AppsFusion

Oracle application 11i upgrade to R12.0.4 - coming soon

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:32:15 PDT

I will start writing this post soon which includes Oracle Application 11.5.9CU2 upgrade to Oracle application R12.0.4. This upgrade includes upgrade from Portal 3.0.9 , Portal Login server/SSL to Portal 10g/SSO/SSL. Also database upgrade from 9.2.0.7 to 10.2.0.4 patchset. Also I am going to discuss about various paths to upgrade to R12..

Step by Step Information on R12 - How to Validate APPS Schema

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:37:21 PDT

In day to day activity DBA's encounter issues related to invalid objects. Common solution to the problem is running adadmin utility and utlrp script. In this post we are going to discuss invalid APPS schema not objects.

Now the question must be in your mind in what situations you really needs to validate the APPS Schema.

Here we go....

If face any problem with AD_DDL package at runtime

When patch is applied. You can run this only once even you apply more then one patches at a time.

If you upgraded Oracle applications or applied Maintenance pack

After migration using export/import

After Custom development of APPS Schema

Methods to validate APPS Schema

On Unix:
1. Run system/passowrd @$AD_TOP/admin/sql/advrfapp.sql
2. Using adadmin utility and opt for "1. Validate APPS Schema" under "Maintain Applications Database Entities".

Steps to Validate APPS Schema

1.Run adadmin utility. Select the option "Maintain Applications Database Entities" from main menu of AD Administration.

2.Select "Validate APPS Schema" from sub-menu of "Maintain Applications Database Entities".

3. Now review the output file located at $APPL_TOP/admin/SID/out. The report name will be .lst. Look for any missing or invalid pacakges , synonyms or invalid objects in APPS schema. Also check and verify for table or sequences in APPS and base schema. Follow the instruction in the file to resolve any issues.

Hope this helps.

Step by Step Information on Oracle Applications R12 Control Scripts

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:44:04 PDT

In this post you will come to know about Oracle Applications Control Scripts. It is very important for an APPS DBA to know the location and its usage while handling APPS DBA duties.

The application Tier server process control scripts are used to start and stop server processes on the applications tier like adcmctl.sh (Concurrent manager start/stop control script) and adapcctl.sh (HTTP Server start/stop control script).

The following question can be arise in your mind regarding control scripts on Application Tier.

Now you will think where this control scripts are located in Application Tier

How these control scripts are created.

Is it possible to recreate these control scripts.

Here you go...The answer to the above queries are...

Control scripts are located in the $ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME (i.e, $INST_TOP/admin/scripts) directory. It is created by Rapid Install during the installation and you can recreate using AutoConfig (i.e,adautocfg.sh control script) as and when required.

The syntax of the control scripts is [stop or start]

$./adalnctl.sh stop (To stop the Apps Listener)
$./adalnctl.sh start (To start the Apps Listener)

You can use other Application Tier server process control scripts for all server processes to stop and start at the same time.

$./adstrtal.sh (Apps username/password)
$./adstpall.sh (Apps username/password)

To stop or start Forms server in socket mode.

$./adfrmsrvctl.sh

To stop or start Forms OC4J instance in servlet mode.

$./adfrmctl.sh

To stop or start Application Listener.

$./adalnctl.sh

To stop or start concurrent managers.
(This control script required the APPS username and password).

$./adcmctl.sh

To stop or start the HTTP server.

$./adapcctl.sh

Hope you like this post. Please let me know what Topic you would like to see on my blog. Based on request I will start including other stuff too. I am taking my family time to write these articles so I will be on / off from the blogs. You inputs are highly appreciated to improve my blog.

Step by Step Information on Oracle Application R12 Environment files - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:15:26 PDT

I started in my last post about environment files..

In todays post I am going to discuss some more environment files which an APPS DBA should know.

adovars.env file

adovars.env file which is located under $APPL_TOP/admin, and called from <CONTEXT_NAME.env>. This files specifies various types of file location using various environment variables like

JAVA_TOP -> All java files are copied here and it is the top-level directory

CLASSPATH -> It lists the directories and zip file for java class files needed at runtime.

OA_JRE_TOP -> JRE installation location.

OAD_TOP -> Context-sensitive documentation files are copied at this location.

LD_LIBRARY_PATH -> To list the directories for dyanmic library files needed at runtime.

OAH_TOP -> HTML files are copied at this location.

fndenv.env File

This default values should not be modified of this file. This file is located under $FND_TOP direcotry. It sets additional environment varialbes used by Oracle AOL (i.e, Applcation Object Library).

devenv.env file

This file is located under $FND_TOP and is called by fndenv.env for the purpose of compile and link custom Oracle Forms user exits and concurrent program with Oracle Applications. It sets variable that help you link third-party software and your own custom applications with Oracle Applications.

adconfig.txt File

This file is located under $APPL_TOP/admin directory and AD utility perform a variety of database and file management task for which they require acces to specific configuration information. This information is specified when Oracle Application is installed. It is stored in the adconfig.txt file.

Hope this helps to my blog reader community.

Step by Step Information on Oracle Application R12 Environment files - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:47:15 PDT

Received numerous emails from my blog readers to start working on blog. Thanks for all of your appreciation ,support and encouragement to start again. My todays post will be based on Oracle Application R12. As I received request from my blog reader to continue with the series of R12. I will continue with R12 articles also going to cover other areas like Database 11g, Oracle Application server, SOA suites etc in my future posts. In this post I am going to discuss about R12 Oracle Environment files.

