Steven Chan

We've been getting a lot of questions about how Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i customers can take advantage of some of the standalone solutions from Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. There are many significant functional innovations and new capabilities in R12.1, but some of you have indicated that you don't have the time or the budget to upgrade from Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i yet. Nadia Bendjedou has an OpenWorld session in which she'll be covering options for Apps 11i users to advantage of Apps 12.1 standalone applications: Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Our Applications Platforms Group continues to round out our E-Business Suite certification matrix for Oracle Database Vault 11gR1. Oracle DB Vault 11gR1 11.1.0.7 is now certified with E-Business Suite for the following Windows platforms: * Microsoft Windows Server (32-bit) * Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit) Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Platform migration is the process of moving a database from one operating-system platform to a different operating-system platform. There are two supported methods for doing this: 1. Export the data from the database on the old platform, create a new database on the new platform, and import the data into the new database. 2. Use the Transportable Database feature You can expect a 50% or greater reduction in the time it takes to complete a platform migration using Transportable Database when compared to traditional export/import methods. Transportable Database 10gR2 was certified for the E-Business Suite last year. I'm pleased to announce that our Applications Platforms Group has certified this for the next database release -- Transportable Database 11gR1 -- with the E-Business Suite. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

The final security update for Firefox 2 was released in December, 2008; Mozilla recommends that all Firefox 2 users upgrade to Firefox 3.x. We certified Firefox 3.0 with Oracle E-Business Suite in February, 2009. Since then, the Mozilla team has released several updates on the Firefox 3.5 line. I'm very pleased to announce that Firefox 3.5 is now certified with the E-Business Suite. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Premier Support for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11.5.9 ended in June, 2008. If you are currently running 11.5.9 or earlier and your immediate plans do not involve an upgrade to Release 12, then it's a good idea to move up to the terminal release of Apps 11i: 11.5.10.2. This will ensure you remain supported and can make the most of any technology stack and functional upgrades. A lot of what you do as part of an upgrade to 11.5.10.2 will also ease your transition to Release 12, so this upgrade can be considered as a Release 12 prerequisite exercise, too. Critical patch updates, roll-up patchsets (RUPs) and new technology stack certifications are still being released for Apps 11.5.10.2, and the more up-to-date your system is, the easier it will be to apply these when they come along. This article takes you through some of the most common tips from Oracle Support to ensure a successful upgrade to EBS 11.5.10.2. Nick Quarmby

Some E-Business Suite implementations go smoothly. Some don't. Even battle-scarred veteran Apps sysadmins have to call upon Oracle for help at some point. One of the most-surprising things I hear from customers is that many of you don't know what options exist for you to get help when you need it. Depending on your circumstances, there's a wide range of alternatives that may work for your needs. Taking the wrong approach can waste a lot of time and efforts on all sides. If you need help, here's a list of the best options for ensuring that you get the help that you need: Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Close on the heels of our recent updates to the recommended EBS 11i Database parameters, our database and applications performance architects have published updates for EBS Release 12. The updated note is now available here: * Database Initialization Parameters for Oracle Applications Release 12 (MOS Document ID 396009.1) Prasad Akkiraju

I'm very pleased to announce that Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is now certified as a client browser for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. IE 8 Support Requires Forms 10.1.2.3 If you're running either Forms 10.1.2.0.2 or 10.1.2.2 in your EBS 12 environment, you will need to update to Forms 10.1.2.3 to get support for Internet Explorer 8. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Our Applications Platforms Group has just released a flurry of new platform certifications for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1 for the 10gR2 10.2.0.4 Database Server. The following operating systems are now certified for database-tier only deployments: * Sun Solaris x86-64 (Solaris 10) * IBM: Linux on System z (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise System 9 and 10) * IBM: Linux on Power Systems (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise System 9 and 10) * Linux Itanium (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise System 9 and 10) Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

The drumbeats are getting louder for OpenWorld 2009 every day. Every year brings new additions to our Oracle family of products, and this year's sessions are even more densely-scheduled than previous years. A useful way of cutting through the noise are the "Focus On" documents for each major product family. The "Focus On" documents highlight just the Oracle sessions and events that are relevant to a particular content stream. All of the major content streams at OpenWorld have their own "Focus On" documents. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

