EBS database upgrade 10gR2

After installing the EBS 11.5.10 multinode, I asked myself what could be next....I decided to upgrade the database (9.2.0.6) to 10gr2 (10.2.0.2.0)
It took me a few days of hard work, but finally the upgrade has finished and I am now performing the last steps to complete the upgrade and if the EBS is still working.

I used Metalink note 362203.1 to upgrade and choose to manually upgrade the database instead of using the database upgrade assistent (DBUA).
More to come...

EBS 11.5.10 install

After installing Oracle Linux and staging the dvd's (using adautostg.pl), I started the install.

On each external hard disk I created two virtual hard disks, so I decided to install the APPL_TOP on it's own disk. This way I want to create a shared APPL_TOP, by installing the APPL_TOP once and then share it with my other node.
When using the shared appl_top feature in 11.5.10, you must also share the technology stack (iAS and 8.0.6 directory's).

I created the shares using the mount command on the machine where the software was not installed. I also had to start the NFS proces.
mount -t nfs machine1:/appl /appl
mount -t nfs machine1:/ebs/prodora/8.0.6 /ebs/prodora/8.0.6
mount -t nfs machine1:/ebs/prodora/iAS /ebs/prodora/iAS

Now, from the second machine I can see and work with the directory's mentioned above...

The install went perfect and completed without errors

Internet Explorer 7 blocker....

After my last automatic update on Windows XP, suddenly Internet Explorer 7.0 was installed instead of IE6. From that moment on, I had some problems when I wanted to start an EBS session...
I decided to uninstall IE7. After the uninstall, IE6 is returned....But also my install updates icon !!! Windows wants to install IE7 again. On Metalink I found the following tool from Microsoft. It's a IE7 blocking tool, so the automatic updates are installed, but IE7 is not.
Download the exe form the following site ....

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4516A6F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displaylang=en

After installing the .exe, 4 files are placed on your computer.
When executing the IE70Blocker.cmd, a new registry key is created which prevents IE7 from being installed by the next automatic update...
From the command prompt

C:\>IE70Blocker /B

MICROSOFT TOOL KIT TO DISABLE DELIVERY OFMICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Blocking deployment of Internet Explorer 7.0 on the local machine
The operation completed successfully

Preparing Oracle Linux....

Before you can begin installing EBS 11.5.10 on the Oracle Linux platform, you have to install the following packages also..

- libaio-0.3.102-1.i386.rpm
- libaio-devel-0.3.102-1.i386.rpm
- openmotif21-2.1.30-11.FC2.1.i386.rpm

Also install the following patch (download from Metalink...)

- p4198954_40_LINUX.zip ( compat-libcwait-2.1-1.i386.rpm + compat-oracle-rhel4-1.0-5.i386.rpm)

And don't forget to set the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL parameter to 2.4.19

Now, you are ready to install the EBS 11.5.10

Oracle Enterprise Linux

Because of my last problem with the 11.5.10 install, I decided the begin all over again. What I didn't mention last time, was that the staging area I used was downloaded from Oracle. Maybe that's why I faced so many problems when installing multi node. So, this time I am creating a staging area from the Oracle EBS dvd's.

I also changed my operating system. Instead of Red Hat ES3, I downloaded the Oracle Linux from OTN and installed on my two external hard disks. I wanted to know if this linux version from Oracle was already ready for an EBS 11.5.10 install.
Well, it isn't. You still have to add packages. A summary of the Oracle Linux install will follow soon.

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Multi node EBS 11.5.10

I have deleted my single instance EBS 11.5.10 environmenr and installed a multi node 11.5.10 environment. I have two nodes, and seperated the database + conc. managers from the application tier. Everything seems to work fine, but when I want to startup a forms session..something goes wrong with the jinitiator. Maybe someone has had the same problem.
In the javaconsole I recieve the following error :

java.net.ConnectException: Operation timed out: connect
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(Unknown Source)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(Unknown Source)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
at java.net.Socket.(Unknown Source)
at java.net.Socket.(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.protocol.jdk12.http.HttpClient.doConnect(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.protocol.jdk12.http.HttpClient.(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.protocol.jdk12.http.HttpClient.New(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.protocol.jdk12.http.HttpURLConnection.createConnection(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.protocol.jdk12.http.HttpURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.protocol.jdk12.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
at oracle.jre.protocol.jar.HttpUtils.followRedirects(Unknown Source)
at oracle.jre.protocol.jar.JarCache$CachedJarLoader.download(Unknown Source)
at oracle.jre.protocol.jar.JarCache$CachedJarLoader.load(Unknown Source)
at oracle.jre.protocol.jar.JarCache.get(Unknown Source)
at oracle.jre.protocol.jar.CachedJarURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
at oracle.jre.protocol.jar.CachedJarURLConnection.getJarFile(Unknown Source)
at sun.misc.URLClassPath$JarLoader.getJarFile(Unknown Source)
at sun.misc.URLClassPath$JarLoader.(Unknown Source)
at sun.misc.URLClassPath$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at sun.misc.URLClassPath.getLoader(Unknown Source)
at sun.misc.URLClassPath.getLoader(Unknown Source)
at sun.misc.URLClassPath.getResource(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.security.PluginClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadCode(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
WARNING: Unable to cache http://14-320-584.localdomain:8000/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndforms.jar

Has anybody seen this before ?