Environment Files and Control scripts:

Environment files are in place to manage the setup and configuration within the Oracle Application R12 system.Rapid install generates/create number of different environment files.

<CONTEXT_NAME>.env => $ORACLE_HOME (10.2.0.2) => Oracle Server Ent. Edition

<CONTEXT_NAME>.env => $ORACLE_HOME (AS 10.1.2)=> Oracle Tools Tech Stack

<CONTEXT_NAME>.env=> $ORACLE_HOME (AS 10.1.3)=> Java Tech Stack

<CONTEXT_NAME>.env => $APPL_TOP => Oracle Applications

APPS<CONTEXT_NAME>.env => $APPL_TOP =>Consolidated Environment file

Here CONTEXT_NAME is referred to _.CONTEXT_NAME.env is called environment setup file. Whereas APPS <CONTEXT_NAME>.env.env is called a consolidated environment file which reside under APPL_TOP directory.

Now question must be arise in your mind what is in CONTEXT_NAME.env environment file.

As pre R12 DBA must be aware of and fresher might be thinking what it consist of.

So here comes the answer....

CONTEXT_NAME.env consist of :

Product Directories and Subdirectories

Product Directories Paths

Other environment information

Oracle application have important and core environment file is <CONTEXT_NAME>.env

Also you should know what parameters are part of <CONTEXT_NAME>.env environment file.

Here you go to know the description of these parameters.

APPLFENV - This parameter refers to name of the <CONTEXT_NAME>.env environment file.

APPL_TOP - This parameter refers to top-level directory for this installation of Oracle applications.

INST_TOP - This parameter refers to top-level directory for this instance.

FND_TOP - This parameter refers to path to AOL directory. For e.g /d01/oracle/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0

AU_TOP - This parameter refers to path to the applications utilities directory. For e.g /d01/oracle/apps/apps_st/appl/au/12.0.0.

NLS_LANG - This parameter refers to territory,language and character set installed in the database. For e.g AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8

NLS_DATE_FORMAT - This parameter refers to National language support date format.For e.g The default is "DD-MON-RR", e.g 16-JUL-08.

NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS - This parameter refers to National language support numberic separators. The defulat is period and comman (".,").

<PROD>_TOP - This parameter refers to path to a product's top directory

GWYUID - This parameter refers to the user name/password that give access to the initial sign on.

APPLDCP - This parameter refers to whether PCP is being used. This should be set to OFF if not using PCP.

APPLTMP - This parameter refers to directory for temp file in Oracle Applications.

APPLPTMP - This parameter refers to directory for temp PL/SQL output files.

APPLCNAM - This parameter refers to 8.3 file name convention for concurrent manager log and output files format.

APPLLOG - This parameter refers to concurrent manager log subdirectory.

APPLOUT - This parameter refers to concurrent manager output files subdirectory.

APPLCSF - This parameter refers to the top-level directory for concurrent manager log and output files if they are consolidated into single direcotry for all products.

PATH - This parameter refers to sets directory search path

FNDNAM - This parameter refers to the name of the schema to which the system
administration responsibility connects.

ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME - This parameter refers to directory under $INST_TOP that identifies the location of control scripts.

PLATFORM - This parameter refers to the O/S currently in use. The value of this parameter should match with $APPL_TOP/admin/adpltfrom.txt

I will continue with other environment files in my next post..coming soon...

Steps involved in Cloned Target System in R12 EBS Enviornment

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:48:23 PDT

1. Prepare the Source system database and application Tier for cloning.

2. Copy the Source System to Target System

3. Configure the Target System

4. Post Clone Tasks.

Steps involved in Adding a Node using Advance Cloning Options in R12 EBS

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:10:26 PST

In this post I am going discuss steps involved in Adding a Node using Advance Cloning Options in R12 EBS

1. Rapid Clone can be used to setup a new node being added to an existing application system.

2. On your new node can either run the Same services as the source node or different services.

3. Prepare the Source system, copy it to the new node and configure it as applicable.

4. Once the adcfgclone.pl completes, set up the environment and run adaddnode.pl on the target system.

cd $COMMON_TOP/clone/bin

perl adaddnode.pl

Steps Involved in Cloning for Mulit-Node Systems in R12 EBS Enviornment

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:50:53 PST

I am going discuss in this post Steps involved in Cloning Mulit-Node Systems in R12 EBS environemnt. Rapid clone also used for Mulit-Node System cloning like Single-Node System.

In R12 Release,only one copy of the files for the application tier nodes needs to be copied to the target system as new feature of unified APPL_TOP introduced. In which all files required for all application tier services are included with every applications node, with multiple nodes being differentitated by the services started on each.You can clone using shared file system too.You can specify the services to start for each target node while entering response to the prompts during configuration steps.

To add non-shared applications nodes,carry out the copy and configure steps in the same way as on Primary Node.

Clone a Single-Node System to Mulit-Node System

This method of cloning allows the original node system to be cloned into a multi-node system.

Pre-Steps on the source and all target nodes.

a. Verify source and target node software versions
b. Apply the latest Rapid Clone patch (if required or applicable)
c. Set up Rapid Clone on the Apps Tier.
d. Set up Rapid Clone on the DB Tier.

Steps involved in Cloning procedure

a. Prepare the source system
b. Copy the Source system to the Target System
c. Configure the Target System
d. Post clone Steps like Profile update,utl_file_dir,Printer update, Workflow mailer etc.

