Become Oracle Apps DBA

With 48,000 (avg.) visits per month we finished year 2007 on become Apps DBA

To provide better services to our readers, in Oct 2007 We moved to onlineAppsDBA.com

Features added to new site for Oracle Apps DBA's http://onlineappsdba.com/
- Professional look and feel
- Improved performance
- Multi language support
- Popularity index per post
- Ability to track your comments
- Posts with link to previous post in series
- Post with link to other posts followed by other readers after reading current post
- New topics like Fusion Middleware (SOA, OID, SSO, BPEL, ESB, BAM, BPM)
- Finally wonderful post from guest Author Joyjeet Banerjee (Read posts from Joy by clicking this link) (If you wish to become Author on site onlineAppsDBA.com drop mail to atul @ onlineAppsDBA.com )

In Oct. 2007 we moved from this blog to our own blog site http://onlineappsdba.com/ and within three months we touched 1,00,000 views (big thanks to all my readers and to authors for adding site into blogroll)

If you have not yet subscribed for email notification to our new site http://onlineappsdba.com/ (One Stop Shop for Apps DBA's) , you can subscribe now by clicking this link

Email Subscription to onlineAppsDBA.com

Few posts added recently on new site

Online Oracle Apps DBA Training via Web Conferencing Useful for Oracle DBA's to quickly learn Oracle Apps

Log file location - for Patching, cloning, startup/shutdown in R12

11g SOA/Jdeveloper Installation

Server Chaining in OID

R12/12i certification for Apps DBA's

BIEE, Cloning Difference in 11i & R12

2007-11-04T19:50:00.000Z

.

Here is list of topics covered in our new Site

http://onLineAppsDBA.com

You can subscribe to new site http://onLineAppsDBA.com by clicking on this link

Click here for Upgrade SOA Suite to 10.1.3.3

Click here for Install 11i on Linux

Click here for Cloning Difference between 11i & R12

Click here for Orcale Business Intelligence Overview

Click here for R12 Instance Top new Feature Apps R12

Click here for Apps DBA Certification Question on AD

Click here for Troubleshooting Oracle Portal SSO Web Cache

Update on our new Site http://onLineAppsDBA.com

2007-10-15T19:35:00.000+01:00

Well if you are wondering what we are doing on our new site, here is quick update on new post in last few days

Click here for Upgrade Oracle Applications from 12.0.0 to 12.0.2

Click here for Step by step configuration to access Oracle Applications 11i/R12/12i from Linux Client

Click here for Upgrade Oracle Application Server (Fusion Middleware Component) from 10.1.X to 10.1.2.2

and finally if you are preparing for Oracle Apps DBA Job/Interview Questions click here

If you have not yet subscribed to email notification to our new site click here
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=1224006&loc=en_US

Stay tuned on our new site at http://onlineappsdba.com/ and keep sending us feedback by commenting on new site or mail it to me at atul_iiit @ yahoo dot com

We are Live on http://onLineAppsDBA.com

2007-10-03T01:44:00.000+01:00

Finally we are live on http://OnLineAppsDBA.com and as promised I have tried to provide some good features in site few of them are

- Caching at File System for better performance
- Related Post link at Start of each post
- User who viewed this Post also viewed ....
- Multiple Language (going to extend them to other languages in future)
- Popularity Link on page basis
- Share this link where you can share pages of your interest to delicious , digg, redit, mail ...
- Contact Us link where you can send us feedback & scripts using simple form

Few more features coming in phase 2 of this site.

Those who wish to subscribe to my new site you can do so via Subscribe to Online Apps DBA by Email

So welcome to http://OnLineAppsDBA.com and pass on this new link to your friends.

If you are kind enough and added becomeAppsDBA in your blogroll , request you to kindly add new URL http://onLineAppsDBA.com If you are apps dba & I missed your blog in my new blogroll (at New Site) kindly drop me a mail at atul @ onLineAppsDBA dot com

We are moving to "On Line Apps DBA"

2007-09-29T17:29:00.001+01:00

I think image and Heading of this post says it all.

Yes we are moving to "On Line Apps DBA . Com" and currently in migration process putting all your posts, comments and categories from blogspot to On Line Apps DBA . COM and building some really nice look and feel and pages

Why are we moving to OnLineAppsDBA.com ?

Main reason for moving to OnLineAppsDBA.com is that

-- BlogSpot is blocked in some countries and few offices in india

-- Lot of my readers complain about slow performance at BecomeAppsDBA which is on free server from blogspot.com where as Apps DBA Online . com is on paid dedicated server and we are expecting better performance

-- Our new site On Line Apps DBA is on wordpress with some really good features and easy to maintain for administrators so we thought its good idea to invest in dedicated servers

On LineApps DBA will officially be launched next month (Adding some new pages and tools to make it more user friendly) but you can have a look at site at http://OnLineAppsDBA.com and send us your feedback and features you want to see on this site by writing to me at atul @ onlineappsdba.com

Oracle Internet Directory - Basics II

2007-09-20T19:44:00.000+01:00

Few years ago, When I started learning Oracle Internet Directory I jumped directly on administration of OID (including start/stop and debugging) without understanding basics of OID. My suggestion is to go through basics first which I am going to cover in this post.

For my first post on OID visit OID from Apps DBA's eye

Need of Oracle Internet Directory ?
Use of Oracle Internet Directory (Oracle's LDAP) is much bigger and can't be explained in this post but here is few bits which you is enough for time being (to get you started on OID).
--OID is repository for enterprise users, groups data.
--Information about various applications (Portal, BI, E-Business Suite, Collaboration Suite) registered to OID (You can register E-Business Suite or Database in OID).
--Password policy for Single Sign-On Partner Applications

What are different Daemon/Server in OID ?
There are three servers/daemon in OID

---OIDLDAPD - This is the main server/daemon waiting for ldap request (ldapsearch, ldapadd, ldapmodify, ldapdelete..). When any application want to do any ldap operation(add, modify, delete, search..) on OID object (user, group, application..), that request is fulfilled by this server/daemon.

---ODISRV - also called as Oracle Directory Integration Server, this is used for integration of Various Application (Portal, BI, E-Business Suite/Apps) with OID for user/group data. If any user/group is added/deleted in Portal/BI synchronization of that user to OID is done by this Daemon (Vice Versa). If you have Integrated Apps(11i/R12) with OID/SSO then users is provisioned/de-provisioned using this daemon of OID.

---OIDREPLD - Also called as OID Replication Daemon is used if you have replicated OID. By default this daemon is disabled.
For OID Replication Overview Click Here and to know more about Multi Master Replication click here

How to Start/Stop OID ?
OID Data including status of OID Servers (OIDLAPD, ODISRV OIDREPLD) is stored in Oracle Database so in order to start OID first start Database and Database Listener. Then
To Start OID - opmnctl startproc ias-component=OID
To Stop OID - opmnctl stopproc ias-component=OID

OPMNCTL will first start OIDMON (OID Monitoring Process) and then instruct OIDCTL (OID Control) to start OIDLDAPD and ODISRV daemons.

Where to find log files related to OID ?
Logs related to OIDMON, OIDCTL, OIDLDAPD should be in $ORACLE_HOME/ldap/log directory , ODISRV related logs should be in $ORACLE_HOME/ldap/ODI/log

More on OID common tasks (including frequently used scripts) and New Features on OID 10.1.4 coming soon ...

25 Things Apps DBA should know for Apps 11i/R12 Integration with OID/SSO

2007-09-13T18:40:00.000+01:00

Check below 25 points which Apps DBA should know for Apps(11i/R12) integration with SSO/OID (Single Sign-On/Oracle Internet Directory)

1. If you change APPS password using FNDCPASS utility, update provisioning profile with new password using OIDPROVTOOL. (More on OID Scripts & Tools coming soon). This is required as APPS password is stored in provisioning profile in OID.

2. If you clone E-Business Suite Instance,
------2.1 Deregister old E-Business Suite details from target OID Instance,
------2.2 Deregister Integration details from cloned target E-Business Suite instance
------2.3 Reregister target E-Business Suite Instance to target OID and SSO instance
(More on cloning Oracle Apps instance integrated with OID/SSO coming soon)

3. Session Idle Timeout value in E-Business/Apps is set to 30 minute by default but there is NO Session Idle timeout value set on SSO (There is Global Timeout value set to 8 hours in Oracle SSO which is different from Idle Timeout). If session is Idle for more than 30 minutes in Apps/E-Business suite, users will be redirected to SSO and user can get back to Apps "without" entering username password as user session cookie is still valid on SSO Server .
For global Idle Session time out to work properly set Idle timeout value to required value in Oracle SSO server and match that with E-Business Suite Instance.

4. User with Name USER1 in FND_USERS can be linked to username USER2 in OID , so username need not to be same. Users in E-Business Suite/Apps are linked to Users in OID/SSO via GUID.

5. User mapping between OID & E-Business/Apps -> Login name in OID is identified by attribute "orclcommonnicknameattribute" which by default is "uid". To understand this better, think of user User "Atul Kumar" in OID with various attribute like first name, lastname, phonenumber, cn, sn, uid .... If for "Atul Kumar" value of attribute uid is set to "akumar" then user should use "akumar" to login.
This "akumar" (value of attribute "uid") is mapped to USER_NAME column of table FND_USER and "orclguid" attribute in OID should have same value as USER_GUID column value in FND_USER table. As mentioned in point 4, users in OID & Apps are linked via GUID and this value should be same. (More on user mapping and authentication flow with SSO coming soon )

6. Currently supported nickname attribute to be mapped to FND_USER table are "uid" and "mail"

7. If naming convention of your users in OID is different from users in E-Business/Apps (like atul.kumar in OID but kumaratul in apps/E-Business Suite) then disable profile "Applications SSO Auto Link User"

8. Not all attributes for users can be integrated/synchronized from OID to E-Business Suite or Vice Versa. For list of attributes supported currently (as of build 5) check Appendix C on Page 88 of Integration guide.

9. Updates to email ID in Oracle Internet Directory are not correctly reflected in the E-Business Suite HZ_CONTACT_POINTS in TCA unless the PERSON_PARTY_ID foreign key in the FND_USER table has been defined. Furthermore, if PERSON_PARTY_ID is changed i.e. user is linked to another person in TCA, information stored in OID can overwrite this other person’s information during provisioning.

10. As of build 5, logout from OAM (Oracle Application Manager) results in page not found, though users can logout successfully from professional forms and self service web applications.

11. Users can be provisioned from E-Business/11i/R12 (FND_USER) to OID, OID to E-Business Suite, and two way. (How to find current user provisioning direction coming soon in OID Scripts post)

12. User Provisioning from TCA (Trading Community Architecture) to OID is not yet supported (as of build 5). Provisioning of HR to OID, FND_USER to OID or from OID to FND_USER is supported.

13. If provisioning profile includes password to be provisioned from E-Business Suite/Apps to OID, password policy in E-Business Suite should be atleast as restrictive as OID else when you create user in E-Business Suite/Apps without password not not in line with password policy, you will get non descriptive error message.

14. User can login to E-Business Suite Locally (NO SSO, directly from FND_USER) or to SSO (authentication via SSO) or BOTH. Set profile option "Applications SSO Login Types" to LOCAL or BOTH at userlevel and use

http(s)://(hostname).(domainname):(port)/ OA_HTML/ AppsLocalLogin.jsp

For SSO authentication use URL
http(s)://(hostname).(domainname):(port)/oa_servlets/AppsLogin

15. It is possible to register multiple E-Buisness Suite Instance (Test, Dev, UAT) to single OID/SSO Instance. (How to find list of E-Business Suite instance registered against OID, coming soon in OID Scripts)

16. If you have OID with multiple Realm (How to find default and all available realms in OID, coming soon in OID scripts), E-Business Suite/11i/R12 can be registered against default OID realm only (As of SSO build 5).

17. It is possible to link multiple E-Business Suite accounts to single SSO account but vice versa is not possible/supported. i.e. User1 and User2 in E-Business account can be linked to user3 in OID/SSO (For more
information Check Profile Option "Applications SSO Allow Multiple Accounts" )

18. It is possible to synch User Password from E-Business Suite to OID but vice versa is not allowed. This is because passwords in E-Buisness Suite/Apps/11i/R12 are encrypted but are hashed in OID.

19. If you are palnning to implement SSO Integration with E-Business /11i/R12 in enterprise where E-Business Suite and OID are already implemented and working independently, it is possible to bulkload user from OID to E-Business(Users which are already in OID but not in E-Business Suite) or from E-Busienss to OID (Users which are already in E-Business Suite but not in OID) and map common users.

20. For bulk migrating users from E-Business Suite to OID or from OID to E-Business Suite, check AppsUserExport, LDAPUserImport, ldifmigrator, bulkload.sh utility

21. When users are imported (initial load) from OID to E-Business/Apps 11i/R12 using LDAPUserImport, all user "attributes" can't be imported.

22. If hashing method in OID is not MD5, bulkload of users to OID (initial set of users migrated from Apps/E-Business Suite) . (How to find default hasing method in OID, coming soon in OID Scripts..)

23. During initial load of users from E-Business Suite to OID (using bulkload.sh), password policy in OID is not verified . This is because E-Business Suite passwords are encrypted in dump file and bulk load tool can't check passwords.

24. Oracle Application Server (SSO/OID) & Apps/E-Business Suite database server system clocks should be in synch else users will face issue during login/logoff

25.

Leave your comments on what you think is important for Apps/11i/R12 integration with OID/SSO to fill point no. 25

Related:
Management Questions for Apps Integration with OID/SSO

More on OID/SSO Integration with authentication & user provisioning flow coming soon...

Preserving Customizations in Oracle Apps 11i or R12

2007-09-09T20:53:00.000+01:00

Most of the time when Apps DBA's handover instance to developers, functional consultants after cloning/patching; users complain that their customizations are missing.

I meet lot of Apps DBA's spending time putting back customizations after running Autoconfig or cloning. As some of my readers requested on how to avoid customizations being overwritten by Autoconfig or cloning process, lets walk right way of changing Oracle Applications Configuration files or introducing custom files in Oracle Applications conf files in Autoconfig enabled Instances.

What does customizing Autoconfig enabled Applications mean ?
This question is for those readers who are new to oracle applications.
Customizing an Autoconfig enabled instance (w.r.t discussion on this post) means adding any custom(which are not part of standard oracle apps config file) configurations or changing standard configuration files that comes with Oracle Applications 11i or R12.