Oracle E-Business Suite Technology Blog

Yesterday I received an email from Steven Chan, Director Applications Technology Integration. He mentioned my blog again on his site. His message...lets share our EBS knowledge. Couldn't agree more !!!
See his interesting EBS blog !!
http://blogs.oracle.com/schan/

OCP Exam

Last week I signed up for the beta exams OCP EBS Dba. Tommorow is my first exam, and later on this week I will take another exam.
See http://www.oracle.com/global/us/education/certification/ebusiness_appstechnology.html

for more information. I will take the last two exams...

Support status Oracle on vmware...

Following support status from Metalink note 249212.1

Oracle provides support of the Oracle Stack when running on a VMware virtual machine in the following manner. If a problem arises and it is a known Oracle issue, Oracle support will recommend the appropriate solution. If that solution does not work, the issue will be referred back to VMware for support. If the problem is determined to be an unknown Oracle issue when running on a VMware virtual machine, and the issue cannot be reproduced on a physical system by Oracle support, the issue will be referred back to VMware for support. Oracle and VMware have in place a joint customer support agreement to enable customer support issues to be transferred between the two partners. In addition, all versions of RAC are not supported on VMWare by Oracle.

changing applications background

Some practical notes times time. For my own EBS 11.5.10 installation I wanted to change the background in applications. To do this, modify the $OA_HTML/bin/appsweb.cfg
Look for 'background' and give the complete path to the gif you want to use. The gif must be placed in the $JAVA_TOP/oracle/apps/media directory.

When you bounce the webserver, youw own background should be visible.

You can also change or remove the default Oracle splash screen. In the same appsweb.cfg, look for splashscreen and comment it out or change the gif, be sure to place the new gif in the same directory.

Installing 9i database on Suse SLES9

Last week I was asked to install two databases on a Suse linux environment running on vmware. It had to be a 10g datawarehouse database and a 9i (9.2.0.7) database.
Next to the datawarehouse database I also had to install Oracle warehouse builder (owb) 10g.
I started with the owb software and the 10g datawarehouse database. I installed an owb repository in the 10g dwh database and the 10g install was ready. Next database was the 9i database..I first installed the 9.2.0 software and patched it up to 9.2.07. After the 9.2.0.7 patch was installed, I tried to create a database using DBCA. But DBCA did not work !! I have used DBCA before and never experienced any problems with it....I encountered two problems..

1. Starting up DBCA and getting the following error '/oracle/product/9.2.0/db1/bin/dbca line 124: 16015 Killed $JRE_DIR/bin/jre DORACLE_HOME=$OH -DJDBC_PROTOCOL=thin -mx64m -classpath $CLASSPATH oracle.sysman.assistants.dbca.Dbca $ARGUMENTS '
Via Metalink note 292278.1 I found out that you have to adjust the dbca script (!!). You have to modify the line #124 in the dbca script. Change it to '$JRE_DIR/bin/jre -native -DORACLE_HOME=$OH -DJDBC_PROTOCOL=thin -mx64m -classpath $CLASSPATH oracle.sysman.assistants.dbca.Dbca $ARGUMENTS '. After the change, I had to run the root.sh script in the $ORACLE_HOME (as root..) and DBCA started up without errors....

2. During the creation of the database the following error occurred.. 'ORA-27125: unable to create shared memory segment'. I found note 293988.1 on Metalink, and the note claimed it was a kernel problem. But my kernel was not the same as the 'problem' kernel, so I did not see any use in upgrading my kernel. There is also a workaround. As root try the following..
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/disable_cap_mlock
After this, I tried to create the database again and this time no problems....

EBS Install problems

During my 11.5.10 install on Redhat ES 3.0, I experienced some problems.
1. After installing the APPL_TOP (almost at the end of the install....), the installer wants to run autoconfig. But the installer hangs and when checking the logfile, the following error occurs..
libdb.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
I searched Metalink for a solution and found out that the compat-db-4.1.25-6.i386.rpm package should be installed. After installaing the package, the problem was not solved...Using google I found out that someone had tried to relink the libdb.so.2 to libdb.so.3. Libdb.so.2 is present in the /usr/lib directory, so lets give it a try. After generating the link using ln -s, I restarted the rapidwiz (./rapidwiz -restart) and this time the installer continued !!!
2. The second problem occured at the post install checks by the installer. According to the installer my *.dbc file in the $FND_TOP/secure was corrupt. Seemed kind a strange, since the rapidwiz did create the dbc file in the first place. When looking at the dbc file, I noticed that the dbc file the installer used to connect to the databaseas in fact no more then a template !!! The rapidwiz never produced a valid dbc file, which I coukd use to connect to my 11i database. But I never saw an error anywhere ?? I decided to run autoconfig myself and find out where autoconfig is going wrong. Autoconfig ended with 'no errors' ??? The autoconfig proces did create a dbc file this time. I ran the post install check again, and everything was fine.
3. The last problem was a FRM-92050 error when trying to connect to the forms server.
This error was solved using the note 299187.1 from Metalink. I had to set two variables, the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL (2.4.19) and the $LANG (empty).