Cloning a Mulit-Node System to a Mulit-Node System

1. A multi-node system can be cloned if the number of nodes and distribution of servers inthe target system matches that of the source system.

2. To clone a multi-node system to multi-node system perform the cloning process on each node.

Special Note: Always cloned database instance first.

Steps involved in Refreshing a Target System in R12 EBS Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:30:22 PST

In this post I am going to discuss about Refresh a Target System in R12 E-Business Suite environment.

The system to be clone is called as "Source System" and newly created(or cloned) system is called as "Target System".

Step 1: Ref in my previous post "Steps Involved in Cloning R12 e-Business Suites Environment (Single Node)" to prepare the source system.

Step 2: Copy any parts of the application tier file system that have been updated on the source system. It may require to refresh the target system's APPL_TOP,COMMON_TOP,or Tech Stack.

Step 3: You need to Refresh your database node at the same time. For database node refresh, Copy the database node file system ($ORACLE_HOME - RDBMS HOME).

Step 4: To configure the Target System to be Refreshed by specifying the exisiting Target System when running adcfgclone.pl.

perl adcfgclone.pl dbTier <CONTEXT FILE ON TARGET SYSTEM ON DATABASE NODE>

perl adcfgclone.pl appsTier <$INST_TOP/appl/admin/<CONTEXT FILE ON TARGET SYSTEM ON APPS TIER>>

Step 5: Once Refresh is finished. If you have customized environment then change post clone profile options, utl_file_dir etc.

Test your Refreshed environment and enter the below URL in your browser

http://r12b.quickoracle.com:8000

or

http://<hostname>.<domain_name>:<HTTP port>

Steps Involved in Cloning R12 e-Business Suites Environment (Single Node)

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:10:23 PST

Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of an existing Oracle Application System. The new and existing systems must have component versions and platform type identical for cloning.

I am going to discuss the steps involved to Clone a Single Node system in R12 EBS.

Source Instance Name : r12a.quickoracle.com
Target Instance Name : r12b.quickoracle.com

Preparation to clone the Oracle Application System (Source).

1) sudo su - appl <sid> user.

2) execute the Consolidated Applications enviornment file.

$cd $APPL_TOP
$.APPS<context_name>.env

3) zip utility should be in your PATH.

$ PATH=$PATH:<Location of zip utlity installed on your system>
$ export PATH

4) Stop all Apps Tier Server processes.

$ cd $INST_TOP/admin/scripts
$ adstpall.sh APPS/<passwd of APPS user>

5) Verify latest Rapid Clone patches on metalink and apply if required.(Not applicable)

6) On Apps Tier run AutoConfig and after that on Database Tier.

Apps Tier:

$ cd $INST_TOP/admin/scripts
$ adautocfg.sh

DB Tier:

RDBMS HOME = $ORACLE_HOME
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/scripts/<context_name>
$ adautocfg.sh

Pre-Clone Steps Starts from Here

1. DB Tier preparation for Cloning :

On Source System:

a) login in as Oracle user : $ sudo su - oracle

b) Run the following commands:

RDBMS HOME = $ORACLE_HOME

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/scripts/<context_name>
$ perl adpreclone.pl dbTier

2. Verify the errors and warnings in the log.

RDBMS_HOME = $ORACLE_HOME

Location of the log file StageDBTier_.log

$cd $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/log/<context_name> directory

3. Apps Tier preparation for Cloning

a) $ sudo su - appl<sid>

b) Run Pre-Clone on all the nodes that contains an APPL_TOP.

$cd $INST_TOP/admin/scripts
$perl adpreclone.pl appsTier

4. Verify the errors and warnings in the log.

Location of the log file StageAppsTier_<time>.log

$cd $APPL_TOP/admin//log directory

Pre-Clone Steps End Here and Clone Steps Start From Here

1. Copy or Tar ball or sftp source system application tier file system to the target system.

Note: You need not to shutdown your source system application node for this step.

File System which need to be Tar ball or sftp to target system from Source System
includes:

APPL_TOP

COMMON_TOP

ORACLEAS_10.1.2_ORACLE_HOME

ORACLEAS_10.1.3_ORACLE_HOME

2. copy or TAR ball or sftp source system database tier file system to the target system.

a) This step require you bring down your source sytem (i.e database node) as user oracle.
b) Shutdown normal the source system database
c) copy the database (.dbf) files from the source to the target system
d) copy or TAR ball or sftp the source database ORACLE_HOME to the target system.

3. DBTier Configuration and then start the Target System database Server.

a) sudo su - oracle on target system
b) Run adcfgclone.pl on DB Tier. You will be prompted wfor the values specific to the target system like SID,port etc.

RDBMS_HOME = $ORACLE_HOME

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/clone/bin

$ perl adcfgclone.pl dbTier

4. Verify errors and warnings in the log

Location of the log file ApplyDBTier_<time>.log

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/log/<context_name>

5. Apps Tier configuration on Target system application Server nodes.

a) $sudo su - appl<sid>
b) Run adcfgclone.pl on Apps Tier. You will be prompted wfor the values specific to the target system like SID,port etc.

$cd $COMMON_TOP/clone/bin
$perl adcfgclone.pl appsTier

6. Verify the errors and warnings in the log.

Location of log ApplyAppsTier_<time>.log

$cd $APPL_TOP/admin/<context_name>/log

7.Once clone is finished. If you have customized environment then change post clone profile options, utl_file_dir etc.

