R12 ERP DBA - Oracle Applications DBA

Upgrade to Oracle Database 12.2 – New Metalink/MyOracleSupport Notes

2017-10-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

MOS Note: 2173141.1
Complete Checklist for Manual Upgrades to non-CDB Oracle Database 12.2
MOS Note: 2173144.1
Complete Checklist for Manual Upgrade for Multitenant Architecture Oracle Databases from 12.1. to 12.2.
MOS Note: 2189854.1
Complete Checklist for Upgrading to Oracle Database 12.2 using DBUA
Furthermore check regularly for Known Issues and Alerts – currently the note has no content but exists already:

MOS Note: 2239820.1
12.2.0.1 Base Release – Availability and Known Issues

SRVCTL add database fails with osdbagrp error

2017-10-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

I ran into below issue when trying to add a manually created RAC db to CRS. The issue seems to be caused by missing SS_ASM_GRP in config.c. I cloned the Database oracle home of a single node DB to RAC oracle home, as i was trying to avoid applying oneoff patches required on top for Oracle E-Business Suite. This seems to have caused missing ASM group entry in config.c

You can fix it by following below action plan.

$ srvctl add database -d EBSDB -o /u01/app/11.2.0/ebs -p +EBS/spfileEBSDB.ora -c RAC -a EBS
PRCR-1006 : Failed to add resource ora.ebsdb.db for ebsdb
PRCT-1011 : Failed to run "osdbagrp". Detailed error: null

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
$ cp config.c config.c.30apr
$ vi config.c

#define SS_DBA_GRP "oinstall"
#define SS_OPER_GRP "oinstall"
#define SS_ASM_GRP ""

char *ss_dba_grp[] = {SS_DBA_GRP, SS_OPER_GRP, SS_ASM_GRP};

$ rm -f $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/config.o
$ make -f $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/ins_rdbms.mk $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/config.o
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/srvm/lib
$ make -f ins_srvm.mk iosdbagrp

$ srvctl add database -d EBSDB -o /u01/app/11.2.0/ebs -p '+EBS/spfileEBSDB.ora' -c RAC -a EBS
$ srvctl add instance -d EBSDB -i EBSDB1 -n balla-rac1
$ srvctl add instance -d EBSDB -i EBSDB2 -n balla-rac2

$ srvctl start database -d EBSDB
$ srvctl status database -d EBSDB
Instance EBSDB1 is running on node balla-rac1
Instance EBSDB2 is running on node balla-rac2

Merging Apps patches in Oracle EBS R12.2

2017-10-09T13:52:00.003-07:00

It’s public knowledge that the traditional patching tool in Oracle EBS “adpatch” is replaced with “adop” utility. Its also known that adop utility automatically merges patches when more than one patch is specified in the command line arguments. So whats the need for blog post on merging patches when its taken care automatically?

This blog is for people who like to dig little deep into EBS to shave off some downtime during the upgrades. We save some downtime if we merge the patches ahead of time instead of letting adop do it during the upgrade window. This is especially true when you are applying big patches like 12.2.4.

Merging patches is done using same utility as in earlier versions called “admrgpch”. Except that there are few extra steps needed after merging the patches.

In EBS 12.2 after merging the patches using admrgpch, we need to copy the actual unzipped patches that we merged also into the destination directory. This is required as adop utility seems to be looking for these patches during the prepare phase. If you don’t copy the unzipped patch directories, you can still apply the patches. But when you run adop=prepare during next patching cycle, it will fail as it will look for actual patch directories inside the merged patch dir.

Here is how a sample merging procedure will look like in EBS R12.2

# merge patches 111111 & 222222
$ pwd
  /u01/EBS/fs_ne/EBSapps/patch
$ ls
  111111 222222 
$ mkdir dest
$ admrgpch -s /u01/EBS/fs_ne/EBSapps/patch -d /u01/EBS/fs_ne/EBSapps/patch/dest
$ cd dest
$ pwd
  /u01/R122_EBS/fs_ne/EBSapps/patch/dest
$ ls
  fnd u_merged.drv 

# After admrgpch is finished, we need to copy patch directories into the dest dir

$ cd ..
$ mv 111111 /u01/EBS/fs_ne/EBSapps/patch/dest
$ mv 222222 /u01/EBS/fs_ne/EBSapps/patch/dest
$ cd /u01/EBS/fs_ne/EBSapps/patch/dest
$ ls
  111111 222222 fnd u_merged.drv

# Now you can the patches using adop=apply

Migration of Alerts in R12/11i

2017-10-09T13:39:00.004-07:00

1] Using FNDLOAD utility:

Here first DOWNLOAD the custom alert from the source instance, copy the ldt file to the new instance and then UPLOAD to the destination instance.

Command to download:

FNDLOAD apps_user_name/apps_password 0 Y DOWNLOAD $ALR_TOP/patch/115/import/alr.lct my_file.ldt ALR_ALERTS APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME=’XXCUST’ ALERT_NAME=<Alert name to download>

Here are some additional parameters that can also be passed are:

ALR_DISTRIBUTION_LISTS
ALR_LOOKUPS
ALR_MESSAGE_SYSTEMS
ALR_ORACLE_MAIL_ACCOUNTS
ALR_PROFILE_OPTIONS
ALR_PERIODIC_SETS

Command to upload:

FNDLOAD apps_user_name/apps_password 0 Y UPLOAD $ALR_TOP/patch/115/import/alr.lct my_file.ldt – CUSTOM_MODE=FORCE

2] Using Alert Manager Responsibility:

You can use the Transfer Alert Definitions window to transfer an alert definition to another database, or make a copy of an existing alert.

1. From the Menu, choose Tools > Transfer Alert.

2. In the Source Alert block of the Transfer Alert Definition window, enter:

* Application name associated with the alert to be transferred

* Alert name to be transferred

* Username and password for the database where the Alert to transfer resides

Include any necessary SQL*Net syntax to indicate where your database resides.
SQL*Net syntax may be used. The different databases need to be defined in the
$TNS_ADMIN/tnsnames.ora file.

Example of: username/ password@ SQL*Net_syntax

sysadmin/friday@T:testing:db2

sysadmin/friday@db2

Note: Database Links are not supported in Applications

3. Similarly, in the Destination Alert block, enter:

* Application name for the new Alert.
* Alert name for the new Alert.
* Username and password for the new database location.

4. Click Transfer button to complete the alert transfer.

NOTE: This process works for NEW Alerts that do not exist. If the Alert exists already in the Destination location, you will receive the error:
APP-ALR-04016: The alert <alert_name> already exists on the destination database account.

Reference:

§ Oracle Alert User’s Guide

§ How to transfer alert definition from One Instance to another instance using cmdline script [ID 400295.1]

Creating Periodic Alert to send emails in R12/11i

2017-10-09T13:26:00.004-07:00

1] Go to ‘Alert Manager’ responsibility and navigate Alert > Define.

Enter the name of the application that will own the alert
Enter a suitable Name of the alert (up to 50 characters), and give it a meaningful description (up to 240 characters).
Select a frequency for your periodic alert. You can choose from nine frequency options:

On Demand
On Day of the Month
On Day of the Week
Every N Calendar Days
Every Day
Every Other Day
Every N Business Days
Every Business Day
Every Other Business Day

Choose ‘On Demand’ frequency when you are developing a periodic alert so that you can test your alert at any time you want. When you will sure that the alert is working fine, then you can change the frequency as per business need.
Depending on the frequency you choose in the previous step, the Start Time and End Time fields become enabled. You may also specify the number of times within a 24-hour period that Oracle Alert checks your alert.
Specify a value in the Keep _ Days field to indicate the number of days of exceptions, actions, and response actions history you want to keep for this alert.
Specify a value in the End Date field if you want to disable your alert by a certain date.
Enter a SQL Select statement that retrieves all the data your alert needs to perform the actions you plan to define.

Note:

Your periodic alert Select statement must include an INTO clause that contains one output for each column selected by your Select statement.
Identify any inputs with a colon before the name, for example, :INPUT_NAME.
Identify any outputs with an ampersand (&) before the name, for example, &OUTPUT_NAME.
Do not use set operators in your Select statement.
You can use PL/SQL functions in your Select statement to fetch complex business logic.

Click on the ‘Verify’ button to check the select statement is correct.

Click on the ‘Run’ button to execute the Select statement.

Once you are satisfied with the SQL statement, save your work.

2] You can view all the input and output column details in ‘Alert Details’ Tab. The Alert Details window includes information such as which Application installations you want the alert to run against, what default values you want your inputs variables to use, and what additional characteristics you want your output variables to have.

3] After you define your alert you need to create the actions you want your alert to perform. For that click on the ‘Actions’ tab.

Enter a name (up to 80 characters) and description (up to 240 characters) for your alert action.
Select a level for your action: Detail, Summary, or No Exception.

Detail action: performs once for each individual exception found
Summary action: performs once for all exceptions found
No exception action: performs when no exceptions are found.

4] Click on ‘Action Details’ tab to display the Action Details window.

Select the Action Type field as ‘Message’ if you want to send emails. Other action types are: Concurrent Program, Operating System Script and SQL Script.
Specify the electronic mail IDs of the recipients you want to send your message to in the To field.
If you list more than one recipient in any of these recipient fields, separate each recipient by a space, or a comma, or a combination of the two.
You can enter as many recipients as you want, up to 240 characters.
You can also enter alert outputs or response variables in any of the alert detail fields. Oracle Alert automatically substitutes the associated output value when checking the alert or the associated response variable value when reading the response.
Save your changes.

5] Click on ‘Action Sets’ tab in the main Alert Window.

Once you create your alert actions, you must include them in an enabled action set for Oracle Alert to perform during an alert check. An action set can include an unlimited number of actions and any combination of actions.
Enter a Sequence number that lets you order the execution of action sets during an alert check.
Give any suitable name and description.
Check Suppress Duplicates if you want Oracle Alert to suppress the actions in this action set if the exception found is a duplicate that occurred during the last alert check.

6] Click on ‘Action Set Details’ tab.

Go to ‘Members’ tab.
Find and attach the action that is created in Step 3.
Save the changes.

7] Since it is an ‘On Demand’ periodic alert, we can run the alert at any time we want. For that go to Request > Check and enter the alert details. Then click on ‘Submit Request’.

This will fire one concurrent program which you can view by going through the navigation: Request > View
View the Log and Output files of the concurrent program to find that the alert is fired successfully.

Done…check your mailbox and you should get emails that are sent from Oracle Alerts.

Tags:-

ALERT MANAGER, ORACLE ALERTS, PERIODIC ALERT

Standard Utility APIs for Concurrent Processing - R12/11i

2017-10-09T13:23:00.001-07:00

FND_CONCURRENT.GET_REQUEST_STATUS

This API Returns the Status of a concurrent request. It also returns the completion text if the request is already completed. The return type is Boolean (Returns TRUE on successful retrieval of the information, FALSE otherwise).

function get_request_status(request_id     IN OUT NOCOPY number,

                    appl_shortname IN varchar2 default NULL,

                    program        IN varchar2 default NULL,

                    phase      OUT NOCOPY varchar2,

                    status     OUT NOCOPY varchar2,

                    dev_phase  OUT NOCOPY varchar2,

                    dev_status OUT NOCOPY varchar2,

                    message    OUT NOCOPY varchar2) return boolean;

The parameters are:

REQUEST_ID: Request ID of the program to be checked.
APPL_SHORTNAME: Short name of the application associated with the program. The default is NULL.
PROGRAM: Short name of the concurrent program. The default is NULL.
PHASE: Request phase.
STATUS: Request status.
DEV_PHASE: Request phase as a string constant.
DEV_STATUS: Request status as a string constant.
MESSAGE: Request completion message.

FND_CONCURRENT.WAIT_FOR_REQUEST

This API waits for the request completion, then returns the request phase/status and completion message to the caller. It goes to sleep between checks for the request completion. The return type is Boolean (Returns TRUE on successful retrieval of the information, FALSE otherwise).

function wait_for_request(request_id IN number default NULL,

        interval   IN  number default 60,

        max_wait   IN  number default 0,

        phase      OUT NOCOPY varchar2,

        status     OUT NOCOPY varchar2,

        dev_phase  OUT NOCOPY varchar2,

        dev_status OUT NOCOPY varchar2,

        message    OUT NOCOPY varchar2) return  boolean;

The parameters are:

REQUEST_ID: Request ID of the request to wait on. The default is NULL.
INTERVAL: Number of seconds to wait between checks. The default is 60 seconds.
MAX_WAIT: Maximum number of seconds to wait for the request completion. The default is 00 seconds.
PHASE: User-friendly Request phase.
STATUS: User-friendly Request status.
DEV_PHASE: Request phase as a constant string.
DEV_STATUS: Request status as a constant string.
MESSAGE: Request completion message.

There are few other useful apis too.

FND_CONCURRENT.SET_COMPLETION_STATUS: Called from a concurrent request to set its completion status and message.
FND_CONCURRENT.GET_REQUEST_PRINT_OPTIONS: Returns the print options for a concurrent request.
FND_CONCURRENT.GET_SUB_REQUESTS: Get all sub-requests for a given request id. For each sub-request it provides request_id, phase,status, developer phase , developer status and completion text.
FND_CONCURRENT.Cancel_Request: It cancels a given Concurrent Request.

Tags:

CONCURRENT PROGRAM, FND_CONCURRENT, FND_CONCURRENT.GET_REQUEST_PRINT_OPTIONS, FND_CONCURRENT.GET_REQUEST_STATUS, FND_CONCURRENT.GET_SUB_REQUESTS, FND_CONCURRENT.SET_COMPLETION_STATUS, FND_CONCURRENT.WAIT_FOR_REQUEST,

Call a Concurrent Program through Special Menu/Function

2017-10-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well, we can run our concurrent programs from a Special Menu Item, and if you have a requirement of this sort, you can use the steps below to use Form Personalization Builtin to achieve this task in couple of minutes.

1] First create the Special Menu Item wherever required through Form Personalization. Here I have added a Special Menu Item called ‘Assign Item to a Subinventory’ to the Form-‘INVIDITM’. For that assign the Trigger Event as ‘WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE’.

2] In Actions Tab, choose the type as ‘MENU’ and select the Menu Entry and give a Proper Menu Label.

3] Create the Concurrent Program which you want to attach to this custom menu item. Once created, assign the program to the Request Group of the Responsibility. Also it is required to add the ‘Lunch SRS Form’ Function (Requests: Submit) to the main menu of that responsibility. If you don’t do this step you may get Form Personalization error in later steps.

4] Create one more entry in Form Personalization window with Trigger Event as your custom menu item.

5] Here select the Actions Type as ‘Builtin’ and Builtin Type as ‘Lunch SRS Form’. In the program name give the name of your concurrent program.

6] Validate and Apply Now

Once done, you will be able to view the custom menu item in the Form and when you will click it, it opens the SRS Form with your concurrent program.

FNDLOAD Utility Usage - R12/11i with Examples

2017-10-09T12:12:00.002-07:00

FNDLOAD is an API provided by Oracle to download/upload Flexfields Concurrent programs Value sets Menu etc.

Using FNDLOAD, we can download data from an application and upload into another application. Example: I have created a concurrent program in DEV instance and to move that concurrent program into TEST/Production instance I can’t create that program again. So I will download it from DEV instance and upload into TEST instance by using FNDLOAD utility.

Below list of programs can be download/upload with this FNDLOAD API.

1. Concurrent Programs, Executables

2. Request Groups, Request Sets
3. Profile Options
4. Key and Descriptive Flex fields
5. Menus and Responsibilities

6. Forms and Form Functions
7. Attachments

8. Messages
9. Value Sets and Values
10. Lookup Types
11. User Responsibilities
12. Printer Definitions
13. FND Dictionary
14. Help Configuration
15. Document Sequences
16. Concurrent Manager Schedules

The Syntax

FNDLOAD apps/appspwd 0 Y mode configfile datafile entity [parameter1.....]

The mode is either DOWNLOAD or UPLOAD.

Note: execute the below command before download/upload fndload’s

In CUSTOM APPLICATION TOP: - . APPSORA.env and then come back to /tmp folder cd /tmp

$ cd / à $ ls à $ cd apptestà $ cd oracle11ià $ cd testapplà $ . APPSORA.env

Example of download:

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afcpprog.lct file_name.ldt PROGRAM APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME="XX_TOP" CONCURRENT_PROGRAM_NAME="SHORTNAME"

Example of Upload

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y UPLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afcpprog.lct filename.ldt

Sample Script Code for these Objects :

1 - Printer Styles

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afcppstl.lct file_name.ldt STYLE PRINTER_STYLE_NAME="printer style name"

2 - Lookups

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/aflvmlu.lct file_name.ldt FND_LOOKUP_TYPE
APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME="prod" LOOKUP_TYPE="lookup name"

3 - Descriptive Flexfield with all of specific Contexts

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afffload.lct file_name.ldt DESC_FLEX
P_LEVEL=?COL_ALL:REF_ALL:CTX_ONE:SEG_ALL? APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME="prod"
DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXFIELD_NAME="desc flex name" P_CONTEXT_CODE="context
name"

4 - Key Flexfield Structures

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afffload.lct file_name.ldt KEY_FLEX
P_LEVEL=?COL_ALL:FQL_ALL:SQL_ALL:STR_ONE:WFP_ALL:SH A_ALL:CVR_ALL:SEG_ALL
? APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME="prod" ID_FLEX_CODE="key flex code"
P_STRUCTURE_CODE="structure name"

5 - Concurrent Programs

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afcpprog.lct file_name.ldt PROGRAM
APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME="prod" CONCURRENT_PROGRAM_NAME="concurrent name"

6 - Value Sets

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afffload.lct file_name.ldt VALUE_SET
FLEX_VALUE_SET_NAME="value set name"

7 - Value Sets with values

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afffload.lct file_name.ldt VALUE_SET_VALUE
FLEX_VALUE_SET_NAME="value set name"

8 - Profile Options

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afscprof.lct file_name.ldt PROFILE
PROFILE_NAME="profile option" APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME="prod"

9 - Requset Group

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afcpreqg.lct file_name.ldt REQUEST_GROUP
REQUEST_GROUP_NAME="request group" APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME="prod"

10 - Request Sets

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afcprset.lct file_name.ldt REQ_SET
APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME="prod" REQUEST_SET_NAME="request set"

11 - Responsibilities

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afscursp.lct file_name.ldt FND_RESPONSIBILITY
RESP_KEY="responsibility

12 - Menus

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD
$FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afsload.lct file_name.ldt MENU
MENU_NAME="menu_name"

13 - Forms/Functions

-- Scripts to DOWNLOAD Form

FNDLOAD apps/apps 0 Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afsload.lct /home/punith/ICSSFORM.ldt \
FORM FORM_APP_SHORT_NAME='ICIGS' FORM_NAME='ICSSAR%'

-- Scripts to UPLOAD Form
FNDLOAD apps/$APPS_PWD 0 Y UPLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afsload.lct $ICFND_TOP/bin/ICSSMENU.ldt

-- Scripts to DOWNLOAD Function

FNDLOAD apps/apps 0 Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afsload.lct /home/punith/ICSSFUNC.ldt
FUNCTION FUNC_APP_SHORT_NAME='ICIGS' FUNCTION_NAME='ICSSAR%'

-- Scripts to UPLOAD Function
FNDLOAD apps/$APPS_PWD 0 Y UPLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afsload.lct $ICFND_TOP/bin/ICSSMENU.ldt

14. User/Responsibilities

FNDLOAD apps/pwd O Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afscursp.lct file_name.ldt FND_RESPONSIBILITY RESP_KEY="responsibility

15. Forms personalizations

Can be done thru form level or function level.

FNDLOAD apps/pw 0 Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/affrmcus.lct xxns_poxrqerq_2.ldt FND_FORM_CUSTOM_RULES form_name=POXRQERQ

Or function level

Source:
FNDLOAD apps/apps 0 Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/affrmcus.lct XXFPNAME.ldt FND_FORM_CUSTOM_RULES function_name="XXFPNAME"

Target:
FNDLOAD apps/apps 0 Y UPLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/affrmcus.lct XXFPNAME.ldt

.lct files list ? fnd

Interfaces in Oracle EBS

2017-10-09T12:09:00.003-07:00

Interfaces in Oracle EBS

Oracle General Ledger
• Budget Upload • Importing Journals • Loading Daily Rates

Oracle Payables
• Credit Card Transaction Interface Table • Invoice Import Interface ( Payables Open Interface)
• Purchase Order Matching

Oracle Receivables

• Auto Invoice • Auto Lockbox • Customer Interface • Sales Tax Rate Interface
• Tax Vendor Extension

Oracle Assets

• ACE Interface • Budget Open Interface • Mass Additions Interface• Production Interface
• Physical Inventory

Oracle Cash Management

• Bank Statement Open Interface • Forecasting Open Interface • Reconciliation Open Interface

Oracle Purchasing

• Requisitions Open Interface • Purchasing Documents Open Interface
• Receiving Open Interface • Suppliers Open Interface

Oracle Inventory

• Customer Item Interface • Open Item Interface • Open Replenishment Interface
• Open Transaction Interface• Cycle Count Open Interface• Reservations Open Interface • Move Orders Open Interface • Kamban Application Program Interface

Oracle Projects

• Activity Management Gateway • Client Extensions • Transaction Import

BOM

• BOM Upload • BOM Extraction • Import Bills & Routings Interface

Work In Progress

• Open Move transaction Interface • Open Resource transaction Interface • Work Order Interface

Order Management

• Order Import Interface • Order Status Interface

Order Pricing

• Qualifiers Interface • Modifiers Interface

Order Shipping

• Pick Release • Ship Confirmation

Forms Personalization & Custom PLL

2017-10-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Forms Personalization & Custom PLL

1. CUSTOM.pll is a single file/entity, hence only one developer can make changes to CUSTOM.pll at any given point in time.
You may also read best practices in CUSTOM.pll
2. If for some reasons CUSTOM.pll causes issues in Production, you will have to re-release the code changes after another round of UAT.
Form Personalizations makes this much simpler by allowing you to disable specific personalizations.
3. You do not need to resort to programming for trivial tasks like changing prompt, and more so for changing prompts in Muli-Lang environment

Important: Oracle will keep on improving capabilities in Forms Personalizations.
Hence some of these limitations that we see now in Forms Personalization might disappear over a period of time.