What is common/fastest/easiest way of adding custom configuration or changing standard oracle configuration ?
Simply add/modify configuration file by directly going to respective file and add/modify it after each execution of Autoconfig/Cloning. (Wrong way for Autoconfig enabled Instances )

What are issues/problems with above method ?
With next run of Autoconfig/Cloning these changes will be overwritten by standard oracle configuration files.

What is right way of adding customizations in Autoconfig enabled Apps Instances ?
Using template file (more about template files and "sample customization in one of file" coming in next post) is right way of customizing (conf files) in Autoconfig enabled Oracle Apps Instances.

Where to find more information on template files and right way of customizing and Autoconfig enabled instances ?

Check very basics on Autoconfig & template files on my previous post at http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/2006/10/autoconfig-in-apps-template-files.html

Refer Metalink note # 270519.1 Customizing an AutoConfig Environment

For more information on template files, How Autoconfig creates config files with example stay tuned to this blog.

Now you can register for e-mail subscription to this blog via link on right menu of this page.

Questions for Oracle Apps 11i & R12 Integration with 10g AS/SSO

2007-09-01T21:21:00.000+01:00

Here are few questions which you should think/ask/discuss for Oracle Applications 11i & R12 Integration with 10g Application Server (Portal, Discoverer, SSO, OID)

Do you need 10g Portal component of 10g AS with Oracle Applications 11i & R12 ?
(*Integration of 10g AS can be without portal and dicoverer as well i.e. OID & SSO only. For 10g portal Integration you must have SSO and OID)

Do you need 10g Discoverer component of 10g AS with Oracle Application 11i ?
(* You can have discoverer with or without SSO access)

Do you need SSO and OID component of 10g AS with Oracle Applications 11i / R12 ?
(*You can configure only SSO/OID for Single Sign-On access with or without Portal and Discoverer)

Do you need 10g Web Cache component of 10g AS with Oracle Applications 11i ?
(*You can configure webcache with or without Portal/OID/SSO. With Portal webcache is default)

Do you have third party access management (Netegrity SiteMinder, Oblix COREid) for Single Sign-On ?
(* You can configure 10g SSO with third party access management via Oracle SSO)

Source of Authentication in Oracle Apps 11i / R12?
(* --You can configure authentication at E-Business Suite, Oracle SSO, Third party SSO or combination of above.
--Configuring authentication, local to E-Business for some users and for others SSO is also supported)

--Do you have third party LDAP directory (Microsoft Active Directory, Sun iPlanet) which you want to synch with OID and E-Business Suite ?
(* You can use third party ldap server for user store integrated with OID and then synched to E-Business Suite Users)
----- If third party LDAP Server is in place check following things for OID to third party integration (DIT, Default Realm, nickname attribute)
-----As of Integration build 5 synching users from E-Business to OID is supported with default realm only. Take special care if you have multiple realms in LDAP Server

--One SSO User account can be mapped to Multiple Users in E-Business Suite (other way is not supported), Do you need this ?

--Multiple E-Business Suite can use Single OID/SSO Instance or each E-Business Suite Instance can be registered with its own OID/SSO. For Dev & Test E-Business Suite you may be interested in registering them to single OID/SSO Instance.

--User Creation/Management/Updates : From OID to Apps, Apps to OID or bidirectional

-- Attributes to synch during ongoing Updates
* All user attribute sync can't be updated between OID & E-Business Suite. Check provisioning profile used for synch between Apps & OID
* Check if TCA tables are updated as required with User Updates in OID

-- Decide on how Users will be loaded Initially :
----From OID to E-Business (Users are already in OID but E-Business Suite is new implementation)
---- E-Business Suite to OID (Users are already in E-Business Suite but OID is new implementation)
---- In both E-Business Suite & OID (OID and E-Business both has user base but not in sync) You can reconcile user base in Apps & OID

-- E-Business Suite Home Page (Portal or Framework)

-- Is Password Policy in E-Business Suite different from Password policy in SSO ? Things like
----User should change password on first time login
----Password Strength, minimum number of characters & at least few some number
----Password will expire after n number of days

--Idle Session Time out for SSO
* By default there is no Idle Session timeout in Oracle SSO Server (There is default Global Session Time Out set at SSO with value 8 hours) but E-Business Suite is configured with Idle Session time out of 30 minutes. To set Idle Session time out value to desired value in SSO Server check http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28196_01/idmanage.1014/b15988/ssoadmin.htm#i1012213

More on 10g Application Server (OID/SSO) integration with E-Business Suite coming soon..

--------User creation/update/synch flow in OID-Apps(E-Business Suite) Integrated instances and troubleshooting user creation/update issues ?

-------User login flow in OID-Apps(E-Business Suite) Integrated Instances and troubleshooting login issues ?

-------Common tasks for which Apps DBA's should take extra care in Apps/OID/SSO integrated instances (Cloning, changing apps password, patching...)

Oracle Apps DBA Training Institues in India

2007-08-28T21:57:00.000+01:00

Looking at mails in my inbox from DBA's and freshers looking for Oracle Apps DBA training Institutes/courses, I decided to dedicate this post for Training Institutes providing Oracle Apps DBA Training.

Few things you should check before joining Training

--Formal Training is always good to quickly get an overview of product but not enough; to become good Oracle Apps DBA lot of practice & hands on experience is very important. Look for Institutes which provide lots of hands on and give enough time for practice

--Ask for previous students detail and Check with them about quality of training.

-- Check about Instructor and his/her expertise

-- For Oracle Apps DBA training; apart from basics look for at least Installation, Patching and Cloning.

**********************
Oracle University
**********************
http://education.oracle.com/ check for course "D17423GC51 11i Install, Patch, and Maintain Oracle Applications"

Institutes mentioned here are in alphabetical Order and I don't personally recommend any training Institute.

************
Bangalore
***********

Human Base India Inc.
Software Development Centre
Royal ArcadeNo.6, 4th Floor,
80 Ft RoadKoramangala, Industrial Layout
Bangalore – 560 095
Tel: 91- 80-25531221, 25532440, 25535429e-
MailFor sreeni@humanbaseindia.com

Q-Soft Systems & Solutions (P) Ltd.
#253/19, 1st & 2nd Floor,
Kanakapura Road,
Jayanagar 7th Block,
Bangalore-560082
Tel : +91 80 26639207, 26544135
Fax : +91 80 26637692
URL : http://www.qsoftindia.com/
E-Mail : shrivardhan@qsoftindia.com

************
Chennai
***********

Crest Of Technolgies
No. 64, A.R.R. Complex,
North Usman Road, T.Nagar,
Chennai - 600017.
Ph : +91 44 55634550, 55634551
URL http://www.crestsofttechnologies.com/

Ikon Infotech
II Avenue, II Floor,
Near Blue Star Signal Annanagar,
Chennai - 40
Ph : +91 44 26214127 , 42611909

Ora Solution
10th Main Road II Avenue,Annanagar,
Chennai - 600 040
Ph : +91 44 42612461 , 9841148256

***************************
Delhi/Noida/Gurgaon
***************************

Ducat India
A-52 & A-43 Sector-16,
Noida U.P : 201301, INDIA
Tell: +91-0120-4646400-430
Mob: +91-9999036441 9871055180-81
http://www.ducatindia.com/ITEDU/Coursecontent/erp/ODBA.pdf

*************
Hyderabad
************

APPWORLD
Above ICICI BANK
MIG :214 ,
ROAD NO 1 K.P.H.B COLONY
HYDERABAD

Applsys Solutions
1st Floor, Plot# 26,
Beside Lotus Lap School
HUDA Shopping Complex
Kothapet, Hyderabad-500035
Tel# +91-9949969953; +91-(40) 24050503
Email: applsys@yahoo.com

Trans Global Solutions
Near Harsha Mess,
Opp. Swarna Jayanthi Complex,
Ameerpet, Hyderabad

Vennela Technologies Pvt Ltd
24/A, 2CNandanavanam Complex
S.R. Nager
Hyderabad-500038
http://www.vennelatech.com/appsdba.php
Ph : +91-40-55982662

********
Pune
*******

Spider Systems Pvt. Ltd.
Lunkas Towers , Ganpati Chowk
Vamman Nagar, Pune

If you know any other Oracle Apps DBA training institutes kindly leave Institute details here as comments

Staging/Cloning 10g AS Prod to Test

2007-08-19T22:15:00.000+01:00

This is second post w.r.t. cloning Oracle 10g Application Server. For first post on overview of 10g Application Server Middle Tier cloning visit http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/2007/08/cloning-staging-oracle-10g-application.html

This post covers basic understanding of staging (cloning) 10g Application Server both infrastructure and middle tier.

Assumptions with this cloning
---------------------------------------------
1. You have 10g Application Server Middle Tier (Portal or BI type) and Infrastructure tier (OID, SSO, MR)
2. You have source instance (PROD) which you wish to clone to target instance (DEV/Test)

Broad Level Steps
--------------------------

A. Export Data from source Instance
1. Install Target Instance (Dev/Test) Infrastructure tier (Try to keep same OID realm as source instance prod)
2. Export User data from source OID Instance (using ldifwrite)
3. Export Group data from source OID Instance (using ldifwrite)
4. Export DAS data from source OID Instance (using ldifwrite )
5. Copy password file from source OID using ldap search command (Do this step if you want to retain similar password policy on target instance as source)
6. Export portal, portal_app, portal_public, discoverer5 and various other custom schemas from source instance
7. Export SSO data using ssomig utility from source instance
8. Export EUL (End User Layer) discoverer data from source using eulapi

B. Install Target Instance
1. Install Infrastructure tier (Keep OID realm similar to source instance)
2. Install Middle Tier

C. Clean/Clear/Delete Target Instance Data
1. Delete Users/Groups from target Instance using bulkdelete.sh (OID script)
2. Drop portal, portal_public, discoverer5 and various other schemas

D. Load data from source to target Instance
1. Load User/Groups from source to target using bulkload.sh (OID script)
2. Import SSO data using ssomig utility with option -import
3. Create portal & portal_public user using script wdbisys.sql & cruser.sql resp.
4. Create discoverer5, portal_app and various other custom schema
5. Import portal and other schema data using database IMP
6. Create any custom OC4J and deploy application from source to target instance
7. Import EUL data using eulapi

For step by step procedure on creating replica / clone of 10g Application Server Production Instance to Test Instance visit

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14099_19/core.1012/b13995/prodtest.htm#CHDHBJCH

Issue in Documentation : Oracle Document mentioned above doesn't cover discoverer5 schema import/export so if you hit any issues with discoverer import discoverer5 schema

Cloning E-Business Instance integrated with 10g AS Portal,Discoverer, OID and SSO coming soon ...

Cloning / Staging Oracle 10g Application Server

2007-08-17T22:02:00.000+01:00

This post is useful for those who are using 10g Application Server and want to clone 10g Application Server (Portal, BI or Forms and Reports) from Production to Test or Vice Versa.

For cloning Oracle Applications 11i / E-Business Suite check http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/search/label/cloning

Key points for cloning 10g Application Server (as of 19 August 2007)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

-You can clone middle tier installation of 10g AS (J2EE & Webcache, Portal & Wireless and BI & Forms)

-You CANNOT clone

----i)Infrastructure Tier (MR & IM)

----ii)OAS Integration, BPEL Process Anaytics or BPEL process manager

----iii) Developer kit and SDK

----iv) Installation that includes workflow

There is manual method to create replica of source instance in to target instance; called as Staging source infrastructure instance to target infrastructure instance.

- Middle tier cloned instance must have different Instance Name than source instance name.

- You can clone MT (Middle Tier) that is member of OracleAS Cluster or Farm but you must remove instance from OracleAS Cluster before beginning cloning operation.

- Middle tier Cloning process does not configure Load Balancer. If you use one, you have to configure it manually including invalidation port

- If in source instance, webcache is member of cache cluster, then target webcahe should be manually added in to cache cluster (or delete other cache cluster member info manually if you don't wish to target cloned instance as cache cluster)

-During 10g AS middle tier cloning, source ORACLE_HOME is copied to destination ORACLE_HOME , then a set of scripts is used to update information in key configuration files of oracle application server middle tier (like hostname).

Oracle 10g AS Middle Tier cloning process

--------------------------------------------------------------

i) On source instance run prepare_clone.pl (in $OH/clone/bin) (This script parses files, create archives using DCM, backs up required files, and run wireless clone assistant if wireless is enabled)

ii) Copy ORACLE_HOME to destination location

iii) On target instance run clone.pl (this step invokes OUI which repeats all actions done during source instance installation)

iv) In post clone phase, clone.pl also does following post clone steps to make target cloned instance to a working state. These are

---a) setting new ORACLE_HOME in DCM

---b) update configuration file

---c) calls chgiphost command to change hostname and IP address in cloned instance

---d) If source instance was connected to OID (Portal/BI) then add information about clone in OID

v) After cloning and starting services on target instance on unix you have to run root.sh (from root user)

I hope by now its clear to you that cloning of middle tier on 10g Application Server is still not as mature as cloning Apps/E-Business Suite (11i or R12).

In coming post I'll cover creating replica or staging 10g Application Server (Portal or BI) production instance to test instance so that users/groups, portal, BI, SSO and DAS data can be migrated from source instance to target instance for as close as possible copy of production instance.

Blogoversary : One Year Journey of becomeAppsDBA Blog

2007-08-03T01:38:00.000+01:00

436,268 Views, 171,067 hits, 1374 Comments, 744 email subscribers and 157 posts to finish one year Journey of this blog.

One Year ago on 30 July 2006, I posted first topic on this blog with a Vision to share my experience as an Oracle Applications DBA and to help other budding DBA's/administrator who want to explore Oracle Applications (E-Business Suite, Application Server, Collaboration Suite and Oracle Identity Management).

On this occasion I want to thank few people without whom this blog would not have been such a success.
Steven Chan whose post inspired me to start this blog (I admire his dedication for Apps Community), Harmeet Kocchar (Senior Manager @ Oracle, my mentor) who gave me direction to learn Apps, Khushi (My Wife) for her support and patience, Anil Passi (Famous blogger among Apps Techno Functional consultant) for his friendly advice and innovative ideas, Fadi Hasweh for nominating me for Oracle ACE, Subba Rao, Ramnik and other members answering budding apps dba's queries at forum http://TeachMeOracle.com/forum and finally to my readers for making this blog such a Success.

Oracle BPEL Process Manager Overview

2007-07-24T20:17:00.001+01:00

Oracle BPEL Process Manager is component of SOA Suite in Fusion Middleware Family . You can also install standalone BPEL Process Manager with Oracle Application Server (J2EE and Web Type) and its own dehydration store (repository for status data) or can install it with Oracle SOA Suite.