Clone Steps End Here

Test your cloned environment and enter the below URL in your browser

http://r12b.quickoracle.com:8000

or

http://<hostname>.<domain_name>:<HTTP port>

Where is Administration Server Component in R12 EBS

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:09:53 PST

Pre-11i & 11i DBA's now say goodbye to Administration Server component.Administration Server in R12 is now a history or the right way to say "Obsolete".

There no such component in R12 Architecture and by default any application tier node used to perform the below operations.

Apply DB patches to Apps: In Oracle application most of the time you will observe in most of the patches consists of files and scripts that update the file system and DB objects. To apply these patch (i.e, which includes cumulative and minipacks and maintenance packs patches). You use adpatch utility (also called AutoPatch utility) to perform any updates.

Maintain Apps:AD Administration Utility (adadmin) require maintenance to optimize system performance and enables you to perform other file system and database maintenance tasks.

R12 Java Servlet Access using HTML Applications

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:59:48 PST

In this post I am going discuss access path use by HTML interface module when using a JSP.

a)User access a function on a browser (HTML hyperlink access)
b)then the browser generate a URL request to the web server.
c)Web listener talk to servlet engine (Jserv)then runs a JSP.
d)JSP then contact Application tables to obtain contents and use metadata dictionary information to build a HTML page.
e)The HTMP page which is build in previous step sent back to the browser with the help of web server.

R12 Oracle Application Framework

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:44:18 PST

In this post I am going to discuss about R12 Oracle Applicaiton Framework Components and it processing.

Oracle Application Framework is the development platform for HTML-based applications. It consist of a java-based application tier framework and associated services. It designed to facilitate the rapid deployment of HTML-based applications.

Oracle Application Framework uses below components:

AOL JAVA or AOL/J

It provides the OAF with underlying security and applicaiton Java Services.Also OAF with its connection to the DB and with application-specific functionality for e.g attachments and flexfields.

BC4J

JDeveloper incluedes BC4J. Java Business components are created by BC4J for representing business logic. It seperates the business logic from UI by mapping the relational tables to java objects.

Java Controller

It processes the programmatic UI definition.

Metadata UI Definition

Apache Jserv module provides the Java servlet engine uses metadata dictionary to to construct the Framework UI.

HTML Generator UIX

UIX , the HTML Generator

HTML-based applicaiton uses the following path with OAF on application Tiers. The steps are discussed below.

a)User click a function on browser (HTML hyperlink access).
b)URL request to the web listener sent by browser.
c)User access validated by AOL/J.
d)Page definition is loaded from the metadata dicitionary on the DB tier into the application Tier (i,e. Metadata UI definition)
e)BC4J objects that contain the application logic and access the database are instantiated.
f)Java controller programatically manipulates the page definition as necessary, based on dynamic UI rules.
g)HTML UI Generatior (UIX)interprets the page definition. It creates the related HTML based on UI standards, and send the page to the browser.

Step By Step Installation of VMWARE on WinXP Professional - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:19:15 PST

In this post I am going to discuss about Step by Step Installation of DB11gR1 Clusterware on OL4 Update 5 using VMWare (Virtual Servers) on WinXP. I tested this configuration on my laptop.

Objective: This installation procedure for learning and testing purpose. This kind of configuration is not suitable for any Production and Test Environment.

Hardware Requirements

Lenovo Thinkpad Laptop
Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600,Service Pack 2 (Host O/S)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU
T7300 @2.00 GHZ
200 GB HDD (Actual Installation required by one node is 35 GB + 10 GB to Stage Software required by you and for future use)
2 GB RAM
Note: As far as my experience with this installation you should have minimum 3GB RAM. I faced few issues like one node goes down and if you are running any memory intensive program. Better to have minimum 3 GB RAM. I used 800 MB for each node and rest for host operating system.
Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 (Update 5) (Guest O/S)
VMWare Server 1.0.4

Software Requirements

Oracle 11g (11.1.0.6) Database & Clusterware Software

Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 (Update 5)

VMware Server 1.0.4

General

Follow the sequence to Install RAC11g+ASM on clusterware using OL4 update 5(On VMWare).

Step By Step Installation of VMWARE on WinXP Professional - Part I

Step by Step Installation of Oracle Enterprise 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP Professional - Part 2

Step by Step Installation of Oracle Enterprise 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP Professional - Part 3

Step by Step Installation of Clusterware11gR1 on Oracle Linux 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP - Part 4

Step By Step Installation of ASM and Oracle DB11gR1 on Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP - Part5

Step By Step Installation of VMWARE on WinXP Professional - Part I - Start Here

Start the installation by double clicking the VWWare software you downloaded from VMWare Site. There is free Trial product key is allocated for you to use this product. Screen Shots are Self Explantory to Install VMWare. Please Follow the snapshots. If you are not able to read the text inside the snapshot please click on snapshot and it will take you to picasa web album and you can see slide show to view more clearly.

