Oracle-L: RE: Oracle E-Business Suite install/upgrade best practices

From: Nelson, Allan <anelson_at_midf.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 11:53:43 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.0055D5BD.20030228115343@fatcity.com>

We are an 11i shop. You don't mention what module list so I'll confine myself to general remarks. First most of the books on the market are either functional in nature or rehashes of Oracle documentation. 11i has, through much of its life, been a work in progress. Early releases were plauged with fairly bad code and broken functionality. Further, due to the changes to core financials packages to accommodate CRM structures stability in core modules suffered. With 11.5.5 and above (we are at 11.5.7) some stabilty was achieved and most functionality worked.

For installation:

practice, practice, practice. You will be surprised at what doesn't work on install. Some patches will be needed just to get core functions working, depending on what modules you deploy.

Consider your hardware environment carefully. Forms users in our shop consume about 20MB of memory on the app server tier. Apps need about 25Gb of disk, a 100GB database is not very large in this space.

You will probably need at least three instances to satisfy your requirements. Development, user acceptance, and production are the usual setup. Note that the number of customization projects you undertake will drive the number of instances you need.

Be very careful in what you decide to customize. It is normal to resist changing business processes and to instead customize the ERP. Careful cost benefit analysis will usually show that you are better off changing your business processes. This advice becomes less valuable if your business requirements conflict strongly with Oracle's assumptions. Never the less, realize that each customization you choose will lengthen your implementation and will commit you to support of those customizations in an environment that will change more often that you like.

Patching:

Master the cloning process

Master Metalink, remember the bug check box in the advanced search options.

Realize that for many patches, backing them out is not an option

Don't patch if you don't require a fix.

Be very wary of family packs and other mega patches that are recommended to you by Oracle Support.

Don't *ever* apply a patch in production first.

There is a paradox to manage with patching. Oracle Support will want you to be current on family patches, also called minipacks now I think. You on the other hand will soon realize that Oracle has built a product that is so large that they have to some extent lost control of it. Mini Packs will always change more than the fix you are requesting. Negotiating with them to get a back port can be fun and sometimes works.

Upgrading:

Upgrades to point releases (i.e. 11.5.5 to 11.5.7) have become less traumatic but are still a big change. Don't upgrade unless you need something in the new release. Never assume that an upgrade will only fix bugs, they always change functionality as well. Schema changes almost always happen in upgrades and sometimes more interestingly in very unlikely patches. Custimization can matter a lot at this point.

Practice very good configuration management. You are going to test upgrades in dev or user acceptance. Make sure you have the same patch sets on all instances. You'll probably only make this mistake once. Upgrades can be patch sensitive.

I know these are generic and sort of obvious but maybe they can be a start to what you need.

Allan

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 8:29 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

I have been asked what the "Best Practices" are for Oracle Apps installation, patching and upgrade.

I have looked at what Oracle/OTN/Appsnet/metalink can offer with that search, and I am still struggling. I have tried Google and still can't find what I really am looking for.

Does anyone have suggestions on Doc or links to articles or book suggestions on where to find such information?

Thanks in advance for any help.

April

April Wells
Oracle DBA
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds
-- Albert Einstein

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Author: April Wells
INET: awells_at_csedge.com

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Author: Nelson, Allan
INET: anelson_at_midf.com

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