Note-1
Once a menu has been enabled using Forms Personalization, it then can not be conditionally disabled. However the proposed workaround over this issue is to display a message when MENU is clicked in the scenario’s it was meant to be disabled.

Note-2
Lets say you want to change the window title for all the screens within a responsibility. In this case, in CUSTOM.pll you could do so by a pseudo code similar to below
If fnd_global.responsibility like ‘XX%CASH%’ THEN
Set window title ( ‘Note: All transactions are audited’);
End if
As you can see, this can be achieved quite easily in CUSTOM.pll and the changes will be visible across multiple screens in the context.
However, for Forms Personalization, you will have to go and personalize each and every screen for which you want this change to be effective.

Note-3
The proposed workaround is to display the message that is returned as a result from SQL Statement.

Question: Should we migrate code from CUSTOM.pll into Forms Personalization?
Not really, there is no value in doing so, given that CUSTOM.pll is still supported and will remain so within the realms of Apps Unlimited.

Where is the metadata for Forms Personalization stored?
These personalizations are stored in FND tables

What is called first? Forms Personalization or CUSTOM.pll
First your form personalization is called, and then CUSTOM.pll is called.

Task/Business Requirement

Change LOV Query

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Yes

a. Create a New Record Group

b. Attach new RG to LOV

Change field properties like Mandatory/Display etc

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Yes

Zoom to another screen

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Yes

a. Enable Menu
b. Trap the Menu event

Disable a Menu entry when certain conditions are met

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: No (Note1)

Display messages, warnings, hints etc

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Yes

Display message with Questions, and conditionally execute code based on users response to the question

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: No

Execute PL/SQL Stored procedures

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Yes

Change Navigation and Navigational Properties

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Yes

Change block properties like “Query Where Clause” etc

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Yes

Change is applicable across multiple screens, like Changing window title for all screens within one Organization/Responsibility

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Yes (Note2)

Show FND Messages with their tokens replaced

CUSTOM.pll: Yes

Forms Personalization: Note3

Oracle DBA Basics

2017-10-09T12:02:00.001-07:00

Oracle Database 11g Architecture

Database: is a set of controlfiles, logfiles, and datafiles to store the data. It consists:

Parameter Files - The Oracle Parameter File (PFILE or SPFILE) holds initialization parameters which indicate where the control files are, how memory is allocated, how logging is performed, and other characteristics of the Oracle instance.

Control Files - The Control File stores information needed to verify that the database is consistent, including a list of all database files making up the instance and other important data.

Redo Log Files - The Redo Log files store a sequence of entries describing all actions taken against the database. This data is used to recover a database in the event of instance failure.

Data Files - The Data Files contain blocks of data which store database objects (e.g., tables, indexes, materialized views, etc.) in the database.

Temp Files - The Temp files contains data used temporarily including intermediate results, sort results and so forth.

An Instance is a collection of Oracle background processes and shared memory structures. Memory Areas are 1. SGA - System Global Area (SGA consists of the following four (five if MTS) parts: Fixed Portion, Variable Portion, Shared pool, Java pool). 2. PGA - Process Global Area 3. UGA - User Global Area.
Processes: will manage and control the Oracle instance. This allows for optimum execution on multi-processor systems using multi-core and multi-threaded technology. Some of these processes include:

PMON - Process Monitor
SMON - System Monitor
ARCn - Redo Log Archiver
LGWR - Redo Log Writer
DBWR - Database Writer
CKPT - Checkpoint process
RECO - Recoverer
CJQn - Job Queue Coordinator
QMNn - Queue-monitor processes
Dnnn - Dispatcher Processes (multiplex server-processes on behalf of users)
Snnn - Shared server processes (serve client-requests)
MMAN - Memory Manager process which will help in automatic memory management when use sga_target,memory_target
LSP0 - Logical standby coordinator process (controls Data Guard log-application)
MRP - Media-recovery process (detached recovery-server process)
MMON - This is the process which will write to AWR base tables ie WR$ tables
MMNL - Memory monitor light (gathers and stores AWR statistics)
PSP0 - Process-spawner (spawns Oracle processes)
RFS - Remote file server process (archive to a remote site)
DBRM - DB resource manager (new in 11g)
DIAGn - Diagnosability process (new in 11g)
FBDA - Flashback data archive process (new in 11g)
VKTM - Virtual Timekeeper (new in 11g)
Wnnn - Space Management Co-ordination process (new in 11g)
SMCn - Space Manager process

SGA (Shared/System Global Area): A set of memory structures needed for the database to run (shared pool, buffer cache, log buffer etc) and dedicated to Oracle Instance. The SGA is used to store incoming data (data buffers as defined by the db_cache_size parameter), and internal control information that is needed by the database. To control the amount of memory to be allocated to the SGA by setting some of the Oracle “initialization parameters”. These might include db_cache_size, shared_pool_size and log_buffer. 40% of RAM can be used for sizing SGA rest is reserved for OS and others in 64 bit machine and in 32 bit machine max SGA configured can be 1.5GB only. Check the statspack report. Check hit ratio of Data buffer. If it is less than 90%, then increase the Data buffer. Check hit ratio of Shared pool. If it is less than 95%, then increase the Shared pool. Check log buffer. If redo buffer allocation retries/redo entries is greater than 1%, then increase log_buffer.SGA size: It’s controlled by db_cache_size parameter. SELECT * FROM v$sga/v$sgainfo;

Instance is a set of memory structures that manage database files (database programs and RAM)

Shared pool (it’s like RAM): It’s a buffer for SQL statements. It has library cache (contains parsed SQL statements, cursor information, execution plans), dictionary cache (contains cache -user account information, priveleges information, datafile, segment and extent information), buffers for parallel execution messages, and control structure.
Depending on the size of the db_cache_size parameter, the shared pool contains RAM memory regions that serve the following purposes: Library cache – The library cache contains the current SQL execution plan information. It also holds stored procedures and trigger code. Dictionary cache - The dictionary cache stores environmental information, which includes referential integrity, table definitions, indexing information, and other metadata stored within Oracle's internal tables. Session information – Systems that use SQL*Net version 2 with a multi-threaded server need this area to store session information. Beginning with Oracle, the v$session view contains information related to Oracle*Net users.

Different areas stored in the shared pool and their purpose: Shared SQL Area - The shared SQL area stores each SQL statement executed in the database. This area allows SQL execution plans to be reused by many users. Private SQL Area - Private SQL areas are non-shared memory areas assigned to unique user sessions. PL/SQL Area - Used to hold parsed and compiled PL/SQL program units, allowing the execution plans to be shared by many users. Control Structures - Common control structure information, for example, lock information.

Large pool is an optional memory area intended for memory allocations that are larger than is appropriate for the shared pool and used for backups (i.e.Parallel Query performance management, Recovery Manager (RMAN) backup and recovery operations).

Java pool is an area of memory that stores all session-specific Java code and data within the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This memory includes Java objects that are migrated to the Java session space at end-of-call.

PGA (Program or Process Global Area) is a memory area (RAM) that stores data and control information for a single process. For example, it typically contains a sort area, hash area, session cursor cache, etc.

Database Buffer Cache: Database Buffer Cache is the place where data blocks are copied from datafiles to perform SQL operations. Buffer Cache is shared memory structure and it is concurrently accessed by all server processes.

Oracle allows different block size for different tablespaces. A standard block size is defined in DB_BLOCK_SIZE initialization parameter. System tablespace uses standard block size. DB_CACHE_SIZE parameter is used to define size for Database buffer cache. For example to create a cache of 800 MB, set parameter as below DB_CACHE_SIZE=800M.

Redo Log Buffer: The Redo Log buffer is a RAM area (defined by the initialization parameter log_buffer) that works to save changes to data, in case something fails and Oracle has to put it back into its original state (a “rollback”). When Oracle SQL updates a table (a process called Data Manipulation Language, or DML), redo images are created and stored in the redo log buffer. Since RAM is faster than disk, this makes the storage of redo very fast.

Oracle Background processes (V$PROCESS): V$PROCESS This view contains information about the currently active processes for one or many sessions.

GEN0 (General Task Execution Process): Performs required tasks including SQL and DML.

PSP0 (Process Spawner Process): Spawns Oracle background processes after initial instance startup.

SMON (System Monitor Process): SMON performs many database maintenance tasks i.e. 1.Creates and manages the temporary tablespace metadata 2.Reclaims space used by orphaned temporary segments 3. Maintains the undo tablespace by onlining, offlining, and shrinking the undo segments based on undo space usage statistics 4. Cleans up the data dictionary when it is in a transient and inconsistent state 5. Maintains the SCN to time mapping table used to support Oracle Flashback features.

PMON (Process Monitor): Monitors the other background processes and performs process recovery when a server or dispatcher process terminates abnormally. PMON periodically performs cleanup of all the following: 1.Processes that died abnormally 2. Sessions that were killed 3. Detached transactions that have exceeded their idle timeout 4. Detached network connections which have exceeded their idle timeout.

DIAG (Diagnostic Capture Process): Performs diagnostic dumps requested by other processes and dumps triggered by process or instance termination.

DIA0 (Diagnostic Process): Detects and resolves hangs and deadlocks.

DBRM (Database Resource Manager Process): Sets resource plans and performs other tasks related to the Database Resource Manager.

DBWR is the only background process can write into datafiles.
DBWR is used to write dirty buffers from DBBC to Datafiles.
LGWR is the only background process can write into logfiles.
LGWR is used to write redo logs from RLBC to Online Redo Log Files.

Default passwords of SYSTEM/SYS? MANAGER or CHANGE_ON_INSTALL

tnsnames.ora file to establish Oracle connections from a remote client to database.Listener Commands
$ lsnrctl status (checking the status).
$ lsnrctl start (start)
$ lsnrctl stop
$ lsnrctl reload

PFILE is a Static, text file that initializes the database parameters when it started. To modify parameters in PFILE, you have to restart the database.

SPFILE is a dynamic, binary file that allows you to overwrite parameters in run time by using ALERT SYSTEM.
DML: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE, CALL, EXPLAIN PLAN, LOCK TABLE
DDL: CREATE, ALTER, DROP, TRUNCATE, COMMENT, RENAME
DCL: GRANT, REVOKE

To use RMAN to make consistent hot backups, database should be in ARCHIVELOG mode. RMAN for taking hot back-up for database, which will take a consistent backup even when your DB is up and running.
To reduce the space of TEMP datafile, you have to recreate the datafile, in 11g use shrink TEMP tablespace option.
Few commands:$ rman target / -- $ mkdir -p /backup/rman

DB Shutdown options: SHUTDOWN: It waits for all sessions to end, without allowing new connections.
SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE: Rollback current transactions and terminates every session.
SHUTDOWN ABORT: Aborts all the sessions, leaving the database in an inconsistent state.
Backup the database without RMAN, by using controlfile.
Oracle Grid Control components: OMR (Oracle Management Repository), OMS (Oracle Management Server) and OMA (Oracle Management Agent).
Passwords in oracle case sensitive in Oracle 11g.
In order to create a RAC, you need one instance.
RAC views has the prefix ‘G’. For example, GV$SESSION instead of normal views V$SESSION.
The PGA contains data and control information for a single user process.
RMAN do not take read-only table space backups.
Real Application Cluster (RAC) is a component of the Oracle 9i database product that allows a database to be installed across multiple servers.
Oracle Clusterware is a technology transforming a server farm into a cluster. A cluster is defined as a group of independent, but connected servers, cooperating as a single system.

In Real Application Clusters environments, all nodes concurrently execute transactions against the same database. Real Application Clusters coordinates each node's access to the shared data to provide consistency and integrity.
Benefits: Improve response time, Improve throughput, High availability and Transparency

OA Framework Personalization

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OA Framework Personalization

OA Framework includes the OAF Personalization allows to personalize an Oracle E-Business Suite application page without modifying any underlying code.

In OAF the page definitions are stored in JDR tables normally called MDS repository (metadata will be available in JDR tables, such as all fields, regions, buttons etc have to be clubbed into a meaningful to make a web page. MDS provides service to store & return page definitions). So it’s easy to modify the pages.

Few JDR tables are JDR_ATTRIBUTES, JDR_ATTRIBUTES_TRANS, JDR_COMPONENTS & JDR_PATHS. Only one JDR API is JDR_UTILS is a PL/SQL package which can be used to query and inspect OA Framework metadata in the MDS repository.

Migrating OA Framework Personalization’s also easy from Functional Administrator Responsibility by export and import by using FND: Personalization document root path profile with FTP from source and target paths (dev to production) in Linux.

Note: Dynamically created pages without OA Extension metadata behind them are not personalizable with the OA Personalization Framework.

All Personalization’s you make through the OA Personalization Framework are added on top of the base product meta data at runtime. These personalizations never overwrite the existing base product UI and are therefore preserved during upgrades and patches, and can also be translated. This means you can create your personalization on a test system first, extract your personalization’s to a flat file, then load your finalized personalization to your production system with little interruption.

The following system profile options affect the behavior of the OA Personalization Framework.

1. Personalize Self-Service Defn: Yes to allow ‘Personalize’ button to appear at the top of the page
2. FND: Personalization Region Link Enabled: Yes to display all the regional links above each region Minimal to display key regional links
3. Disable Self-Service Personal: Yes will disable all personalization at any level
4. FND: Diagnostics: Turns on 'About this Page'
5. FND: Personalization Document Root Path (new in 11.5.10):Required to migrate personalization. Set this profile option to a tmp directory with open (777) permissions.

Personalization levels are administrator or user level or be seeded by Oracle application developers.

Administrator-level personalization: All OA framework-based pages can be personalized by default. However, administrators can't personalize programmatically created pages or regions, or pages or regions for which the application developer has explicitly disabled administrator personalization.

Administrators may personalize pages, for example, by

Changing text for labels, prompts, and tip messages
Hiding or showing components
Reordering components
Restricting query results
Adding items, such as fields, buttons, links, pick lists, or images
Specifying whether fields are required
Changing the destination of hyperlinks

The extent to which an administrator can personalize page flow is limited, and depends on how the flow was implemented. In some cases, you can modify function URLs and personalize the destination URLs that display as navigational elements. Page flow changes are generally beyond the scope of systems administrators, however, because such changes may affect transaction flows, and need thorough testing.

Administrators can personalize OA framework pages at the following levels:
function
location
site
organization
responsibility
As an administrator, you can define personalizations at the function level to determine which users can access specific functions, and when. For example, you can hide the salary field from a user updating an employee record, but display it when the user creates a new employee.

At the location level, you can use locales as the context for personalization – for example, to show different address field labels based on users' country settings.

Site-level – or global – personalizations apply to all users with access to a given application component, such as "setting the number of rows shown in a table."

Organization-level personalizations apply only to users in a specified organization or business unit. You can use organization-level personalizations, for example, to stipulate that notifications be sorted by age for one organization and by urgency for another.

Personalizations at the responsibility level display only to users under a specific responsibility. You may, for example, configure a trend graph to display only to users under the sales manager responsibility.

The level at which an administrator configures personalization settings determines their precedence over other settings. For example, a responsibility-level personalization takes precedence over site-level personalizations for users with the specified responsibility. Users at the site who are not using the relevant responsibility would see only the site-level changes.

User-level personalization:Default user personalizations, or user views, can exist at three levels. They can be seeded by Oracle developers, created by a system administrator, or created by the end user.

End users can access the personalization user interface by clicking the Save View or Personalize button. They can then personalize inquiry pages using query regions to create specific data views. For example, they can

Create and save searches, Configure table column titles, Hide or show columns, Reorder columns, Add data filters, Change sort orders.

OA Framework Examples

1.    Remove a button
2.    Change prompts
3.    Hide/reorder columns in a table
4.    Set initial values
5.    Display a field

Example 1: Remove a work list link in below screen, click the personalize page link to remove work list access on left bottom.

What is Oracle Applications / E-Business Suite

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Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS)

What is Oracle Applications/Oracle E-Business Suite ?
To facilitate big businesses, Oracle Corporation have created collection of software in the category of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) known as modules, that are integrated to talk to each other and known as Oracle Applications or E-Business Suite.

Oracle Inventory Module deals with the items you maintain in stock, warehouse etc.

Oracle Receivables and Oracle Order Management are dealing with customers like orders given by Customers and Money collected from customers.

Oracle General Ledger receives information from all the different transaction modules and summarizes them in order to create profit and loss statements, reports for paying Taxes etc.

Oracle Cost Management helps to maintain the costs of items in your inventory and the immediate modules that it interacts with are Oracle Inventory, Oracle Bills of Material, Order Management.

Oracle EBS R12 Architecture
Oracle EBS R12 Applications is a three-tiered architecture.
1.Desktop Tier
2.Application Tier
3.Database Tier

The Oracle Applications Architecture is a framework for multi-tiered, distributed computing that supports Oracle Applications products. In this model, various servers or services are distributed among three levels, or tiers. First we need to know the important points like SERVER, NODE, MACHINE and TIER.

Server : Server is a process or group of processes that run on a single machine and provide a particular functionality.
Tier : A tier is a logical group of services , that spread across more than one physical machine. Machine or node : A machine is referred to as a node, particularly in the context of a group of computers that work closely together in a cluster

Desktop Tier :
The Forms client applet must be run within a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) on the desktop client. The Sun J2SE Plug-in component allows use of the Oracle JVM on web clients, instead of the browser’s own JVM. This is implemented as a browser plug-in. Please Note : In 11i , we use Jinitiator for the for the JVM.

The Application Tier :
In Release 12, the application tier contains Oracle Application Server 10g (OAS10g). Three servers or service groups comprise the basic application tier for Oracle Applications:
1. Web services The Web services component of Oracle Application Server processes requests received over the network from the desktop clients.
2. Forms services Forms services in Oracle Applications Release 12 are provided by the Forms listener servlet or Form Socket mode, which facilitates the use of firewalls, load balancing, proxies, and other networking options.
3. Concurrent Processing server Processes that run on the Concurrent Processing server are called concurrent requests. When you submit such a request, either through HTML-based or Forms-based Applications, a row is inserted into a database table specifying the program to be run. A concurrent manager then reads the applicable requests in the table, and starts the associated concurrent program.
4. Database Tier : The database tier contains the Oracle database server, which stores all the data maintained by Oracle Applications.

R12 EBS Directory Structure

There are two versions of Oracle Application server 10g (OAS10g) used,
1:-
The Oracle Application Server 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME (sometimes referred to as the Tools, C, or Developer ORACLE_HOME) replaces the 8.0.6 ORACLE_HOME provided by Oracle9i Application Server 1.0.2.2.2 in Release 11i.
2:-
The Oracle Application Server 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME (sometimes referred to as the Web or Java ORACLE_HOME) replaces the 8.1.7-based ORACLE_HOME provided by Oracle9i Application Server 1.0.2.2.2 in Release 11i.

Oracle EBS R12 file system has come up with new model - Code, Data, Configurations are segregated for easy maintenance, to avert NFS mount issues on shared appl tier configuration systems. Auto-config will not write anything in APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP area in R12. All instance specific configurations, log files are written in INST_TOP area. Instance Home provides the ability to share Applications and technology stack code among multiple instances.

The image shown below describes the complete directory structure for complete e-bs installation i.e. DB_TOP, APPL_TOP and new INST_TOP. If you look into the INST_TOP we will find that it only contains all the configuration files, start-stop scripts, log files, certificate files, pid files etc, so as to make DB_TOP and APPL_TOP untouched for any instance specific changes.

INSTANCE TOP : Instance home is the top-level directory for an Applications Instance which is known as Instance Home and is denoted the environment variable $INST_TOP. This contains all the config files, log files, SSL certificates etc.

Advantages of new INSTANCE HOME:

1. The additional Instance Home makes the middle tier easier to manage and organized since the data is kept separate from the config files.