Step By Step Installation of VMWARE on WinXP Professional - Part I - End Here

VMWare Virtual Machine Configuration- Start Here
Configure the First Virtual Host - rglinux1
Follow the self explantory snapshots to install your first Virtual host "rglinux1". You can give any name to your vitual machine

To Start "VMWare Server Console" click on your VMWare shortcut on your desktop - Select the default option "Local Host"

To Configure Virtual Machine Select "New Virtual Machine" under Virtual Machine Options

The "New Virtual Machine Wizard" will start, Click Next

Select "Custom" under Virtual Machine Configuration

Select "Linux" under Guest Operating System and change the version to "RedHat Enterprise Linux 4"

Name the Virtual Machine "rglinux1" under Virtual Machine Name. Enter the Location "C:\vms\rglinux1" (Single Node Configuration). To Configure Linux Cluster (Multi-Node Configuration) for RAC configuration. You can change the path as "C:\vms\RAC\ASM11g\rac1" and Machine Name for RAC Setup is ASM_11gRAC1

Set Access Rights - Uncheck this option. The default is shown in snapshot

startup/Shutdown Options - Select Default "User that powers on the virtual machine"

Select "Number of Processor" depending on your machine - Default is one - I select as Two as per my machine configuration

Memory for Virtual Machine - I configured initially with 824 MB. The best for RAC11g configuration is 3GB and you can allocate 1024 Machine for each Virtual Machine and rest for Host Operating system (WinXP

Select Network Type as "Use Bridged Networking"

Select I/O Adapter Types as "LSI Logic"

Select a Disk as "Create a new Virtual Disk"

Select a Disk Type as "SCSI"

Specify Disk Capacity - Select the second option as split disk into 2GB disks. Uncheck the first option shown in snapshot - I just Enter 35GB to configure other products of oracle on same box. Ref 11g RAC docs for Disk Space Requirement

Enter virtual disk filename (rglinux1.vmdk in snapshot). I changed for my RAC configuration to localdisk.vmdk.

Creating a Disk - This is for Single Node Installation not for RAC Configuration on Linux Clusters. This step can be skipped if you are configuring Linux Cluster for RAC11g.

View of First Virtual Machine name "rglinux1" or You can give name as ASM_11gRAC1 for linux cluster for RAC11g Configuration.

VMWare Virtual Machine Configuration- End Here

To Install Linux on Your First Virtual Machine. Please follow the post "Step by Step Installation of Oracle Enterprise 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP Professional - Part 2"

Step by Step Installation of Oracle Enterprise 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP Professional - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:31:11 PST

In my previous post we Configure the First Virtual Machine as rglinux1 or ASM_11gRAC1.In this post I am going to discuss further configuration of First Virtual Machine and then we will Install Linux on First Virtual Machine.

For RAC11g Configuration First we need to Add the Shared Disks and an additional Network Card (to handle private network for interconnect). Select "Edit Virtual Machine from VMWare Server Console". A new pop-up windows of Virtual Machine Settings will come. Select Add to "Add New Hardware". Select "Ethernet Adpater" to configure private Interconnect (2nd NIC or Ethernet Card). Select "Next" to go for next screen of "Network Type" and Select option as "Host-Only:A private network shared with the host". Please verify that "connect at power on" should be selected.

Again start the "New Hardware Wizard" to configure Disk for RAC11g Configuration.

You need to configure based on below information provided for database file,OCR and Voting disk.

Disk Table

Database files => 3Gb => SCSI 1:0 =>datadisk1.vmdk

Database files => 3Gb => SCSI 1:1 =>datadisk2.vmdk

Database files => 3Gb => SCSI 1:2 =>datadisk3.vmdk

OCR => 300Mb =>SCSI 1:3=>ocrdisk.vmdk

Voting Disk => 300Mb => SCSI 1:4=>votingdisk.vmdk

Select "Hard Disk" to add a new Hard Disk. Click on "Next" to go to next screen to select a Disk. Select "Create a new Virtual Disk" then Select Disk Type as "SCSI". Click on "Next" to go to next screen to allocate Disk Space mentioned above for Database files. Please select "Allocate all disk space now" option to configure these disks. On next screen Specify data file please give name of this disk as "datadisk1.vmdk" and browse the path to share directory under "C:\vms\RAC\ASM11g\share" to save this file. Once the Disk is create then select the same harddisk and click on Advanced configuration to change the virtual device node as mentioned above in "Disk Table". Change Virtual Device node from existing value to SCSI 1:0. and select "Indepedent" and "persistent" disk option. You can repeat this step for all other disk to configure disk for RAC11g configuration.

When all disk are configured. Close the "Virtual Machine Settings" to confirm the changes to Virtual Machine configuration file.Now edit the virtual machine confiuration file (i.e, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4) and the parameters where # sign is shown. Remove this # sign to use these parameters as part of you configuration file.
Configuration File - Start Here
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "4"
numvcpus = "2"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
memsize = "900"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:0.fileName = "localdisk.vmdk"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "D:"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
Ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
displayName = "ASM_11gRAC1"
guestOS = "rhel4"
priority.grabbed = "normal"
priority.ungrabbed = "normal"

#disk.locking = "FALSE"
#diskLib.dataCacheMaxSize = "0"
#diskLib.dataCacheMaxReadAheadSize = "0"
#diskLib.dataCacheMinReadAheadSize = "0"
#diskLib.dataCachePageSize = "0"
#scsi1.sharedBus = "virtual"

scsi1.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:0.fileName = "C:\vms\ASM11g\share\datadisk1.vmdk"
scsi1:0.mode = "independent-persistent"
#scsi1:0.deviceType = "disk"

scsi1:1.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:1.fileName = "C:\vms\RAC\ASM11g\share\datadisk2.vmdk"
scsi1:1.mode = "independent-persistent"
#scsi1:1.deviceType = "disk"

scsi1:2.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:2.fileName = "C:\vms\RAC\ASM11g\share\datadisk3.vmdk"
scsi1:2.mode = "independent-persistent"
#scsi1:2.deviceType = "disk"

