle recommends that patches are applied in the following order :
1. Oracle database (opatch)
2. Oracle Application server
3. Oracle e-Business Suite

This means, I had to patch the database (9.2.0.8), the http server, forms and the 8.0.6 home.
After these patches I also had to apply 20 EBS patches. The EBS CPU patches are not cumulative, so you also have to apply earlier CPU patches.
Because of this, I had to apply 20 patches for the EBS 11.5.9 release. I decided to use the admerge tool to merge the patches into one big patch. Admerge merges all patches from one directory into one patch. The tool knows in which order to apply the patches. Using admerge will save time. Just be sure to know if any patch has any post-install steps...
Before merging, be sure to place all patches to be merged into one directory...for example the 'patches' directory. Also create a target directory for the merged patch..'merged'.


admrgpch patches merged

Executing the merge of the patch drivers
-- Processing patch: patches/3578012
-- Done processing patch: patches/3578012
-- Processing patch: patches/3578012_NL
-- Done processing patch: patches/3578012_NL
-- Processing patch: patches/3748835
-- Done processing patch: patches/3748835
-- Processing patch: patches/4278155
-- Done processing patch: patches/4278155
-- Processing patch: patches/4278155_NL
-- Done processing patch: patches/4278155_NL
-- Processing patch: patches/5479643
-- Done processing patch: patches/5479643
-- Processing patch: patches/5479643_NL
-- Done processing patch: patches/5479643_NL
-- Processing patch: patches/5571208
-- Done processing patch: patches/5571208
-- Processing patch: patches/5571208_NL
-- Done processing patch: patches/5571208_NL
-- Processing patch: patches/5571211
-- Done processing patch: patches/5571211
-- Processing patch: patches/5571211_NL
-- Done processing patch: patches/5571211_NL
-- Processing patch: patches/5658489
-- Done processing patch: patches/5658489
-- Processing patch: patches/5661617
-- Done processing patch: patches/5661617
-- Processing patch: patches/5711474
-- Done processing patch: patches/5711474
-- Processing patch: patches/5711474_NL
-- Done processing patch: patches/5711474_NL


Copying files...
5% complete. Copied 4 files of 70...
10% complete. Copied 7 files of 70...
15% complete. Copied 11 files of 70...
20% complete. Copied 14 files of 70...
25% complete. Copied 18 files of 70...
30% complete. Copied 21 files of 70...
35% complete. Copied 25 files of 70...
40% complete. Copied 28 files of 70...
45% complete. Copied 32 files of 70...
50% complete. Copied 35 files of 70...
55% complete. Copied 39 files of 70...
60% complete. Copied 42 files of 70...
65% complete. Copied 46 files of 70...
70% complete. Copied 49 files of 70...
75% complete. Copied 53 files of 70...
80% complete. Copied 56 files of 70...
85% complete. Copied 60 files of 70...
90% complete. Copied 63 files of 70...
95% complete. Copied 67 files of 70...
100% complete. Copied 70 files of 70...
Character-set converting files...
15 unified drivers merged.
Patch merge completed successfully
Please check the log file at ./admrgpch.log.

So, this way I have to only apply one patch...the u_merged.drv

Oracle 10g OCA exam scheduled

Because I passed the 1z1-232 beta exam, I received a voucher from Oracle. With this voucher I am able to take an exam, from the certification path for EBS OCP Dba, for free. This free exam must be completed on or before August 15, 2007.
So I checked the Prometric site, and scheduled the 1z0-042 exam for July 10. This is the Oracle 10g Database: Administration I exam (OCA) and can be used for the Oracle EBS Dba OCP path...
I don't have that much time left to study, so no time to waste...study !!!!!

Autoconfig templates ?

The company I work right now uses autoconfig. No problem off course, but they also have a lot off custom templates. Autoconfig uses templates to generate the configuration files so the EBS can work properly. When you want to add customizations the a template, you place that template in the 'custom' directory in the $product_top/admin/template, and autoconfig knows to use this custom template instead of the default Oracle template...
But how do you know which templates are customized ?
I ran into the following script in the $AD_TOP/bin directory.... adtmplreport.sh

Use the following syntax
./adtmplreport.sh contextfile=

And you get a report with all the templates used by autoconfig, the target directory and if there is a custom version of the template. Very nice script...

So for example the adovars.env file and its custom version...

