Steven Chan

Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average. ~ Garrison Keillor The New Year is a good time for reflection.  In that spirit, I'm going to try something different here.  One of our regular readers recently made a pointed remark about his clients' general desires to avoid reaching out to Oracle Support unless absolutely necessary.  This isn't the first time I've heard this sentiment but it crystallized my thoughts on something I've been meaning to discuss here for a while. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Like every sysadmin I know, I yearn for bigger, beefier servers for my E-Business Suite environments.  I've been dreaming about the new HP Oracle Database Machine since its unveiling at OpenWorld 2008.  In case you missed that announcement, this is a server with mainframe-class street cred: up to 14 GB/second in raw I/O bandwidth, which translates to up to 50 GB/second when handling compressed data.  Storage scales up to petabytes when combined with the HP Oracle Exadata Storage Server.  This machine is optimized for handling huge Oracle databases, so it's inevitable that EBS customers with large databases have shown interest in this hardware.  The Database Machine runs Oracle Database 11gR1 11.1.0.7 and Real Application Clusters on Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.1.  We've just certified Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i with the 11gR1 11.1.0.7 database release, so it's now possible to run Apps 11i on this hardware.  Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

This is the third of three Year in Review articles:  this one summarizes topics of interest specifically to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 sysadmins. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

This is the second of three Year in Review articles:  this one summarizes topics of interest specifically to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i sysadmins. Top 2008 Release 11i Articles Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Happy New Year! It's been a busy year for us in the E-Business Suite techstack area, and for this blog, too.  I'm very proud of our editorial team, which has grown to a dozen experts in their respective fields.  We've published over 160 articles this year, and we've fielded hundreds of your questions and comments (and even more of your private emails to us).  Thanks for your support.  All of us, myself included, have to squeeze in time on top of our regular jobs to contribute to this blog.  If you find it useful, drop us a line or post a comment to help keep us motivated.  2008 In Review I'd originally planned to publish a single article rounding up the most important articles of the year.  So much for that plan.  This is the first of three Year in Review articles covering topics of interest to both Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and 12 sysadmins alike. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

The significance of many problems lessens over time, so procrastination has its place as a stress management technique.  Unfortunately, putting off your EBS end-user migration from Oracle JInitiator to the native Sun Java plug-in doesn't fall into that category.  We are down to the last grains of sand in this particular hourglass. Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i end-users access Forms-based content either with the native Sun Java Runtime Engine (JRE) client or Oracle JInitiator.  Oracle JInitiator comes in two flavors: 1.8 and 1.3.  The sun is setting for both JInitiator versions. Error Correction Support (ECS) for JInitiator 1.1.8 will end on December 31, 2008.  In other words, the Oracle Forms group will no longer issue bug fixes for the JInitiator 1.1.8 codeline as of tomorrow. Error Correction Support for JInitiator 1.3 will end on July 31, 2009. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.0 originally shipped with OracleAS 10.1.3 Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J) for running its Java-based content.  Regular readers of this blog know that we certified OracleAS 10.1.3.3 with Apps 12 at the start of this year. In a fitting end to the year, we've now certified Oracle Application Server 10g 10.1.3.4 OC4J with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.  You can upgrade to OracleAS 10.1.3.4 OC4J directly from OracleAS 10.1.3 or 10.1.3.3.  This certification allows you to upgrade the OC4J components in your R12 techstack to get take advantage of the latest performance and stability improvements in this incremental patchset.  To make sure that there's no misunderstanding about what can be upgraded, the full name of this patchset is: Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 (10.1.3) Patch Set 4 (10.1.3.4.0) (Patch 7272722) It's important to note that either OracleAS 10.1.3.3 or 10.1.3.4 are mandatory prerequisites if you plan to upgrade your Release 12 application tier to the latest certified version of Java 6. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Here's a great way to end the year 2008 for Certifications with EBS: Oracle Database 11gR1 version 11.1.0.7 is now certified with E-Business Suite Release 11i. 11.1.0.7 is the first database patchset available for the 11gR1 Release 11.1.0.6. Customers can upgrade to this version following the Notes listed in the Documentation section. prasad.akkiraju