scsi1:3.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:3.fileName = "C:\vms\RAC\ASM11g\share\ocrdisk.vmdk"
scsi1:3.mode = "independent-persistent"
#scsi1:3.deviceType = "disk"

scsi1:4.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:4.fileName = "C:\vms\RAC\ASM11g\share\votingdisk.vmdk"
scsi1:4.mode = "independent-persistent"
#scsi1:4.deviceType = "disk"

scsi1.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
ide1:0.autodetect = "FALSE"
Ethernet1.present = "TRUE"
Ethernet1.connectionType = "hostonly"

scsi0:0.redo = ""
scsi1:0.redo = ""
scsi1:1.redo = ""
scsi1:2.redo = ""
scsi1:3.redo = ""
scsi1:4.redo = ""
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet1.addressType = "generated"
uuid.location = "56 4d f6 04 91 f9 39 2c-b9 3f 19 f1 c4 af 8a 39"
uuid.bios = "56 4d f6 04 91 f9 39 2c-b9 3f 19 f1 c4 af 8a 39"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:af:8a:39"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
ethernet1.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:af:8a:43"
ethernet1.generatedAddressOffset = "10"

ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

tools.syncTime = "TRUE"

workingDir = "."
Configuration File - End Here

Linux Installation - Start Here

"Edit The Virtual Machine Setting" under VMWare Server Controls

Select The "CD-ROM" under Hardware Tab

Change the Connection on right Pane of CD-ROM from Use Physical Drive to Use ISO Image. You can place you Linux ISO Image on your Hard Drive Or copy the ISO Image on CD-ROM. I Staged the Oracle Enterprise Linux on my Hard Drive C:\Software.

Select the Second option "Use ISO Image" under Connection.

Browse the First ISO Image of Oracle Enterprise Linux (disc1) under "Use ISO Image" and Click on "OK"

Click on "Start this Virtual Machine and You will see Linux boot: Prompt. Press Enter to Continue with Linux Installation.

Linux Driver Installation Screen

Linux O/S is test CD on this step. Press Tab to Skip this test

Probing for Video Card

Click Next to Continue with Linux Installation

Linux O/S Language Selection - By Default "English(English)"

Select appropriate Keyboard for the System (U.S English). Click "Next" and a Warning Message will display. Press "Yes" to Continue.

Keep Default selection on this page and Select "Next" to Continue with Linux Installation.

Step by Step Installation of Oracle Enterprise 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP Professional - Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:55:13 PST

Clone the rglinux1 to rglinux2 on VMWare.

Step by Step Installation of Clusterware11gR1 on Oracle Linux 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP - Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:55:30 PST

Oracle Clustware Instllation:

1. unzip the software on your Stage location as oracle user.

/u01/Stage11g

2. Install the cvuqdisks package from your clusteware software unziped in step 1.

/u01/Stage11g/clusterware/rpm directory.

rpm -i cvuqdisk-1.0.1-1.rpm

3. Go to clusterware directory under /u01/Stage11g/clusteware (run this as oracle user)
$ ./runcluvfy.sh stage -pre crsinst -n rac1,rac2

You test will fail with Memory issue as there is not sufficent memory to meet the pre-req.

Login as oracle and execute ./runInstaller from /u01/Stage11g/clusterware

1. Installation start with Welcome Page. Click Next and Follow the Snapshots:

Step By Step Installation of ASM and Oracle DB11gR1 on Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP - Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:55:46 PST

Please follow the steps of post "Step by Step Installation of Clusterware11gR1 on OL4 Update 5 using VMWare on WinXP" before proceeding further for ASM and 11gR1 Database Configuration Steps below.

Overview of R12 Load Balancing

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:47:47 PST

Typical Load Balanced Architecture

In this post I am going to discuss about Load Balancing in R12.

Load Balancing includes :

- HTTP Server
- DNS
- Concurrent Processing
- DB

Types of Load Balancers:

A) Session Persistent (Also ref as Stickiness) - Load Balancing

This type of load balancers are always direct HTTP requests (i.e, client connections) from a client to the same server (i.e, session-persistent).

B) Non-Session Persistent - Load Balancing

This type of load balancers are do not necessarily direct HTTP requests (i.e, client connections) to the same server. These load balancers use a round-robin strategy for balancing incoming HTTP requests and do not session persistent client connections.

C) SSL Accelerators

Reduces the SSL traffic and workload of the web server as this type of load balancers uses Secure socket layer Accelerators. Also converts SSL HTTPS client browsers request to non-SSL HTTP requests. It directs any further requests to the HTTP server.

Browser to receive response for its request a reverse process is used.

Types of Load Balancing:

a) HTTP Layer

This type of load balancing requires a hardware load balanacer (i.e, Athent Load Balancer in my current project used for hardware load balancer solution) that accepts HTTP communication and forwards it to a group (farm) of server nodes.

b) Domain Name System (DNS) Load Balancing

This type of load balancing distributes requests based on dynamic assignments of IP addresses to a FQDN (fully qualified domain name - for example: orar12.quickoracle.com).

c) Concurrent Processing Layer Load Balancing

This type of load balancing help you to run conncurrent processes on multiple nodes to improve concurrent processing throughput. You can administer concurrent managers from any node in the cluster running on multiple nodes. It also support if one concurrent processing node fail it continue running concurrent processes. This type of configuration is called PCP enabled (by default). For PCP configuration RAC environment is not required but it is good to have RAC node.

d) Database Layer Load Balancing

This type of load balancing all active instances help in concurrently running transactions in a shared database. RAC maintains data consistency and integrity to access shared data.

