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...
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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....