It never fails.  Just when I think I'm all prepared for a well-deserved vacation, a string of certifications comes along and I'm totally slammed. Just in time for the holidays, our Applications Performance Group has released another certification:  Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 is now certified on Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (32-bit and 64-bit) on the x86 and x86-64 hardware architectures. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Our Applications Platform Group recently certified Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 on Oracle VM and OEL 4 and RHEL 4.  Following hard on the heels of that certification, here's another addition to our existing set of Oracle VM certifications for the E-Business Suite:  Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 is now certified on Oracle VM with 64-bit Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 and 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on x86-64. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Our hardy group of Apps bloggers is growing once again.  I'm pleased to welcome another member of our Applications Technology Integration development team to this blog:  Srinivas Chaganti. Srinivas Chaganti is a Principal Software Engineer in the Oracle Applications Technology Integration group. He is responsible for the design, maintenance and enhancements of AutoConfig and related configuration tools for Oracle E-Business Suite. Srinivas has been with Oracle since December 2005 and has over 8 years of experience in the software industry. He started his career as a developer at OSI Tecnhologies, Hyderabad working on building the eBizmailer email marketing platform. Srinivas works at Oracle India located in Hyderabad, India Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) is a tool that automatically gathers configuration information from Oracle product installs and upload this information onto Oracle’s Support systems.  Customer support engineers can use this data to improve resolution times for your Service Requests.  Joshua Solomin, the OCM Product Manager, discusses the tool's benefits and the data that it collects in this article: My Oracle Support and Oracle Configuration Manager Oracle Configuration Manager is now natively supported with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. Starting with OCM 10.2.7, OCM provides native support for shared ORACLE_HOMEs. This makes possible to configure the latest version of OCM with E-Business Suite instances.  EBS 12 customers can take advantage of the benefits provided by Oracle Configuration Manager without worrying about whether their Application Server and Database Oracle Homes are part of an E-Business Suite Instance. There are no EBS-specific configurations requirements with OCM 10.2.7 or higher. srinivas.chaganti

I have yet to encounter a database that ever got smaller.  Like waistlines and the US national debt, all databases seem destined to increase in size.  The E-Business Suite is no exception:  as we add more product capabilities and your business grows, so do your Apps databases. Oracle-supplied solutions to managing Applications database size fall into two categories:  data growth control methods and data management methods. Growth Control Methods Archiving and purging Database compression Data Management Methods Database Partitioning Oracle Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) A new Oracle whitepaper discussing these topics is now available: Reducing Your Oracle E-Business Suite Data Footprint using Archiving, Purging, and Information Lifecycle Management (Metalink Note 752322.1) Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

I am pleased to announce that OracleAS 10g Forms and Reports version 10.1.2.3 is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. EBS 12 ships with Forms 10.1.2.0.2. If you're still running that version, you now have the choice of updating to either Forms 10.1.2.2 or Forms 10.1.2.3. We strongly recommend Forms 10.1.2.3. For the steps to upgrade to this latest version of Forms, refer to the Metalink Notes in the Documentation section below. Along with Form and Reports Services, Developer Suite 10.1.2.3 is also certified. prasad.akkiraju

This complements the Apps 12-corresponding announcement:  Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i has been certified with seven new platforms for DB Vault 10gR2 (10.2.0.4).  This configuration is now certified with the following new operating system platforms: Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

It's always nice to start the week off with some new certification announcements.  I'm pleased to announce that several new platforms have been added to our previously-announced certification of DB Vault 10gR2 (10.2.0.4) with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.  This configuration is now certified on the following new operating system platforms: Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

The latest update of the R12 E-Business Suite Technology Stack (Autoconfig Templates & Engine Patchset) is now released and is available for download from Oracle Metalink. The official name for this patch is: R12.TXK.A.DELTA.6 (7237313) ada.constanzo-muller

Our blogging team continues to expand to include the authoritative experts from our E-Business Suite Development team.  I'm very happy to welcome Ada Constanzo-Muller to our growing panel of contributing authors to this blog.  Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Oracle JInitiator is definitely in its sunset phase now.  JInitiator 1.1.8 will no longer receive any new bug fixes as of December 31, 2008.  Similarly, official Error Correction Support for JInitiator 1.3 will end as of July 31, 2009. I don't have statistics on how many E-Business Suite customers have converted their desktop clients from Oracle JInitiator to the native Sun Java (JRE) client.  Given the impending desupport dates for these two client codelines, I hope that all of you have already switched over -- or, at minimum -- are in the process of migrating your end-users' desktops to the native Sun Java plug-in. In these final days of support for Oracle JInitiator, I'm pleased to announce that JInitiator 1.3.1.30 is now certified with the E-Business Suite Release 11i.  Oracle JInitiator 1.3.1.30 is released via Patch 7410076.  It requires Apps Interoperability Patch 6169479. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

I'm (still) highlighting OpenWorld 2008 presentations that cover some of the most popular E-Business Suite technology stack topics. A catalog of all of the Applications Technology track sessions with links to the presentations is available here: OpenWorld 2008 Session Catalog: E-Business Suite Applications Technology Track E-Business Suite sysadmins know that there are a lot of different ways to deploy their system in production.  You can split EBS services across multiple application tier and database tier server nodes, you can scale up with load-balancers and Real Application Clusters, you can integrate your E-Business Suite instance with optional external services like Oracle Single Sign-On and the Oracle SOA Suite, and much, much more. The number of architectural options can be pretty bewildering, and it can be difficult to get a high-level overview of the relative benefits of each option.  We have lots of detailed documentation and introductory blog articles on, say, implementing RAC, but it's very difficult to get a sense of whether you can combine a reverse proxy in front of a load-balanced cluster with a RAC-enabled database tier (this is feasible, by the way). Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html