Steps to Add Node to a Shared Applicaton Tier File System

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:34:04 PST
In this post I am going discuss about steps involved in Adding a node to Shared Application Tier File System.

Step 1: Run rapid clone on the existing node

$ cd $INST_TOP/admin/scripts
$ perl adpreclone.pl appsTier

Step 2: Mount the shared filesystem that you are going to add and the following Shared Top's must be visible from all application nodes involved in configuration.

Shared Top's
COMMON_TOP: /u01/share/apps/apps_st/ramcomn
APPL_TOP: /u01/share/apps/apps_st/ramappl
Tools ORACLE_HOME: /u01/share/apps/tech_st/ramora/10.1.2
Web ORACLE_HOME: /u01/share/apps/tech_st/ramora/10.1.3

Step 3: Copy the context file from existing node to new node which is now going to participate in Shared Application Tier file system if the file is not accessible from new node. Source the application environment file and execute the following commands:

$ cd $COMMON_TOP/clone/bin

$ Perl adclonectx.pl addnode contextfile=PATH TO xml file under inst top orar12.xml

The new context file will be generated for the new node. Run the AutoConfig utlity to generate Instance Home for this node and update the required tables in the database.

$ perl $AD_TOP/bin/adconfig.pl contextfile= PATH TO context file name with context file name

Now run the AutoConfig all other applicaton nodes to update required configuration files on those nodes with new node addition information.

It is possible to configure Read-Only Shared Application Tier File system.

Enable Services in Shared Application File System Implementation

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:36:58 PST
In this post I am going to discuss about Deployment Methods (to enable services) in Shared Applicaiton File System Environment.

A) How to enable Admin Service for the Application Tier Node or Nodes.

To administrate more then one application node in multi-node environment you need check and update (if required) the context file using context editor of OAM on application tier node or nodes.

To enable Admin Service change the following Variable name and its value.

Variable Name=> s_appl_config_home
Variable Value => Same as s_at

Variable Name => s_isAdAdmin
Variable Value => Yes

B) How to enable Concurrent Processing (Batch) Service on Application Tier Node or Nodes.

Concurrent Processing (Batch) Service is enable on more then one application node in multi-node environment. $APPLCSF and $FNDREVIVERPID environment variables set as same value on all application nodes where concurrent processing (Batch) Service is enabled. Use Context Editor of OAM to edit or verify context.xml for all application nodes.

Implement Parallel Concurrent Processing (PCP) if you have more then one Batch Processing Services are enabled.

The below variable names and values needs to be set to enable concurrent processing (Batch) Service in context file.

Variable Name => s_applcsf
Variable Value => Same on all nodes
Variable Name => s_fndreviverpiddir
Variable Value => Same on all nodes
Variable Name => s_isAdConc
Variable Value => YES
Variable Name => s_isAdConcDev
Variable Value => YES
Variable Name => s_batch_status
Variable Value => enabled
Variable Name => s_tnsstatus
Variable Value => enabled

C) How to enable Web Service on Application Tier Node or Nodes

Web entry point Services are be enabled on more then one application node in mulit-node environment. You need to implement Load Balancing for this type of configuration.Ref Load Balancers Article in my blog for detail in my up coming post.

D)How to Enable Form Service on Application Tier Node or Nodes

Web Applicaiton Servivces (i.e, Forms) are be enable on more then one application node in a multi-node environment.

The below variable names and values needs to be set to enable Forms Service in context file.

Variable Name => s_isForms
Variable Value => YES
Variable Name => s_isFormsDev
Variable Value => YES
Variable Name =>s_formsstatus
Vairable Value => enabled

Step by Step Installation of Shared Application Tier File System - Mulit Node Systems

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:18:35 PST
In this post I am going to discuss Step by Step Installation of Shared Application Tier File System in Multi-Node Systems Environment.

By Default Rapid Install confiures multi-node systems to use a shared Application tier file system.

Step1:You need follow some pre-install steps before you proceed with Rapid Install

- For Installation assign and allocate shared file system
- Create Application user with same UID and GUID on all application nodes involved in this configuration.
- The filesytem shared accross all nodes needs have same layout and must be mounted.

Step2: Proceed with running Rapid Install on each node and mention the mount points.
In this configuration step you need choose nodes to configure. If you want add application nodes which you required additionally click on "Add Server" under Node information screen on each additional node to be configured.Paths needs to be same on all application nodes (i.e,APPL_TOP,COMMON_TOP,10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME (TOOLS),10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME (Web).

Example:

All the below TOP's are shared
COMMON_TOP: /u01/share/apps/apps_st/ramcomn
APPL_TOP: /u01/share/apps/apps_st/ramappl
Tools ORACLE_HOME: /u01/share/apps/tech_st/ramora/10.1.2
Web ORACLE_HOME: /u01/share/apps/tech_st/ramora/10.1.3

Special Note:1)Select Shared Filesystem and primary node to enable the node being added to share the application tier file system.

2) If the Primary application node is not the same as database node , run Rapid Install on each added application node as well as on the primary application node. On Configuration screen of Rapid install select "Load the following saved configuration" and enter database connect string.

Overview of R12 Shared Applicaton File System

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:39:04 PST
In this post I am going to discuss about Shared Application File System.