This post covers broad overview of BPEL Process Manager component and Installation overview.

BPEL Process Manager Consist of

- BPEL Server : Server on which you deploy BPEL Process (workflow, technology adapter,
notification services)
- BPEL Control : Console from which you deploy, manage and test BPEL process.
- Database : Also alled as Dehydration store is database to store process status data

Installation Option of BPEL Process Manager
Oracle BPEL Process Manager can be installed with
i) Oracle SOA Suite or
ii) Oracle AS Middle Tier

Installing BPEL on Oracle AS Middle Tier
----------------------------------------------------
Pre checks
-Minimum version of Application Server middle tier is 10.1.3.1.0
-Database (Dehydration Store for BPEL process manager) can be 9i or 10g Oracle Database
(9.2.0.7 or higher, 10.1.0.5 or higher, 10.2.0.2 or higher or 10.2.0.1 XE )
-Before installing Oracle BPEL manager configure database by running IRCA (Integration
Repository Creation Assistant)

Install Steps
i) Install Database for Dehydration Store (You can use already existing database if match
version prereq.)
ii) Create BPEL Process manager schema and user using irca.sh ($installation_software/ install/ soa_schemas /irca)
iii) Install 10.1.3.1.0 OAS (J2EE only or J2EE and Web SErver installation type)
iv) Install BPEL process manager in same oracle home as yu installed J2EE and J2EE Web Server by running ($Installation_Disk/bpel_oc4j/./runInstaller )

How to monitor BPEL Process Manager and Integration with Applications, coming soon .....

Oracle RAC Part IV : Install Oracle Clusterware and Cluster Database

2007-07-22T21:33:00.000+01:00

This is fourth and last post for installing Oracle RAC Database on single machine using VMWare virtual machines. For previous posts visit

Are you scared of Oracle RAC Database
Install Oracle RAC Database I
Install Oracle RAC Database Part II
Install Oracle RAC Database Part III

In this part we will install oracle clusterware and rac database

Copy Oracle RAC and Oracle Database Software to RAC1

Create a directory software in $HOME and copy clusterware and database zip files downloaded

unzip 10201_clusterware_linux32.zip
unzip 10201_database_linux32.zip

This will create directory clusterware (for clusterware software) and database (for database software)

Verify all prereq. for clusterware installation
------------------------------------------------------------

cd /home/oracle/softwar/clusterware/cluvfy

Make sure
--Second Machine/Node RAC2 is up
-- You have configured and changes hostname and network IP of RAC2
-- RAC1 can ping RAC2 and vice versa
-- User equivalency is set for user oracle on RAC1 and RAC2
-- You can connect to rac2 from rac1 as user oracle without prompting password and vice versa

./runcluvfy.sh stage –pre crsinst –n rac1,rac2

Make sure Node reachable and User Equivalency is met, rest other checks (related memory) can be ignored

Once RAC1 and RAC2 can ping each other and oracle user can connect to other machine's oracle user without prompting password then start clusterware installation from user oracle.

Change directory to location where you have unzipped clusterware software and start clusterware installation by running runInstaller

./runInstaller

Ignore memory related prereq.

Add second node rac2 by clicking on Add link

Change subnet as per your network configuration as you did while configuring network card.

Make one public and another private (Private interconnect for clusterware)

Specify ocr location like /apps/oracle/oradata/ocr (or as per your naming convention)

Specify voting disk location like /apps/oracle/oradata/votingdisk (or as per your naming convention)

Click on Install to install clusterware.

After clusterware installation, Install Database

Install RAC Database

Go to location where you unzipped database disks

./runInstaller –ignoreSysPrereqs (this is required as our memory is less (below 900MB) required, if your machine spec is higher you can ignore using ignoreSysPrereqs)

Specify database oracle_home (make this different from clusterware oracle_home installed in previous step)

Enter database name of your choice

Select ASM

Ignore any warnings and click on OK

Define location of ASM as /dev/raw/raw3 and make redundancy as external

Click on Install

Why number of voting disks should always be odd number only ?

How to troubleshoot RAC database and clusterware issue ?

.. Coming in future posts

Orcale RAC Part III - Clone RAC1 to RAC2 and User Equivalency

2007-07-15T09:42:00.000+01:00

This is fourth post on step by step building Oracle RAC Database on your desktop / laptop using VMWare (Virtual Machine)

For previous three posts visit

Try installing Orcale RAC on your laptop
RAC Part I - Install Virtual Machine and Linux
RAC Part II - Install Virtual Disk and Network Card

In this post you will

--Clone RAC1 to RAC2 and change IP address of RAc2
--Configure User equivalency for Orale Clusterware installation

Clone RAC1 to RAC2
-------------------------------

- Make sure virtual linux machine is shutdown
-Copy folder rac1 to folder rac2 in c:\Atul\VMWARE (This is on windows laptop/machine)

--In both RAC1 and RAC2 folder open “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.vmx” (This is virtual machine configuration file) using notepad or wordpad

--Add following lines (This will avoid locking for shared files and two linux machines RAC1 and RAC2 can start together using shared files votingdisk, crs and asm)

disk.locking = "FALSE"
diskLib.dataCacheMaxSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCacheMaxReadAheadSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCacheMinReadAheadSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCachePageSize = "4096"
diskLib.maxUnsyncedWrites = "0"

--Now on vmx file of RAC2 “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.vmx” change following lines from displayName = "RAC1" to displayName = "RAC2"

--On VMWare Server Console, Click on File and Open or “Ctrl + O”

--Click on Browse and select “red hat enterprise linux 3.vmx” from RAC2 directory

--Now you should see two linux machines RAC1 and RAC2 on VMWare Console

Start RAC1 and RAC2 and when you get below warning on RAC2, select create and click OK

Make sure you can start both machine at same time, if you get message like unable to lock files, check you have added following lines in both machines vmx files mentioned above (regarding disk locking)

Change Network Settings (IP) on RAC2
-------------------------------------------------

Login as ROOT user in RAC2 machine and click System Setting -> Network

Select eth0 and click on Edit

Change Address from 192.168.1.101 to 192.168.1.102

Click on Hardware Device Tab and Click on Probe button

--Repeat steps for second network card eth1 and change its IP from 192.168.0.101 to 192.168.0.102

Make sure you clicked probe on eth1 as well as shown above

Activate both network cards by clicking on Activate as shown below

If you get error message that eth0 has different MAC address expected as shown below; make sure you have clicked on probe on “Bind to Mac Address” on “Hardware Device” mentioned above.

Make sure both network cards are active now, as shown below

Add following entry in /etc/hosts file of both RAC1 and RAC2

####

127.0.0.1 loalhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.102 rac2.focusthread.com rac2 rac2-vip.focusthread.com rac2-vip
192.168.0.102 rac2-priv.focusthread.com rac2-priv
192.168.1.101 rac1.focusthread.com rac1 rac1-vip.focusthread.com rac1-vip
192.168.0.101 rac1-priv.focusthread.com rac1-priv

###

Now trying to ping RAC2 machine from RAC1 and RAC1 machine from RAC2

Change Host Name of newly cloned RAC2

-------------------------------------------------

Follow below step on how to change hostname on RAC2 (newly cloned) Linux machine

Open file /etc/sysconfig/network and edit line like : HOSTNAME=XXXXX i.e. from

HOSTNAME rac1.focusthread.com To HOSTNAME rac2.focusthread.com

Configure User Equivalency

-----------------------------------

User equivalency for user oracle is required so that user oracle from RAC1 can communicate to user oracle on RAC2 machine without prompting for password for clusterware to work properly.

--Login as user oracle in machine RAC1

--Make sure sshd daemon is running (pgrep sshd), If not start it from root user like “service start sshd”

--Create RSA and DSA key on each node

-From oracle user go to user home directory by “cd $HOME” or type cd and press enter
-mkdir .ssh (note that there is dot before ssh which means this is hidden directory)
-chmod 700 .ssh
-ssh-keygen –t rsa
-ssh-keygen –t dsa

press enter when prompted for file to save the key and passphrase (check screenshot for more information)

“Repeat this on both the nodes i.e. RAC1 and RAC2”

Add keys to authorized key file (authorized_keys)

------------------------------------------------------------

-cd .ssh

-touch authorized_keys
-ls (You should see authorized_keys, id_dsa, id_dsa.pub, id_rsa, id_rsa.pub. Here pub files are dsa and rsa public key file and id_dsa and id_rsa are private key files)

ssh rac1 cat /home/oracle/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys
ssh rac1 cat /home/oracle/.ssh/id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys
ssh rac2 cat /home/oracle/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys
ssh rac2 cat /home/oracle/.ssh/id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys

Send authorized_keys from RAC1 to RAC2

scp authorized_keys rac2:/home/oracle/.ssh

From RAC1 machine as user oracle
exec /usr/bin/ssh-agent $SHELL
/usr/bin/ssh-add

Test User Equivalency (User oracle can login to other machine without password prompt)

----------------------------

ssh rac1 date

ssh rac2 date

Test this from both nodes RAC1 and RAC2 (You should not be prompted for oracle user password)

For more information on User Equivalency visit chapter 2 (Page 51 to 53) of clusterware and rac installation guide

Coming Next :

Installing clusterware on RAC1 and RAC2

Installing RAC database on RAC1 and RAC2 linux machines using ASM

Building Oracle RAC Part II , Install virtual disk and network card

2007-07-12T23:52:00.000+01:00

This is Part II of Step by Step RAC configuration on your laptop/desktop without investing anything extra on hardware (Free) using virtual server, virtual hard disk and virtual network cards.

For first two posts visit
Try installing Orcale RAC on your laptop
RAC Part I - Install Virtual Machine and Linux

In this Part II, We will install required linux operating package for clusterware & database, additional hard disk (voting disk, ocr and ASM), network card for interconnect and configure newly added hard disk and network card.

Install rpm’s
------------------------

Install following rpm’s (These rpm’s are in Red Hat ES CD’s or download them from rhn.redhat.com ) and install them using root account

(compat-glibc-7.x-2.2.4.32.6.i386.rpm, gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-34.2.i386.rpm, sysstat-4.0.7-4.EL3.3.i386.rpm )

rpm –ivh compat-glibc-7.x-2.2.4.32.6.i386.rpm
rpm –ivh gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-34.2.i386.rpm
rpm –ivh sysstat-4.0.7-4.EL3.3.i386.rpm

Create Shared Disk on Virtual Machine for Cluster Registry, Voting Disk and ASM
------------------------------------------------------------
--Shutdown linux machine RAC1 (installed in part I) as “shutdown now” (from root user)
--Create folder “shared” in location “c:\atul\VMWARE” (or any other location of your choice)
--From VM Ware Console Press Ctrl + D to see Virtual Machine Settings

Or from screen

Click on Edit Virtual Machine Setting

Click on Add

Click on Next

Select Hard Disk as shown here and click Next

Select Create a New Virtual Disk and click Next

Select SCSI and click Next

Select 5.0 GB for voting disk and 5.0 GB for ocr (add second disk of 5 GB for ocr using same method) and 8 GB for asm (add third disk of 8 GB for ASM using same method)

Enter location and disk file name in folder shared created above.

Note* Select votingDisk for disk one created , ocr for second disk created and asm for third disk created . This name doesn't matter and this is for our understanding only.

Click Finish

Repeat above step of adding disk for ocr and asm. Finally you should see Hard Disk 2,3,4

Hard Disk 2 : for votingDisk (5 GB)

Hard Disk 3 : for ocr (5 GB)

Hard Disk 4 : for ASM (8GB)

This completes addition of hard disk (How to configure and share these hard disks coming next ..)

Adding Network Card for Interconnect

----------------------------

Next step is to create network card, there is already an existing network card which is used as public connection for connecting to this machine and database isnatance on this machine and new card will be used oracle clusterware as private inerconnect between two nodes of RAC i.e. RAC1 and RAC2. This private interconnect is used for clusterware talking to all remote nodes in cluster.

From VMWare Console press Ctrl + D

Select Ethernet Adapter this time and click Next

Select Bridged and click Finish

Now Start your linux Virtual Machine

On start of linux Virtual Machine you linux machine will detect newly added network card which you can configure now (at boot time only) or you can configure later as well.

Press Any Key to enter into setup part of network card

Select Configure and click enetr or you can configure it later as well

Enter following details

IP Address -----------------192.168.0.101
Netmask ------------------- 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway --------- 192.168.0.254
Primary Nameserver ---- 192.168.0.1

and select OK and press enter

Above we configured newly added network card eth1 (used for interconnect).

With below method we will configure original network card (for public connection)

Syetem Setting -> Network

select eth0 and click Edit

Add entry like
----------------------
Address 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway Address 192.168.0.254

Click OK and activate this netowrk card

Activate eth0 by clicking on Activate button

Click on Yes, when prompted to save network configuration

Now you should see both network card eth0 and eth1 as Active

ifconfig , from root should show you result as shown in screenshot

Format and Configure Virtual disks (voting disk, ocr and asm )
----------------------------------------------------

In this step We will format and configure Virtual Disks created above.

From user root

fdisk –l (This is to see list of disks, You will see entry like /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, /dev/sdd doesn’t contain valid partition table)

fdisk /dev/sdb (Means we are dealing with /dev/sdb)
n (Create new disk)
p (Of type primary partition)
1 (First Cylinder)
Enter (carriage return)
Enter (carriage return)
w (Save table to disk and exit)

(For more information check man fdisk or below screenshot)

Repeat above step for /dev/sdc and /dev/sdd

So now fdisk –l you should details of /dev/sdb, dev/sdc, dev/sdd

--Add These disks as raw devices in file /etc/sysconfig/rawdevices as
/dev/raw/raw1 /dev/sdb1
/dev/raw/raw2 /dev/sdc1
/dev/raw/raw3 /dev/sdd1
--Restart rawdevices service as service rawdevices restart

Create directory /apps/oracle/oradata (For storing voting disk, ocr and ASM) as

mkdir –p /apps/oracle/oradata (From Root Account)

-->Create symbolic link pointing to these raw devices so that we know which one is for what (Optional)

ln –s /dev/raw/raw1 /apps/oracle/oradata/ocr

ln –s /dev/raw/raw2 /apps/oracle/oradata/votingdisk

ln –s /dev/raw/raw3 /apps/oracle/oradata/asm

--Change ownership of these directories to oracle:oracle

chown oracle:oracle /dev/raw/raw1

chown oracle:oracle /dev/raw/raw2

chown oracle:oracle /dev/raw/raw3

Shutdown this machine as this is now ready to clone and to create RAC2 machine.