2. The Instance Home also has the ability to share the Applications and Technology stack code across multiple instances.

3. Another advantage of the Instance Home is that the Autoconfig writes only in INST_TOP so APPL_TOP and ORACLE_HOME can also be made read only file system if required.

4. To create a new instance that shares an existing middle-tier, just create a new instance_top with proper config file

INSTANCE TOP – STRUCTURE:
$INST_TOP: $APPS_BASE/inst/apps/$CONTEXT_NAME/
/admin
/scripts : ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME: Find all AD scripts here
/appl : APPL_CONFIG_HOME. For standalone envs, this is set to
$APPL_TOP
/fnd/12.0.0/secure : FND_SECURE: dbc files here
/admin : All Env Config files here
/certs : SSL Certificates go here
/logs : LOG_HOME: Central log file location. All log files are placed
here (except adconfig)
/ora : ORA_CONFIG_HOME
/10.1.2 : 'C' Oracle home config, Contains tnsnames and forms listener
servlet config files
/10.1.3 : Apache & OC4J config home, Apache, OC4J and opmn
This is the 'Java' oracle home configuration for OPMN, Apache
and OC4J
/pids : Apache/Forms server PID files here
/portal : Apache's DocumentRoot folder

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Top Oracle Apps DBA Interview Questions and Answers :-

1. What is FNDSM?

Service Managers (FNDSM)

Service Managers are spawned on the middle-tier nodes of a GSM enabled system in order to act as an agent of the ICM. When the ICM sees that it needs An SM to perform some function, such as start a concurrent manager process, on a middle-tier node, it will make remote procedure control calls to the Apps listener on that node to start the Service manager. Once the Service Manager has been started and initialized, the ICM communicates directly to the SM through RPC, giving it information to manage the services on that node.

-The Service manager is spawned from the APPS TNS Listener

- The APPS TNS Listener must be started on every middle-tier node in the system, and started by the user that starts ICM (e.g. applmgr)

-TNS Listener spawns Service Manager to run as agent of ICM for the local node

-The Service Manager is started by ICM on demand when needed. If no management actions are needed on a node a Service Manager will not be started by ICM until necessary. When ICM exits its Service Managers exit as well.

-The Service Manager environment is set by APPSORA.env as defined in listener.ora

-The listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files must be configured properly for the listener to be able to spawn the Service Manager and for the ICM to be able to check the status of the Service Manager.

2. What is iAS Patch ?

iAS Patch are patches released to fix bugs associated with IAS_ORACLE_HOME (Web Server Component) Usually these are shiiped as Shell scripts and you apply iAS patches by executing Shell script. Note that by default ORACLE_HOME is pointing to 8.0.6 ORACLE_HOME and if you are applying iAS patch export ORACLE_HOME to iAS . You can do same by executing environment file under $IAS_ORACLE_HOME
3. What are various components in Application/Middle Tier?

For ease of understanding, we can say application tier comprises of one or more servers (Operating Systems), ontop of which Oracle applications software is installed. The software enables, Tech components for the application to run as well as application components that will enable user to access different applications.

The application tier has a dual role: hosting the various servers and service groups that process the business logic, and managing communication between the desktop tier and the database tier. This tier is often referred to as the middle tier.The application tier in R12, contains Oracle Application Server 10g (OAS10g). Three servers or service groups comprise the basic application tier :

Web services: The Web services component of Oracle Application Server processes requests received over the network from the desktop clients.
Forms services: Forms services in Oracle Applications Release 12 are provided by the Forms listener servlet or Form Socket mode, which facilitates the use of firewalls, load balancing, proxies, and other networking options.
Concurrent Processing server: Processes that run on the Concurrent Processing server are called concurrent requests. When users submit such a request, either through HTML-based or Forms-based Applications, a row is inserted into a database table specifying the program to be run. A concurrent manager then reads the applicable requests in the table, and starts the associated concurrent program.

There are two versions of Oracle Application servers/ Oracle Homes used in R12:

The Oracle Application Server 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME is referred by Tools, C, or Developer Suite.
The Oracle Application Server 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME is referred by Web or Java applications.

4. What is APPL_TOP, COMN_TOP, ORA_TOP…..?

Below Image describes the complete directory structure for complete e-biz installation i.e. DB_TOP, APPL_TOP and new INST_TOP. If you dig into the INST_TOP you will find that it only contains all the configuration files, start-stop scripts, log files, certificate files, pid files etc.., so as to make DB_TOP and APPL_TOP untouched for any instance specific changes. So you can also make DB_TOP and APPL_TOP read only.

INSTANCE TOP
Instance home is the top-level directory for an Applications Instance which is known as Instance Home and is denoted the environment variable $INST_TOP. This contains all the config files, log files, SSL certificates etc.

Advantages of new INSTANCE HOME

The additional Instance Home makes the middle tier more easy to manage and organized since the data is kept separate from the config files.
The Instance Home also has the ability to share the Applications and Technology stack code across multiple instances.
Another advantage of the Instance Home is that the Autoconfig writes only in INST_TOP so APPL_TOP and ORACLE_HOME can also be made read only file system if required.
To create a new instance that shares an existing middle-tier, just create a new instance_top with proper config files and NFS Mount the middle tier

INSTANCE TOP – STRUCTURE

$INST_TOP      : $APPS_BASE/inst/apps/$CONTEXT_NAME/
/admin /scripts : ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME: Find all AD scripts here
/appl              : APPL_CONFIG_HOME. For standalone envs, this is set to $APPL_TOP
/fnd/12.0.0/secure : FND_SECURE: dbc files here
/admin             : All Env Config files here
/certs               : SSL Certificates go here
/logs                : LOG_HOME: Central log file location. All log files are placed here (except adconfig)
/ora                 : ORA_CONFIG_HOME
/10.1.2             : ‘C’ Oracle home config, Contains tnsnames and forms listener servlet config files
/10.1.3             : Apache & OC4J config home, Apache, OC4J and opmn
                         This is the ‘Java’ oracle home configuration for OPMN, Apache and OC4J
/pids                : Apache/Forms server PID files here
/portal              : Apache’s DocumentRoot folder

Shared Application Tier File System

We can configure multiple application node machines working with a single E-Business Suite database node. This creation of a “multi-node” E-Business Suite instance is frequently done to lower cost of ownership (many small machines are cheaper than one big one), increase fault tolerance (one machine fails, others do not), or scale the instance (support more users and a greater load).

When configuring Oracle E-Business Suite to use a shared application tier file system, the application tier node can be configured to perform any of the standard application tier services, such as Forms, Web, and Concurrent Processing (Batch).
Note the following definitions:

Node
A node/server/instance is a logical set of processes running on one hardware machine. In a single-node installation of Oracle E-Business Suite, all the Applications processes (including the database processes) run on one node, whereas in a multi-node installation, the processes are distributed across multiple nodes.
A multi-node installation of Release 12 supports both shared and non-shared application tier file systems. 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.

Service

A service is a functional set of Oracle E-Business Suite application processes running on one or more nodes. Where applicable, the term ’service’ is replacing the more traditional term of ’server’.

Application Tier Services

The following are the major application tier services:

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

So if you have two nodes,one will serve as Primary Node and other will serve as Secondry Node. You can configure both the Application tier node as follows:

Primary Application Tier Node

A primary application tier node is the first application tier node where the APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, OracleAS 10.1.2 Oracle Home and OracleAS 10.1.3 Oracle Home are installed and configured.

Secondary Application Tier Node

A secondary application tier node is an application tier node where APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, 10.1.2 Oracle Home and 10.1.3 Oracle Home are visible and configured. The APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, OracleAS 10.1.2 Oracle Home and OracleAS 10.1.3 Oracle Home file system is mounted to this node from the primary application tier node, or from an NFS server.
Instance Home

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

Shared Application Tier File System Architecture
In a shared file system, all application tier files (with the specific exception of the Instance Home file system) are installed on a shared disk resource, which is mounted on each application tier node. Any application tier 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.

Shared Application Tier File System Layout
When configuring Oracle E-Business Suite to use a shared application tier file system, an application tier node can be configured to perform any of the standard application tier services, such as Forms, Web, or Concurrent Processing (Batch) services. An application tier will have a unique Instance Home associated with it that cannot be shared with other application tiers. You can configure the services running on an application tier node to match the node’s intended role

Example Shared File System

The following is an example of mount points shared on each application tier node:

COMMON_TOP: /ebiz/oracle/VIS/apps/apps_st/comn
APPL_TOP: /ebiz/oracle/VIS/apps/apps_st/appl
OracleAS 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME: /ebiz/oracle/VIS/apps/tech_st/10.1.2
OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME: /ebiz/oracle/VIS/apps/tech_st/10.1.3

In the figure shown below, entitled “Shared Application Tier File System”, Server-appl_node1 is the primary application tier node, and uses the file systems “/ebiz/oracle/VIS” and “/ebiz/oracle/inst”. The file system “/ebiz/oracle/inst” contains the Instance Home, and “/ ebiz/oracle/VIS ” contains the APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, OracleAS 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 Oracle Home.

Server-appl_node2 is the secondary application tier node, and the shared file system “/ebiz/oracle/VIS” is also mounted on this node. The file systems “/ebiz/oracle/inst/apps/VIS_appl_node1″ and “/ebiz/oracle/inst/apps/VIS_appl_node2″ are only visible on the respective nodes.

5. What is US directory in $AD_TOP or under various product TOP’s?
Language
6. What are the main concurrent Manager types?

Different Types of Concurrent Manager

Conflict Resolution Manager (CRM)

The Conflict Resolution Manager enforces all compatibility rules and based on priorities and run rules, determines

which jobs can run when if there is a conflict in timing. You cannot change its definition, but can set its values for sleep

time for each work shift or for parallel Concurrent Processing, if applicable.

Product Specific Concurrent Manager

There are many product specific Concurrent Managers. The list includes

Inventory, MRP, and Projects, as well as any

User-defined managers. These managers are specialized to perform Concurrent Processing specifically for those

products for which they are built. Utilizing these managers can help you off-load some of the processing from the

Standard Manager.

Internal Concurrent Manager (ICM)

The Internal Concurrent Manager (ICM) is the controlling manager for all of the others. When you start the Concurrent

Managers, this is the only one that you actually have direct control over. This manager in turn starts all of the others

depending on their schedules and work shifts. It controls starting and stopping all other managers based on the

definition of their work shifts and it monitors for failures. If there are failures, it cleans up after them. Its definition

cannot be changed after its startup. On starting, you can, by parameter passing, set its values for sleep time, PM ON

on cycle, and queue size.

Scheduler Manager

The Scheduler Manager, added in 11i, assists the ICM and the CRM in scheduling and conflict resolution.

Standard Manager

The Standard Manager (as the name implies) is the manager that ships with the Oracle E-Business Suite and accepts

any and all requests and does not, as configured, have any specialization rules. The Standard Manager is

Customizable but care needs to be taken to ensure that, if you change the rules on the Standard Manager, that all jobs

Have a manager that is able to run them.

Transaction Managers

Conventional Concurrent Managers run batch type jobs that are typically long running, involve large amounts of data,

and run asynchronously. Transaction Managers run synchronous processing of certain reports requested from a client

Program but run as a server side program. These managers run as immediate programs, are started automatically by

the ICM, and communicate with Transaction Managers automatically. Running the job is transparent to the calling user

as the job runs extremely quickly and in real time. The calling client is notified of the ultimate outcome of the program

Execution by a completion message and a set of values returned to them.

A Transaction Manager is owned by an application and associated with a data group. Due to this association, and the

fact that it runs immediate programs, the Transaction Manager can only run programs contained within its program

Library.

$FND_TOP/sql/afcmstat.sql script gives you a list of concurrent managers and their respective status

7. Where is Concurrent Manager Log file location?

Concurrent Mangers log files are located in the $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG location.

cd $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG

For ICM Log –> ls -lrt *$TWO_TASK*

For Standard manager Log –> ls -lrt w*.mgr

For Conflict Resolution manager Log –> ls -lrt c*.mgr

8. Where would I find .rf9 file, and what exactly it does?

These files are used during restart of patch in case of patch failure and wanted to restart.

9. Where is appsweb.cfg or appsweb_$CONTEXT.cfg stored & why is it used?

This file is defined by environment variable FORMS60_WEB_CONFIG_FILE This is usually in directory $OA_HTML/bin on forms tier.

This file is used by any forms client session. When a user try to access forms , f60webmx picks up this file and based on this configuration file creates a forms session to user/client.

10. What is multi node system?

n a multi-node (distributed) system, servers are installed on more than one node. The core technology directories (admin, ad, au, and fnd) and all product directories are installed under the APPL_TOP on all nodes, except for any node that contains only a database. You can patch the APPL_TOPs separately, or you can set up a shared environment that will enable you to perform patching and other maintenance procedures only once. This type of system shares not only the APPL_TOP and COMMON_TOP file systems, but the Applications node technology stack as well. All Applications nodes are installed on a single, shared disk resource that is mounted under the same name from each Applications node machine. Any Applications node can be used to provide standard services, such as serving forms or Web pages, concurrent processing, or applying patches. Maintenance procedures are performed on a single Applications node.

If you have not configured your system as a shared environment, you apply the unified driver to all APPL_TOPs. AutoPatch sorts out which driver actions it must perform on each APPL_TOP. You apply the driver first to the node where the administration server is located. Then, you apply it to the node where the concurrent processing server is located. Start the concurrent managers, and apply the driver to the remaining nodes in any order.

11. Can you clone from multi node system to single node system & vice versa?
Yes
12. Does rapid clone takes care of Updating Global oraInventory or you have to register manually in Global oraInventory after clone?
Rapid Clone will automatically Update Global oraInventory during configuration phase. You don't have to do any thing manually for Global oraInventory.
13. What is .dbc file, where is it stored, what is the use of .dbc file?
Database Connector File. FND_TOP/secure

The .dbc file is mostly used to define database parameters,stands for database connect descriptor file, used to connectto database, it authenticate users against database in FND_USER table.

Let's see how it work's

The .dbc file is actually the database connector descriptor file used to connect to database and this file is by-default located in $FND_TOP/secure directory, this file is quite important as whenever any program likes to connect to database like forms it uses dbc file where there you find the Guest_user_pwd ,when the guest user connect it does not allow it to directly connect to the database but it first connect goes via this file and cross verify the password of the guest which is kept in this file.

DBC file is quite important as whenever Java or any other program like forms want to connect to database it uses dbc file.

Typical entry in dbc file are:
GUEST_USER_PWDAPPS_JDBC_URLDB_HOST

The dbc file is used to set up the connectivity for a given database. Each vendor requires different values to determine the server name, database name, user and password, plus any native options including special instructions for the vendor's client API or utility loader.When you drag an Output Table/Input Table etc. onto the canvas, the DBC file lets the component know where to direct the activity. The DBC file is also the mechanism through which a given table can be accessed and its column definition pulled automatically into the given component's DML definition.

There will be lot of dbc file under $FND_SECURE, how we determine which dbc file to use from $FND_SECURE ?

This value is determined from profile option "Applications Database ID"
Authenication:-

In order to authenticate your user against database in FND_USER table this request is passed from core Apache Module to mod_pls ( plsql) and it uses few files like wdbsvr.app in Apache/modplsql/conf $CONTEXT_NAME.dbc , tnsnames.ora in 806/network/admin/$CONTEXT_NAME , GUEST user & few other file so focus on these files & directories & see what changed recently.

.dbc file in R12 -->the dbc file in R12 is in the new $INSTANCE_TOP

$INST_TOP/appl/fnd/12.0.0/secure or $INSTANCE_TOP/apps//appl/fnd/12.0.o/secure.

Last but not the least .cfg is a unix-level file that is fed into a Korn Shell script as an auto-parameter feeder for a parameter-driven shell script. Cfg files are unix-defined where dbc files are AbI-defined.

A Database Connection (DBC) file holds information used by application servers to identify and authenticate with an application database. DBC files must be created on all tiers if it is a multi-tier system.

To recreate DBC file Login to your system as the APPLMGR, ensure that your environment is set correctly by running /.env.
Run common_top/admin/install/adgendbc.sh (UNIX)
This will create the DBC file for the current environment instance. Verify log file to check environment, which should be pointing to 806.Location of file is in /admin/install/adgendbc.txt.

14. What things you do to reduce patch timing?

# Merging patches via admrgpch
# Use various adpatch options like nocompiledb or nocompilejsp
# Use defaults file
# Staged APPL_TOP during upgrades
# Increase batch size (Might result into negative )

1. Consolidate Patches
Using AD Merge Patch to merge multiple patches into a single patch that eliminates the time it takes to start a new AutoPatch session.

2. Apply Patches in Non-interactive Mode
You can automate much of the patching process by applying patches in non-interactive mode. In this mode,we store the responses to the patching prompts in a defaults file, and then specify the name of this default file when we run AutoPatch.

3. Skip Database Tasks
We can use AutoPatch options=nocompiledb, nomaintainmrc to skip tasks such as “Compile APPS schema” and “Maintain MRC” until all patches have been applied successfully. Normally AutoPatch automatically compiles the APPS schema and maintains the MRC schema during the patching application of standard patches.

4. Skip upload of Patch Information
Normally AutoPatch uploads patch history information to the database automatically each time it successfully applies a patch. The time required for the upload may be more depending on the size of the patch. We can skip this task during the AutoPatch session and upload the patch history information later.
We will use options=phtofile during the downtime patching session to skip the information upload. After a successfully patch,we will run AutoPatch again with the argument uploadph=y to upload the patch history information from the patch history files to your database. AutoPatch performs the upload and then it quits.
5. Apply patch on a Test System First
To analyze the effects of applying a patch, we should apply it first to a test system. We will check for long-running jobs and phases, which take the longest time in the timing statistics report ($APPL_TOP/admin//out/adt.lst).

6. Implement Shared Application Tier File System
Implementing a multi-node system with a shared application tier file system saves patching time because we apply patches only once, on the primary node.

7. Use Distributed AD
Distributed AD is a parallel processing feature that reduces downtime by efficiently utilizing all the available server resources on a shared application file system.

8. Reduce Resource Related Issues
We should modify rollback segment sizing and temporary segment space to optimize resources during patch application.

9. Impact analysis
We can perform an impact analysis on a patch, without affecting system, by running AutoPatch with the command line option apply=no.
Some patches include only file system changes. Most of the Applications patches do not include database changes.

10. Use AutoPatch options efficiently
Using certain AutoPatch command line options and managing the number of workers can minimize patch application time. We can use options like norevcache, nogenform, nogenrep etc to reduce patching downtime.

11. Merge NLS (Translation) Patches and Apply Them During Uptime
If we have multiple patches for multiple languages, merge all US patches into a single patch. Then, merge the NLS translation patches for each active language in our system into a single patch for each language. Apply the US patches first during downtime. Then, we can apply the merged NLS translation patches during uptime.
12. ADJREOPTS and ADJRIOPTS Paramter
One other small thing which makes a considerable difference is ADJREOPTS and ADJRIOPTS Environment Variable.
During any Patching there are several Framework XML Files, Jar Files etc... which are loaded into the Database using adjava Command, Even Jar Generation Phase of Copy Driver uses ADJREOPTS and ADJRIOPTS Parameters. By Default these Parameters are set to 256Mb or 512Mb Memory, but if i am not wrong during any Production Upgrade, these Systems have tremendous Horsepower in terms of CPU and Memory
You can increase this Parameter to 1Gig HeapSize Comfortably for better patching performance. This Parameter can be fixed in Autoconfig XML File and Run Autoconfig. The two tags are s_adjreopts and s_adjriopts.

You can use defaults file like

adpatch defaultsfile=$APPL_TOP/admin/$SID/defaults.txt logfile=654321.log patchtop=/patches/654321 driver=u654321.drv interactive=no

so if you don’t want adpatch to compile database & jsp with each execution of adpatch you can use options nocompiledb & nocompilejsp

adpatch defaultsfile=$APPL_TOP/admin/$SID/defaults.txt options=nocompilejsp,nocompiledb logfile=654321.log patchtop=/patches/654321 driver=u654321.drv interactive=no

Once your patching is complete and you have applied all patches you can compile jsp & database once.

How to compile database objetcs ?

Use adadmin compile database option else

Use utlrp.sql script on database tier at $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin

How to compile JSP in Apps ?

Use perl script ojspCompile.pl under $JTF_TOP/admin/scripts like

perl ojspCompile.pl –compile

Merge Patches to reduce patch timing

Another option to reduce patch timing is to use ad tool admrgpch, so lets say you have 10 patches to apply you can merge 10 patches & create single patch and apply that single patch. ( Sometime applying patches after merging may fail because of conflict in driver file so check first on test server)

create a directory lets say source_directory & put all patches which you want to merge in that & create another directory where your final single patch will come lets say destination_directory then use

admrgpch source_directory destination_directory

If there is any error in merging patch by default it will be in directory from where you are initiating admrgpch by name admrgpch.log

Apply patch from target directory via normal adpatch way.