TEMPLATE FILE : /opt/software/applmgr/EBS/appl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/adovars_ux.env
TARGET FILE : /opt/software/applmgr/EBS/appl/admin/adovars.env

TEMPLATE FILE : /opt/software/applmgr/EBS/appl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/APPLSYS_ux.env
CUSTOM TEMPLATE : /opt/software/applmgr/EBS/appl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/custom/APPLSYS_ux.env
TARGET FILE : /opt/software/applmgr/EBS/appl/EBS_ebs-p01.env

EBS Dba Exam results

At last I received the results of the beta EBS dba exams I took last year. I took both exams 1z1-232 and 1z1-233 (Oracle 11i System Administration 1z0-232 and Oracle 11i Install, patch and Maintain Applications 1z0-233). I am glad to announce I passed both exams and I am still running for Oracle 11i Applications Database Administrator Certified Professional

Diagnostics using Oracle Application Manager

Because of a problem in the Cash Management module in EBS, I was asked to run diagnostics using two cash receipt id's.
My plan was to use OAM to run the diagnostics. And recently the diagnostics patch was applied on the production database, so what could go wrong.
But when starting a diagnostics script or opening a lov, a ' page cannot be displayed ' error was shown. Because the http 500 error is not very useful to us, I started to search for errors in the Apache log files. In the access.log I found the following error :

10.73.100.59 - - [04/May/2007:12:22:02 +0200] "GET /OA_HTML/jtfqaerror.jsp?JTFQAERR=You%20do%20not%20have%20sufficient%20privileges%20to%20perform%20this%20function. HTTP/1.1" 500 540

It is a little bit hard to see, but the error tells me I am not allowed to view the diagnostics page ?
So it seems a setup problem ? Metalink brought me the solution.

Login EBS as system administrator
Select the "Menu" item under this responsibility
Search for "FND_NAVIGATE4.0" menu, which is the root menu of the System Administrator responsibility.
In this menu add a submenu called "Diagnostics: JSP Pages Menu", save it and make sure the request for adding this submenu gets compiled

But still the diagnostics is not working. This time in the access.log

10.73.100.59 - - [04/May/2007:14:08:09 +0200] "GET /OA_HTML/jtfqaerror.jsp?JTFQA
ERR=User+has+no+responsibilities+valid+for+this+test.+Please+contact+the+system+
administrator+and+request+a+responsibility+belonging+to+the+following+application%28s%29%3A+Cash+Management&JTFQASTACKTRACE

So now I don't have the right responsibility to run a cash management diagnostic script.
Adding the cash management responsibility to my list of responsibility's did the trick.
Now I was able to run the diagnostics they asked me.

OCP 10g

So, I have survived queens day 2007 in Amsterdam and after a day off I'm ready to go to work again. In the mean time, I also started with the OCP books for the 10G database. Because you have to be a 10g or 9i OCP before you can become an certified EBS Dba, I decided to start with the 10g OCP study. I already took the EBS exam last year, but still no result from Oracle....

Patching Oracle e-Business Suite

this is my fourth week at my new assignment and already I am busy applying all kinds of patches. Because they have a real big environment here, it's important to know what options to provide adpatch with.
The options I mostly work with are :

- hotpatch, I don't want to put the database in maintenance mode every time
- noautoconfig, because of the multi node installation over here don't run autoconfig

But there are many more options to use. Check the following post for more options..
http://appsdbablog.com/blog/patching/

optimize parameters

At the customer I working right now, they asked me to look at a query that did run in a test EBS database, but wouldn't run in a developer EBS database.
When running the query in the dev database, the session seems to hang and no records are returned.
So, first I looked at the explain plan from the query running in the test database. It looked like this..

Operation Object Name Rows Bytes Cost Object Node In/Out PStart PStop
SELECT STATEMENT Optimizer Mode=CHOOSE 339 K 103359
NESTED LOOPS 339 K 8 M 103359
TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID CSI.CSI_T_EXTEND_ATTRIBS 339 K 6 M 103358
INDEX RANGE SCAN CSI.CSI_T_EXTEND_ATTRIBS_N02 339 K 4066
INDEX UNIQUE SCAN CSI.CSI_T_TXN_LINE_DETAILS_U01 1 6

Then I tried running the query in the dev database and the explain plan looked like..

Operation Object Name Rows Bytes Cost Object Node In/Out PStart PStop
SELECT STATEMENT Optimizer Mode=CHOOSE 339 K 56396
HASH JOIN 339 K 8 M 56396
TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID CSI.CSI_T_EXTEND_ATTRIBS 339 K 6 M 7
INDEX RANGE SCAN APPS.XXX_CSI_T_EXTEND_ATTRIBS_N1 339 K 2
TABLE ACCESS FULL CSI.CSI_T_TXN_LINE_DETAILS 11 M 64 M 51170

It seems in the dev database the query is doing a full table scan, instead of indexed scan in the test database. Also in the test database a NESTED LOOP is used, while the dev database uses a HASH JOIN ??
I focussed on the last finding and searched for a reason why the query should use HASH JOIN instead of a NESTED LOOP.
I found out the following two init.ora parameters were different in the dev database, the optimizer_index_caching parameter and the optimizer_index_cost_adj parameter. So, I tried running the query after I changed my session settings..