Coming Next

-Cloning RAC1 to RAC2

-Changing RAC2 network and hostname details

-Configuring user equivalency

-Installing clusterware 10.2.0.1

-Installing Oracle rac database 10.2.0.1

-Tips and Tricks of troubleshooting Oracle RAC Database and clusterware.....

Step by Step build RAC : Part 1 : Install VMWare and Linux

2007-07-09T09:03:00.000+01:00

This is first step for step by step Installation of Oracle RAC Database on single machine using VMWare Server. for overview visit http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/2007/07/are-you-scared-of-oracle-rac-database.html

Broad level for Part I Install VMWare and Linux
- Download, Register and Install VMWare Server
- Download and Install Red Hat Linux ES 3
- Add virtual network card for interconnect
- Add virtual shared shared disk (voting disk, ocr and ASM)

1.1 Install VMWare Server on Windows Machine

Download and install VMWare Server from VMWare Site (click here) (Download windows version as we are installing on windows desktop/laptop). You have to register for VMware Server on site mentioned above to recieve licence key used in installation of VMWare Server

1.2 Create Virtual Machine

--Start VM Ware server console from Start Menu on your windows operating system

--Create a New Virtual Machine by “Ctrl + N” or File -> New -> Virtual Machine (From Console Tool Bar)

Since we are installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 so I have selected Version Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3

Select location where you wish to keep this RAC Machine Configuration and Linux Disks

Create this Linux Machine of size 15 GB, we will add another 5GB each for voting disk, ocr and ASM for data files.

1.3 Download/Order and install Red Hat Linux E.S. 3

Download red hat enterprise server linux version 3 from http://rhn.redhat.com/ (You can install any other linux version or operating system depending on availability. For this step by step Oracle RAC installation, I used Red Hat ES 3)

If you have downloaded Red Hat ES burn them as iso images.

Insert Disk1 of Red Hat Linux ES3 in your desktop/laptop and start RAC1 virtual Machine created above

During Disk Setup select Automatic Disk Partition and when you get this screen edit by clicking edit button and change swap space to 1500 MB

During Package Selection, Select Customize Package list and Add KDE Desktop Environment and Development Tools from list

Select No Firewall

During hostname enter machine name as rac1.focusthread.com this you can change later as well

1.4 Create User oracle:oracle

Create operating system user oracle (By default it will create group oracle and assign this to user oracle). You can use GUI as shown below or command useradd

Coming Next

Adding Virtual Network Card , Virtual Disks, install RPMs, Cloning RAC1 to RAC2 Machine, Configure User Equivalency ........

Are you scared of Oracle RAC Database ?

2007-07-03T21:59:00.000+01:00

I saw an interesting post on Oracle Real Application Cluster Database at Kirk'S Blog Who's afraid of the big bad RAC

Biggest challenge in learning / understanding RAC is lack of hands on experience because of expensive hardware, network cards, interconnect and cluster file system. In this and coming posts I'll cover step by step Oracle RAC installation and configuration on single laptop/desktop using VMWare Server without investing anything extra on hardware (using two virtual machines, virtual network cards and virtual shared disk for Oracle RAC database shared files system ).

Here are broad level steps for configuring/building Oracle RAC Database on laptop/desktop machine (without investing any thing on hardware).

-- Install VMWare Server on your desktop or laptop
-- Create a Virtual Linux Machine RAC1
-- Install Linux Operating on RAC1
-- Add virtual shared disk for voting disk, ocr and ASM
-- Add virtual network card for private interconnect
-- Configure network card and virtual shared disk
-- Clone Virtual Machine from RAC1 and RAC2
-- Configure User Equivalency and other Oracle RAC prereqs.
-- Download and install Oracle RAC Software (Clusterware)
-- Download and install RAC Database software using ASM

Download :
Download following software required in building your own Oracle RAC Database
-- Download VMWare Server Console
-- Download Red Hat Linux ES 3
-- Download Oracle Database (10201_database_linux32.zip) & Oracle Clusterware (10201_clusterware_linux32.zip)

Related :
2 Days Real Applications Clusters Guide

OCS Mail Server Architecture

2007-07-01T22:14:00.000+01:00

Mail Server is component of Oracle Collaboration Suite which is from Oracle Fusion Middleware Family.

There are two main components in Oracle Collaboration Suite Mail Server
i) Application Tier which consists of Oracle Mail Web Component and Oracle Mail Protocol Server
ii) Infrastructure Tier consist of Mail Store (Repository for Mail Messages) and OID (Identity Store or LDAP server from Oracle) (* For more information on OID Click Here)

Application Tier
As shown in figure, Application Tier consists of Web Components (Application Server Instance – Web cache and HTTP Server and OC4J Instance) and Mail Protocol Server (POP3, IMAP4, SMTP-inbound & outbound)

Outbound Mail Request flow (POP, IMAP) in above architecture
i) Client (desktop clients like POP3 or IMAP4 or MS Outlook using outlook connector) in Intranet delivers send mail request to SMTP server.
ii) SMTP server then sends mail request to OID to verify and authenticates recipients address and send mail request back to SMTP server.
iii) If message recipient is internal, SMTP sends message to inbound SMTP server which deliver it to Mail Store
iv) If message recipient is external, then SMTP server sends message to individuals

Inbound Mail Request flow (POP, IMAP) in above architecture
i) Mail from outside organization delivered to SMTP server.
ii) SMTP uses OID for authentication and address verification.
iii) This request then goes to SMTP server which then sends it to mail store for user pickup.

Above two methods are NOT using web client, hence Application Server (Web Cache & HTTP Server) is not in request flow.

Webcache , HTTP Server and OC4J are used only for Web Access of Mail Server.

Installation of Oracle Collaboration Suite including Mail Server, RTC coming soon …

*************************
""On top right of this page, you will see POLL for level of topics you wish to see on this blog ! ""

Oracle Apps R12 Forms : Servlet or Socket

2007-06-28T11:47:00.001+01:00

Default Forms connection mode in Oracle Applications R12 is "SERVLET" where as in Oracle Apps 11i default form connect mode is "SOCKET" So

What is difference between socket and servlet mode in Forms ?
What are advantages and disadvantages of each ?
Can we change default R12 forms mode from servlet to Socket ?

Oracle Form Servlet Overview in apps R12
------------------------------------------

i) In this mode, Java servlet handles communication between forms client(java based) and Oracle Forms Service (10g).

ii) All connection is via HTTP Server so there is no need to start form server and no need to open form server port on firewall between client machine and application tier.

iii) More secure as compared to Forms Socket Mode.

iv) Network traffic is more as HTTP protocol is more chatty so little bit network bandwidth hungry when compared with SOCKET mode

v) No additional certificate requirement during SSL implementation for application tier, single certificate will handle both forms & web connection.

How to change from default Servlet mode (in apps R12) to Socket mode ?
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Refer to Oracle Metalink Note # 384241.1 Using Forms Socket Mode with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

Are there any network overheads of using Forms in Servlet Mode ?
----------------------------------------------------------------

Metalink Note # 311091.1 Understanding the Network Overhead Of Forms Servlet Listener Architecture Compared to Forms Server, covers some interesting points w.r.t. network traffic

Advantage & Disadvantages of Forms Servlet Mode

----------------------------------------------------------
-- Simple SSL Configuration (as no separate ssl configuration is required for Forms as connections are via web/http server)

-- No port need to open to access forms in firewall

-- More secure method of deployment over Internet

-- Result in more network traffic because of HTTP is more chatty than socket (dedicated) so not preferred in WAN implementation.

Related Doc
----------------
http://www.oracle.com/technology//products/forms/pdf/p7listenerservlet.pdf (Oracle Forms Listener Servlet for deployment of Forms on Internet)

Question to readers ....

How will you identify if you are using Forms in Socket or Servlet mode in Oracle Applications 11i or R12 ? (leave your comments )

Install Oracle SOA Suite : 10.1.3.1.0

2007-06-20T19:56:00.001+01:00

This is third and last part of installing Oracle SOA Suite version 10.1.3.1.0

Overview of SOA Suite Installation
1. Download and Install Database (I used 10.2.0.1 but 9.2.0.7 and higher is also valid)
2. Upgrade database to 10.2.0.2 (If this is 10.2.0.1 EE)
3. Load SOA schema in database
4. Install SOA Suite

In Order to install Oracle SOA Suite with 10g R2 database you should have database 10.2.X installed (10.2.0.1 for XE or 10.2.0.2 or higher for EE).

Before starting SOA Suite installation make sure you have

-- Installed Database version 10.2.0.1(Click on this link on how to install database on linux)
--Upgraded Database to version 10.2.0.2 (only If you selected EE database during installation)

1. Download SOA Suite Software (soa_linux_x86_101310_disk1.cpio) from http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/webservices/index.html

2. unzip them as "cpio -idmv less_than_sign_here soa_linux_x86_101310_disk1.cpio"

Load ORABPEL, ORAESB, ORAWSM schema into Database
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

cd /extracted_soa_directory/install/soa_schemas/irca

sh irca.sh (IRCA stands for Integration Repository Creation Assistance)

When prompted for database connection details pass on connection detail in format hostname port_no SID

--When prompted for database sys schema password , provide database password
--Then it will ask for ORABPEL, ORAESB and ORAWSM schema password which you wish to set (enter password which you would like to set. This password will be required during SOA Suite installation)

Install Oracle SOA Suite Installation
------------------------------------------------------

start installation by running runInstaller from SOA unzipped disk

cd /full_path_of_extracted_soa_software
./runInstaller

You can opt for Basic or Advanced Installation (For more option and flexibility go for Advanced installation)

Click on Yes for warning message

Select First option "J2EE , Web Server and SOA Suite"

Click OK on warning message

Provide database connection information (This is the database we installed and upgraded in previous post)

on clicking next if you get error message like ORABPEL is not available on specified Oracle Database , Make sure you executed irca.sh as mentioned above.

Provide Password which you supplied during irca.sh above

Provide ias_instance and oc4j instance name

Use this screen if you are using this instance from HTTP server hosted in other machine and want join as part of cluster (High Availaibity)

Click on install and this will take 1-3 hours depending on your system.

Integration of E-Business Suite with Siebel using Application Integration Pack on above SOA Suite (Fusion Middleware) coming soon .....

Upgrade Oracle Database to 10.2.0.2 : SOA Suite Install Part II

2007-06-16T09:52:00.000+01:00

Next step in installing SOA Suite after installing 10.2.0.1 database is to upgrade this oracle database to version 10.2.0.2 (4547817).

For Oracle Database 10.2.0.1 Installation Step and Software location click here

If you selected Standard Edition during 10.2.0.1 database installation, you can skip this database upgrade step. This is because for Enetrprise Edition Database, SOA Suite is certified only with 9.2.0.7 and higher (in 9i database) or version 10.2.0.2. ( For Standard Edition database 10.2.0.1 is certified with SOA Suite 10.3.0.1).

For detailed information on how to upgrade from 10.2.0.1 database to version 10.2.0.2 follow readme of patch 4547817 or metalink note 316900.1

Few things about 10.2.0.2 patch set
i) 10.2.0.2 patch set is not complete software, You can only apply it on top of existing 10.2.0.X installation.
ii) This patchset on linux can be applied on following version of linux Suse 9, Red Hat AS/ES 3, 4

Pre Installation Steps
-------------------------------
i) Download patch p4547817_10202_LINUX.zip (download patch according to your operating system like windows, solaris..) and copy it to your linux machine

ii) Unzip patch as “unzip p4547817_10202_LINUX.zip”

iii) Set ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID to your database (10.2.0.X) on which you are planning to apply this patchset . In my case its
ORACLE_HOME = /home/oracle/product/10.2.0/db
ORACLE_SID = SOADEV
export ORACLE_HOME ORACLE_SID
(Command to export environment variable differ as per your shell, above command is used for bash, bourne or ksh)

iv) Stop database and database listener as mentioned at end of database installation in my previous post

v) Backup your system (In case anything goes wrong)

Database 10.2.0.2 Patch Set Installation
------------------------------------------------
i) Login as user who installed 10.2.0.X database (In my case its “oracle” )

ii) cd patchset_unzip_directory/DISK1

iii) ./runInstaller

iv) On welcome screen click Next

v) On Specify file location screen, in Name field and Path select Database on which you wish to apply this patch (If you have multiple database installed on your machine you will see drop down menu to select database oracle_home)

vi) On summay screen, click Install

vii) In the end when prompted to run root.sh , login as root from another window and execute root.sh in ORACLE_HOME

viii) In the end of installation screen click Exit, and click Yes to exit from Oracle Universal Installer

This step will complete database software upgraded to patchset 10.2.0.2 but we haven’t upgraded our database yet to 10.2.0.2 (In next step we will upgrade our database to 10.2.0.2 version).

Upgrade 10.2.0.X database to 10.2.0.2
----------------------------------------------------
Please note steps mentioned here are for upgrading database to 10.2.0.2 from 10.2.0.X version, for upgrade from previous release (8i, 9i, 10g) refer metalink note mentioned above

i) Make sure you have applied patchset 10.2.0.2 on oracle_home (on which database is installed)

ii) Login as database owner (oracle) and exexute sqlplus “/as sysdba”

iii) SQL> startup upgrade
iv) SQL> spool 10202upgrade.log
v) SQL> @/rdbms/admin/catupgrd.sql
vi) SQL> spool off

(Check if there are any error message in 10202upgarde.log and rerun catupgrd.sql after fixing errors)

In the end of log file (10202upgarde.log) you should see output like below with component version as 10.2.0.2.0

vii) SQL> shutdown
viii) SQL> startup
ix) SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/utlrp.sql
x) SQL> select count(*) from dba_objects where status like ‘INVALID’;
Count (*)
0
xi) SQL> shutdown immediate (After upgrade and invalid object compilation restart your database cleanly)
xii) lsnrctl start
xiii) SQL> startup

This completes your oracle database upgrade to 10.2.0.2 version.

If you are hitting any issues in upgrade, raise them in forum dedicated to apps dba's at http://teachMeOracle.com/forum or leave a comment here.

Loading ORABPEL, ORAESB and ORAWSM schema in above database and SOA Suite installation coming next...