If you are Upgrading your apps instance lets say from 11.5.8 or 11.5.9 to 11.5.10 you can use stagged APPL_TOP (ddifferent from shared APPL_TOP)

15. How you put Applications 11i in Maintenance mode?

Using ADADMIN

ENABLE maintenance mode from SQLPLUS Session:

sqlplus -s apps/apps @$AD_TOP/patch/115/sql/adsetmmd.sql ENABLE

DISABLE maintenance mode from SQLPLUS Session:

sqlplus -s apps/apps @$AD_TOP/patch/115/sql/adsetmmd.sql DISABLE

16. Can you apply patch without putting Applications 11i in Maintenance mode?

Yes using options=hotpatch

17. What are various options available with adpatch?

Modes of adpatch:

Interactive mode
Non-Interactive mode
Test mode
Pre-Install mode

Interactive Mode:

It is the default mode of adpatch when we don’t use anything. We can apply patch in this mode by going into patch directory and simply type adpatch in command prompt and hit enter.

Non-Interactive:

We can apply in this mode as:

$adpatch Interactive=no

It uses default files to store prompt values and can be applied from patch directory.

Test Mode:

This mode is purposely used to check the what exactly patch is doing and will do everything without actually changing anything.

We can apply patch in this mode as:

$adpatch apply=no

By default apply=yes

PreInstall Mode:

This mode is used to apply adpatch for any upgrade or consolidated update of utilities itself. So, it would be suggested to apply pre-install patch first.

When we apply patch in preinstall mode, it updates all AD utilities befre upgrade or update.

We can apply adpatch in this mode as:

$adpatch preinstall=y

Adpatch Options:

We have multiple adpatch options and based on the requirement we can use specific options. Here, I will try to cover most often used adpatch options.

Noautoconfig:

$adpatch options=noautoconfig

This options is used to skip the autoconfig execution as by default it executes the autoconfig and updates the configuration file if any template file is added. This option is helpful when we apply multiple adpatch and they are not merged.

Nocompiledb(without compiling database):

While we apply adpatch, It may create invalid objects and by default adpatch compiles the invalid objects after patch application. But in case you do not want to compile invalid objects to ensure the minimal autopatch time, you can apply adpatch as below:

$adpatch options=nocompiledb

Nocopyportion:

This option is used to apply adpatch without copying the files present in copy driver. This can be applies as:

$adpatch options=nocopyportion

Nocompilejsp:

Adpatch also compiles the java server pages(JSP) after completion of patch application and can be skipped using the option nocompilejsp as below:

$adpatch options=nocompilejsp

Nodatabaseportion:

Nodatabaseportion option is used to skip the adpatch the activity of database driver. It can be used as:

$adpatch options=nodatabaseportion

Nogenerateportion:

Nogenerateportion option is used to skip the adpatch activity of generate driver portion of the patch and you can use the option nogenerateportion as below:

$adpatch options=nogenerateportion

Maintenance Mode disabled:

If you want to apply your adpatch without enabling maintenance mode, you can apply using the option as hotpatch as below:

$adpatch options=hotpatch

Nolink:

Nolink option is used to skip the relinking and can be used as:

$adpatch options=nolink

Nogenform:

Nogenform option is used to skip the generate form file and can be used as:

$adpatch options=nogenform

Maintainmrc:

Maintainmrc is used for adpatch to execute the maintain MRC schema as part of patch. By default maintain MRC is done for standard patch and is disabled for documentation and translation patches.

$adpatch options=nomaintainmrc

Noprereq:

This option is used to skip the checking of pre-requisite patches and by default it checks for pre-requisite patch. This option can be used as below:

$adpatch options=noprereq

18. adident utility is used for what?
Identifying the version of files

for eg adident $Header <<FILENAME>>
19. What is MRC? What you do as Apps DBA for MRC?
MRC also called as Multiple Reporting Currency in oracle application. Default you have currency in US Dollars but if your organization operating books are in other currency then you as application DBA need to enable MRC in applications
20. What is JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and which component uses JVM?

21. What is access_log in apache, what entries are recorded in access_log? Where is the default location of this file?

22. Where is Jserv configuration files stored?

23. Where is applications start/stop scripts stored?

24. What are main configuration files in Web Server (Apache)?

25. How to check if Apps 11i System is Autoconfig enabled?

26. How to check if Oracle Apps 11i System is Rapid Clone enabled?
For system to be Rapid Clone enabled, it should be Autoconfig enabled. You should have Rapid Clone Patches applied.

27. What is the difference between two env files in <CONTEXT>.env and APPS<CONTEXT>.env under $APPL_TOP?
APPS<CONTEXT>.env is main environment file which in turn calls other environment files like <CONTEXT>.env under $APPL_TOP

28. What is your Oracle Apps 11i Webserver Version and how to find it?
In order to find version under IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin
Execute ./httpd -version

29. What is plssql database cache?
In order to improve performance mod_pls (Apache component) caches some database content to file. This plsql cache is used to store session information. plsql cache is used to store plsql cache i.e. used by mod_pls

30. Where is database plssql cache stored?
plssql & session cache are stored under $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/ Apache/modplsql/cache directory

31. How to determine Oracle Apps 11i Version?
select RELEASE_NAME from fnd_product_groups;
You should see output like
RELEASE_NAME
11.5.9 or 11.5.10.2

32. What is content of dbc file & why is it important?
DBC file is quite important as whenever Java or any other program like forms want to connect to database it uses dbc file. Typical entry in dbc file is
GUEST_USER_PWD
APPS_JDBC_URL
DB_HOST

33. There are lot of dbc file under $FND_SECURE, How is it determined that which dbc file to use from $FND_SECURE?
This value is determined from profile option “Applications Database ID”

34. What is RRA/FNDFS?
Report Review Agent (RRA) also referred by executable FNDFS is default text viewer in Oracle Applications 11i for viewing output files & log files.

35. What is PCP is Oracle Applications 11i?
PCP is acronym for Parallel Concurrent Processing. Usually you have one Concurrent Manager executing your requests but you can configure Concurrent Manager running on two machines. So for some of your requests primary CM Node is on machine1 and secondary CM node on machine2 and for some requests primary CM is on machine2 & secondary CM on machine1.

36. Why I need two Concurrent Processing Nodes or in what scenarios PCP is used?
If you are running GL month end reports or taxation reports annually these reports might take couple of days. Some of these requests are very resource intensive so you can have one node running long running resource intensive requests while other processing your day to day short running requests. Another scenario is when your requests are very critical and you want high resilience for your Concurrent Processing Node, you can configure PCP. So if node1 goes down you still have CM node available processing your requests.

37. How to confirm if Report Server is Up & Running?
Report Server is started by executable rwmts60 on concurrent manager Node & this file is under $ORACLE_HOME/bin Execute command on your server like
ps -ef | grep rwmts60

38. What is difference between ICM, Standard Managers and CRM in Concurrent Manager?
ICM stand for Internal Concurrent Manager, which controls other managers. If it finds other managers down, it checks & tries to restart them. You can say it is an administrator to other concurrent managers. Standard Manager: These are normal managers which performs actions on the requests and does batch or single request processing. CRM is acronym for Conflict Resolution Manager and is used to resolve conflicts between managers & requests. If a request is submitted whose execution is clashing or it is defined not to run while a particular type of request is running then such requests are assigned to CRM for incompatibilities & conflict resolution.

39. What is use of Apps listener?
Apps Listener usually run on All Oracle Applications 11i Nodes with listener alias as APPS_$SID is mainly used for listening requests for services like FNDFS & FNDSM.

40. How to start Apps listener?
In Oracle 11i, you have script adalnctl.sh which will start your apps listener. You can also start it by command lsnrctl start APPS_$SID (Replace sid by your Instance SID Name)

41. How to confirm if Apps Listener is Up & Running?
lsnrctl start APPS_$SID (replace SID with your Instance Name) so if your SID is VISION then use lsnrctl status APPS_VISION

42. What is Web Listener?
Web Listener is Web Server listener which is listening for web Services (HTTP) request. This listener is started by adapcctl.sh & defined by directive (Listen, Port) in httpd.conf for Web Server.

43. How will you find total number of invalid objects in database?
SQLPLUS> select count(*) from dba_objects where status like ‘INVALID’;

44. How to compile Invalid Objects in database?
You can use adadmin utility to compile or you can use utlrp.sql script shipped with Oracle Database to compile Invalid Database Objects.

45. How to compile JSP in Oracle Apps?
You can use ojspCompile.pl perl script shipped with Oracle apps to compile JSP files. This script is under $JTF_TOP/admin/scripts. Sample compilation method is
perl ojspCompile.pl –compile –quiet

46. What is difference between adpatch & opatch?
# adpatch is utility to apply oracle apps Patches whereas
# opatch is utility to apply database patches

47. Can you use both adpatch & opatch in Apps?
Yes you have to use both in apps, for apps patches you will use adpatch utility and for applying database patch in apps you will use opatch utility.

48. Where will you find forms configuration details apart from xml file?
Forms configuration at time of startup is in script adfrmctl.sh and appsweb_$CONTEXT_NAME.cfg for forms client connection used each time a user initiates forms connection.

49. What is forms server executable Name?
f60srvm

50. What are different modes of forms in which you can start Forms Server and which one is default?
You can start forms server in SOCKET or SERVLET by default Forms are configured to start in socket mode.

51. How you will start Discoverer in Oracle Apps 11i?
In order to start discoverer you can use script addisctl.sh under $OAD_TOP/admin/scripts/$CONTEXT_NAME or startal.sh under $ORACLE_HOME/discwb4/util (under Middle/Application Tier)

52. How many ORACLE HOME are in Oracle Apps and what is the significance of each?
There are three $ORACLE_HOME in Oracle Apps, Two for Application Tier (Middle Tier) and One in Database Tier.
# ORACLE_HOME 1: On Application Tier used to store 8.0.6 techstack software. This is used by forms, reports & discoverer.
# ORACLE_HOME 2: On Application Tier used by iAS (Web Server) techstack software. This is used by Web Listener & contains Apache.
# ORACLE_HOME 3: On Database Tier used by Database Software usually 8i, 9i or 10g database.

53. Where is HTML Cache stored in Oracle Apps Server?
Oracle HTML Cache is available at $COMMON_TOP/_pages for some previous versions you might find it in $OA_HTML/_pages

54. What happens if you don’t give cache size while defining Concurrent Manager?
Lets first understand what is cache size in Concurrent Manager. When Manager picks request from FND CONCURRENT REQUESTS Queues, it will pick up number of requests defined by cache size in one shot & will work on them before going to sleep. So in my views if you don’t define cache size while defining CM then it will take default value 1, i.e. picking up one request per cycle.

55. What are few profile options which you update after cloning?
Rapid clone updates profile options specific to site level. If you have any profile option set at other levels like server, responsibility, user….level then reset them.

56. How to retrieve SYSADMIN password?
If forgot password link is enabled and sysadmin account is configured with mail id user forget password link else you can reset sysadmin password via FNDCPASS.

57. If you have done two nodes installation, first machine: Database and concurrent processing server. 2nd machine: form, web. Which machine has admin server/node?
Admin Server will be on First machine with concurrent processing server.

58. What is TWO_TASK in Oracle Database?
TWO_TASK mocks your TNS alias which you are going to use to connect to database. Let’s assume you have database client with TNS alias defined as PROD to connect to Database PROD on machine teachmeoracle.com listening on port 1521. Then usual way to connect is sqlplus username/passwd@PROD; now if you don’t want to use @PROD then you set TWO_TASK=PROD and then can simply use sqlplus username/passwd then sql will check that it has to connect to TNS alias define by value PROD i.e. TWO_TASK

59. What is GWYUID?
GWYUID stands for Gateway User ID and password. Usually like APPLSYSPUB/PUB

60. Where GWYUID defined & why is it used in Oracle Applications?
GWYUID is defined in dbc i.e. Database Connect Descriptor file. It is used to connect thin clients to database.

61. What is difference between GUEST_USER_PWD (GUEST/ORACLE) & GWYUID?
GUEST_USER_PWD(Guest/Oracle) is used by JDBC Thin Client where as GWYUID is used by Thick Clients like via Forms Connections.

62. What is 0 & Y in FNDCPASS, FNDLOAD or WFLOAD?
0 & Y are flags for FND Executable like FNDCPASS & FNDLOAD where 0 is request id. ‘Y’ indicates the method of invocation i.e. it is directly invoked from the command-line not from the Submit Request Form.

63. In a Multi Node Installation, How will you find which node is running what Services?
You can query for table FND_NODES and check for column, SUPPORT_CP (for Concurrent Manager) SUPPORT_FORMS (for forms server), SUPPPORT_WEB (Web Server), SUPPORT_ADMIN (Admin Server), and SUPPORT_DB for database tier. You can also check same from CONTEXT File (xml file under APPL_TOP/admin)

64. If your system has more than one Jinitiator, how will the system know, which one to pick?
When client makes a forms connection in Oracle Applications, forms client session uses configuration file defined by environment variable FORMS60_WEB_CONFIG_FILE.

65. While applying Apps patch using adpatch, if you want to hide the apps password, how will that be possible?
Use adpatch flags=hidepw while applying patches in apps to hide apps or system password being displayed on screen.

66. What is the importance of IMAP Server in Java Notification Mailer?
IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol and Java Notification mailer require IMAP server for Inbound Processing of Notification Mails.

67. What is difference between Socket & Servlet Mode in Apps Forms?
When forms run in SOCKET Mode these are dedicated connection between Client Machine & Form Server. When Forms run in servlet mode there will be additional JVM for Forms Request in that case and you won’t start form via adfrmctl.sh.

68. What is make program in Unix?
make is utility in Unix/Linux to maintain , update & generate a file mainly executable.

69. If by mistake someone deleted FNDLIBR can this executable be restored if Yes, How & if no, what will you do?
Yes, you can restore FNDLIBR executables
Run adadmin on concurrent manager node
Select Maintain Applications Files menu
Then select Relink Applications programs
When prompts for “Enter list of products to link (‘all’ for all products) [all]” select FND
When prompt for “Generate specific executables for each selected product [No]?” select YES
From list of executables select FNDLIBR this will create new FNDLIBR executables

70. What is .pls files which you see with apps?
.PLS file stands for plsql files. In apps patch these files contain code to create package spec or package body or both.

71. What are .ldt & .lct files which you see in apps patch or with FNDLOAD?
.ldt & .lct stands for Loader data file & Loader configuration files, used frequently in migrating customization, profile options, configuration data etc. across Instances.

72. What are .odf file in apps patch?
odf stands for Object Description Files used to create tables & other database objects while applying a patch.

73. Where to find Form Server log files in forms?
Form Server Start up log file default location is $OAD_TOP/admin/log/$CONTEXT_NAME/f60svrm.txt
Forms Run Time Diagnostics default location is $ORACLE_HOME/forms60/log/$CONTEXT_NAME

74. How to convert pll to pld file or pld file to pll ?
pll->pld f60gen module=MSCOSCW3.pll module_type=library userid=apps/<passwd> module_access=file output_file=MSCOSCW1.pld script=yes
pld -> pll f60gen module=MSCOSCW3.pld userid=apps/<passwd> module_type=library module_access=file output_file=MSCOSCW1.pll parse=y batch=yes compile_all=special

75. Does APPS_MRC Schema exist for MRC in 11.5.10 and higher?
No, apps_mrc schema is dropped with 11.5.10 Upgrade & 11.5.10 new Install. This is replaced by more Integrated Architecture.

76. If APPS_MRC schema is not used in 11.5.10 and higher then how MRC is working?
For products like Payable, Receivables which uses MRC and if MRC is enabled then each transaction table in base schema related to currency now has an associated MRC sub tables.

77. When you apply C driver patch does it require database to be Up & Why?
Yes, database & db listener should be UP when you apply any driver patch in apps. Even if driver is not updating any database object connection is required to validate apps & other schema and to upload patch history information in database tables.

78. Can C driver in apps patch create Invalid Object in database?
No, C driver only copies files in File System. Database Object might be invalidated during D driver when these objects are created/dropped/modified.

79. What is dev60cgi & f60cgi?
cgi stands for Common Gateway Interface and these are Script Alias in Oracle Apps used to access forms server . Usually Form Server access directly via http://hostname:port/dev60cgi/f60cgi

80. Why does a worker fail in Oracle Apps Patch and few scenarios in which it failed for you?
Apps Patch worker can fail in case it doesn’t find expected data, object, files or anything which driver is trying to update/edit/modify. Possible symptoms may be underlying tables/objects are invalid, a prerequisite patch is missing, login information is incorrect, inconsistency in seed data.

81. What is difference between mod_osso & mod_ose in Oracle HTTP Server?
mod_osso is Oracle Single Sign-On Module where as mod_ose is module for Oracle Servlet Engine.

82. What is difference between COMPILE_ALL=SPECIAL and COMPILE=ALL while compiling Forms?
Both the options will compile all the PL/SQL in the resultant .FMX, .PLX, or .MMX file but COMPILE_ALL=YES also changes the cached version in the source .FMB, .PLL, or .MMB file.

83. What is ps -ef or ps command in Unix? for work ex < 1 yr
ps in unix/linux is a utility to find status of process. Used mainly to find if service/process is running or not.

84. Find application server version?
FND_PRODUCT_GROUPS

85. How will you find the Apache, forms, reports version in an EBS suite?
http –v – Apache
f60gen – Forms
ar60run – Reports

86. Find jinitiator version?
Client side – Control panel
Server side – SID_hostname.xml (s_jinit_ver_)

87. List some ad utilities and their functions?
adadmin, adctrl, adpatch, adlicmgr, admrgpch, adsplice and adworker

88. List out the modules related to oracle Apps DBA?
FND – Application Object Library, AU – Application Utilities, AD – Application DBA

89. What are profile options, what are various types of profile options?
User, application, responsibility and site

90. What are the different types of oracle patches available?
One-off, mini, diagnostics, cu, rup, language, help, platform specific, OS, OPatch, Interoperability, family pack and maintenance pack.

91. What are the different patch drivers available?
C driver, D driver, G driver and U driver.

92. List out the important env files?
Appsora.env, appsSID_hostname.env, adovars.env, APPSSID_hostname

93. What is the utility to change the password of a dba schema in oracle apps?
FNDCPASS

94. What are mandatory users in oracle apps?
applsys, applsyspub, apps

95. What are the components in the Application Tier?
Apache(http)
Jserver(jre)
Forms Server(f60srv)
Metric Server(d2ls)
Metric Client(d2lc)
Report Server(rwm60)
Concurrent Server(FNDLIBR)
Discoverer

96. What are main file systems in Oracle Apps?
APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, DB_TOP,ORA_TOP 7

97. What are there in Desktop Tier?
Internet Browser, JInitiator

98. What is the location of JInitiator in the Desktop Tier?
c:program filesoracleJinitiator

99. What is the location of client cache?
c:documents and settingsuseroracle jar Cache 10.

100. What is the location of Server cache?
$COMMON_TOP/_pages

101. Which package will be used for the user validation by plsql agent?
oraclemypage

102. What are the location of JAVA Files?
JAVA_TOP and all PRODUCT_TOP/Java/Jar

103. What is the name of the xml file of Apps and its location?
Context Name.xml and $APPL_TOP/admin

104. What are adadmin utilities and their location?
$AD_TOP/bin
adadmin
adpatch
adsplice
adident
adrelink
adlicmgr

105. What is the location of Apps environment file and its name?
contextname.env and $APPL_TOP

106. In how many ways Jar files are generated?
Normal and Force

107. Once Jar files are generated what files get affected?
All Product_top/java/jar files and Two files in JAVA_TOP they are appsborg.zip appsborg2.zip

108. How do you see the files in zip file?
unzip -v

109. How do you generate jar files?
Using adadmin and option 5

110. How do you start the apps services?
$COMMON_TOPadminscriptsContextnameadstrtal.sh apps/apps

111. What is the executable to generate jar files?
adjava

112. How do you relink an executable of a product?
By relinking option in adadmin or adrelink

113. How do you relink AD product executable and usage?
adrelink.sh and adrelink.sh force=y “ad adsplice”

114. When do you relinking?
When you miss an executable file
When there is a problem with any executable file
When any product executable gets corrupted

115. What is DAD?
It is a file which stores apps passwords in hard coded format i.e. wdbsvr

116. How do you relink OS files and libraries?
Using make command

117. How do you know the package version?
select text from dba_source where name=’package name’ and type=’PACKAGE BODY’ and rownum<10>/rdbms/admin)

118. How do you load java class to database?
loadjava

119. What are restart files and its location?
These files contain the previous session info about adadmin. Location is $APPL_TOPadminsidrestart*.rf9

120. How do you validate apps schema?
To validate synonyms, missing synonyms and all grants use adadmin. After validating it will produce a report in the location $APPL_TOPadminsidout*.out

121. How do you enable maintenance mode?
Using adadmin or running a script called “adsetmmd.sql ENABLE/DISABLE” (AD_TOP/patch/115/sql)

122. How to see the version of a script or form or report or etc?
adident Header GLXSTEA.fmx

123. What is the location of adadmin log?
$APPL_TOPadminsidlog

124. What are the oracle homes in Apps?
8.0.6 ORACLE_HOME(Dev 6i products) and IAS_ORACLE_HOME (Apache)

125. How do you configure your IP address at client side and server side?
c:windowssystem32driversetchosts and etchost

126. What is the location of Database server related scripts?
$ORACLE_HOMEappsutilscriptscontextname

127. What is the utility to clean the concurrent manager?
@cmclean.sql (You have to download it from metalink)

128. How do you stage the 11.5.10 Apps software?
Using adautostg.pl

129. What is the location of the source files of forms?
AU_TOP/forms/US/

130. What is the executable to generate forms?
f60gen

131. What are the profile options, what are various types of profile options?
You set profile options at the following levels
Site level
Application level
Responsibility level
User level

132. What is APPS listener? Why is it used?
Apps Listener usually run on all Oracle Applications 11i Nodes with listener alias as APPS_$SID and is mainly used for listening requests for services like FNDFS & FNDSM.