New database updates from Oracle are the mostly closely-watched releases across our Oracle user community. The 11gR2 version 11.2.0.1.0 is the next major release after 11gR1 version 11.1.0.6.0. This version -- for Linux x86 32-bit and 64-bit platforms only -- is now available for download on the Oracle Technology Network. Prasad Akkiraju

A critical Rollup Update for Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Release 12.1.1 was released on August 21, 2009. It is a consolidated one-off fix to address some open issues in Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Release 12.1.1. Patch 8459663 for Integrated SOA Gateway R12.1.1 is now available for download. Rekha Ayothi http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

All three of the major new technology stack components included in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1 are also certified with Release 12.0. You could upgrade each of these R12.0 techstack components individually. But now that Release 12.1.1 is out, why bother with that older time-consuming and labour-intensive approach when there's a better way? You can use the EBS 12.1.1 Rapid Install to upgrade just the application and database tier technology stack components in your existing EBS 12.0 instance. Your technology stack components are upgraded to the same versions delivered with EBS 12.1.1 while leaving your EBS 12.0 product code (e.g. Financials, Supply Chain) untouched. Prasad Akkiraju

Sometimes our release processes get ahead of our internal infrastructure. This happened when we released Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1. We discovered post hoc that it was not possible to distinguish between patches intended for Apps 12.1 and those intended for Apps 12.0 in the "Patches & Updates" function in My Oracle Support and Metalink. Whoops -- clearly suboptimal. This issue was resolved in mid-July, when the Patches & Updates function got a brand-new "Compatible With" column: Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

All EBS administrators must become very familiar with the OPatch utility. OPatch is used to patch the ORACLE_HOMEs in EBS Application and Database tiers. Security fixes delivered for these ORACLE_HOMEs through Critical Patch Updates are also applied using OPatch. It updates the central and per-product inventories with the details of each patch applied. Apart from the Oracle Universal Installer (which internally also uses OPatch), this is the only tool authorized to patch ORACLE_HOMEs. Although it once had a reputation for being somewhat arcane, OPatch has evolved over the years into a more user-friendly and better-documented tool. I'll cover the essentials of using OPatch in this article. Prasad Akkiraju

Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco is our biggest conference of the year. It's always a real treat to see what some of the best minds in the Oracle community have to share. I hope that I'll get a chance to meet some of you in person at this conference. I'll be presenting and participating in a few sessions again this year: Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

E-Business Suite R12.1.1 provides Advanced Configuration wizards that make it easier to deploy features such as SSL and load-balancing. Apps administrators can use these wizards to make configuration changes online through Oracle Applications Manager (OAM) and then run AutoConfig on the applications tier to make the changes effective. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is one of the most commonly used configurations in EBS. I'll walk through the SSL Advanced Configuration Wizard in this article. Prasad Akkiraju

The Oracle E-Business Suite Rapid Install provides an easy-to-use Express Install option. This option sets default values for several of the customizable inputs that the Apps DBA must enter in subsequent screens. Express Install is convenient for test instance setup as well as for training purposes. Note that this option is valid only for new installations and cannot be used for upgrades. Prasad Akkiraju

It's encouraging to hear that many of you are interested in automated regression testing for your E-Business Suite environments. Yesterday's article about our WinRunner and QTP automated regression tests prompted a number of follow-up questions about our plans for using Oracle Application Testing Suite with the E-Business Suite. Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

My, how time flies. It's been over two years since I last covered automated regression testing for the E-Business Suite. Our strategy for this area continues to evolve, so it's high time for an update. The E-Business Suite Test Starter Kits consist of sample test scripts from our own E-Business Suite QA group, along with a Starter Guide, Best Practices Guide, and Installation instructions. The test scripts were created against an EBS Vision Demo database displaying American English. You can use these kits as a model for building out your own automated regression tests for your Apps environment. Back in 2006, you could download our Quality Assurance teams' automated WinRunner QA scripts for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i via a Test Starter Kit. A few things have changed since then: Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html