Oracle SOA Suite Installation Part I : Database Installation

2007-06-13T19:56:00.000+01:00

In next few posts I’ll cover installation of SOA Suite (Service Oriented Architecture Suite) which is one of the components in Oracle Fusion Middleware. For more information on Oracle Fusion Middleware and its various components and overview visit

Fusion Middleware Part I
Fusion Middleware Part I

--In order to install SOA suite version 10.1.3.X you need Database version 10.2.X or higher to hold schema for BPEL, ESB, WSM ....
--This database can exist on same machine (but under different ORACLE_HOME) or can be on different machine where you are planning to install SOA.
--For this installation demo, I installing Database release 10.2.0.1 on same machine under ORACLE_HOME.
--This demo installation is on Redhat Linux ES 3 which is on VMWare.

Install Oracle Database 10.2.0.1
-------------------------------------------

Software for Oracle Database can be downloaded from this link

Operating System Prereq.
For linux following version are supported for database version 10.2.0.1 at time of writing this doc
-Redhat-3
-Redhat-4
-SuSe-9
-Aslinux-1
-Aslinux-2

I picked up Red hat ES -3 (Enterprise Server) as operating system.

Packages and Kernel Parameters mentioned below are for database 10.2.0.1 on Red Hat linux Version 3 (Check Installation Documentation if your operating system version differs)

Packages
Following packages with atleast following version should be installed
binutils-2.14
gcc-3.2
libaio-0.3.96
glic-2.3.2-95.47

To check if package/rpm is installed
rpm –qa grep {rpm_name} (From root)

To install package/rpm
rpm –ivh {rpm_name} (From root)

Kernel Parameter
Make sure you add following entry in /etc/sysctl.conf

After adding these entries execute below command to take these parameters in to effect

sysctl –p /etc/sysctl.conf

Unzip software you downloaded above as

unzip 10201_database_linux32.zip

Starting Database Installation

---------------------------------------------
Start Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) by running

./runInstaller (from location where you unzipped database) *Use operating system user like oracle or orainstall (don’t execute runInstaller from root user)

With this screen you get option to do basic database installation where as I opted for Advanced Installation (With Advanced Installation Option you get flexibility on where to keep database and various other options). You can also choose Basic Installation and OUI will ask only basic question and for rest values it will take default (pre configured) values.

Again you have three options for type of installation for your database (Choose one as per your requirement, if you are not sure which one to pick, leave default i.e. Enterprise Edition)

This is important detail which is prompting for Database ORACLE_HOME Name and Destination Path.

ORACLE_HOME is always unique per system which identifies oracle software installed (Oracle Software can be database, application server or various other oracle software)
PATH is directory where your oracle database software will be installed (Please note Oracle Software is not same as Oracle Data files)

In my case Oracle Database 10.2.X requires minimum 900 MB memory but just had 750 MB allocated to Virtual Machine on which I am installing this database so I got warning related to memory. If you get warning related to memory you can ignore it (Not for Production or UAT deployment)

In above screen you have option to Create Database, Configure ASM (more coming on ASM with RAC soon ...) or Install database software only.

If you select database software only you can create database later as well (this option will only install oracle database software and will not create any database)

Leave default General Purpose in above screen

If you have selected “Create a Database” above on this screen you have option to define SID and Global Database name for database which we are going to create with install. (You can leave default “orcl” SID or change like “SOADEV” to uniquely identify this database that it is going to be used with SOA Suite)

Leave default “Database Control Management” or choose option 1 if you have Grid Control Agents installed on machine on which you are trying to install this database.

Here you can specify type of storage management for database (SOADEV) which you are going to install. This storage management as seen in image can be File System, ASM or Raw device.

Specify Database file location if you choose File System as storage management. (Database file location can exist under ORACLE_HOME or any other location. * better keep this different from ORACLE_HOME for better management)

Choose password for your various schema (For security reasons, don’t choose same password for all accounts on production instance)

Click on “Install” button to start your installation (Installation may take 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on your machine)

If you wish to unlock non system accounts click on “Password Management” or click “OK” for unlocking them later. (For SOA Suite Installation, you can leave them locked)

execute command root.sh from root user as shown blow

This will complete your database installation for SOA Suite Installation.

If you wish to start/stop oracle database installed above

Set PATH, ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID like
export ORACLE_HOME = /home/oracle/product/10.2.0/db
export ORACLE_SID = SOADEV
export PATH = $PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin

(Where ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID we entered above while installing database)

Stopping database services
---------------------------------------
sqlplus “/as sysdba”
SQL> shutdown immediate
lsnrctl stop

Starting database services
---------------------------------------
lsnrctl start
sqlplus “/as sysdba”
SQL> start

For SOA Suite installation stay tuned (coming soon...)

You can also subscribe to email feeds on right menu of this page for updates on this Apps DBA blog.

Start-up Shutdown Scripts in Oracle Apps R12

2007-06-10T18:27:00.000+01:00

This Post covers Start-up Shutdown scripts in Oracle Applications Release 12, If you wish to know more about Startup/Shutdown scripts in Oracle Apps 11i click here

Order of Startup Shutdown
--------------------------------------
As in Oracle Apps 11i order for startup is
A) Start Database Tier Services
--Start Database Listener
--Start Database
Then
B) Start Application/Middle Tier Services
-- adstrtal.sh

Order for shutdown in Oracle Apps R12 is
A) Stop Application/Middle Tier Services
-- adstpall.sh
Then
B) Stop Database Tier Services
--Stop Database
--Stop Database Listener

Database Tier Scripts in R12
--------------------------------------
For Database tier you need to start database and database listener. Scripts are located in Database_Install_Dir/db/tech_st/10.2.0/appsutil/scripts/$CONTEXT_NAME

- For Database
Use script addbctl.sh

- For Database Listener
Use script addlnctl.sh

or alternatively you can use
lsnrctl startstop listener_name (For Database Listener)
sqlplus "/as sysdba"
SQL> startup shutdown immediate

Middle/Application Tier Scripts in R12
-------------------------------------------------

Scripts for Application Tier services in R12 are located in "Install_base/inst/apps/$CONTEXT_NAME/admin/scripts"
where CONTEXT_NAME is of format SID_HOSTNAME

i) adstrtal.sh
Master script to start all components/services of middle tier or application tier. This script will use Service Control API to start all services which are enabled after checking them in context file (SID_HOSTNAME.xml or CONTEXT_NAME.xml)

ii) adstpall.sh
Master script to stop all components/services of middle tier or application tier.

iii) adalnctl.sh
Script to start / stop apps listener (FNDFS and FNDFS). This listener will file will be in 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME (i.e. Forms & Reports Home)
listener.ora file will be in $INST_TOP/apps/$CONTEXT_NAME/ora/10.1.2/network/admin directory
(Mostly similar to one in 11i with only change in ORACLE_HOME i.e. from 8.0.6 to 10.1.2 )

iv) adapcctl.sh
Script to start/stop Web Server or Oracle HTTP Server. This script uses opmn (Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server) with syntax similar to opmnctl [startstop]proc ohs
like opmnctl stopproc ohs .

(In 11i this script directly used to call apachectl executable but now calls opmnctl which in turn calls apachectl. In 11i web server oracle home was 1.0.2.2.2 but in R12 its 10.1.3)

v) adcmctl.sh
Script to start / stop concurrent manager, Similar to one in 11i. (This script in turn calls startmgr.sh )

vi) adformsctl.sh
Script to start / stop Forms OC4J from 10.1.3 Oracle_Home. This script will also use opmnctl to start/stop Forms OC4J like
opmnctl stopproc type=oc4j instancename=forms

vii) adformsrvctl.sh
This script is used only if you wish to start forms in socket mode. Default forms connect method in R12 is servlet.
If started this will start frmsrv executable from 10.1.2 Oracle_Home in Apps R12

viii) adoacorectl.sh
This script will start/stop oacore OC4J in 10.1.3 Oracle_Home. This scripts will also use opmnctl (similar to adapcctl & adformsctl) to start oacore instance of OC4J like
opmnctl startproc type=oc4j instancename=oacore

ix) adoafmctl.sh
This script will start/stop oafm OC4J in 10.1.3 Oracle_Home. This scripts will also use opmnctl (similar to above) to start oacore instance of OC4J like
opmnctl startproc type=oc4j instancename=oafm

x) adopmnctl.sh
This script will start/stop opmn service in 10.1.3 Oracle_Home. opmn will control all services in 10.1.3 Oracle_Home like web server or various oc4j instances. If any services are stopped abnormally opmn will/should start them automatically.

xi) jtffmctl.sh
This script will be used to start/stop one to one fulfilment server.

xii) mwactl.sh
To start / stop mwa telnet server where mwa is mobile application.

Log File Location for Startup Shutdown Services in R12
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Log files for startup/shutdown scripts for application/mid tier in R12 are in $INST_TOP/apps/$CONTEXT_NAME/logs/appl/admin/log
(adalnctl.txt, adapcctl.txt, adcmctl.txt, adformsctl.txt, adoacorectl.txt, adoafmctl.txt, adopmnctl.txt, adstrtal.log, jtffmctl.txt )

--Are you facing any issues in startup/shutdown scripts ?
--Should Oracle Create single script which should start/stop entire application including database ?

Synchronize Oracle Calendar directly from Mobile Part II

2007-06-08T19:04:00.000+01:00

This is second and last part of configuring Oracle Calendar (Part of Oracle Collaboration Suite) so that your meetings, schedule, room bookings can be updated/synched directly from your mobile handset.

For Part I Installing Calendar and Web Server, Click here

In order to synchronize calendar directly from any mobile handset, corresponding handset profile should be available in ocst_profiles file. This file is in CAL_INSTALL_DIR/ocas/conf/ocst_profile .

Oracle Calendar version 10.1.2.0.0 doesn't contain profiles for Nokia E50 or E61 (as these handsets were certified later in version 10.1.2.4 i.e. patch set 4) hence we have to patch it to version 10.1.2.4. If mobile handset you are trying to configure is not listed in above ocst_profile file, check with Oracle Support if your handset is certified with calendar or not.

Below is the step to patch calendar to version 10.1.2.4.0

Upgrade Calendar to version 10.1.2.4
------------------------------------------------
Upgrade of Calendar services is required in order to configure Nokia E61 and Nokia E50 handset.

Upgrade OPatch

Download patch 2617419 from metalink with version 10.1.2 and copy it to $CAL_HOME i.e. /apps/oracle/product/CAL

Unzip patch in above directory /apps/oracle/product/CAL , This will create OPatch directory in above location. When prompted for overwriting existing file select All and overwrite entire OPatch directory

Check opatch version
opatch version (opatch is available in /apps/oracle/product/CAL/OPatch)Make sure version is 1.0.0.0.56

Upgrade Calendar
---Download patch 5551332 from Metalink and unzip it in any directory. This will create directory 5551332

---Shutdown Calendar and OHS
unistop -all
ocasctl -stopall
opmnctl stopall

---Start opatch as
cd /patch_unzip_location/5551332
/apps/oracle/product/CAL/OPatch/opatch apply

When prompted for Is Oracle Service down, Select YES. Make sure patch finishes successfully.

Start Calendar and OHS services mentioned in first post

Nokia Handset Configuration
------------------------------------------
Menu -> Connectivity -> Sync -> Options -> New Sync Profile
Application -> Calendar - Include in Sync - Yes
Remote Database -> Calendar , Synchronize Type - Common
Connection Setting -> Server Version -1.1, Server ID -1, Data Bearer - Internet, Host Address - http://focusthread.com/ocst-bin/ocas.fcgi , Port No - 7777
User Name, Password (Type user Name password you created / admin username password)

Select sync in mobile handset and your calendar in Mobile should be synchronized with Oracle Calendar server.

For more information on how to enter these details in nokia handset play video in link

Nokia E61 Demo
Nokia E50 Demo

Related Document
Oracle Mobile Data Sync and Sync Server
Architecture of Oracle Calendar Application

Coming Next : How to Start / Stop Services on Oracle Applications R12 and associated Log Files.

Synchronize Oracle Calendar Directly from Mobile Handset

2007-06-03T20:36:00.001+01:00

Below post covers Synchronization of Oracle Calendar directly from your WAP enabled mobile handset like Nokia, Sony Ericson... This is covered in two parts , Part I covers isntallation of calendar and standalone Web (HTTP) Server and in next part II, I'll cover synchronization steps with Mobile Handset and important files.

Traditional way of synchronizing your calendar data with your mobile handsets is via Desktop Machine (First synchronize your desktop machine with calendar server data and then synchronizing your mobile handset by connecting it to your desktop machine or laptop and vice versa).
With mobility you need a mechnism to synchronize your calendar data directly from your handset without connecting your mobile to desktop or laptop. Today's post covers overview and implementation steps for providing infrastructure so that users/managers/employees can be in synch and update their meetings, shedules directly from mobile.

Overview of Oracle Calendar
-------------------------------------
Oracle Calendar is component of Oracle Collaboration Suite which you can
install stndalone as well as part of oracle collaboration suite . Calnedar is used to book your schedule, online diaries, events and meetings.
Below note explain implementation of Standalone Calendar so that they can be synchronized with Mobile Handset (For explanation purpose I have taken example of Nokia E61 and Nokia E50 series)
In order to synch your mobile handset with Calendar you need standalone calendar server and HTTP Server (Oracle HTTP Server or any other web server like Apache, Webspahere...). If you installed Calendar as part of Oracle Collaboration Suite, you don't need web server as it is installed by default with Collaboration Suite.

Overview of Standalone Oracle Calendar synch directly from Mobile Handset
-------------------------------------------------------------

A) Install Standalone Oracle Calendar Server
B) Install Standalone Oracle HTTP Server
C) Configure Oracle Calendar to access via Oracle HTTP Server
D) Upgrade Calendar to version 10.1.2.4 to get Nokia E50 and E61 profiles
E) Configuration at Nokia Handset / Mobile device
F) Related Documentation

Assumptions
---------------------
Below is software and operating system I used which can vary as per your
requireemnt.