133. How do you start/stop apps listener?
lsnrctl start APPS_$SID

134. If users are complaining Oracle Applications 11i system is running slow, following are the things to check?
First as an Overview of Oracle Applications 11i check following things
Broad Level Steps to Check
1. Is Gather stats scheduled? (At least weekly)
2. Is Purge Obsolete Workflow request & concurrent request purging scheduled?
3. Is there any runaway process on database tier or application tier? (Runaway process is process taking unexceptionally long time with high CPU or Memory usages)
4. Any Discoverer process taking long time or High CPU? (Usually on Middle tier)
5. Any Custom report taking long time?
In order to understand problem better
1. Is whole application slow or only component of application is slow (like only Concurrent manager running slow)?
2. If this is with particular component like reports server slow then is a particular report or all reports are slow?
3. Is performance issue during all time or at specific time let’s say from 11AM to 4PM?
4. Was performance issue popped up recently or performance degradation is for long time?
5. What has changed recently?
Depending on answers you can start looking into application. If issue is specific to whole applications then check
1. If database initialization parameter is set correctly?
2. If application sizing is proper, server configuration is enough to accommodate all users?

135. What is Autoconfig?
Autoconfig is method of configuring Oracle Applications. All the information required to configure Oracle Apps 11i is stored in file called Context file. So there are two context files, one for Database Tier and Second for Application Tier. Context file is repository for configuration information stored in xml format. Its xml file and file name format is <SID>_<HOSTNAME>.xml so if your machine name is MACHINE1 and SID is VISION then context file name will be VISION_MACHINE1.xml

136. What is context file?
Oracle stores all the environment specific values in an xml file stored in $APPL_TOP/admin directory, which they call an application context file. This file is created by running adbldxml.sh/adbldxml.pl (Located in $AD_TOP/bin). Adbldxml.sh in turn runs oracle.apps.ad.context.GenerateContext java class.
Context file is generated by plugging in environment specific values in the context file template (don’t confuse this template with the configuration file templates) $AD_TOP/admin/template/adxmlctx.tmp. In older versions of 11i these replacement values were gotten from config.txt file (created by rapidwiz during installation), but in later versions, these values are gotten from the information, in existing configuration files and the database. adbldxml.sh/adbldxml.pl (in newer versions of autoconfig) creates a detailed log file, detailing the source for each context variable.

137. How to create User in Oracle Applications 11i? Can you delete a User?
Choose Users from the Manage menu to create a new user. This opens the Manage Users dialog box, where you choose New to enter information for a new user.
You provide the following user information:
User — Enter a name that identifies the user.
User Type — Select the type of the user.
Usernames — Choose Edit to access the Edit User dialog box where you can associate one or more user names with the user and specify whether the user is authorized to create shareable documents.
Other — Provide information that is specific to the client type. For example, for a thin-client workstation, you enter the SHELLS directory of the component where you are creating the user and the Express Server instance to which the user’s personal database will be connected.
Adding a new user creates a user task and sends it to the Task Processor. If you are not running the Task Processor in the background, you must run it in the foreground to process the user task.

138. What is Single Sign On? (If you are using portal 3.0.9 or 10G)?
Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite provides users with unified sign-on and authentication across all their enterprise resources, including desktops, client-server, custom and host-based mainframe applications. Even if users travel or share workstations, they can enjoy the flexibility of a single log-on that eliminates the need for multiple usernames and passwords and helps enforce strong password and authentication policies.

139. How to find OUI version?
OUI stands for Oracle Universal Installer.

140. What happens if the ICM goes down?
Since ICM is down so it can’t reach other managers & can’t shutdown them but yes if because of some reason Standard Manager dies & ICM is already dead Standard managers will not start. The ICM does the work of distributing the concurrent request to standard managers. If ICM goes down the concurrent requests in standard managers will be running fine. But no new request will be assigned to the standard managers. So wait until all your concurrent requests gets completed and then bounce the concurrent managers to start your ICM.

141. Provide a high-level overview of the cloning process and post-clone manual steps?
Rapid Cloning Steps for Windows R12Source System:
1.Run adpreclone.pl in Database Node
2.Perl $ORACLE_HOMEappsutilscripts$CONTEX_NAMEadpreclone.pl dbTier
3.Run adpreclone.pl in Apps Node
4.Perl $ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOMEadpreclone.pl appsTier
5.Shut down the Applications and database
6.Change all services type into manual (option)
7.Restart the system (option)
8.Check if any FNDLIBR programs are running or not
9.Take a cold backup of database and applicationsTarget System:Prepare your target system as per the source system configuration
1.Install Windows Server 2003 service pack 2 Enterprise Edition
2.Install Visual Studio 2005
3.Install Active perl
4.Install Cygwin Change make version from 3.81 into 3.80
5.Copy the Source system backup into target system
6.Set perl locations by using existing env file(It varies between DB node and Apps Node, We will set this two times)
7.Goto the $ORACLE_HOMEappsutilclonebin folder and the post clone scripts
8.Run Postclone scripts in db Tier
9.Perl $ORACLE_HOMEappsutilcloneBinadcfgclone.pl dbTier
10.Run Postclone in Apps Tier
11.Perl $COMMON_TOPclonebinadcfgclone.pl appsTierFinishing Tasks:1.Update the profile options
Rapid clone will update the site level profile options only, we need to update instance level profile options manually
2.Update the printer settings
3.Update the workflow configuration settings
Cloning an Oracle Applications instance will not update the host and instance specific information used by Oracle Workflow. Review the following tables and columns to verify there is no instance specific data in the Workflow configuration on the target system.
Important Notes:a)While running Postclone in appsTier it prompts hostname, we should give like hostname.domainname for example sys10.sample.com
b)While running post clone in appsTier it prompts visual studio directory don’t include bin folder. For example give like c:vcVC, don’t give like c:vcVCbin

142. Provide an introduction to AutoConfig. How does AutoConfig know which value from the XML file needs to be put in which file?
AutoConfig uses a context file to maintain key configuration files. A context file is an XML file in the $APPL_TOP/admin directory and is the centralized repository. When you run AutoConfig it reads the XML files and creates all the AutoConfig managed configuration files. For each configuration file maintained by AutoConfig, there exists a template file which determines which values to pick from the XML file.

143. Can you tell me a few tests you will do to troubleshoot self-service login problems? Which profile options and files will you check?
Check guest user/password in the DBC file, profile option guest user/password, the DB.
Check whether apache jserv is up.
Run IsItWorking, FND_WEB.PING, aoljtest, etc.

144. What could be wrong if you are unable to view concurrent manager log and output files?
Most likely the FNDFS listener is down. Look at the value of OUTFILE_NODE_NAME and LOGFILE_NODE_NAME in the FND_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS table. Look at the FND_NODES table. Look at the FNDFS_ entry in tnsnames.ora.

145. How will you change the location of concurrent manager log and output files?
The location of log files is determined by parameter $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG and that of output files by $APPLCSF/$APPLOUT.

146. If the user is experiencing performance issues, how will you go about finding the cause?
Trace his session (with waits) and use tkprof to analyze the trace file.
Take a statspack report and analyze it.
o/s monitoring using top/iostat/sar/vmstat.
Check for any network bottleneck by using basic tests like ping results.

147. How will you change the apps password?
Use FNDCPASS to change APPS password.
Manually modify wdbsvr.app/cgiCMD.dat files.
Change any DB links pointing from other instances.

148. Explain the steps for applying apps patch and database patch?
a) Login as applmgr and set the environment. For the Windows environment also, you have to test that CLASSPATH contains %JAVA_TOP%, %JAVA_TOP%loadjava.zip
b) Create a PATCH_TOP directory in the Base Directory (at the same level as APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, etc: this is just a recommendation) for the patches which will be downloaded. If this directory exists, this step can be skipped. An OS environment variable could be created for this directory. This will be done only one time, when the first patch will be applied.
c) Download the patch you want to apply in PATCH_TOP directory and unzip the patch.
d) Understand the README.txt file and complete the prerequisite or manual steps. Here, if there are any patched to apply as pre-requisite, in general, is created a document with all the steps involving in the patching process and the pre-requisite patches will be applied before the initial patch.
e) Ensure that the PLATFORM variable environment (under UNIX, Linux, Solaris) is set
f) Shut down APPS services. The database services and the listener must be up and running.
g) Enable Maintenance Mode.
h) Start AutoPatch in interactive mode. This task must be done from the directory where the patch driver is/was unzipped. Also, respond to the adpatch prompts. If there are more drivers to apply (there is no unified drive: there could be a database (d), copy (c) or generate (g) driver) restart the adpatch and apply the other patches.
i) Review the log files. By default, the location is $APPL_TOP/admin//log and the file is adpatch.log.
j) Review the customizations (if any). If a customization was modified by this patch, the customization must be applied again.

149. What is autoconfig?
AutoConfig is the tool, which is used to configure oracle application systems. It’s basically a perl script. At present there are more than 300 configuration files and environment files in application system. Whenever a change is made to any of the configuration parameter, the change needs to be propagated correctly to correct configuration and environment files. Managing such changes in such large number of files is really difficult.
AutoConfig uses a file called context file, which is used to configure changes. Context file is an XML file having all the parameters of application system. These parameters are part of some configuration file for some services or it may be part of some environment file. When we create an application system (using Rapid install), context file gets created automatically with all the parameters and there values. Most of the parameters take default value, where as some parameters takes the value that is supplied at the time of installation.

150. How to enable diagnostics for oracle applications?
FND: Enable Diagnostics.

151. What is .lgi file?
lgi files are created with patching along with .log files . .lgi files are informative log files containing information related to patch. You can check .lgi files to see what activities patch has done.

152. How will you skip worker during patch?
If in your adctrl there are six options shown then seventh is hidden option. (If there are seven options visible then 8th option is to Skip worker depending on ad version).

153. Which two tables are created at start of Apps Patch and drops at end of Patch?
FND_INSTALLED_PROCESS and AD_DEFFERED_JOBS are the tables that get updated while applying a patch mainly d or unified driver.

154. How to compile an Oracle Reports file?
Utility adrepgen is used to compile Reports. Syntax is given below adrepgen userid=apps<psswd> source = $PRODUCT_TOPsrwfilename.rdf dest=$PRODUCT_TOPsrwfilename.rdf stype=rdffile dtype=rdffile logfile=x.log overwrite=yes batch=yes dunit=character

155. What is difference between AD_BUGS and AD_APPLID_PATCHES?
AD_BUGS holds information about the various Oracle Applications bugs whose fixes have been applied (i.e. patched) in the Oracle Applications installation.
AD_APPLIED_PATCHES holds information about the “distinct” Oracle Applications patches that have been applied. If 2 patches happen to have the same name but are different in content (e.g. “merged” patches), then they are considered distinct and this table will therefore hold 2 records.

156. How you will troubleshoot if concurrent request is taking long time?
First you will try to check how far the query has gone (if in v$session_longops for example, or reading some session statistics) and if there is contention with another session (such as a lock for example) because it talks about a ‘concurrent request’.
Method 1: Trace the session using dbms_system.set_sql_trace_in_session (or) if u r using 10g, using dbms_monitor and look at the trace file to identify where the issue is. You can get the explain plan and tune the query.
Method 2:
1. Is this a new query (or) an existing query
2. Look for the wait event associated to this query.
3. What is the elapsed time for this query?
4. Are there are any db deadlocks?
5. Are there any long operations?
6. Are there any long transactions?
7. Based on the sql hash value, look at the sql_text from v$sql
8. Run an explain plan (or) use oradebug and trace the query if what bind variables are using and how the
data distribution is.
9. Based on the above information, look for when statistics was collected
10. If it is an old query, check if the plan has changed and if so, why?
Once u understand where the problem is, then solutions can be defined ranging from creating sql profiles / stored outlines (or) adding hints to the query and thoroughly test your changes.
Always remember to make one change and test for performance change. If you make a series of changes, it will be very difficult to isolate which has caused the performance improvement.

157. Why I need shared APPL_TOP?
If you have two/three Middle Tier for Large User base then you have to install APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP & ORA_TOP equal to number of Nodes in your configuration. So if you have three middle tiers, then you need these three top three times & if there are N nodes you need N time these three tops. This result in lots of Space Requirement & bigger problem is patching so if you have 5 nodes you need to apply apps patch 5 times.
So Oracle came up with solution to have single APPL_TOP which is shared across all nodes in apps. This will save space as well as patch timing. This concept of sharing APPL_TOP file system across all Middle Tier Nodes is called APPL_TOP.
You will say if I can share APPL_TOP why can’t I share COMMON_TOP & ORA_TOP as well which are also part of Application Tier, Yes you can & this concept is called as Shared Application Tier.

158. What is Shared Application Tier?
Sharing Application Tier (including APPL_TOP, COMN_TOP, ORA_TOP) across all Middle Tier Nodes in configuration is called as Shared Application Tier. So I can say shared APPL_TOP is subset of shared Application Tier, initially shared APPL_TOP came out & based on its advantages & popularity later COMMON_TOP & ORA_TOP files were also included & entire concept is called as Shared Application Tier.

159. Limitation with Shared APPL_TOP and Application Tier?
If you are running Apps on Windows you’ll be sad to hear that it’s not certified with Windows Operation System. More over you can share across same operation system like Linux to Linux & Solaris to Solaris.

160. What are the request incompatibilities? How conflict resolution concurrent manager solve them?
Checks if a request in queue can be run in parallel with the running request.

161. Where and how you update workflow notification mailer configuration setting?
This depends on which workflow mailer you are running C Mailer or Java Mailer

162. If you want to change Concurrent Manager log and out file location, is it possible, If Yes, How? If No, why not?
By default standard location is $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG, in some cases it can go to $FND_TOP/log as well.

163. How frequent you run Gather Schema Statistics program & with what option? Why you need to run it? What is cost based optimizer?
In Oracle Database there is something called Cost Based Optimizer (CBO) which other than doing many things also does query optimization. That is it determines the best or optimum method to run a query. Now when large changes to the data or database take place, the system performance may get slow. DBMS_STATS is the package which collects statistics for Cost Based Optimizer. Collecting Statistics lets the CBO know about the best methods for query optimization. The statistics include the Table statistics, Column statistics, Index statistics and System statistics. The DBMS_STATS package includes the following procedures
1.GATHER_INDEX_STATS, Index statistics
2.GATHER_TABLE_STATS, Table, column, and index statistics
3.GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS,Statistics for all objects in a schema
4.GATHER_DICTIONARY_STATS,Statistics for all dictionary objects
5.GATHER_DATABASE_STATS,Statistics for all objects in a database
Of all of the above usually the most used is GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS to gather statistics of all objects within a particular Schema. The Gather Schema Statistics process should be run on a regular basis (weekly at a minimum) and anytime large changes to the data or database take place.

164. If we run autoconfig which files will get effected?
In order to check list of files changes during autoconfig , you can run adchkcfg utility which will generate HTML report. This report will list all files and profile options going to change when you run AutoConfig.

165. What is difference between .xml file and AutoConfig?
Autoconfig is Utility to configure your Oracle Application environment. xml file is repository of all configuration from which AutoConfig picks configuration and populates related files.

166. What are few profile options which you update after cloning?
Rapid clone updates profile options specific to site level. If you have any profile option set at other levels like server, responsibility, user level then reset them.

167. How you will avoid your query from using indexes?
By changing the order of the columns that are used in the index, in the Where condition, or by concatenating the columns with some constant values.

168. What is an OUTER JOIN?
An OUTER JOIN returns all rows that satisfy the join condition and also returns some or all of those rows from one table for which no rows from the other satisfy the join condition

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2013-06-22T12:53:00.003-07:00

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Oracle RAC 11gR2 crsctl all resource start and stop

2013-04-29T00:45:00.001-07:00

Oracle RAC 11gR2 came up with new crsctl command which can be use to start particular resource like asm,listener
grid services or at a time we can start all resource and stop all resources.

Below are the commands to do:

crsctl start resource

crsctl start resource -all

crsctl stop resource

crsctl stop resource -all

Troubleshooting / Solutions for APP-FND-01630

2013-04-29T00:44:00.001-07:00

DBA /DEVELOPERS always in need of FNDLOAD utility, one of the below error is faced while working on this utility

FNDLOAD apps/DEV2APPLSYS O Y UPLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/aflvmlu.lct lookup_XXTWC_YIELD_DIGITALPHONE.ldt
Log filename : L6977176.log

Report filename : O6977176.out
APP-FND-01630: Cannot open file L6977176.log for appending

Cause: FDPFOP encountered an error when attempting to open file L6977176.log for appending.

Action: Verify that the filename is correct and that the environment variables controlling that filename are correct.

Action: If the file is opened in read mode, check that the file exists. Check that you have privileges to read the file in the file directory. Contact your system administrator to obtain read privileges.

Action: If the file is opened in write or append mode, check that you have privileges to create and write files in the file directory. Contact your system administrator to obtain create and write privileges.

Solutions:
Check the permission in the Directory where you are trying to do FNDLOAD upload.

touch file1

If you are able to create the file and have the required permission and still the issue exists,perform the below steps.

Note 1:

In R12. Context File is no more in $APPL_TOP/admin directory.It has been moved to $INST_TOP/appl/admin directory

Note 2:
Check env variables APPLTMP and APPLPTMP
$env|grep TMP
APPLTMP=/product/app/TESTAPPS/inst/apps/TESTAPPS_NodeApps/appltmp
APPLPTMP=/ora_backup/u0001
REPORTS_TMP=/product/app/TESTAPPS/inst/apps/TESTAPPS_NodeApps/temp
NodeApps(TESTAPPS) /product/app/TESTAPPS/inst/apps/TESTAPPS_NodeApps/admin/install

Change the value of the APPLTMP and APPLPTMP environment variable in context file to point to new Directory and run autoconfig to make changes saved.Also make sure
utl_file_dir has the same value.

sqlplus / as sysdba (On DB Tier)
show parameter utl_file_dir;

Step 1:Run cmclean.sql
>sqlplus apps

SQL*Plus: Release 10.1.0.5.0 - Production on Wed Nov 7 23:42:44 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Enter password:

Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP, Data Mining
and Real Application Testing options

SQL> @cmclean.sql

Note:CMCLEAN.SQL is the Non Destructive Script to Clean Concurrent Manager Tables

Step 2:Bounce the middle Tier applications services

Hope now the issue is resolved...

Apply Patch in Oracle Applications EBS

2013-04-29T00:41:00.001-07:00

Step 1: Before applying patch:(check invalid objects in DB):

SQL> select name from v$database;

NAME
---------
TESTDB

SQL> select owner,count(*) from dba_objects where status='INVALID' group by owner;

OWNER                            COUNT(*)
------------------------------ ----------
SYS                                     1
TEST_USER1                     2
TEST_USER2                     5
APPS                                  23

Step 2:Enable Maintainance mode

ebstest:applmgr::/home/applmgr>echo $TWO_TASK
TESTDB
Use 'adadmin' to enable maintainance mode before patching.

5.    Change Maintenance Mode

Change Maintenance Mode
   ----------------------------------------

Maintenance Mode is currently: [Enabled].

Backing up restart files, if any......Done.

             Change Maintenance Mode
   ----------------------------------------

Maintenance Mode is currently: [Enabled].

Step 3:Applying patch using 'adpatch'(auto patch utility):
=====================================================
Use: adpatch by going to patch directory

Go to the patch top directory,where all driver and required ldt files are present with the application
filesystem owner,makes sure all files have read,write and execute permission.
As described below:

Note:It is very important to review the readme.txt in unix vi editor before applying applying patch and follow the instruction as given in the readme.txt file and apply any pre-requistics patch if required.autoconfig run also not required unless it is specified after patch installation in readme.txt file.

ebstest:applmgr::/stage/patches/5522470>ls -altr
total 12432
-rwxrwxrwx    1 applmgr dba            2931 Oct 29 2007 u5522470.drv
-rwxrwxrwx    1 applmgr dba            1173 Oct 29 2007 f5522470.ldt
-rwxrwxrwx    1 applmgr dba         6323692 Oct 29 2007 b5522470.ldt
-rwxrwxrwx    1 applmgr dba              37 Oct 29 2007 marker1.txt
-rwxrwxrwx    1 applmgr dba            2852 Oct 29 2007 README.txt
-rwxrwxrwx    1 applmgr dba            5502 Oct 29 2007 README.html
drwxrwxrwx    5 applmgr dba             256 Feb 21 01:21 po
drwxrwxrwx   54 root     dba           12288 Feb 21 01:21 ..
drwxr-xr-x    3 applmgr dba             256 Feb 21 01:21 .
ebstest:applmgr::/stage/patches/5522470>adpatch

Review the README for pre-requisite information.