SQL> alter session set optimizer_index_caching=x;

SQL> alter session set optimizer_index_cost_adj=x;

And this time the query returned the desired rows ! Next step is to edited the init.ora so the whole dev environment can use these settings...

Changed Oracle EBS Dba OCP program

It seems Oracle has changed their OCP program for EBS Dba's
At the end of 2006 we were able to participate in the beta program of EBS OCP for dba's. I completed two exams, the Oracle 11i Install Patch and Maintain Applications beta exam and the Oracle 11i System Administration beta exam.
Now Oracle has changed the OCP program and added two new exams to the list. They also deleted two exams, the Oracle 11i System Administration and Implement Oracle Workflow 11i were removed out of the OCP program and they added Applications DBA Fundamentals I and II. Also, when you are already an OCP 9i or 10g, you only have to pass the 1Z0-233 Oracle 11i Install Patch and Maintain Applications exam to become a certified EBS Dba professional.

Also, the results of the beta exams are supposed to be known in April...

See also http://www.oracle.com/global/us/education/certification/appsdba.html

Lost root password

For a colleague I had to install Oracle Infrastructure on Suse Linux. The installation went very smoothly, but at the end I was facing a big problem. As you know, at the end of any Oracle installation you are asked to run a script called root.sh as root. So, you must have access to the root password for that host. Normally that is not a problem, but this time I did not know the password. When asking other colleague's, I found out that the password was once changed, and it seems nobody knew what the new password was. So, who to reset or change the root password when you don't know the old one ?
Another colleague of mine showed me some Google results, and we tried to change a unknown root password. This is what we did..

- We restarted the operating system (Suse..) and interrupted the start up so we could use a command line
- we typed in : init=/bin/bash and resumed startup
- on the following command prompt : mount -o remount,rw /
- at this point you can enter passwd and change the root password without knowing the old one !

Forum ?

I noticed a lot of visitors of this blog come to this blog with a particular question. Using a search engine, maybe a word you searched for is also present at my blog. But maybe not the way you searched for. Because I want to know what kind of problem you have with the e-Business Suite, I have opened a forum for EBS dba's. I am not sure if it's gonna work, but I will give it a try.
So, if you have any question and you cannot find the answer on the site, post a question on the forum and I will try to answer the question !

http://www.createforum.com/oracleebsdba/

Oracle Applications Manager in R12

A few post ago, I noticed there was no OAM link in the system administrator responsibility in the new Oracle EBS R12.

I found the OAM when accessing the workflow manager...

This problem exist on my new EBS R12 install with an empty database. Now that I have installed R12 with a vision database, sysadmin has got an 'Oracle Applications manager' entry in the system administrator responsibility. So, it seems a problem when installing an empty database instead of the vision database ??

Date and time on virtual machine....

I had this problem with date/time synchronizing on a virtual machine with its host machine. Result of this was that the clock on my virtual machines ran slower than the real clock. So my date and time was always behind. Because I did not want to restart the timeserver (ntp server) every time from the command line (when restarting the ntp server, the date/time was correct for a few minutes....), a colleague of mine suggested to put the restart in a cronjob. Great plan and also tested on a few other virtual machines...
I placed the following lines in a fiel called time.cron

[root@vamisux32 ~]# crontab -l
# ntp update statement - workaround
0-59 * * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate amisnt10 >>/var/log/ntpdate 2>&1

But on my Oracle Linux virtual machines, the cron job did not run. So, the virtual clock was still running slower than the real clock.

In the logfile of the crontab, the following error was shown

"ntpdate[23109]: the NTP socket is in use, exiting"

So it seems the cronjob cannot connect to the external time server, because the NTP socket is already in use.
I found out that Oracle Linux starts a NTPD process when booted. This NTPD process is blocking my NTP socket....So, I stopped the NTPD process and made sure it would not start up again when booting the virtual machine. Checked the date and time and everything seems oke now. Even the crontab logfile is without errors...

"ntpdate[18258]: step time server 10.252.252.10 offset...."

So, don't run ntpd and ntpdate next to each other...