--Standalone calendar Server
--Standalone Web Server (Oracle HTTP Server)

Installed on same machine in two different oracle_home (Though you can install them on different machine as well)

ORACLE HOME for Calendar : /apps/oracle/product/CAL
ORACLE HOME for Oracle Web Server : /apps/oracle/product/OHS

-- Operating System is Red Hat Linux ES 3 (Though this can be on ES4, solaris or windows as well)

Calendar and other Software Location
-----------------------------------------------------------
i) Standalone Calendar -> Calendar Software for Linux
ii) Standalone Oracle HTTP Server -> Application Server Companion CD
iii) Red Hat Linux -> http://rhn.redhat.com/

Operating System Prereq.
-------------------------------------
i) Make sure kernel version of Red Hat ES3 should be minimum 2.4.21-27 or higher
ii) Install following additional RPM’s if they are not installed already. sysstat-4.0.7-4.EL.3.3
gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-34.2
compat-glibc-7.x.2.2.4.32.6

(To check if RPM is already installed or not use "rpm -qa grep {rpm_name}" )

iii) Add following kernel parameters in /etc/sysctl.conf
kernel.shmall = 3279547
kernel.shmmax = 2147483648
kernel.shmmni = 4096
#semaphores: semmsl, semmns, semopm, semmni
kernel.sem = 256 32000 100 142
fs.file-max = 327679
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 10000 65000
kernel.msgmni = 2878
kernel.msgmax = 8192
kernel.msgmnb = 65535

and execute "sysctl –p /etc/sysctl.conf" (From root user)

iv) Add following lines in /etc/security/limits.conf
* soft nproc 4096
* hard nproc 16384
* soft nofile 16384
* hard nofile 65536 (Don't forget to put *)

Start Standalone Calendar Installation
----------------------------------------------------------
Login with user "oracle" (or any other user with whom you wish to install software). Navigate to standalone calendar software location and start installation like

i) /calendar_standalone/runInstaller

ii) Click Next on Welcome Screen and enter ORACLE_HOME name PATH and click next.
ORACLE_HOME CAL_HOME
PATH /apps/oracle/product/CAL

iii) Select component you wish to install and click Next, Select All Components

iv) Select language (leave default) and click Next

v) Select directory server you wish to use : Select Internal in our case

vi) Enter Oracle Calendar Administrator Password (This will be used during administration and user management)

vii) In Oracle-Calendar Node ID screen enter Node ID, since this is our first and only Node so lets make this one as Master Node with ID as 1 (Select this as Master Node)

viii) Enter Host or Alias, Enter host name here as any thing your actual hostname of machine or virtual name like focusthread.com

ix) Click Next & then click on Install Button

On successful installation Next Step is to install Web Server (Oracle Standalone HTTP Server)

Standalone Oracle HTTP Server Installation
------------------------------------------------------
Login with username "oracle" or any other user with whom you wish to install HTTP Server. Navigate to Oracle HTTP Server software location and Start OHS Installation using runInstaller

i) ./runInstaller

ii) Click Next on Welcome Screen and enter ORACLE_HOME name PATH and click next
ORACLE_HOME OHS_HOME
PATH /apps/oracle/product/OHS

iii) Select Product to Install, Select Web Server Services 10.1.2.0.2

iv) Select Installation Type Select Oracle HTTP Server with Apache 2.0

v) Select other default options till install screen

vi) Click Next & then click on Install Button

vii) In the end it will ask you to execute root.sh From root execute like /apps/oracle/product/OHS/root.sh

Configure Oracle Calendar With Oracle HTTP Server
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Order to configure Calendar via Mobile Handset, first it should be accessible via HTTP Server on HTTP/HTTPS protocol. So in this step we will configure Oracle Calendar with HTTP Server

i) Include following files in httpd.conf of HTTP Server at
/apps/oracle/product/OHS/ohs/conf

/apps/oracle/product/CAL/ocad/config/ocad.conf and /apps/oracle/product/CAL/ocas/conf/ocal.conf

(Here ocad.conf is Oracle Calendar Server Configuration file and ocal.conf is Oracle Calendar Application Server or OCAS configuration file)

ii) Restart OHS as
ORACLE_HOME=/apps/oracle/product/OHS
export ORACLE_HOME

opmnctl stopall
opmnctl startall (opmnctl is located in $OHS_HOME/opmn/bin directory)
iii) Start Calendar & OCAS Server
ORACLE_HOME=/apps/oracle/product/CAL
export ORACLE_HOME
unistart (located in $CAL_HOME/ocal/bin)
ocasctl –startocasctl –start –t ochecklet
(located in $CAL_HOME/ocas/bin)

iv) Create users and groups using Node administration Screen
http://hostname.domainname:port/ocad-bin/ocad.cgi?object=nodeadm

In my case during Calendar Installation, I hostname or Alias as
focusthread.com and default HTTP Server port number during installation was 7777 so I'll access Calendar Administration Screen as
http://focusthread.com:7777/ocad-bin/ocad.cgi?object=nodeadm

v) Check if you can access Calendar via Web Services URL
http://hostname.domainname:port/ocas-bin/ocas.fcgi?sub=web or
http://focusthread.com:7777/ocas-bin/ocas.fcgi?sub=web

If you get message like "Message Catalogue Unavailable" check Metalink Note # 275524.1

Next
Synch Calendar from Mobile Part II

Related

Collaboration Suite Overview
Calendar Server Overview

Synchronizing Calendar directly from Mobile Handset with important files and related documentation coming in part II

URL Firewall in DMZ/Self Service Setup (url_fw.conf)

2007-06-01T18:55:00.000+01:00

In Self Service or DMZ Setup (from 11.5.10) you might have noticed new configuration file url_fw.conf under $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf . In today's post We'll understand requirement of this file , building blocks of this file, mod_rewrite module of apache and regular expressions.

Overview of url_fw.conf file is required ?

This file is delievered by patch 3942483 (included in 11.5.10) and called by Apache/Webserver configuration file httpd.conf .

This file uses mod_rewrite module of Apache to allow/disallow URL's matched by regular expression.

Why I need this file - > This file provide extra security for DMZ or Self Service implementation accessible over internet. Only few URL's opened/allowed by this file are accessible thus protecting secured URL which should not be accessible via internet.

On what basis its decided to include url_fw.conf -> If node trust level is marked as external (Three type of Node Trust level for a node , External, Internal, Administration) then Autoconfig includes url_fw.conf file in httpd.conf

What is mod_rewrite and where to get more information -> mod_rewrite is URL Rewrite Engine in Apache (on which Oracle-Apache or Oracle HTTP Server or Web Server in Apps). mod_rewrite is powerful tool for URL manipulation like to

- Restrict Access to directories and files
- Conditional redirection of access
- Relocating Servers, File System or Directories
- Regeneration of static pages based on HTTP Header Variable

For more information on mod_rewrite module of apache visit http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html

How to debug mod_rewite issues ?
If you think some of URL's (complete url or partial - gif, jpg, html or jsp file) are blocked by above URL Firewall and you wish to know which file is blocked , you can enable logging by adding following directive in url_fw.conf

RewriteLog "/your_log_directory/rewrite.log"
RewriteLogLevel 7

By default logging is disabled , logLevel value is from 0-10 (0 means no logging and 10 is log everything which records all steps mod_rewrite is doing in background) a sensible value is 6 or 7 and you will see in log what URL is blocked and by what rule; so that if you think user should have access to that URL you can grant access on that resource by adding new rule in url_fw.conf

Sample url_fw.conf value and its meaning -
RewriteRule ^/$ /OA_HTML/AppsLocalLogin.jsp [R,L]
or
RewriteRule ^/OA_HTML/jsp/fnd/fndhelp.jsp$ - [L]

Here first rule is saying that when user type / i.e. after hostname , domainname and port number and then /; redirect user to /OA_HTML/AppsLocalLogin.jsp and stop applying any rewrite rule after that.

In second rule; - which means don't do any thing and present User same url as mentioned in left side i.e. /OA_HTML/jsp/fnd/fndhelp.jsp

here [R,L] in end
R- Means Rewrite
L - Last rewrite rule (No more rule to apply after this)

In order to understand above rules , you should know regular expression and here few tips/meta characters on regular expressions

1) . (dot) means matches any characters
2) [] specifies a class
i.e.
---> [a-z] matches any lower case characters from a to z
--->[a-zA-Z0-9] matches any character upper or lower case from a to z and numeric 0 to 9
---> [abc$] matches a or b or c or $
---> [^0-9] matches anything except digit 0 to 9 . Here ^ is negation

Meta Characters in Regular Expressions

^ -> Matches Start of a line
$ -> Matches End of line

like

^appsdba -> Matches any line starting with appsdba
appsdba$ -> Matches any line ending with appsdba
^appsdba$ -> Matches any line which consist of just one word appsdba

Quantifiers for Characters
--> ? matches zero or one instance of character
--> + matches one or more instance of character
--> * matches zero or more instance of character

For Example
appsdba? matches appsdb or appsdba
appasdba+ matches appsdba, appsdbaa, appsdbaaa and so on
appsdba* matches appsdb, appsdba, appsdbaa, appsdbaaa and so on

Few error messages related to URL Firewall are
-- Access to requested URL has been blocked by the url firewall
-- Gone URL you are looking for is blocked by url Firewall
-- Error in opening up attachments or date picker in iStore, iRec, iProc
-- FW-1 at Firewall-2: Access denied

For more information on DMZ and E-Business Suite visit Steven Chan's post at

http://blogs.oracle.com/schan/2006/05/17

Please leave your comments about anything and things you wish to see on this blog.

Few things on Users Request, coming soon on Oracle Applications R12
-- Startup / Shutdown scripts and changes in scripts with 11i version
-- New Top INSTANCE_TOP and its advantages in Oracle Apps Release 12

Integration Steps - 10g AS with OAM (COREid)

2007-05-27T02:11:00.000+01:00

In today's post I am covering integration of 10g Oracle Application Server with Oracle Access Manager (Oblix COREid)

For overview of Oracle Access Manager & Oracle Application Server integration check my previous post at

http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/2007/05/oas-oam-access-manager-oblix-coreid.html

For installation of Oracle Access Manager (Oblix COREid) click here

Here are the integration Steps
---------------------------------------------

1. Install Oracle Application Server 10g
1.1 Install OAS Infrastructure Tier (MR, OID, SSO..)

2. Install Oracle Access Manager component

2.1 Install Identity Server
2.2 Install WebPass
2.3 Install Access Server (including webpass)

3. Configuration step on 10g OAS
3.1 Install WebGate on HTTP Server on 10g AS Middle tier node
3.2 Install webgate on HTTP Server on 10g AS Infra Tier (SSO & OADDAS access)
3.3 Configure OracleAS Single Sign-On for external Authentication
3.4 Configure web browser to allow cookie (as authentication mechanism works on cookie)

4 Integrate 10g OAS with OAM

4.1 Enable Single Sign-On for integration between OAS and OAM (by creationg java class and editing policy.properties)

4.2 Integrating DAS (Delegated administrative services) (If you have configured OAS SSO integration with OAM SSO, oiddas is autmoatically integrated)

4.3 Integrating Portal (No additioanl steps required if OAS-OAM is integrated as mentioned above)

4.4 Enabling SSO on forms (enable OAS-SSO for forms and this will be protected automatically as per OAS - OAM single sign-on integration mentioned above)

4.5 Integrating reports (By defaults reports are Oracle AS single sign-on protected so no additonal steps required )

4.6 Configure OID synchronization with LDAP Server (If Access manager is in different LDAP Server)

4.7 Configure global logout from Oracle AS Single Sign-On and Access Manager (edit policy.properties on OAS SSO server, Add SSO logout URL in Access System console on OAM, provide new global logout page inWebgate Instance configurable via access system console in OAM)

4.8 Finally create policies to protect 10g OAS resources (URL's) in policy manager by access server in OAM (/sso/auth, /oiddas, /pls/orasso, /pls/portal...).

This can be done via OAM Policy Manager in Access Server
Access Server (/access/oblix) -> Policy Manager -> Create Policy Domain

Configuring Oracle Calendar Synchronization directly from your mobile coming soon...

OAS - OAM (Access Manager / Oblix COREid) Integration Architecture

2007-05-25T22:14:00.000+01:00

Integrating Oracle 10g Application Server with Oracle Access Manager -Overview
=========================

i) Oracle Application Server (OAS) can be integrated with Oracle Access
Manager (OAM, earlier called as Oblix COREid) for Authentication and
Authorization. Though Oracle Application Server has its own
Authentication and Single Sign-On feature but integrating OAS with OAM
provide more flexibility and security to Oracle Application Server and help in providing fine grained access control for protecting web and other resources.

ii) You also need OAM-OAS integration if you wish to integrate E-Business
Suite with Oracle Access Manager (Oblix COREid) for authentication and
authorization.

iii) If you wish to integrate (protect/authenticate/authorize) any oracle
product (like portal, Forms, BI, E-Business Suite) with Oracle Access
Manager (Oblix COREid) it should be done via Oracle Application Server.

iv) Integration of OAM with OAS will help you to provide identity management functionality to Web based application which run on Oracle Application server or any other Oracle product like Oracle E-Business Suite Self Service applications (iProc, iRec)

iv) While integrating Oracle Access Manager's Authorization functionality, either Oracle Application Server or Oracle Access Manager Single Sign-On can act as authentication mechanism.

OAS (10g AS) - OAM (Oblix COREid) Integration Architecture
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As shown in diagram on top, you will have Oracle Access Manager installed and configured with any LDAP Server (AD, OID, iPlanet) and Oracle HTTP Server will be protected by WebGate (OAM web component).
Here is request flow when Oracle Application Server is protected by Oracle Access Manager (Oblix COREid)

i) User try to access web resource (http/https) on oracle application server which is protected by Oracle Access Manager (Oblix COREid), request is received by WebGate (access manager component on Web Server)

ii) Webgate request for policy from Access Server (another component in Oracle Access Manager) to check if resource (URL) is protected or not

iii) If resource/URL is not protected page is returned to user. If resource/URL is protected, webgate ask user to authenticate

iv) Credentials entered by user is validated against LDAP directory via access system.

v) After successful authentication, Oracle Access Manager Single Sign-On cookie (obSSOCookie) is sent to user browser

vi) After successful authorization (pre-defined at access server policy domains), access server executes actions specified in security policy and set HTTP Header variable that maps to Oracle Application Server 10g User ID

vii) Oracle AS Single Sign-On recognizes HTTP Headers set by Oracle Access Manager (HeaderVar), authenticates user and sets Oracle Single Sign-On Cookie.

If your LDAP store for Access is not same OID where Oracle Application Server users are stored then ensure that user data in two LDAP servers is in sync (up to date)

Implementation of 10g AS integration with Oracle Access Manager(Oblix COREid) coming soon ...

Integration of Oracle Access Manager(COREid) with Siebel coming soon...

1Z0-312 Cloning and Staging Oracle Application Server

2007-05-21T20:19:00.000+01:00

This post is in continuation of Oracle 10g Application Server administration (OCP) track 1Z0-312. This post covers second topic of certification track i.e. Cloning and Staging Oracle Application Server .

For previous post on this certification track (1Z0-312) check http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/search/label/1z0312

Cloning process mentioned here are w.r.t. Oracle Application Server 10g and not at all related to Oracle Applications 11i/R12 (Financials/HRMS)

This topic covers following points as per certification track explained under A, B, C...