Your default directory is '/d21/TESTDB/apps/appl'.
Is this the correct APPL_TOP [Yes] ?

Verify the log file after applying patch

Step 4: Disable Maintainance mode again by using 'adadmin' utility:
=======================================================

Backing up restart files, if any......Done.

             Change Maintenance Mode
   ----------------------------------------

Maintenance Mode is currently: [Disabled].

Step 5: Bounce application after applying patch :
===================================================

Step a:Stop listener using adalnctl.sh

ebstest:applmgr::/u01/TESTDB/apps/comn/admin/scripts/TESTDB_ebstest>./adalnctl.sh stop

adalnctl.sh version 115.17

Shutting down listener process APPS_TESTDB.

adalnctl.sh: exiting with status 0

Step b:Stop applications using adstpall.sh

ebstest:applmgr::/u01/TESTDB/apps/comn/admin/scripts/TESTDB_ebstest>./adstpall.sh

You are running adstpall.sh version 115.22

Enter the APPS username: apps

Step c:Start listener using adalnctl.sh

ebstest:applmgr::/u01/TESTDB/apps/comn/admin/scripts/TESTDB_ebstest>./adalnctl.sh start

adalnctl.sh version 115.17

Starting up listener process APPS_TESTDB.

adalnctl.sh: exiting with status 0

Step d:Start applications using adstrtal.sh

ebstest:applmgr::/u01/TESTDB/apps/comn/admin/scripts/TESTDB_ebstest>./adstrtal.sh

You are running adstrtal.sh version 115.22

Step 6:After applying PATCH:
========================

Step a:Verify the patch is applied successfully:

SQL> select name from v$database;

NAME
---------
TESTDB

SQL> select bug_number,creation_date from ad_bugs where bug_number='5522470';

BUG_NUMBER                     CREATION_DATE
------------------------------ ---------------
5549427                        12-FEB-13

Step b:Run cmclean.sql
Run cmclean.sql from application node by going to $COMMON_TOP/admin/scipts/TESTDB_ebstest in 11i,where as in R12 goto $ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME or $INST_TOP/admin/scripts
commit;
Note:We run cmclean after clonning also to make sure the node name is updated in the FND_NODES Table correctly

SQL> select owner,count(*) from dba_objects where status='INVALID' group by owner;

OWNER                            COUNT(*)
------------------------------ ----------
SYS                                     1
TEST_USER1                    2
TEST_USER2                    5
APPS                                 22

Step c:Check the file versions got changed successfully after applying patch:

strings -a POXWARMB.pls|grep Header =>Can be used to check the file version.

ebstest:applmgr::/d21/TESTDB/apps/appl/po/11.5.0/sql>strings -a POXWARMB.pls|grep Header
strings -a POXWARMB.pls|grep Header
/* $Header: POXWARMB.pls 115.27.11510.7 2009/02/11 11:08:59 krsethur ship $*/
/* $Header: POXWARMB.pls 115.27.11510.7 2009/02/11 11:08:59 krsethur ship $*/

Step d:Do the Health Check of Oracle EBS Application

Login TESTDB application by using Home page URL

Note :We can get HOME page URL by using below query:
SQL>Select Home_URL from icx_parameter;

http://ebstest.abccomp.com:8035    with sysadmin/welcome123

Health check completed successfully by submitting active user Concurrent request REQUEST ID 28758820.

Step e:Intimate end User

Make sure you intimate the end User or release your application to the end User

DBA related LINUX commands

2013-04-29T00:38:00.001-07:00

Basic File Navigation

· The "pwd" command displays the current directory.

root> pwd

/u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0.1.0

· The "ls" command lists all files and directories in the specified directory. If no location is defined it acts on the current directory.

root> ls

root> ls /u01

root> ls -al

The "-a" flag lists hidden "." files. The "-l" flag lists file details.

· The "cd" command is used to change directories.

root> cd /u01/app/oracle

· The "touch" command is used to create a new empty file with the default permissions.

root> touch my.log

· The "rm" command is used to delete files and directories.

root> rm my.log

root> rm -R /archive

The "-R" flag tells the command to recurse through subdirectories.

· The "mv" command is used to move or rename files and directories.

root> mv [from] [to]

root> mv my.log my1.log

root> mv * /archive

root> mv /archive/* .

The "." represents the current directory.

· The "cp" command is used to copy files and directories.

root> cp [from] [to]

root> cp my.log my1.log

root> cp * /archive

root> cp /archive/* .

· The "mkdir" command is used to create new directories.

root> mkdir archive

· The "rmdir" command is used to delete directories.

root> rmdir archive

· The "find" command can be used to find the location of specific files.

root> find / -name dbmspool.sql

root> find / -print | grep -i dbmspool.sql

The "/" flag represents the staring directory for the search. Wildcards such as "dbms*" can be used for the filename.

· The "which" command can be used to find the location of an executable you are using.

oracle> which sqlplus

The "which" command searches your PATH setting for occurrences of the specified executable.

File Permissions

· The "umask" command can be used to read or set default file permissions for the current user.

root> umask 022

The umask value is subtracted from the default permissions (666) to give the final permission.

666 : Default permission

022 : - umask value

644 : final permission

· The "chmod" command is used to alter file permissions after the file has been created.

root> chmod 777 *.log

Owner Group World Permission

========= ========= ========= ======================

7 (u+rwx) 7 (g+rwx) 7 (o+rwx) read + write + execute

6 (u+wx) 6 (g+wx) 6 (o+wx) write + execute

5 (u+Rx) 5 (g+Rx) 5 (o+Rx) read + execute

4 (u+r) 4 (g+r) 4 (o+r) read only

2 (u+w) 2 (g+w) 2 (o+w) write only

1 (u+x) 1 (g+x) 1 (o+x) execute only

· Character eqivalents can be used in the chmod command.

root> chmod o+rwx *.log

root> chmod g+r *.log

root> chmod -Rx *.log

· The "chown" command is used to reset the ownership of files after creation.

root> chown -R oinstall.dba *

The "-R" flag causes the command ro recurse through any subdirectories.

OS Users Management

· The "useradd" command is used to add OS users.

root> useradd -G oinstall -g dba -d /usr/users/my_user -m -s /bin/ksh my_user

The "-G" flag specifies the primary group.

The "-g" flag specifies the secondary group.

The "-d" flag specifies the default directory.

The "-m" flag creates the default directory.

The "-s" flag specifies the default shell.

· The "usermod" command is used to modify the user settings after a user has been created.

root> usermod -s /bin/csh my_user

· The "userdel" command is used to delete existing users.

root> userdel -r my_user

The "-r" flag removes the default directory.

· The "passwd" command is used to set, or reset, the users login password.

root> passwd my_user

· The "who" command can be used to list all users who have OS connections.

root> who

root> who | head -5

root> who | tail -5

root> who | grep -i ora

root> who | wc -l

The "head -5" command restricts the output to the first 5 lines of the who command.

The "tail -5" command restricts the output to the last 5 lines of the who command.

The "grep -i ora" command restricts the output to lines containing "ora".

The "wc -l" command returns the number of lines from "who", and hence the number of connected users.

Process Management

· The "ps" command lists current process information.

root> ps

root> ps -ef | grep -i ora

· Specific processes can be killed by specifying the process id in the kill command.

root> kill -9 12345

uname and hostname

· The "uname" and "hostname" commands can be used to get information about the host.

root> uname -a

OSF1 oradb01.lynx.co.uk V5.1 2650 alpha

root> uname -a | awk '{ print $2 }'

oradb01.lynx.co.uk

root> hostname

oradb01.lynx.co.uk

· Error Lines in Files

You can return the error lines in a file using.

root> cat alert_LIN1.log | grep -i ORA-

The "grep -i ORA-" command limits the output to lines containing "ORA-". The "-i" flag makes the comparison case insensitive. A count of the error lines can be returned using the "wc" command. This normally give a word count, but the "-l" flag alteres it to give a line count.

root> cat alert_LIN1.log | grep -i ORA- | wc -l

Alias

· An alias is a named shortcut for a longer command using the following format.

alias name='command'

For example, if you require sudo access for a specific command, you might want to include this as an alias so you don't have to remember to type it.

alias myscript='sudo -u oracle /path/to/myscript'

Remove DOS CR/LFs (^M)

· Remove DOS style CR/LF characters (^M) from UNIX files using.

sed -e 's/^M$//' filename > tempfile

The newly created tempfile should have the ^M character removed.

Where available, it is probably better to use the dos2unix and unix2dos commands.

Compress Files

In order to save space on the filesystem you may wish to compress files such as archived redo logs. This can be using either the gzip or the compress commands. The gzip command results in a compressed copy of the original file with a ".gz" extension. The gunzip command reverses this process.

gzip myfile

gunzip myfile.gz

The compress command results in a compressed copy of the original file with a ".Z" extension. The uncompress command reverses this process.

compress myfile

uncompress myfile

General Performance

vmstat

Reports virtual memory statistics.

# vmstat 5 3

procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- -----cpu------

r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa st

0 0 0 1060608 24372 739080 0 0 1334 63 1018 1571 14 11 66 10 0

0 0 0 995244 24392 799656 0 0 6302 160 1221 1962 10 10 62 18 0

0 0 0 992376 24400 799784 0 0 1 28 992 1886 3 2 95 0 0

free

Reports the current memory usage. The "-/+ buffers/cache:" line represents the true used and free memory, ignoring the Linux file system cache.

# free

total used free shared buffers cached

Mem: 8178884 4669760 3509124 0 324056 1717756

-/+ buffers/cache: 2627948 5550936

Swap: 10289148 0 10289148

iostat

Reports I/O statistics.

# iostat

Linux 3.2.10-3.fc16.x86_64 (maggie.localdomain) 03/19/2012 _x86_64_(4 CPU)

avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle

2.02 0.23 0.51 0.78 0.00 96.46

Device: tps kB_read/s kB_wrtn/s kB_read kB_wrtn

sda 9.23 100.55 62.99 1796672 1125538

dm-0 13.60 100.31 62.99 1792386 1125524

dm-1 0.02 0.08 0.00 1432 0

CPU Usage

sar

On Linux systems sar (System Activity Reporter) is probably one of the simplest and most versatile tools for reporting system utilization including CPU, memory, disk and network activity. It automatically collects system activity statistics when installed using the following command.

# yum install sysstat

The sar command syntax takes the following form.

# sar [options] [interval [count]]

top

Displays top tasks.

CRON

There are two methods of editing the crontab file. First you can use the "crontab -l > filename" option to list the contents and pipe this to a file. Once you've editied the file you can then apply it using the "crontab filename".

crontab -l > newcron

Edit newcron file.

crontab newcron

Alternatively you can use the "crontab -e" option to edit the crontab file directly.

The entries have the following elements.

field allowed values

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

minute 0-59

hour 0-23

day of month 1-31

month 1-12

day of week 0-7 (both 0 and 7 are Sunday)

user Valid OS user

command Valid command or script.

The first 5 fields can be specified using the following rules.

* - All available values or "first-last".

3-4 - A single range representing each possible from the start to the end of the range inclusive.

1,2,5,6 - A specific list of values.

1-3,5-8 - A specific list of ranges.

0-23/2 - Every other value in the specified range.

The following entry runs a cleanup script a 01:00 each Sunday. Any output or errors from the script are piped to /dev/null to prevent a buildup of mails to root.

0 1 * * 0 /u01/app/oracle/dba/weekly_cleanup > /dev/null 2>&1

APPLICATIONS AND WEB BROWSER CACHE CLEAR

2013-04-29T00:35:00.003-07:00

As a DBA, we use to get request for APPLICATIONS AND WEB BROWSER CACHE CLEAR, Please follow the steps:-

Apache / iAS Cache clear for 11.5.9 or 11.5.10.x

=====================================

- shutdown iAS server

- go to $OA_HTML (for 11.5.9) or $COMMON_TOP (for 11.5.10.x) directory

- backup the directory _pages and delete its contents by running for instance:

rm -rf $COMMON_TOP/_pages/*

- for modplsql caches remove contents of $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/modplsql/cache directory

- restart iAS server

Cache clear on middle tier for R12

=========================

Note: Clearing _pages directory is no longer a recommended solution.

Clearing the _pages in R12 creates blank login page issue, as in R12 the jsp files does not get compiled automatically.

From Forntend

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

- go to "Functional Administrator" responsibility

- select Core Services => Caching Framework => Global Configuration => Clear cache

From backend

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

- adopmnctl.sh stopall

- rm -fr $INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/oacore/persistence/*

- rm -fr $INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/oafm/persistence/*

- rm -fr $INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/forms/persistence/*

- adopmnctl.sh startall

Cabo

-----

Images and style sheets can be corrupted or out of sync in the cabo caches,you may need to clear the related directories after backup:

- $OA_HTML/cabo/images/cache

- $OA_HTML/cabo/styles/cache

For Portal

----------

- go to the url: http://<host.domain>:<port>/pls/admin_/gateway.htm or cache.htm

- click on "Cache Settings" option and note the "Cache Directory"

- go to this directory and delete all the cache files in the directory and sub directories

WebADI / BNE cache

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

For instance when enabling BNE log

- go to url: http://<host.domain>:<port>/oa_servlets/oracle.apps.bne.framework.BneAdminServlet

- click on the "clear-cache" link

- at the bottom of the page you should see 'Cache Cleared'

How to clear cache for Web Browsers

=============================

For Netscape:

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

- go to menu Edit => Preferences…,

- choose 'Cache' in 'Advanced' category,

- click on buttons 'Clear Memory Cache' and 'Clear Disk Cache'.

- close all Netscape windows and restart new browser session.

For Internet Explorer:

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

- go to menu Tools => Internet Options…,

- select Genera' tab,

- click on button 'Delete Files' in 'Temporary Internet files' zone

- close all IE windows and restart new browser session.

For Mozilla Firefox:

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

- go to menu Tools

- select 'Clear Private Data...' to clear the entire cache

- go to menu Edit or Tools

- select Preferences or Options.

- expand the Advance' options and choose Cach' or Privacy

- click the button called Clear Cache.

For Safari:

----------

- go to Safari menu

- select Empty Cache => Click 'Empty' in the dialogue box

For Jinitiator

-----------

Two possibilities depending of the Jinitiator version:

for 1.1.8.x versions:

- delete all files in directory:

C:\Program Files\Oracle\Jinitiator <version>\jcache\

for 1.3.1.x versions:

- go to Start => Parameters => Control Panel

- double-click on "Jinitiator <version>" icon

- in the new pop-up window, click on "Cache" tab

- click on "Clear Jar Cache " button. On prompt, click Yes.

(you can also delete directly all files under directory: C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Oracle Jar Cache)

For Java

--------

Java/JRE plug-in (Windows)

- go to Start => Parameters => Control Panel

- double-click on "Java" icon

- in the new pop-up window, click on "General" tab

- click on "Delete Files..." button (you can select Applets, Applications or other files before)

For JVM

--------

- go to responsibility "Functional Administrator"

- click on "Core Services" tab then the "Caching Framework" sub-tab

- click on "Global Configuration" link then click on "Clear all cache" button to clear all of the Java Cache's

Query / Queries to Check the status of DATA GUARD

2013-04-29T00:33:00.004-07:00

1. Issue the following query to show information about the protection mode, the protection level, the role of the database, and switchover status:

SELECT DATABASE_ROLE, DB_UNIQUE_NAME INSTANCE, OPEN_MODE, PROTECTION_MODE, PROTECTION_LEVEL, SWITCHOVER_STATUS FROM V$DATABASE;

2. On the standby database, query the V$ARCHIVED_LOG view to identify existing files in the archived redo log.

SELECT SEQUENCE#, FIRST_TIME, NEXT_TIME FROM V$ARCHIVED_LOG ORDER BY SEQUENCE#;

SELECT THREAD#, MAX(SEQUENCE#) AS "LAST_APPLIED_LOG" FROM V$LOG_HISTORY GROUP BY THREAD#;

3. On the standby database, query the V$ARCHIVED_LOG view to verify the archived redo log files were applied.

SELECT SEQUENCE#,APPLIED FROM V$ARCHIVED_LOG ORDER BY SEQUENCE#;

4. Query the physical standby database to monitor Redo Apply and redo transport services activity at the standby site.

SELECT PROCESS, STATUS, THREAD#, SEQUENCE#, BLOCK#, BLOCKS FROM V$MANAGED_STANDBY;

5. To determine if real-time apply is enabled, query the RECOVERY_MODE column of the V$ARCHIVE_DEST_STATUS view.

SELECT RECOVERY_MODE FROM V$ARCHIVE_DEST_STATUS;

6. The V$DATAGUARD_STATUS fixed view displays events that would typically be triggered by any message to the alert log or server process trace files.

SELECT MESSAGE FROM V$DATAGUARD_STATUS;

7. Determining Which Log Files Were Not Received by the Standby Site.

SELECT LOCAL.THREAD#, LOCAL.SEQUENCE# FROM (SELECT THREAD#, SEQUENCE# FROM V$ARCHIVED_LOG WHERE DEST_ID=1) LOCAL WHERE LOCAL.SEQUENCE# NOT IN (SELECT SEQUENCE# FROM V$ARCHIVED_LOG WHERE DEST_ID=2 AND THREAD# = LOCAL.THREAD#);

8.If a delayed apply has been specified or an archive log is missing then switchover may take longer than expected.

Check v$managed_standby

select process, status, sequence# from v$managed_standby;

OR alternatively:

select name, applied from v$archived_log;

ISSUES in GATHER SCHEMA STATISTICS

2013-04-29T00:32:00.003-07:00

There is a familiar error with Locks and Duplicate columns:-

Error

*******

**Starts**14-APR-2012 23:58:43

**Ends**15-APR-2012 05:34:48

ORA-0000: normal, successful completion

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Start of log messages from FND_FILE

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

In GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS , schema_name= ALL percent= 10 degree = 24 internal_flag= NOBACKUP

stats on table AQ$_WF_CONTROL_P is locked

stats on table FND_CP_GSM_IPC_AQTBL is locked

stats on table FND_SOA_JMS_IN is locked

stats on table FND_SOA_JMS_OUT is locked

Error #1: ERROR: While GATHER_TABLE_STATS:

object_name=GL.JE_BE_LINE_TYPE_MAP***ORA-20001: invalid column name or duplicate columns/column groups/expressions in method_opt***

Error #2: ERROR: While GATHER_TABLE_STATS:

object_name=GL.JE_BE_LOGS***ORA-20001: invalid column name or duplicate columns/column groups/expressions in method_opt***

Error #3: ERROR: While GATHER_TABLE_STATS:

object_name=GL.JE_BE_VAT_REP_RULES***ORA-20001: invalid column name or duplicate columns/column groups/expressions in method_opt***

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

End of log messages from FND_FILE

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Successfully resubmitted concurrent program FNDGSCST with request ID 35759846 to start at 22-APR-2012 00:00:00 (ROUTINE=AFPSRS)

Solution

***********

1. Please follow Doc ID 375351.1 to unlock the tables:

AQ$_WF_CONTROL_P

FND_CP_GSM_IPC_AQTBL

FND_SOA_JMS_IN

FND_SOA_JMS_OUT

From DB node run below to unlock tables

exec dbms_stats.unlock_table_stats('APPLSYS','AQ$_WF_CONTROL_P');

exec dbms_stats.unlock_table_stats('APPLSYS','FND_CP_GSM_IPC_AQTBL');

exec dbms_stats.unlock_table_stats('APPLSYS','FND_SOA_JMS_IN');

exec dbms_stats.unlock_table_stats('APPLSYS','FND_SOA_JMS_OUT');

2. Please perform the following action plan from Doc ID 781813.1 :

Find out all duplicates and/or obsolete rows in FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS and delete one of them.

Remember to take backup of the FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS table before deleting any data.

SQL> create table FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS_BKP as select * from FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS;

-- identify duplicate rows

select table_name, column_name, count(*)

from FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS

group by table_name, column_name

having count(*) > 1;

-- Use above results on the following SQL to delete duplicates

delete from FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS

where table_name = '&TABLE_NAME'

and column_name = '&COLUMN_NAME'

and rownum=1;

-- Use following SQL to delete obsoleted rows

delete from FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS

where (table_name, column_name) in

(

select hc.table_name, hc.column_name

from FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS hc , dba_tab_columns tc

where hc.table_name ='&TABLE_NAME'

and hc.table_name= tc.table_name (+)

and hc.column_name = tc.column_name (+)

and tc.column_name is null

);

3. Run "Gather Schema Statistics" program again.

Voila... It will be successful

HOWTO: Change Forms Servlet Mode to Socket Mode

2013-04-29T00:30:00.004-07:00

HOWTO: Change Forms Servlet Mode to Socket Mode

1. Shutdown the middle tiers.

2. Change to servlet mode as follows:

i. Change to servlet mode

Replace the below command with the "Apps password"

$FND_TOP/bin/txkrun.pl -script=ChangeFormsMode \

-contextfile=$CONTEXT_FILE \

-mode=servlet \

-runautoconfig=No \

-appspass=<APPS password>

ii. Run autoconfig for servlet mode to take effect

$ cd $AD_TOP/bin

$ ./adconfig.sh contextfile=$CONTEXT_FILE appspass=<apps pwd>

Make sure the log file has no errors.