Oracle E-Business Suite R12 with OEM10G

After configuring the Oracle EBS 11.5.10 environment in OEM10G, it was time to also configure the new Oracle EBS R12 environment in OEM10G. Before I could configure R12 in OEM10G, I first had to upgrade the Oracle Applications plugin for EM10GR3. I downloaded the patches p5489352_R12_LINUX.zip and installed this patch on the OMS_HOME and in the local AGENT_HOME's (11i and R12 agent). For R12 also patch p5843357_R12[1].OAM.A_R12_GENERIC.zip was installed...After applying the patch, my first 11.5.10 configuration didn't work anymore, so I had to rediscover both R12 and 11i again. After rediscovering both environments, I was able to drop the old 11i target. So, now I have both environments in OEM10G. The services to be monitored look a little bit different for R12, because of the 10g iAS...Also OAM is integrated into OEM10G, so you can drill down into the EBS R12. How to configure R12 and 11i with the new Oracle Application plugin is documented in a Getting Started.pdf (can be downloaded from Metalink). So, now I am ready to monitor....

Oracle EBS 11i with 10G OEM

For our remote administration of databases, I was asked to configure our own internal EBS 11.5.10 environment in Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g.

First the Oracle EBS plugin was installed on the Oracle Management Server.

Second I had to install an agent on the EBS machine, and also apply the plugin patch into the Intelligent Agent home (patch p4678538_11i_LINUX.zip).

After the plugin patch I also applied the OAM integration patch (p3410599_11i_GENERIC.zip).

After patching the Agent home and defining targets in OEM, the Oracle EBS environment was configured in OEM. There was still one problem, when trying to configure the database target I could not connect with the sys account. Every time I tried to connect with sys, the following error occurred :

ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied ORA-27037: unable to obtainfile status Compaq Tru64 UNIX Error: 2: No such file or directory Additionalinformation: 3

I found out that all I needed was a password file.....

Following note 359979.1 from Metalink helped me.

1. set REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE to exclusive (static parameter..)

2. Create password file using orapwd utility

3. restart database

After this you can rerun the database configuration in Grid Control....

First patch on Oracle E-Business Suite R12

This morning I downloaded my first patch for the new Oracle EBS R12. Already there are 2 high priority patches for the new EBS, and I downloaded one of them (patch p5856453_R12[1].AD.A_R12_LINUX.zip).
I could not help feeling a little bit excited, because patching is changed in EBS R12.
The manual steps to be taken before patching are removed from the readme and placed into an xml file. Before patching you are supposed to run a new perl script called $AD_TOP/bin/admsi.pl

This script creates an install_{patch_number}.html.
After performing the steps in the html file, you have to run $AD_TOP/bin/admsi.pl –done (to let the system know you have performed the manual steps….).
The admsi.pl also creates a custom readme which you have to read before patching.

I was a little bit disappointed, because the patch I downloaded is maybe to small. Nothing about admsi.pl in the readme…Tried to run admsi.pl anyway

cd /ebs/patches/5856453/ad/patch/115/manualsteps
[oracle@vamisux34 manualsteps]$ $AD_TOP/bin/admsi.pl
Invoking Oracle Patch Application Assistant….
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at com.jgoodies.looks.plastic.PlasticLookAndFeel.(PlasticLookAndFeel.java:122)
at oracle.apps.ad.msi.LaunchUI._useOracleLookAndFeel(LaunchUI.java:69)
at oracle.apps.ad.msi.LaunchUI.(LaunchUI.java:29)
Caused by: java.awt.HeadlessException:
No X11 DISPLAY variable was set, but this program performed an operation which requires it.
at sun.awt.HeadlessToolkit.getScreenResolution(HeadlessToolkit.java:189)
at com.jgoodies.looks.LookUtils.isLowResolution(LookUtils.java:436)
at com.jgoodies.looks.LookUtils.(LookUtils.java:180)
… 3 more

Maybe with X-manager and $DISPLAY set ? No, admsi.pl returns a java exception…

Invoking Oracle Patch Application Assistant….
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1762)
at oracle.apps.ad.msi.LaunchUI.main(LaunchUI.java:107)

Running admsi.pl like this.....

[oracle@vamisux34 manualsteps]$ perl $AD_TOP/bin/admsi.pl -cli

Gathering Information..
Enter the patch_top : /ebs/patches/5856453
Enter the APPS user password:
Logfile for this session is located at admsi.log
Generating installation instructions for patch 5856453..
Updating database....
install_5856453.html generated successfully
install_5856453.txt generated successfully
[oracle@vamisux34 manualsteps]$

The install_5856443.html is the new readme. Because there are no manual actions to perform, the new generated readme is the same as the old one and I can apply the patch using adpatch..

oracle@vamisux34 appl]$ cd /ebs/patches
[oracle@vamisux34 patches]$ ls
5856453 p5856453_R12[1].AD.A_R12_LINUX.zip
[oracle@vamisux34 patches]$ cd 5856453/
[oracle@vamisux34 5856453]$ adpatch options=hotpatch
************* Start of AutoPatch session *************
AutoPatch version: 12.0.0
AutoPatch started at: Tue Feb 27 2007 11:05:47

…..