A) Clone Oracle Application Server installations
=========================================
i) Cloning is process of creating replica of existing installation to differnt location while preserving its configurations.
ii) You can create a clone using command line cloning scripts or OEM 10g Grid control

iii)

You can clone J2EE and Web Cache middle tier which is not connected to Infrastructure,

Similarly in Portal and Wireless only middle tier can be cloned (You can't clone infrastructure tier) both source and target instances share same infrastructure database (as described in fig)

iv) During cloning source ORACLE_HOME is copied to destination ORACLE_HOME , then a set of scripts is used to update information in key configuration files of oracle application server middle tier (like hostname).

Key points in OAS cloning ?
---------------------------------------
--You can clone middle tier installation of (J2EE & Webcache, Portal & Wireless and BI & Forms)
--You CANNOT clone
-----i)Infrastructure Tier (MR & IM)
-----ii)OAS Integration, BPEL Process Anaytics or BPEL process manager
-----iii) Developer kit and SDK
-----iv) Installation that includes workflow
--Cloned instance must have different name than source instance.
-- You can clone MT (Middle Tier) that is member of OracleAS Cluster or Farm but you must remove instance from OracleAS Cluster and Farm before beginning cloning operation.
-- Cloning process does not configure Load Balancer Router, If you use one, you have to configure it manually including invalidation port
-- If in source webcache instance is member of cache cluster, then target webcahe should be manually added in to cache cluster (or delete other cache cluster member info manually if you don't wish to target cloned instance as cache cluster)
-- If source webcache instance is configured to forward requests to more than one origin server on same host as source web cache instance, then cloning will fail.

Cloning Process in Oracle Application Server
----------------------------------------------------------
i) On source instance run prepare_colne.pl (in $OH/clone/bin) (parses files, create archives using DCM, backs up required files, and run wireless clone assistant if wireless is enabled)
ii) Copy ORACLE_HOME to destination location
iii) ON target instance run clone.pl (invokes OUI which repeats all actions done during source instance installation time)
iv) post clone phase , clone.pl also does following post clone steps to make target cloned instance to a working state. These are
----a) setting new ORACLE_HOME in DCM
----b) update configuration file
----c) calls chgiphost command to change hostname and IP address in cloned instance
----d) If source instance was connected to OID (Portal/BI) then add information about clone in OID
----e) After cloning start services on target instance on unix you have to run root.sh after cloning (from root)

B) Customize the cloning process
=============================
You can customize various aspects of cloning like specify custom port during cloning or preserve custom settings

i) Customizing ports during cloning
As mentioned above, cloning oracle application server in turn calls Oracle Universal Installer (OUI), Though you don't see OUI calls; still OUI calls can be customized by configuration file cs.properties in $ORACLE_HOME/clone/ias/config
For example - To configure custom ports (to target instance) during cloning
clone_command_line = oracle.iappserver.iapptop:szl_PortListSelect="{\"YES\",
\"/location_of_port_list/portlist.ini\"}"

When you update this line in cs.properties while cloning , OUI will pick staticportlist.ini file and assign ports based on above file to target instance.

ii) Updating custom data
You can update custom data (custom files) that is not updated by default during cloning.
You can change/customize following data in target cloned instance
--Change hostname in a file -> Add full path name of file in which hostname needs to be cahnged to
$ORACLE_HOME/chgip/config/hostname.lst
--Update occurance of ORACLE_HOME in a file from old value to new OH value -> Use replace tag in fixup_script.xml.tmpl under
$ORACLE_HOME/clone/ias/config
--Extract value from file1 and use it to replace value in file2 -> Use alter tag in fixup_script.xml.tmpl under
$ORACLE_HOME/clone/ias/config

C) Use cloning to expand an OracleAS Cluster
==================================
The most common example of cloning Oracle Application Server is expanding a Oracle AS cluster. For example you have a cluster of J2EE and Webcache Middle tier with identical configuration and wish to add another J2EE and webcache node with identical configuration and deployemt. Assume source Oracle Application Server is connected to file based repository and member of farm and OracleAS Cluster following are cloning steps to expand this OracleAS Cluster
i) Remove Source isnatnce from Farm and Cluster (Use dcmctl or iasConsole); dcmctl leaveFarm and dcmctl leaveCluster
ii) Run preclone on source Instance ("perl prepare_clone.pl")
iii) Copy oracle_home and associated files from source to target instance
iv) Run clone on target instance "perl clone.pl"
v) Add source isntance to Farm & Cluster ("dcmctl joinFarm" & "dcmctl joinCluster")
vi) Add target instance to Farm & Cluster using same command mentioned above

Few points related to using cloning to expand OracleAS Cluster
--Cloning Oracle AS Clusters, If source cloned instance is member of Cluster/Farm as mentioned in past remove it from cluster add it back to cluster after cloning.
--If source instance (clustered) is connected to file based repository in separate instance (it is not host of file based repository), cloned instance will be member of same farm as source instance
--If source instance (clustered) is connected to file based repository in same instance (it is host of file based repository), cloned instance will be host of new file based repository.

D) Move J2EE applications from a test middle tier to a new production environment.
==========================================
Their are various ways/options (depending on your requirement)
in which you can move J2EE application from Test to Production Instance

i) You already have J2EE and Webcache type test & production inastance--> Use "dcmctl redeployApplication" or iAS console "Deploy EAR File" method.
ii) You already have J2EE and Webcache (without IM) Test Instance but no prod instance --> Use middle tier clone method (mentioned in previous post) or Install J2EE and Webcache type middle tier on production and deploy J2EE application (using dcmctl or iASConsole)
iii) You already have J2EE and WebCache (with IM & MR) Test Instance but no prod instance --> Install Infrasturure tier on prod instance, install J2EE and Webcache type middle tier and deploy J2EE application by method mentioned above in point ii)

E) Move OracleAS Portal metadata from test to production
==========================================

As figure shown here is self explanatory that we have an existing test & prod Oracle AS environment(Portal type) with Portal
Metadata repository on separate database. Now if you wish to move Portal MR from test to production use export/import feature
to move content from test to prod.
Please note here that export/import mentioned here is portal import/export and not database imp/exp (though portal import/export in background with some additional steps uses database exp/imp only)
i) Create transport set and extract content to transport tables (using portal exp/imp feature from GUI)
ii) Move transport set from source to target (using portal exp/imp command line tool)
iii) copy dump file and script file from source to target instance
iv) Run command line script to import data from dump file to transport tables on target instance
v) Import objects from transport tables to portal repository via GUI using Transport Set Manager Portlet

F) Move applications from a test middle tier with Identity Management and a product Metadata Repository to an existing production environment with Identity Management
========================================

As shown in figure, this migration from test to production assume that ; You have an existing production Instance which already had Middle tier, Identity Management and metadata repository.

Remaining steps on how to migrate them coming soon ....

If you have any doubts in above topic or any other topic, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

Unified APPL_TOP : Changed Feature in Oracle Apps R12

2007-05-18T21:32:00.000+01:00

In today's post I'll cover on Unified APPL_TOP in Oracle Applications R12 which is different from separate APPL_TOP in Oracle Applications 11i. Unified APPL_TOP make more sense if you are using multi node Oracle Applications R12.

In Oracle Applications 11i , in multi node installation each APPL_TOP have its different name and files in each APPL_TOP will depend on type of Node (i.e. Forms Node will have fmx or forms related files where as APPL_TOP belonging to CM only node will have rdf or files required to run CM node)

Starting from R12, it will use Unified APPL_TOP which means all files required for all middle tier services are included in all nodes of Multi Node installation (irrespective of services running on that node)

What are few changes because of Unified APPL_TOP ?

-- During Cloning of multi node Oracle Application install, only one copy (any one appl_top) of Application Node files need to copied to target instance.
-- During Cloning of Multi Node to Single Node you don't have to merge APPL_TOP's in R12 as required in 11i .
--Services start/stop If you are using adstrtall.sh to start services on a node then it will start services which were configured to start during install on that node (You can still start a specific service even though it was not suppose to configure/start by calling startup script of that specific services).
To explain this better, lets assume you installed multi node R12 instance with Node 1 as Forms & Web Server where as Node 2 was installed with Concurrent Manager. Now on Node1 when you use adstrtall.sh script to start services as expected it will start Forms and Web services but unlike 11i, You can still start Concurrent Manager on Node1 by running adcmctl.sh
--FND_NODES From R12 all nodes will have Y against all services (For multi Node) in FND_NODES table.

More on R12 with upgrade overview and other new features coming soon....

1Z0-312 Managing Customized Oracle Application Server Topologies

2007-05-13T18:31:00.000+01:00

As promised, I'll cover one topic per post for Oracle Certified Professional Certification track for Oracle Application Server 10g Administrator. Today's post cover first topic which is Managing Customized Oracle Application Server Topologies.

New features for customized deployment topology
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Install only IM type and use it with existing MR in different oracle_home or on different machine
2. Install only MR without registering with IM/OID
3. Rack mounted directory server configuration (Multiple IM/OID pointing to same MR)

Role of OPMN in customized topology
----------------------------------------------------
Role of OPMN is extended in OAS 10g
1. It start/stops all components of OAS
2. Scope of OPMN is extended, it can start specified instance or all instance in farm and OAS cluster
3. opmn.xml can be edited as per your need both manually or from iasConsole

Managing ports in customized topology
-------------------------------------------------
1. use static ports initialization file to customize port list , staticports.ini during installation (except database listener port)
2. use chgiphost.sh to change hostname or IP address
3. You can change port numbers later depending on your requirement

Various topology for Oracle Application Server
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Each oracle application server deployment has unique characterstic and vary as per their requirements. Oracle Application server topologies are broadly classified into three categories
1. Development topology
2. Deployment Topology
3. Special topology for HA (High Availability)
4. Enterprise Data center topology

Each of these broad classification has further sub classification based on type of installation, usages.... explained below

1. Development topology used by
---1.1 Java developers (standalone OC4J or J2EE and webcache installation type). This is single computer install with no infrastructure tier install.
You have to install two components
a) J2EE and WebCache
b) Oracle JDeveloper

Key considerations -- These two products should be installed in separate oracle_homes. Order of installation of these two products doesn't matter

---1.2 Portal & wireless developers (Portal and Wireless installation type)
This type of installation needs two components of oracle application server, Infrastructure tier (IM+MR) and Middle Tier.
Key considerations -- These two components of OAS, Infra tier and middle tier should be on separate oracle_home and can be on same machine or different machines.Order of install should be first Infrastructure tier and then middle tier. PDK (Portal Development kit) and Wireless SDK (Software development kit) shipped with Portal and wireless type install type is used for development.

---1.3 Forms & reports developers (BI and forms installation type)in this topology, developers use Forms & Report builder to build application and BI & Forms type installation to test their application (forms,report, BI)This will be installed in three oracle_homes (one for infra tier, second for middle tier of type forms & BI and third for Forms & Report developer)Order of installation is First infra tier, then middle tier and then forms & report developer.

---1.4 Integration architect and modelers topology (OAS install with ProcessConnect and infrastructure tier )This type of topology includes J2EE and webcache type installation with Infrastructure tier and third home for OracleAS ProcessConnect. Order of installation is first infra tier , then J2ee and webcache type middle tier installation using infra tier and finally ProcessConnect. This topology type will have two oracle_homes one for Infra tier and second for j2ee & webcache and processConnect (they will share same oracle_home)

2. deployment topology
---2.1 Hosting topology (in model where OAS is hosted environments)
---2.2 department topology (Where each depptt host their application)
---2.3 Data center topology (multiple deptt. share same data center)

3. Development life cycle (Dev to Test to Stage to Production)similarly application moves from developer topology to departmental topology to enterprise data center topology

4. special topology for HA

---4.1 Cold failover cluster (CFC)Here infrastructure is active only on one node at a time and can be activated on another node if existing Infra tier fails, similarly for middle tier.CFC is Supported with Sun Clusters, HP Service Guard and Veritas. Oracle_homes and OAS configuration files are placed on shared file system. It uses virtual hostname and virtual IPs

---4.2 Active failover cluster (AFC)Only difference between AFC and CFC is that in AFC, infrastructure is active at same time in all infra nodes. ---3.3 IM replication (This uses database replication or LDAP replication technology )

Thumb rule as per oracle documentation
-----------------------------------------------------
1. All development topology to be installed on single machine
2. All deployment topology need at least four machines

1Z0-312 OAS 10g Administrator OCP

2007-05-13T01:49:00.000+01:00

Oracle University has recently announced Oracle Certified Professional (1Z0-312) track for 10g Application Server Administrator, you can check details at 10g Application Certification Track . This exam is in Beta phase right now (1Z1-312)

For Oracle Certified Associate (1Z0-311) 10g Application Server Administrator track which is prereq. for OCP click here . My previous post with references to books related to 1Z0-311 can be found at http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/2006/12/oracle-certification-oca-1z0-311.html

Exam topic for 1Z0-312, Oracle Certified Professional for 10g Application Server Administrator track are (I will be covering one exam topic per post in my coming posts)

--Managing Customized Oracle Application Server Topologies
--Cloning and Staging Oracle Application Server
--Distributing Oracle Application Server Infrastructure Components
--Oracle Application Server High Availability Solutions
--Configuring and Managing OracleAS Cluster (Web Cache)
--Configuring and Managing OracleAS Cluster (OC4J)
--Configuring OracleAS Cold Failover Cluster (Middle-Tier)
--Configuring OracleAS Cold Failover Cluster (Infrastructure)
--Administering OracleBI Discoverer in Oracle Application Server
--Administering Oracle Reports in Oracle Application Server
--Administering Forms Applications in Oracle Application Server
--Monitoring Oracle Application Server
--Tuning the Oracle Application Server Middle Tier
--Reconfiguring Middle-Tier Instances
--Installing and Configuring OracleAS Cluster (Identity Management)
--Oracle Application Server Disaster Recovery

Stay tuned for learning these topics ....