So, now my EBS 11.5.10 is working and I will look for more problems.

EBS 11.5.10

It has been a whule since my last post. I have been busy with al lot of things.
I finally managed to install EBS 11.5.10 on Redhat ES 3.0
Before and during the install of EBS I ran into a lot of problems. The easy ones were mostly corrupted EBS dvd's or in case of a disk download from edelivery, an invalid download.
It took me a few days (!!!) to get the whole stage area complete and working.

What other problems I encountered, I will post later on...

11.5.10 install

I'm trying to install EBS 11.5.10 on Suse Linux.
First I created a staging area on my external hard disk. I found out, a few files (*.zip) could not be copied...Disk7 from the Database1 dvd and disk6 from the first APPL_TOP dvd.
All the other files went well, so I decided to download the bad disk from the Oracle E-delivery site. After downloaded and burned the cd's..the copy to my staging area went fine.
So, today I can begin the install. It's running right now, unzipping files from the RDBMS disk.
To be continued....

Recyclebin 10g

I have looked into the recyclebin feature in 10g.
I have tested it by dropping a table form the user scott, comiited the drop and recovered the table.


SQL> conn scott/tiger
Connected.

SQL> descr recyclebin
Name Null? Type
----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
OBJECT_NAME NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
ORIGINAL_NAME VARCHAR2(32)
OPERATION VARCHAR2(9)
TYPE VARCHAR2(25)
TS_NAME VARCHAR2(30)
CREATETIME VARCHAR2(19)
DROPTIME VARCHAR2(19)
DROPSCN NUMBER
PARTITION_NAME VARCHAR2(32)
CAN_UNDROP VARCHAR2(3)
CAN_PURGE VARCHAR2(3)
RELATED NOT NULL NUMBER
BASE_OBJECT NOT NULL NUMBER
PURGE_OBJECT NOT NULL NUMBER
SPACE NUMBER


SQL> select object_name from user_objects;


OBJECT_NAME

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PK_DEPT
DEPT
EMP
PK_EMP
BONUS
SALGRADE

6 rows selected.

SQL> drop table salgrade;

Table dropped.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select droptime, original_name from recyclebin;

DROPTIME ORIGINAL_NAME
------------------- --------------------------------
2006-08-29:07:10:28 SALGRADE


SQL> select object_name, original_name, operation from recyclebin;

OBJECT_NAME ORIGINAL_NAME OPERATION
------------------------------ -------------------------------- ---------
BIN$HCIPm0RKljjgQKjAAV0coQ==$0 SALGRADE DROP


SQL> select object_name from user_objects;

OBJECT_NAME
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PK_DEPT
DEPT
EMP
PK_EMP
BONUS
BIN$HCIPm0RKljjgQKjAAV0coQ==$0

6 rows selected.

SQL> flashback table salgrade to before drop;

Flashback complete.

SQL> select object_name from recyclebin;

no rows selectedSQL> select object_name from user_objects;

OBJECT_NAME
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PK_DEPT
DEPT
EMP
PK_EMP
BONUS
SALGRADE

6 rows selected.

SQL> select * from salgrade;

GRADE LOSAL HISAL
---------- ---------- ----------
1 700 1200
2 1201 1400
3 1401 2000
4 2001 3000
5 3001 9999

The recyclebin feature does not work for sys objects
If you realy want to delete the table and release the space, use the purge command.

Patching HP unix

It has been a few days since my last post. I have had a change of project.
I am working on a internal project.
The last two days I have been patching unix....
I have never done this before. I am used to install Oracle patches using adpatch, but now I had to use swinstall and swremove.

10g on vmware

Yesterday I installed a 10gR2 Oracle database on Suse Linux. Nothing special about that off course, but I did it on my Windows XP laptop using vmware workstation.
With vmware you can create virtual machines with their own operating system.
It takes a lot of resources from your laptop, but it was fun to install it.
Just remember that Oracle does not support vmware in a production environment....see also
http://blogs.oracle.com/schan/2006/08/23#a636

EBS 11i laptop/desktop

In the UK there is a company that sells laptops with EBS 11.5.10 already installed. Because of the great demand of these laptops, they now also sell a desktop version.
For more information, check this link..http://www.appsdba.co.uk/products.html

11.5.9 install part III

I have checked everything so far. The most important test is to check whether all the admin tools work ok. So, I tested adpatch and adadmin.
The Oracle Applications Manager is working, and the applications login also. I cannot start up a forms session from the webapplication..nothing happens. I can login forms without the web application, directly into the forms application.
I think it could be a memory problem, when I start all the services..my laptop is running out of memory.