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.

Install Oracle EBS 12i

So, I finally installed the new EBS 12i release. I had to install with an empty database, because of disk space limits...
But the important thing is that the installation went well and was successful.








Some first impressions...
- the look and feel changed (we had already seen some previews..)
- some strange options when logging in the application ??


- the database is twice as big (10g vs 9i)
- new technology stack
- new instance top

I also faced a first problem. I could not startup the application in my Microsoft explorer..The java console showed the login was hanging on the appslogo_new.gif ??
I found out that when I deactivated my Oracle Dba Toolbar in the explorer, I could enter the application without any problem. But when activating the toolbar again..the login process was hanging again on the same gif. Strange...the toolbar was downloaded from OTN and is something Oracle brought to my attention... I wonder if this is a known issue....

I also saw the dbc file is now in the instance top directory. Strange, because the path to the dbc file seems the same, /appl/fnd/12.0.0/secure....but this is not in the APPL_TOP, but in the INSTANCE_TOP (inst/apps/PROD_vamisux34).
A simple ls command in the INSTANCE_TOP shows..

[oracle@vamisux34 PROD_vamisux34]$ ls

admin appltmp conf_PROD.txt logs ora pids rgf

appl certs conf_PROD.txt.bac ocm out portal temp

The admin directory contains the scripts directory, where all the start/stop scripts are located.

The appl directory shows us

[oracle@vamisux34 appl]$ ls

admin fnd

where fnd holds the dbc file and the admin directory contains the xml file.

More to come....

Sizing Oracle EBS 12i

I wanted to find out how ‘big’ the new Oracle EBS 12i release really is. So, I downloaded the software from Edelivery and created a stage area.
From the stage area I started the rapidwiz to check the required disk space.

Here is the required disk space for Oracle EBS 12i :

Database ORACLE_HOME = /ebs/db/tech_st/10.2.0
required = 4234.0
Database System File Directory = /ebs/db/apps_st/data
required = 19487.0
Database Log File Directory = /ebs/db/apps_st/data
required = 3165.0
Database Transaction File Directory = /ebs/db/apps_st/data
required = 66244.0
Database Archive File Directory = /ebs/db/apps_st/data
required = 45061.0
APPL_TOP = /ebs/apps/apps_st/appl
required = 5078.0
APPL_TOP mount 2 = /ebs/apps/apps_st/appl
required = 2639.0
APPL_TOP mount 3 = /ebs/apps/apps_st/appl
required = 4167.0
APPL_TOP mount 4 = /ebs/apps/apps_st/appl
required = 2882.0
COMMON_TOP = /ebs/apps/apps_st/comn
required = 2743.0
Apps ORACLE_HOME = /ebs/apps/tech_st/10.1.3
required = 1553.0
Tools ORACLE_HOME = /ebs/apps/tech_st/10.1.2
required = 1138.0
So, you see the database is much bigger then release 11.5.10.2 (10g vs 9i). Also the new APPL_TOP is a little bigger then the old one.

To check for yourself, here is the required disk space for Oracle EBS 11.5.10.2

Database ORACLE_HOME
required = 3091.0
Database System File Directory
required = 12023.0
Database Log File Directory
required = 160.0
Database Transaction File Directory
required = 28870.0
Database Archive File Directory
required = 21206.0
APPL_TOP
required = 5707.0
APPL_TOP mount 2
required = 3212.0
APPL_TOP mount 3
required = 5852.0
APPL_TOP mount 4
required = 2524.0
COMMON_TOP
required = 2963.0
Apps ORACLE_HOME (iAS)
required = 2600.0
Tools ORACLE_HOME (8.0.6)
required = 3027.0

Applications unlimited

Yesterday morning I visited a seminair about Oracle Fusion middleware. It was an overview, so a lot of info in a few hours. The overview helped me understanding SOA, BPELL, FUSION APPS, ESB a little bit.

In the afternoon I visited Oracle again, this time in Amsterdam for the Applications Unlimited session. In a beautifull environment, the board room in the Rembrandt Tower, I saw the Applications unlimited presentation from New York. Saw some old colleques and enjoyed the whole scene....

Now back to work , trying to complete the staging area for the EBS 12i....