3. Change oc4jadmin password

a. Back up the original system-jazn-data.xml file

$ cp -pr $INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/forms/config/system-jazn-data.xml

$INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/forms/config/system-jazn-data.xml.ori

b. Change oc4jadmin password

$ vi $INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/forms/config/system-jazn-data.xml

Change the below line alone as follows in the file so that it looks like below after change:

<credentials>!welcome</credentials>

========= with change ============================

<user>

<name>oc4jadmin</name>

<display-name>OC4J Administrator</display-name>

<description>OC4J Administrator</description>

<credentials>!welcome</credentials>

</user>

<user>

===================================================

4. Startup the opmnctl servers alone

$ cd $SCRIPT_TOP

$ ./adopmnctl startall

5. Deploying a New Forms EAR File

a. Run the following command to make sure your password is correct :

$AF_JRE_TOP/bin/java -jar $ORACLE_HOME/../1013/j2ee/home/admin_client.jar deployer:oc4j:opmn://iehibu08.iehibdom.com:6510/forms oc4jadmin welcome -validateURI

b. If the above script in Step 5.a. succeeded then Run deployment script as follows:

$ $FND_TOP/bin/txkrun.pl -script=CfgOC4JApp

Enter the following when prompted:

Enter Application name for re-deployment ? forms

Enter Oc4j Instance password for re-deployment ? welcome

Run Autoconfig <Yes/No> ? No

Check the logfile for any errors

c. Shutdown the opmnctl servers

$ cd $SCRIPT_TOP

$ ./adopmnctl stopall

Make sure all the processes running as ap<sid> are down.

d. Carry out post-deployment tasks (Carry this out if Step 5.b. above had no errors)

i. Restore backed up file

$ cp -pr $INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/forms/config/system-jazn-data.xml

$INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/forms/config/system-jazn-data.xml.passwdchg

$ mv $INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/forms/config/system-jazn-data.xml.ori

$INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/forms/config/system-jazn-data.xml

6. Startup middle tiers services.

APPS DBA Interview Questions

2013-04-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

R12 APPS DBA Interview Questions:-

1Q)What is your day to day activity as an Apps DBA?
Ans:
As an Apps DBA we monitor the system for different alerts (Entreprise Manager or third party tools used for configuring the Alerts) Tablespace Issues, CPU consuption
Database blocking sessions..etc
Regular maintanance activies like cloning,patching,custom code migrations (provided by developers)
Working with user isses.

2Q)How often Do you patch?
Ans: Usually for non-production the patching request comes aroung weekly 4-6 and the same patches will be applied to Production in the outage or maintanance window.
Production has weekly maintance window (Eg Sat 6PM to 9PM) where all the changes (patches) will applied on production.

3Q)How often Do you clone?
Ans: Cloning happens biweekly or monthly depending on the organization requierement.

4Q)What change control/management or CCB?
Ans: Every organization has change control process, Change control process is no change goes into production witout proir testing on non-production instance.
Eg: If a user encouters an issue in production instance and the fix for the issue is known, Still the fix should not be applied directly on production, as it is not tested.
The same fix need to be first applied on a non-prod instance where the similar issue is happening and test the issue and instance stability.
Once user is happy with the results the change or fix will be implemented to production with the approval from Change control Board, CCB is a managemant team who reviews all the changes being deployed to production,
Depending on the need and criticality and testing results they approve the change movement to production instance.

5Q)How much time does it take to upgrade, clone ?
Ans: Clone usually takes around 48hrs to copy and configure and upgrade depends on the database size and module involved.
upgrade from 11.5.9 to 11.5.10.2 will take around 3-4 days and 11i to R12 upgrade will take around 4-5 days.

6Q)What is the meaning QA,CRP,SIT,DEV,UAT,PRE-PROD,PROD Instance?
QA - Tesing Instance
CRP - Conference Room Pilot
SIT - System Integration Testing
DEV - Developement
UAT- User Acceptence Testing
STAGE - Pre-production Instance
Prod - Production/actuall instance where the business is running

7Q)What do we have in FND_NODES?

Ans:
FND_NODES table contains information about node_names and services enabled on a node.
In multinode instance if you want to know which node is running what services, You can query the fnd_nodes and get that information.

8Q)when do we run FND_CONC_CLONE.SETUP_CLEAN ?
Ans:
FND_NODES table contains node information, If you have cloned test instance from production still the node information of production will be present after clone in the test instance.
we use FND_CONC_CLONE.SETUP_CLEAN to cleanup FND_NODES table in the target to clear source node information as part of cloning.
Below syntax to execute:
SQL> sho user
USER is "APPS"
SQL> EXEC FND_CONC_CLONE.SETUP_CLEAN;
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> commit;
Commit complete.

This will delete all the entries in the fnd_nodes table, to populate it with target system node information, Run autoconfig on DB node and Applications node.

9Q)How verify the sysadmin password from command line?
Ans:
This utility can be used to verify the GUEST/ORACLE password
SQL>select fnd_web_sec.validate_login('SYSADMIN','<sysadmin_password>')from dual;
If it returns Y then sysadmin password is correct
If it returns N then sysadmin password that we are using
Eg:
SQL> select fnd_web_sec.validate_login('SYSADMIN','SYSADMIN123') from dual;
FND_WEB_SEC.VALIDATE_LOGIN('SYSADMIN','SYSADMIN123')
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N
SQL> select fnd_web_sec.validate_login('SYSADMIN','SYSADMIN') from dual;
FND_WEB_SEC.VALIDATE_LOGIN('SYSADMIN','SYSADMIN')
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Y

10Q)List out few Apps related tables ?
Ans:
CONCURRENT REQUEST/PROGRAM/MANAGERS
-------------------
FND_CONCURRENT_QUEUES
FND_CONCURRENT_PROGRAMS
FND_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS
FND_CONCURRENT_PROCESSES
FND_CONCURRENT_QUEUE_SIZE

FND/AOL Tables
--------------
FND_APPL_TOPS
FND_LOGINS
FND_USER
FND_DM_NODES
FND_TNS_ALIASES
FND_NODES
FND_RESPONSIBILITY
FND_DATABASES
FND_UNSUCCESSFUL_LOGINS
FND_LANGUAGES
FND_APPLICATION
FND_PROFILE_OPTION_VALUES

AD/Patches
-------------
AD_APPLIED_PATCHES
AD_PATCH_DRIVERS
AD_BUGS
AD_INSTALL_PROCESSES
AD_SESSIONS
AD_APPL_TOPS

11Q) How To find the latest application version
select ARU_RELEASE_NAME||'.'||MINOR_VERSION||'.'||TAPE_VERSION version, START_DATE_ACTIVE updated,ROW_SOURCE_COMMENTS "how it is done",BASE_RELEASE_FLAG "Base version" FROM AD_RELEASES where END_DATE_ACTIVE IS NULL

12Q) How to find out if any patch except localisation patch is applied or not, if applied, that what all drivers it contain and time of it's application
select A.APPLIED_PATCH_ID, A.PATCH_NAME, A.PATCH_TYPE, B.PATCH_DRVIER_ID, B.DRIVER_FILE_NAME, B.ORIG_PATCH_NAME, B.CREATION_DATE, B.PLATFORM, B.SOURCE_CODE, B.CREATIONG_DATE, B.FILE_SIZE, B.MERGED_DRIVER_FLAG, B.MERGE_DATE from AD_APPLIED_PATCHES A, AD_PATCH_DRIVERS B where A.APPLIED_PATCH_ID = B.APPLIED_PATCH_ID and A.PATCH_NAME = ''

13Q) How to know that if the patch is applied successfully, applied on both node or not, start time of patch application and end time of patch application, patch top location , session id ... patch run id */
select D.PATCH_NAME, B.APPLICATIONS_SYSTEM_NAME, B.INSTANCE_NAME, B.NAME, C.DRIVER_FILE_NAME, A.PATCH_DRIVER_ID, A.PATCH_RUN_ID, A.SESSION_ID, A.PATCH_TOP, A.START_DATE, A.END_DATE, A.SUCCESS_FLAG, A.FAILURE_COMMENTS from AD_PATCH_RUNS A, AD_APPL_TOPS B, AD_PATCH_DRVIERS C, AD_APPLIED_PATCHES D where A.APPL_TOP_ID = B.APPL_TOP_ID AND A.PATCH_DRIVER_ID = C.PATCH_DRIVER_ID and C.APPLIED_PATCH_ID = D.APPLIED_PATCH_ID and A.PATCH_DRIVER_ID in (select PATCH_DRIVER_ID from AD_PATCH_DRIVERS where APPLIED_PATCH_ID in (select APPLIED_PATCH_ID from AD_APPLIED_PATCHES where PATCH_NAME = '')) ORDER BY 3;

14Q) Howto find the base application version
select ARU_RELEASE_NAME||'.'||MINOR_VERSION||'.'||TAPE_VERSION version, START_DATE_ACTIVE when updated, ROW_SOURCE_COMMENTS "how it is done" from AD_RELEASES where BASE_RELEASE_FLAG = 'Y'

15Q) How To find all available application version
select ARU_RELEASE_NAME||'.'||MINOR_VERSION||'.'||TAPE_VERSION version, START_DATE_ACTIVE when updated, END_DATE_ACTIVE "when lasted", CASE WHEN BASE_RELEASE_FLAG = 'Y' Then 'BASE VERSION' ELSE 'Upgrade' END "BASE/UPGRADE", ROW_SOURCE_COMMENTS "how it is done" from AD_RELEASES

16Q) How To get file version of any application file which is changed through patch application
select A.FILE_ID, A.APP_SHORT_NAME, A.SUBDIR, A.FILENAME, max(B.VERSION) from AD_FILES A, AD_FILE_VERSIONS B where A.FILE_ID = B.FILE_ID and B.FILE_ID = 86291 group by A.FILE_ID, A.APP_SHORT_NAME, A.SUBDIR, A.FILENAME

17Q) How To get information related to how many time driver file is applied for bugs
select * from AD_PATCH_RUN_BUGS where BUG_ID in (select BUG_ID from AD_BUGS where BUG_NUMBER = ''

18Q) How To find latest patchset level for module installed
select APP_SHORT_NAME, max(PATCH_LEVEL) from AD_PATCH_DRIVER_MINIPKS GROUP BY APP_SHORT_NAME

19Q) How To find what is being done by the patch
select A.BUG_NUMBER "Patch Number", B. PATCh_RUN_BUG_ID "Run Id",D.APP_SHORT_NAME appl_top, D.SUBDIR, D.FILENAME, max(F.VERSION) latest, E.ACTION_CODE action from AD_BUGS A, AD_PATCH_RUN_BUGS B, AD_PATCH_RUN_BUG_ACTIONS C, AD_FILES D, AD_PATCH_COMMON_ACTIONS E, AD_FILE_VERSIONS F where A.BUG_ID = B.BUG_ID and B.PATCH_RUN_BUG_ID = C.PATCH_RUN_BUG_ID and C.FILE_ID = D.FILE_ID and E.COMMON_ACTION_ID = C.COMMON_ACTION_ID and D.FILE_ID = F.FILE_ID and A.BUG_NUMBER = '' and B.PATCH_RUN_BUG_ID = ' < > ' and C.EXECUTED_FLAG = 'Y' GROUP BY A.BUG_NUMBER, B.PATCH_RUN_BUG_ID, D. APP_SHORT_NAME, D>SUBDIR, D.FILENAME, E.ACTION_CODE

20Q) How To find Merged patch Information from database in Oracle Applications
select bug_number from ad_bugs where bug_id in ( select bug_id from ad_comprising_patches where patch_driver_id =(select patch_driver_id from ad_patch_drivers where applied_patch_id =&n) );

21Q) How toto know, what all has been done during application of PATCH
Select J.PATCh_NAME, H.APPLICATIONS_SYSTEM_NAME Instance_Name, H.NAME, I.DRIVER_FILE_NAME, D.APP_SHORT_NAME appl_top,D.SUBDIR, D.FILENAME, max(F.VERSION) latest, E.ACTION_CODE action from AD_BUGS A, AD_PATCH_RUN_BUGS B,AD_PATCH_RUN_BUG_ACTIONS C, AD_FILES D, AD_PATCH_COMMON_ACTIONS E, AD_FILE_VERSIONS F, AD_PATCH_RUNS G,
AD_APPL_TOPS H, AD_PATCH_DRIVERS I, AD_APPLIED_PATCHES J where A.BUG_ID = B.BUG_ID and
B.PATCH_RUN_BUG_ID = C.PATCH_RUN_BUG_ID and C.FILE_ID = D.FILE_ID and E.COMMON_ACTION_ID = C.COMMON_ACTION_ID
and D.FILE_ID = F.FILE_ID and G.APPL_TOP_ID = H.APPL_TOP_ID and G.PATCH_DRIVER_ID = I.PATCH_DRIVER_ID and
I.APPLIED_PATCH_ID = J.APPLIED_PATCH_ID and B.PATCH_RUN_ID = G.PATCH_RUN_ID and C.EXECUTED_FLAG = 'Y' and
G.PATCH_DRIVER_ID in (select PATCH_DRIVER_ID from AD_PATCH_DRIVERS where APPLIED_PATCH_ID
in (select APPLIED_PATCH_ID from AD_APPLIED_PATCHES where PATCH_NAME = 'merged'))
GROUP BY J.PATCH_NAME, H.APPLICATIONS_SYSTEM_NAME, H.NAME, I.DRIVER_FILE_NAME, D.APP_SHORT_NAME, D.SUBDIR,
D.FILENAME, E.ACTION_CODE

22Q) How to find out Patch level of mini Pack
Select product_version,patch_level from FND_PROUDCT_INSTALLATIONS where patch_level like '%&shortname%';
Replace short name by name of Oracle Apps Minipack for which you want to find out Patch level . ex.
AD - for Applications DBA
GL - for General Ledger
PO - Purchase Order

23Q)List out Profile Options Useful for Oracle Apps DBA?
Here is the list of few profile options which Apps DBA use frequently.
**It is not necessary that you as Apps DBA must know all profile options**
Applications Help Web Agent
Applications Servlet Agent
Applications Web Agent
Concurrent: Active Request Limit
Concurrent: Hold Requests
Concurrent: Multiple Time Zones
Concurrent: Report Access Level
Concurrent: Report Copies
Concurrent: Request priority
Database Instance
Enable Security Group
FND: Debug Log Filename
FND: Debug Log Level
Forms Runtime Parameters
Gateway User ID
ICX: Discoverer Launcher
ICX: Forms Launcher
ICX: Report Launcher
ICX: Limit Connect
ICX: Limit time
ICX: Session Timeout
MO Operating Unit
Node Trust Level
RRA: Delete Temporary Files
RRA: Enabled
RRA: Service Prefix
RRA: Maximum Transfer Size
Self Service Personal Home Page Mode
Sign-On: Audit Level
Signon Password Failure Limit
Signon Password Hard to Guess
Signon Password Length
Signon Password No Reuse
Site Name
Socket Listener Port
TCF: Host
TCF: Port
TWO TASK
Viewer: Text

24Q)I am applying a patch , can I open another session and run adadmin ?
Ans:
Yes, unless you are running a process where workers are involved

25Q)I am applying a patch , can I open another session in another node and run adpatch?
Ans:
No

The Following are the few of Apps DBA 11i interview question

=====================================================

1. How to determine Oracle Apps 11i Version ?
Ans : select RELEASE_NAME from fnd_product_groups;
You should see output like
RELEASE_NAME-----------------------11.5.10.2
2. How to find Database version ?
Ans :
SQL> select * from v$version;
The command returns the release information, such as the following:Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.7.0 - ProductionPL/SQL Release 9.2.0.7.0 - ProductionCORE 9.2.0.7.0 ProductionTNS for 32-bit Windows: Version 9.2.0.7.0 - ProductionNLSRTL Version 9.2.0.7.0 - Production
3. How to find opatch Version ?
Ans : opatch is utility to apply database patch , In order to find opatch version execute"$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch version"
4. How to find out invalid objects in the database
Ans : select count(*) from dba_objects where status ='INVALID'
5. How you will see hidden files in linux/solaris?
Ans : ls -la
6. How to find that the database is 64-bit/32-bit?
Ans : $RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/bin/file oracle
7. What is top command?
Ans : top is a operating system command, it will display top 10 processes which are taking high cpu and memory. 8. What is a patch?Ans : A patch can be a solution for a bug/it can be a new feature.

9. What are the different types of patches?
Ans : oneoff, mini packs, family packs, maintanance packs, rollup pathches, colsolidated patches.
8. What is a oneoff patch?
Ans : An oneoff patch is a small patch of (20-90K size) without any pre-req’s
9. What is a mini pack ?
Ans : A mini pack is one which will upgrade any product patchset level to next level like AD.H to AD.I
10. What is Family pack ?
Ans : A Family pack is one which will upgade the patchset level of all the products in that family to perticular patchsetlevel.
11. What is Maintanance pack ?
Ans : A maintanance pack will upgrade applications from one version to another like 11.5.8 to 11.5.9
12. What is a Rollup patch?
Ans : A rollup patch is one which will deliver bug fixes identified after the release of any major application versions like 11.5.8/11.5.9
13. What is consilidated patch?
Ans: Consolidated patches will come into pictures after upgrades from one version of applications to anoter, all post upgrade patches will a consolidated and given as consolidated patch.
14. How u will find whether a patch is applied/not?
Ans : Query ad_bugs.

15. What is the other table where u can query what are the patches applied?
Ans : Ad_applied_patches
16. What is the difference between ad_bugs and ad_applied_patches?
Ans: A patch can deliver solution for more than one bug, so ad_applied_patches may not give u the perfect information as in case of ad_bugs.
17. How u apply a patch?
Ans : adpatch

18. What inputs you need to apply a patch other than driver name and etc?
Ans : apps and system passwords

19. What are the table u r adpatch will create and when?
Ans : Adpatch will create FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES and AD_DEFERRED_JOBS table when it will apply d,g and u drivers
20. What is the significance of FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES and AD_DEFERRED_JOBS table?
Ans: FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES table will store the worker information like what job is assigned to which worker and its status. AD_DEFERRED_JOBS will come into picture when some worker is failed, it will be moved to AD_DEFERRED_JOBS table, from where again adpatch will take that job and try to resign, after doing this 3 times if still that worker is failing, then adpatch will stop patching and throw the error that perticular worker has failed. We need to trouble shoot and restrart the worker.
21. If it is a multinode installation which driver we need to apply on which node?
Ans: c,d,g on concurrent node and c, g on web node. If it is u-driver we need to apply on all nodes.
22.While applying a application patch is that necessary that u r database and listener should be up?
Ans: Yes . why because adpatch will connect to database and update so many tables etc…..
23. While applying a patch if that patch is failing because of a pre-req then how you will apply that pre-req patch and resume with the current patch?
Ans: We need to take the backup of FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES and AD_DEFERRED_JOBS tables and restart directory at APPL_TOP/amdin/SID and then use adctrl to quit all the workers. Then apply the pre-req patch , after that rename u r restart directory to its original name and create FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES and AD_DEFERRED_JOBS tables from the bcakup tables. Start adpatch session and take the options want to continue previous session.
24. What is adctrl?
Ans: Adctrl is one of the adutilities, which is used to check the status of workers and to manage the workers.
25. Can u name some of the menu options in adctrl?
Ans: Check the status of workers, tell manager that worker has quited, restart a failed worker etc….
26. How to skip a worker and why?
Ans: We can skip a worker using option 8 in adctrl which is hidden. We will go for skipping a worker when we have executed the job which the worker is supposed to do.
27. How adpatch knows what are the pre-req’s for the patch which it is applying?
Ans: With every patch a file called b.ldt file will be delivered which contain the pre-req information. adpatch load this into databse using FNDLOAD and check , whether those pre-req patches were applied or not.

28. What is FNDLOAD ?
Ans: FNDLOAD is a utility which is similar to sqlloder but loads code objects into database, where as SQLLOADER loads data objects into database.
29. What c-driver will do?
Ans:
C-drive copies the files from patch unzipped directory to required location in u r application file system. Before copying it will check the file version of the existing file at the file system with the file version of the file in the patch. If the patch file version is higher than what it is at file system level then only c-driver will copy that files.
30. How adpatch will know the file versions of the patch delivered files?
Ans:
With each patch a file with name f.ldt is delivered , which contain the file versions of the files dilivered with the patch. Adpatch will use this file to compare the file versions of files its delivering with the file on file system.