A multi-node installation of Release 12 supports both shared and non-shared application tier file systems.Without a shared application tier file system each application tier node has its own file system,which must be managed independently.

In Shared Application File system,a Single Application Tier file system that can be accessed simultaneously from more than one machine. The application tier file system disk is attached to a mount point of the same name on all machines.

Any Application node can be configured to perform any of the standard application tier services,such as forms,web and Concurrent Processing (Batch) Services. All changes made to the shared file system are immediately accessible to all application tier nodes.

Each node has its own environment file (i.e, APPSCONTEXT_NAME.env) and application context file (i.e, CONTEXT_NAME.xml).

Special Note:

- Use a local file system for the Instance Home for optimum performance.
- All Application tier nodes must be running the same operating system.
- The value for the context variable "s_atName" must be same across all the application tier nodes context files.
- User ID and group ID should be consistent across all nodes to avoid file access permission issues

Advantage of Shared Application File System

- Distributed AD help in reducing the downtime by improving the efficiency of patch application.
- You can adminstrate tasks from any one node.
- Reduction in Requirment of Disk Space
- Increase system availability and additonal requirments by adding machines into existing system.

An application tier file system consists of:

- APPL_TOP file system (APPL_TOP and COMMON_TOP directories).
- Application tier technology stack file system (OracleAS 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 Oracle Homes).
- Instance Home (INST_TOP) file system. Each application tier has a unique Instance Home file system associated with it.

Major Application Tier Services:

- Root services
- Web Entry Point services
- Web Application services
- Batch Processing services
- Other services

Below is an example of Multi-Node installation:

A)Primary Application Tier-Node

Note:Installed and Configured Services
- APPL_TOP
- COMMON_TOP
- OracleAS 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME
- OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME

B)Secondary Application Tier-Node

Note:Visible and Configured Services

- APPL_TOP
- COMMON_TOP
- OracleAS 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME
- OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME

The above services are mounted to secondary node from Primary application tier node or from an NFS Server.

c) Instance Home

Note: Top-level directory that contains instance-specific files associated with an Application Tier.

- APPL_TOP
- COMMON_TOP
- OracleAS 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME
- OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME
- log files
- pid files
- certificates files

In Shared file system each application tier will have a unique Instance Home, which should be located on the local system.

R12 Workflow Notification Mailer Configuration

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:23:59 PST
In the post I am going discuss about step by step configuration of R12 Workflow Notification Maier Configuration.

1. Select Workflow Manager in OAM from pull down menu once you login to OAM.

2. Click Notification Mailer status icon to navigate to the Service Component page for Notification Mailers. Status of Notification Mailers is down.

3. Select Workflow Notification Mailer Service component under Service Components page. Click edit to access Notification Mailer Configuration wizard.

4. Enter the name of the SMTP MAIL SERVER information under Outbound Email Account region.

5. Select the Inbound Processing parameter in Inbound Mail Email Account (IMAP)region to enable inbound email processing. Enter name of the inbound IMAP mail server, the username and passwd of the email account that the Notification Mailer uses to receive email messages,and the reply-to address of the mail account which receive incoming messages to which notification responses should be sent.

6. Confirm the changes by clicking apply. Now check the status of the Workflow Notification Mailer service component is runing on Service components page.

Oracle Application R12 Quick Notes

noreply@blogger.com (Ramnik Gupta) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:01:37 PST
Some helpful quick notes on R12 and will keep updating in future too.

Quick Notes:

1. NLS Setting: It is possible to convert from some characters sets to others at a later stage. But there are some exceptions or restrictions.

For example,You can covert the US7ASCII to UTF8, but not from UTF8 to US7ASCII.In this case profile option is set at site-level when you run Rapid install. The language you choose as the base language is used for the language profile. The default settings for date and number formats are derived from the territory profile setting.

2. R12 provides multilingual support for text parts of Oracle applications and for products data. It is because of UTF8 character set, you can if required run a number of languages in a single instance. When you run Rapid install you have an option to choose character set for both the database and the Applications products.

3. Use an alias for host machine when you start Rapid Instal: To use an alias use the -servername command line option with rapidwiz. Here you are not using the actual name of host machine.

$ ./rapidwiz -servername rghost

4. On Primary Application Node should have services enabled :

For Web and Forms Services : Root Service, Web Entry Point Services, Web Application Services, and Other Service Group

For Concurrent Processing Services: Batch Processing Services

5. The Services Explanation are below:

Root Service => Oracle Process Manager (OPMN)
Web Entry Point Services => HTTP Server
Web Application Services => OACORE OC4J,Forms OC4J, OAFM OC4J
Batch Processing Services => Application TNS Listener , Concurrent Managers,Fulfillment Server.
Other Service Group => Oracle Forms Services, Oracle MWA Services

6. In R12 unified APPL_TOP is introduced, the same files are present on each application node.Now service groups that are activated on each node differentiate between application node.

7. Oracle Application access URL in R12 and previous releases.

http://hostname.domainname:port/OA_HTML/AppsLogin

Default port is 8000.

8. Change the password of users after installations are system,sys,apps,ap,inv etc.

9. Applet in client Browser:Instead of using browser JVM, Sun J2SE Natiave plug-in used by Oracle applcation R12,which is automatically invoked when a user chooses a function that requires it for exmaple running a form.

10. Adclonectx.pl is a perl script that clones the context file.

11. Use of Forms Listener Servlet is the default of Release 12.