AutoPatch is complete.
AutoPatch may have written informational messages to the file/appl/apps/apps_st/appl/admin/PROD/log/u5856453.lgi
Errors and warnings are listed in the log file/appl/apps/apps_st/appl/admin/PROD/log/u5856453.log
and in other log files in the same directory.

The patch finished without problems….

OAUG meeting in Amsterdam

This afternoon I was present at the OAUG netherlands. The meeting was held in the Nationaal Lucht -en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium in Amsterdam and the topic was Oracle ASM with the Oracle EBS.

So, first an Oracle certified master, Rene Kundersma, told something about Oracle ASM. Next topic was supposed to be about the Oracle EBS using ASM, but the speaker had to cancel...so Rene could tell us more about Oracle ASM without Oracle EBS. To bad, because the room was filled with Oracle EBS people, and a lot of questions were asked concerning the Oracle EBS with ASM. But, unfortunately all these questions remain unanswered...But the story Rene Kundersma told us was very interesting also !

Oracle Partner Release 12 Update seminar

This morning I was present at the Release 12 Partner update Seminar at Oracle in the Netherlands. Before the lunch there were some presentations, and one of them was very good. It was a presentation from Karsten Roigk (VP Applications), about the Oracle strategy and also some new features in Oracle General Ledger. Very interesting...

After the lunch I went to the Applications Technology meeting. This seminar was also an overview, but still there were some interesting issues. For example, in R12 the Integration Repository is part of the EBS, instead of the static html page it was in EBS 11i (http://irep.oracle.com/index.html). And now that it's part of the EBS, when a patch updates a api, the irep is also updated !!! The irep, by the way, is used for integration with the Oracle EBS. It shows us how you can integrate with the EBS. Making irep a part of the EBS R12 is also a part of the Oracle Fusion development.

Oracle Applications Manager in Oracle EBS R12

I tried to find the new OAM, but could not find the responsibility for it.

When login in a 11i environment, you could choose to login into the application or login the web OAM. In R12 you cannot make this choice anymore. So where is the new web OAM ??

When logged in as 'sysadmin' the only applications manager responsibility is ' Workflow : Applications Manager'

When you choose that responsibility, it takes you to the workflow part of OAM. From there you can go to the Applications dashboard tab and you are in the known OAM webpage...

You enter the new web OAM through the following url : http://vamisux34.amis.local:8000/OA_HTML/weboam/oam/oamApps$target=PROD

and in the 11i environment the url looked like

http://vamisux32.amis.local:8000/oa_servlets/weboam/oam/oamApps$target=oatest

So it changed from oa_servlets to OA_HTML.....

The OAM main page looks the same, but there is a new tab.. 'Software Updates'. Opening that page shows us the following...

The page schows us the Maintenance Activities like 'AD Administration -Disable Maintenance Mode'....

Also there is a Applied Bug Fix Check and a patch recommendation Request...

The old Applied Patches info is also available...

Guest password in Oracle EBS

Last Friday I received a message from an international EBS user. The GUEST password was changed in the profile option GUEST_USER_PASSWORD (default GUEST/ORACLE). After the change, they could not login the Oracle EBS anymore. She asked me for some advice, how to solve this problem since it was their production environment.

What the current password is, is shown by the following sql

SQL> select profile_option_value from fnd_profile_option_values
2 where profile_option_id = 3805;

To see if the login password for user GUEST is the default password...

select fnd_web_sec.validate_login('GUEST','ORACLE)
from dual;

Because autoconfig was no option at that time, I suggested to change the profile back to it's default by using the SAVE function from the FND_PROFILE package.
DECLARE
stat boolean;
BEGIN
dbms_output.disable;
dbms_output.enable(100000);
stat := FND_PROFILE.SAVE('GUEST_USER_PWD', 'GUEST/ORACLE', 'SITE');
IF stat
THEN
dbms_output.put_line( 'Stat = TRUE - profile updated' );
ELSE
dbms_output.put_line( 'Stat = FALSE - profile NOT updated' );
END IF;
commit;
END;
After running this function the password was set to ORACLE. The GUEST user password is also mentioned in the dbc file and in the xml file. If all the entry's are the same, everything should work fine.

Well, at Sunday we lost contact. But last Monday I received an email saying the problem was solved. I asked what solved the problem in the end, but I did not receive an answer yet.