Oracle Apps DBA Network : Welcome on Board

2007-05-13T01:01:00.000+01:00

I want to introduce and thank two members of our Oracle Apps DBA network who are sharing their knowledge and expertise via this blog and forum http://teachMeOracle.com/forum (dedicated to Oracle Apps DBA's)

Please welcome Aman Sood on board, Aman will be sharing his experiences and knowledge via posts on this blog. Aman has 8+ years extensive Apps DBA experience and have worked on all version of Applications including 10.7, 11.0.3, 11i and release 12. He has worked on some of world’s most complex Apps implementations including 16-24 middle tier clusters with application size in tera bites.
Aman carries extensive implementation knowledge on 10g Application Server including integration with E-Business Suite, Oracle Workflow, Oracle Express Server, Discoverer, Printers, Pasta Configuration and Mobile Server through Apps.
You can raise your questions/doubts related to complex Apps in forum at http://teachMeOracle.com/forum

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce and thank Subba Rao for his contribution in Forum for Apps Newbie. Subba Rao (Subbu) has expertise in Unix/Linux administration and he also works as Apps DBA. He can be role model for those new to Apps DBA or want to become Apps DBA. You can check his posts at http://www.teachmeoracle.com/forum/search.php?search_author=SubbaRao

Thanks to Aman Sood and Subba Rao for sharing thier knowledge and valuable time helping Apps DBA community.

If you wish to help other DBA's please do so by sharing scripts, small note about any apps component or answering others queries at http://teachMeOracle.com/forum

Integrate OID with AD Part I

2007-05-09T22:08:00.000+01:00

OID (Oracle Internet Directory) is LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) Server from Oracle where as AD (Active Directory) is LDAP server from Microsoft. Almost all oracle products (E-Business Suite 11i/R12, Portal, Application Server, Forms & Reports ... ) integration with Active Directory is done via OID (OAS component).

For more information on OID click here .

http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/2007/02/oid-to-oidactive-directoryiplanet-other.html

Few things to note in Integration of OID with Active Directory
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Users can be created in AD and propagated to OID or Vice Versa or can
be created in both and then synched.

2. Password for users

----2.a) can be stored in AD and not OID(You can authenticate against AD) via External Authentication Plug-in (created in OID)

---2.b) Can be stored at both places AD & OID and synhced regularly

3. User synchronization between OID and AD (from OID side, both import & export) is done via DIP (Directory Integration & Provisioning ) component of OID

4. Synchronization of user (to & from) between OID and AD is done by predefined connector (shipped with OIDwhich you can modify/configure as per your need)

5. Synchronization between AD-OID via above mentioned connector can be one way (import only or export only) or two way (both import and export)

6. You can synch all or particular attributes of user entry which you wish to configure (this is done via mapping file- More on mapping files coming soon..)

Configuration Highlights

--------------------------------------

1. Synchronization of users between OID & AD happens via synchronization profile (including connect detail, direction of synch, attribute and source & target domain) created during installation of OID.

2. Three provisioning profile created by default are

---ActiveImport : Importing Changes from MS-AD to OID (DirSyn approach for tracking changes in AD)

---ActiveChgImp : Importing Changes from MS-AD to OID (USNChanged approach for tracking changes in AD )

---ActiveExport : Exporting changes from OID to MS-AD
(More on DirSyn & USNChanged coming soon with practical examples on which one to choose depending on requirement)

3. These provisioning profiles can be customized using dipassitant
(dipassistant -gui) or using LDAP commands (ldapadd or ldapmodify)
4. If you are synchronizing from AD to OID where AD is multi-domain and global catalog is not configured againt Multi domain AD, then you need
one synchronization profile per domain for AD but if global catalogue is
configured you create only one provisioning profile against GC (global
catalog and not garbage collector); If synchronization is from OID to AD
(with multiple domain) you need provisioning profile for each domain
irrespective of global catalog (GC doesn't play a role in synch for
Export from OID to AD)
5. Decide on what information to synchronize and at what location in
directory information tree to synchronize.

More on Integrating/synchronizing Oracle Internet Directory (OID) to Microsoft Active Directory (AD) with demo setup coming soon ....

Installing Oracle Identity Manager (Thor Xellerate)

2007-05-04T18:54:00.000+01:00

Before installing Identity Manager, make yourself familiar with Oracle Identity Manager Concepts and Architecture

Oracle Identity Manager can only be installed on Web Server (OAS, Webspehere, Weblogic, Jboss) and Remote Manager and Design Console (for windows only) can exist on same or separate machines.

Steps for installing identity manager vary as per your application server and database but underlying concept remains same. Steps mentioned here are specific to, installing Oracle Identity Manager with Oracle Application Server as web server and oracle database as data store.

Generic Steps for Installing Oracle Identity Manager
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A) Install Web Server (OAS, Jboss, Webspahere)
B) Install & Configure Database for Identity Manager (Oracle, MS-Sql, sql server)
C) Install JDK (for OAS use JDK shipped with OAS)

A) Installing Web Server :
------------------------------------
1. Download Oracle Application Server software (version 10.1.3.0.2 at time of writing this doc) from downloads.oracle.com
2. Select J2EE and Web Server option during installing OAS 10.1.3.X
3. Change RMI port in opmn.xml file to a specific port (from port range available in opmn.xml for RMI)
4. Set environment variable JAVA_HOME to $ORACLE_HOME/jdk/bin for user installing Identity Manager

B) Install and configure Database :
--------------------------------------------------
Identity Manager require database for storing policy data and metadata. before installing identity manager, you should install Web Server and Database server. In oracle database from list of databases, Oracle Identity Manager support both RAC and simple Oracle Database (without RAC). You can also use an existing oracle database as well.

1. Install oracle database software & create database (Follow oracle database installation Guide, You have option to create database while installing oracle database software via Oracle Universal installer)
2. Prepare your database for installing Oracle Identity Manager
-----2.1 Make sure JVM is configured & Query Rewrite is enabled (done in default database creation with database installer)
-----2.2 Enable XA Transaction Support
-----2.3 Create a tablespace for Oracle Identity Manager
-----2.4 Create database user for Oracle Identity Manager
or
You can do all these above steps using prepare_xl_db.sh (.bat for windows) shipped with Oracle Identity Manager software.

If you don't want to install new oracle database, you can use existing database for configuring identity manager tablespace & schema.

C) Installing Oracle Identity Manager :
-------------------------------------------------------
Steps mentioned here are for installing Identity Manager on Unix
1. Before installing make sure
i) JAVA_HOME is set as mentioned above
ii) You are installing Oracle Identity Manager with same user who installed Application Server.
iii) uninstall commons-logging-1.0.2 from linux machine, if its there. To check if installed "rpm -qa grep commons-logging" To uninstall abobe package "rpm -e full_rpm_name"
iv) Database and application server already installed as mentioned above
2. start installer as sh install_server.sh (Installer will start in console mode & not GUI)
Supply requested information during installation.

It will prompt you for following details
--Password for OIM Administrator account
--Installation Type (Identity Manager or Identity Manager with Audit and Compliance Module)
--Directory where you wish to install Oracle Identity Manager
--Database Type
--Database Hostname, listener port, SID
--Database username/Password for OIM
--Authentication Mode (Default OIM authentication or SSO)
--Application Server Type
--Cluster information (Select if you wish to install OIM in clustered Application Server installation type)
--Username/Password and Instance Name for Application Server
--RMI port & OPMN port (If Application Server is Oracle Application Server)

Few things to note during installation
i) Choose different installation directory for various Identity Manager components (identity manager, remote manager, Design Console for windows)
ii) If you are installing Identity Manager using existing database, it will give you warning message

Start/Stopping Oracle Identity Manager Server
--------------------------------------------------------------
Identity Manager is installed as part of Web Server and will start/stop by starting/stopping webserver.
- Make sure database configured for Identity Manager is Up
- Start Web Server (for Oracle Application Server use, opmnctl startall Similarly for stopping OIM, stop application server (opmnctl stopall) and shutdown database.

Accessing Oracle Identity Manager Administrative/User Console
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://hostname:domainname:port/xlWebApp
where
--hostname.domainname is full name of Server (or virtual name) where Application Server is installed.
--port is web server/apache/http or https port number (7777 is default for oracle application server)

Oracle Identity Manager (User Provisioning - Thor)

2007-05-02T21:29:00.000+01:00

Oracle Identity Manager is world class leading Identity Provisioning server which helps in creation of user, managing them and revoking access.
Oracle purchased Thor Technologies and bundled Identity Provisioning Server & Audit & Compliance module as Oracle Identity Manager.

Oracle Identity Manager is also known as Thor Xellerate Identity Manager or Oracle Xellerate Identity Provisioning.

Few Services in Identity Manager
------------------------------------------------
1) Access Right Management : Granting & Revoking access rights for a
resource (URL, site, services, server, database...)

2) Provisioning : process that grants users, groups appropriate access rights. It involves creation of user(if not already in system), granting or revoking(deprovision) rights to access resource(application, system, database...)

3) Deprovisioning : Opposite of above

4) Attestation : confirming from authorized user that access right or
other privileges are correct or not.

Architecture of Oracle Identity Manager
----------------------------------------------------------
As shown in diagram above, Oracle Identity Manager uses three-tier architecture
A) Presentation Tier
B) Server Tier
C) Data & Enterprise Integration Tier

Presentation Tier consist of Administrative Console, Design Console and Custom Client.

Server Tier consist of Oracle Identity Manager server application with
various other component and act as bridge between Presentation Tier and
Data & Enterprise Integration Tier.

Data & Enterprise Integration Tier contains database server which contains Oracle Identity Manager Data.

Components in Identity Manager
------------------------------------------------
---Oracle Identity Manager Server
---Oracle Identity Manager Remote Manager
---Oracle Identity Manager Design Console (Windows only)

Requirement for Installing Oracle Identity Manager
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Identity Manager installation require
--- A Supported Application Server (You can use Oracle Application
Server, JBOSS, Weblogic, Websphere....)
--- A supported JVM (use Sun JDK)
--- A supported Database (Oracle DB, MS-SQL)

More on installing Oracle Identity Manager and configuration coming soon..

Migrate to UK as Oracle Apps DBA

2007-04-30T19:15:00.000+01:00

Today's post is dedicated to Non-UK resident Oracle Apps DBA's who wish to work in UK.

In order to start working as an Apps DBA in UK, you should have a valid working Visa (For non UK residents). This Visa can either be sponsored by your UK employer (Most employers don't prefer to sponsor visas) or you (as an individual) can apply for Visa under HSMP (Highly Skilled Migration Program).

There are three steps if you wish to move to UK for working as an Oracle Apps DBA.
1. Getting Visa (My recommendation, Go for HSMP instead of someone sponsoring your Visa)
2. Entry clearance (For those not currently in UK)/ FLR (For those who are already working in UK under working Visa sponsored by company in UK)
3. Finding right job/project (We can help you on this) on permanent/contract basis.

HSMP takes around 4-6 weeks and EC/FLR (Entry Clearance/Further Leave to remain) takes another 4-6 weeks. You can apply for HSMP via agent or yourself (my advice DON'T apply via agent) For more information on HSMP see below. Once you get HSMP next step is to find Oracle Apps DBA Job in UK, which can be either permanent or on contract (My recommendation, go for contracting). Based on your experience you can get 30-65 K £ per annum on permanent employment and 300-700 £ per day on contract basis (usually for a period of 3-6 months with extensions).

How to get HSMP or more information about HSMP ?
In order to clear HSMP you should get 75 points in various categories (Education, Earning, Age ...) and should clear english language requirement. (Graduation in English or ""IELTS"" cleared)

For more information on HSMP Guidelines click here and for HSMP Form Click Here
For Apps DBA Jobs in UK, Two good sites which you may wish to bookmark are
jobserve.com and cwjobs.co.uk

If you are Oracle Apps DBA with 3+ years of experience and wish to work with Us mail your CV at jobs@teachmeoracle.com

How We can help you ?
We are group of Highly Qualified, Technically Proficient, Independent Oracle Apps consultants who work on project basis (in Team or Individual). We can help you in finding right client/job/project or even help you in moving to UK (No charges and No obligation). so next question coming to your mind might be

Why are we doing this ?
Our AIM is to build network of technically good Oracle Apps Consultants (Technical/Functional/Developers/DBA's) so
If you think you can handle entire/part of project on your own or wish to explore your potential in UK market shoot a mail at jobs@teachmeoracle.com

Leave your comments and please send your CV's only to jobs@teachmeoracle.com and not to my personal ID.

Application Integration Architecture

2007-04-29T20:04:00.000+01:00

Oracle recently announced Application Integration Architecture to
integrate its various applications (11i/R12, Siebel, peoplesoft,
third party application and custom applications). AIA (Application Integration Architecture) will also be used in Fusion Applications.

Key terminology in Application Integration Architecture
---Enterprise Business Objects (EBO) - are generic representation of business objects like customer, sales order, invoice, etc... These are entities that describe how business runs.
---Enterprise Business Services (EBS) - are specific action that occur
against Enterprise Business Objects(mentioned above). For ex. adding/deleting/modifying an customer, raiseing sales order...You can also think EBS as web service implementation of EBO (Enterprise Business Objects)

How Oracle is targeting to integrate various applications ?
(E-Business Suite, iebel CRM, Peoplesoft, third party application and custom application) answer to this is Application Integration Architecture via Integration Packs
Process Integration Pack - Integration is usually costly, difficult and
prone to break during upgrades. Oracle via Application Integration
Architecture is offering sustainable integration.

Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA)- is standard based, open platform designed to make it easier to handle business process across oracle applications (E-Business, Siebel, peoplesoft), third party and custom applications. Using AIA (Application Integration Architecture) Oracle is providing pre-built integration pack for E-Business, Siebel, peoplesoft. These Integrations are based on standard common object model. These standard business objects can be extended by companies based on their specific requirement. Same common business object model is going to be used in Fusion Applications.
Currently oracle offers two components with AIA,
A) Process Industry Packs
B) Industry Reference Models

Oracle has released Siebel CRM ondemand integration pack for E-Business Suite.

Related :
http://www.oracle.com/applications/oracle-application-integration-architecture.html

Release Update Pack for Oracle Applications R12

2007-04-19T19:11:00.000+01:00

Oracle has released, Release Update Pack 1 (RUP1 / 12.0.1) for Oracle Applications R12 (12.0). Patch Number for this RUP is 5082400 (single driver u5082400.drv) which can be applied using AutoPatch (adpatch) for more information follow read me of patch.

Few things to Note:
1. If you use HR legislation, then update HR legislative data as post
install step of this patch (Follow Note ID# 145837.1)
2. Apply online help patch # 5240400
3. If you have Multiple Language on R12, install translated version of patch for each active language.
4. Following products have patches included in 12.0.1 (RUP1 for R12)
(AD, CRM, Financials, Financial Services, HRMS, Intelligence,
Procurement, Projects, SCM and Application Technology)

If you hit any issues while applying this patch, kindly leave a comment
for solution or How you fix so that this can be useful for others.

Related:
145837.1 Latest HRMS (HR Global) Legislative Data Patch Available