31. What is the adpatch log file location?
Ans : APPL_TOP/admin/SID/log
32. What is the worker log file name and its location?
Ans : adwork01,adwork02…… and location is APPL_TOP/admin/SID/log
33. How u will know what are the files the patch is going to change just my unzipping the patch?
Ans:
When u unzip a patch it will keep all the files related to a particular product under that directory inside u r patch directory for example if the patch delivering files related to FND product then it will create a sub directory under the patch directory with the name FND in which it will put all related files to that product
34. What is the significance of backup directory under u r patch directory?
Ans:
When we apply a patch it will keep the copy of the files which its going to change in file system.
35. What are the different modes you can run your adpatch?
Ans :
1.Interactive – default mode
2.Non interactive – Use defaults files to store prompt values
(adpatch defaultsfile= interactive=no)
3. Test – Without actually applying a patch just to check what doing.(adpatch apply=no)
4. Pre-install – (adpatch preinstall=y)
This mode will be usefull to discrease upgrade downtime as its applies bus fixes without running SQL,EXEC and generate portion of patch.
36. How u will monitor u r applications as well as database?
Ans:
We have our custom scripts which is sheduled to run at a specific time which will monitor whether applications and databases are up/not. And it will mail us if some processes is not running. And we have one script which will check database alert log for ORA errors and mails it to us . Based on this we will react.
37. What are the latest ORA errors u have encountered?
Ans:
Useually we will get the ORA errors like unable to extend the tablespace by so and so size. And we will check those tablespaces for space, if space is not there we will resize the datafile and add one more datafile.
38. Which table u will query to check the tablespace space issues?
Ans : bytes column in dba_free_spaces and dba_data_files
39. Which table u will query to check the temp tablespace space issues?
Ans : dba_temp_files
40. What is temp tablespace? And what is the size of temp tablespace in u r instances?
Ans : Temp tablespace is used by so many application programs for sorting and other stuff. Its size is between 3 to 10 GB.
41. What is autoconfig?
Ans : Autoconfig is an adutility which is used to main application environment and configuration files.
42. What are the parameter autoconfig will ask for?
Ans : Context file name and apps password
43. What is context file?
Ans : Context file is a central repositary, which stores all application configuration information. The name is like _ .xml

44. How you will find autoconfig is enabled/not for u r applications?
Ans: 1. Open any env / configuration files, the first few lines will tell u that this files are maintained by autoconfig.2. If contextname.xml file is there in APPL_TOP/admin

45. How autoconfig will create env and configuration files?
Ans: Autoconfig will go to each and every top template directory take the templates from there and fill the values from xml file and create the required files.
46. In how many phases autoconfig will run?
Ans : Autoconfig will run in 3 phases.
1.INIT – Instantiate the drivers and templates
2.SETUP – Fill the templated with values from xml and create files
3.PROFILE – Update the profile values in database.
47. What is the location of adconfig log file?
Ans : APPL_TOP/admin//log/

48. Is it possiable to restore a autoconfig run?
Ans :
Partially. Adconfig will create a restore.sh script at $APPL_TOP/admin//out/. This restore.sh will copy the backed up files before autoconfig run to its original locations. But the profile values updated in the database can’t be restored back.

49. How to run autoconfig in test mode?
Ans :
adchkcfg.sh script at AD_TOP/bin. This script will run autoconfig in test mode and create the difference file which tells us what is going to change , when u actually run autoconfig.
50. How to find autoconfig is enabled or not for database?
Ans:
If we have appsutil directory under RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME
51. When a patch delivers java files what extra file u will get when u unzip the patch, other then u r dirver and readme files?
Ans : j.zip52.
52.What is apps.zip/appsbrog2.zip file?
Ans : apps.zip/appsbrog2.zip is the patchable archive of all java class files required for oracle application.Apps.zip was used to old application version, but from 11.5.8 onwards its appsbrog2.zip
53. What is the location of apps.zip/appsbrog2.zip?
Ans : AU_TOP/java and JAVA_TOP
54. What is for “validating apps schema” option in adadmin?
Ans: It will check for the corrupted objects in apps schema
55. What is “compile apps schema” option in adadmin?
Ans : It will compile the invalid database objects.
56. How to find invalid objects in database?
Ans : select count(*) from dba_objects where status=’INVALID’;
57. How to find MRC is enabled or not?
Ans: In adadmin if covert to MRC options is there , then MRC is not enabled,If maintain MRC options is there , then MRC is enabled.

58. How to find Multi-Org is enabled or not?
Ans : In adadmin if covert to Multi org option is there, then Multi-org is not enabled. If maintain multi-org options is there, then Multi-org is enabled.
59. What is mean by MRC?
Ans: MRC stands for Multiple reporting Currency, this should be enabled to see the reports in different currencies like (rupees,yaans etc).
60. What is Multi-Org?
Ans: If this is enabled we can store multiple organization information in a single oracle application instance.
61. What is the configuration file for adutilities (like adadmin,adconfig etc)?
Ans: adconfig.txt @APPL_TOP/admin
62. What is adrelink?
Ans : adrelink will relink the executables with the libraries. Generally we will go for adrelink when some patch delivers some library files, or when executables were corrupted.
63. How to find the version of a file?
Ans : 1. adident Header 2. strings -a filename grep Header

64. What is adodfcmp utility?
Ans : This utility is used to recreate/repair corrupted database objects from odf(object defination files) files.
65. How you will change apps password?
Ans: FNDCPASS 0 y apps/ system/ SYSTEM APPLSYS

66. What if apps password is changed with alter command?
Ans : Applications won’t work.
66. What is the difference between alter and FNDCPASS in changing apps password?
Ans : FNDCPASS will update some fnd tables other than standard tables.
67. Where the FNDCPASS utility is located?
Ans : Concurrent node @FND_TOP/bin
68. How to find out what component of u r oracle applications were installed on which node?
Ans : Xml file (context file)
69. How to find the version of httpd/Apache web server?
Ans : $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/bin/httpd –version
70. What is the configuration file for httpd and what is the location of it ?
Ans : httpd.conf @IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf
71. Where you will see when you have some problem with u r webserver(httpd/Apache)?
Ans : access_log & error_log @IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs
72. When Apache starts what other components its start ?
Ans : PL/SQL Listener, Servlet Engine, OJSP Engine
73. What is jserv?
Ans : jserv is nothing but servlet engine which will run u r servlets. It’s a module of apache which supports servlets.
74. What is self service application?
Ans : Whatever part of u r oracle application u r able to see through web browser is self service.
75. Where u will see when u r not able to get self service applications?
Ans : access_log,error_log, error_pls, jserv.log, wdbsvr.app(for apps password)
76. What is the location of jserv.log?
Ans : IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Jserv/log
77. What is the location of wdbsvr.app ?
Ans : IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/modplsql/cfg
78. What are jserv.conf and jserv.properties files?
Ans : These are the configuration files which were used to start jvm’s(servlet engine) by apache.
79. What is mean by clearing cache and bouncing apache?
Ans :
1. Stop apache (adapcctl.sh stop apps)
2. Clear cache – Go to $COMMON_TOP/html/_pages and delete _oa_html directory
(rm –r _oa__html)
3. Start apache (adapcctl.sh start apps)
80. What is forms configuration file and its location?
Ans : appsweb_contextname.cfg @$COMMON_TOP/html/bin
81. What are the different modes u can start u r form server?
Ans : socket and servlet
82. What is the difference beween socket and servlet mode?
Ans :
In socket mode forms sessions are represented by f60webmx
In servlet mode forms sessions are represented by apache processes.
83. What is forms metric server and client?
Ans : When there are more than one form sever instances then forms metric server and clinet will be used to load balance.
84. Where the forms server related errors will be logged?
Ans : access_log and error_log
85. What is report server configuration and log file name and its location?
Ans : Configuration file – REP_.ora
Log file – REP_.log @806_ORACLE_HOME/reports60/server

86. What is CGIcmd.dat file and its location?
Ans : CGIcmd.dat file is the run time parameter file the report server located @ 806_ORACLE_HOME/reports60/server
87. What is the significance of DISPLAY variable?
Ans : Vnc server should be up and running at the specified port value in DISPLAY variable, otherwise reportserver may not able to show the graphics in Reports.
88. Where is the concurrent manager log file located?
Ans : $COMMON_TOP/admin//log or $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG

89. Is apps password necessary to start all the components of oracle application?
Ans : No. Only to start/stop concurrent managers apps password is needed.
90. What is a concurrent manager?
Ans : A concurrent manager is one which runs concurrent requests.
91. What are the different types of concurrent managers?
Ans :
1. Internal concurrent manager – Will start all other managers and monitor
2. Standard Manager – All concurrent request by default will to go this
3. Conflict resolution manager – Concurrent programs with incompatabilites will be handled by this
4. Transaction manager – Handle all transaction requests
92. What are actual and target count in ‘Adminster Concurrent Managers form’?
Ans : Target is the no. of concurrent processes a manager is supposed to start(specified in the defination of concurrent manager).Actual is the no. of processes a manager started actually.
Target and Actual should be always same.
93. What if Target and Actual are not same?
Ans : It means at operating system level resources are low to accomidate the required processes for concurrent managers.
94. What are work shifts?
Ans : Work shifts are nothing but timings at which the concurrent manager is supposed to run.
95. What if internal concurrent manager target and actual are not same?
Ans : we need to bounce the concurrent manager using adcmctl.sh
96. How to bounce a single concurrent manager?
Ans : From frontend using ‘Administer Concurrent Manager form’.
97. When we change apps password , is it necessary to bounce application?
Ans : Only we need to bounce concurrent managers.
98. What is dbc file and its location?
Ans : dbc file contain database connection information. DBC file is used by oracle applications to connect to database. Its location is $FND_TOP/secure
99. What is the other script by which u can start apache other than adapcctl.sh?
Ans : apachectl @IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/bin
100. What is the configuration file for PL/SQL listener?
Ans : httpd_pls.conf @IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf
101. How to skip copy portion while applying a patch?
Ans : Adpatch options=nocopyportion
102. How to merge patches and what type of patches can be merged?
Ans : admrgpch. We can merge any kind of application patches, if any of the patch contain a u-driver then merged patch will contain u_merged.drv otherwise c_merged.drv, d_merged.drv and g_merged.drv
103. What is the Tiered architecture of u r instance?
Ans : Two Tier: Web and Forms on one node and Conc, admin and report on other node.
104. How to find formserver version?
Ans: f60gen and press enter, it will tell u the formserver version or we can find out from the frondend using help menu.
105. What is RRA?
Ans : RRA stands for Report Review Agent. RRA is nothing but FNDFS which is part of apps listener. RRA job is to pick the log/out file from the file system and show on the editor when u press view log/out button in ‘View concurrent request form’.
106. What is apps listener?
Ans : Apps lintener is the combination of FNDFS and FNDSM. FNDSM is service manager which will monitor application services on that node when GSM:enable profile value is ‘Y’.
107. What is GSM?
Ans : GSM stands for Generic service Manager, which will monitor application processes like web, forms etc and restarts any of this processes if goes down.
108. How to find the application version like 11.5.8/11.5.9….?
Ans : select release_name from fnd_product_groups;
109. How to find the database/sqlplus version?
Ans : select banner from v$version;
110. How to find out what are the languages enabled in u r applications?
Ans : Query fnd_languages
111. What is the size of u r database?
Ans : 200 to 500 GB
112. How to find operating system version?
Ans : uname –a
113. What are the problems u have faced while shutting down applications?
Ans : While shutting down application generally concurrent manager won’t go down because some or the other request may be running. We will see what are the concurrent requests running by querying fnd_concurrent_requests, fnd_concurrent_program_vl, v$session,v$process and v$sqltext. If that request is only doing some select statement then we will kill those requests, otherwise we will check what time it will take to complete by querying the previous runs of that request and then we will decide what to do.
114. What are the problems u have faced while starting up applications?
Ans : Most of the time we will encounter problem with starting up concurrent managers. Reasons , database listener may be down or FNDSM entries are wrong in tnsnames.ora of 806_ORACLE_HOME.
115. How to find the locks and what is the resolution?
Ans : we can find general locks with the following query:
select * from sys.dba_dml_locks order by session_id.
We can find the dead locks with the following query:
select * from v$lock where lmode > 0 and id1 in (select distinct id1 from v$lock where request > 0)
If it’s a dead lock, we need to kill that session.
116. How to kill a database session?
Ans : alter system kill session '&sid,&sno';
117. How to find adconfig is enabled for oracle operating system user/database?
Ans : If appsutil directory is there in RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME
118. Which files tell u the database helath?
Ans : alert log file @RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/admin//bdump

119. How to apply a rdbms patch?
Ans : Using opatch
120. How to find opatch is enabled or not for u r database?
Ans : If Opatch directory exists under RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME.
121. What is the pre-req for applying a rdbms patch?
Ans : Inventory should be set in file oraInst.loc @/var/opt/oracle or /etc
122. What is Inventroy?
Ans: The oraInventory is the location for the OUI (Oracle Universal Installer)'s bookkeeping. The inventory stores information about: All Oracle software products installed in all ORACLE_HOMES on a machine Other non-Oracle products, such as the Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
In a 11i Application system the RDBMS and iAS ORACLE_HOMEs are registered in the oraInventory. The 806 ORACLE_HOME, which is not managed through OUI, is not.
123. What are different types of inventories?
Ans:
The Global inventory (or Central inventory) The Local inventory (or Home inventory)
124. What is Global inventory?
Ans : The Global Inventory is the part of the XML inventory that contains the high level list of all oracle products installed on a machine. There should therefore be only one per machine. Its location is defined by the content of oraInst.loc.The Global Inventory records the physical location of Oracle products installed on the machine, such as ORACLE_HOMES (RDBMS and IAS) or JRE. It does not have any information about the detail of patches applied to each ORACLE_HOMEs.The Global Inventory gets updated every time you install or de-install an ORACLE_HOME on the machine, be it through OUI Installer, Rapid Install, or Rapid Clone.
Note: If you need to delete an ORACLE_HOME, you should always do it through the OUI de-installer in order to keep the Global Inventory synchronized.
125. What is local inventory?
Ans : There is one Local Inventory per ORACLE_HOME. It is physically located inside the ORACLE_HOME at $ORACLE_HOME/inventory and contains the detail of the patch level for that ORACLE_HOME.The Local Inventory gets updated whenever a patch is applied to the ORACLE_HOME, using OUI.
126. What is rapid clone?
Ans : Rapid Clone is the new cloning utility introduced in Release 11.5.8. Rapid Clone leverages the new installation and configuration technology utilized by Rapid Install
127. How do I determine if my system is rapid clone enabled?
Ans : First, verify that your system is AutoConfig enabled. Then, verify that you have applied the latest Rapid Clone patch.
128. Explain the cloning process?
Ans :
1. Run adpreclone as applmgr and oracle user on source Perl adpreclone.pl dbTier as oracle user Perl adpreclone.pl appsTier as applmgr user
2. Take the cold/hotbackup of source database
3. Copy the five directories appl,comn,ora , db,data to target
4. Rename the directories, and change the permisssion
5. Set the inventory in oraInst.loc
6. Run perl adcfgclone.pl dbTier as oracle user,if the backup type is cold
7. If the backup type is hotbackup then Perl adcfgclone.pl dbTechStack. Create the control file on target from the control script trace file from source Recover the database Alter database open resetlogs
8. Run autoconfig with the ports changed as per requirement in xml.
9. Run perl adcfgclone.pl appsTier as applmgr
10. Run autoconfig with the ports changed as per requirement in xml.
129. What is the location of adpreclone.pl for oracle user?
Ans : RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/scripts/

130. What is the location of adpreclone.pl for applmgr user?
Ans : $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/

131. What is the location of adcfgclone.pl for oracle user?
Ans : $RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/clone/bin
132. What is the location of adcfgclone.pl for applmgr user?
Ans : $COMMON_TOP/clone/bin
133. What is statspack?
Ans : Statspack is a database utility to gather database and session level performance information.
134. How to install statspack?
Ans : Run the script spcreate.sql @RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin
Note more details on statspack refer metalink noteid: 149113.1
135. How to enable trace at database level?
Ans : set init.ora parameter sql_trace
136. How to enable trace for a session?
Ans: Alter system set sql_trace=true;
Execute the sql query
Alter system set sql_trace=false;
This will create a trace file at
$RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/admin/contextname/udump with the spid of the current sql session.
137. How to enable trace for other session?
Ans : exec sys.dbms_system.set_sql_trace_in_session(sid,serial#,true/false)
Eg: To enable trace for sql session with sid 8SQL> exec sys.dbms_system.set_sql_trace_in_session(8,121,true);
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
To disable trace
SQL> exec sys.dbms_system.set_sql_trace_in_session(8,121,false);
138.What is the location of inint.ora ?
Ans : $RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/dbs
139. What is that trace files contains and the utiliy used to read them?
Ans : Trace file contains the detail diagnostics of a sql statement like explain plan, physical reads, logical reads, buffer gets etc. Tkprof utility is used to convert trace file into readable format.
140. What is the syntax for tkprof?
Ans: tkprof explain=apps/ sys=no

141.How do we find adpreclone is run in source or not ?
Ans : If clone directory exists under RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/appsutil for oracle user and $COMMON_TOP for applmgr user.
143. How to find trace file for a given concurrent request id?
Ans : Go to $RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/admin//udump
grep “ “ *

144. What is a database link? How to create it?
Ans : If we want to access objects of another database from this database then we need a database link from this database to the other.
1.Login as oracle user
2.sqlplus “/as sysdba”
3. create database link connect to identified by using '';
Ex
SQL> create database link TEST1_TO_TEST2 connect to apps identified by apps using 'TEST2';
Database link created.
SQL> select name from v$database@ TEST1_TO_TEST2;
NAME
---------
TEST2
SQL>select db_link from dba_db_links;
4. Add destination database tns entry in tnsnames.ora
145. How many clonings u have done?
Ans : If u r very much confident on cloning processes then say 5 to 8 otherwise just 2 or 3.
146. What u know abt RMAN?
Ans : If u r good at RMAN then say yes, otherwise say we are not using RMAN for backup/recovery , why because we are using netapp snap technology for backups.
147. What is netapp?
Ans : Netapp is a storage technology.
148. What is formserver url?
Ans :http://hostname.domain:/dev60cgi/f60cgi

149. What is jinitiator?
Ans : Oracle jinitiator is the one which provide the required jvm to run forms interface/applet. When we access forms applet first time , oracle jinitiator will be installed automatically.
150. What is discoverer server?
Ans : Discoverer server is reporting tools which allows novoice user to use oracle application reports. Discoverer will come along with oracle applications when installed.

151. What is discoverer viewer url?
Ans: /discoverer4i/viewer152. What is discoverer plus url?
Ans : Ans : Aoljtest is a web based utility to test the availability of the different components of oracle applications like jserv,modplsql,jsp,forms etc
URL: /OA_HTML/jsp/fnd/aoljtest.jsp

154. What is adsplicer?
Ans : Adsplicer is a uitility used to register off cycle products.

155. What is licence manager?
Ans : Licence manager(adlicmgr) utility is used to licence/unlicence , enable new languages,enbale country specific functionality.

156. What is tnsping?

Ans : tnsping is command used to check the connectivity to the database server node from other nodes.
Ex: tnsping
Note: Tns entry should be there in tnsnames.ora for the database we are trying to work this command.

158. How to compile a form using f60gen?
Ans :
f60gen module=/TEST/testappl/au/11.5.0/forms/F/ARXTWMAI.fmb userid=APPS/APPS output_file=/TEST/testappl/ar/11.5.0/forms/F/ARXTWMAI.fmx module_type=form batch=yes compile_all=special

160. What is APPLPTMP environment variable?

Ans : This is the temporary file location for the pl/sql temp files. If this variable was not set then the concurrent programs may errored out. 161. What is mean by enabling maintanance mode?
Ans : Maintanance mode is the adadmin option introduced from AD.I. When maintanance mode is enabled user may able to login to application but they only get profile option in the frontend navigation menu.

162. Is that necessary to enable maintanance mode while applying a patch?

Ans : We can even apply a patch without enabling maintanance mode with the following option
Adpatch options=hotpatch

163. How to find out oracle application framework version?

Ans : 1. Through aoljtest2. cd $COMMON_TOP/html/3. adident Header OA.jsp

164. How to find out what are the rdbms patches applied to an oracle home?
Ans :
1. opatch lsinventory
2. $RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storage directory contains the directories with the rdbms patch number, which are applied to this oracle home.

165. Is that necessary to shutdown database while applying a database patch?
Ans : Yes.

166. What is the command line utility to submit a concurrent request?
Ans : CONSUB

167. What is the significance of utl_file_dir parameter in init.ora file?

Ans : The value of this parameter is the group of directories to which u r database can write, means u r database packages have permission to write to flat files in these directories.

168. How you will find out discoverer version?
Ans : cd $806_ORACLE_HOME/discwb4/lib strings libd* grep 'Version:'

169. While applying a rdbms patch using opatch you are getting the error, unable to read inventory/inventory is corrupted/ORACLE_HOME is not not registered, what you will do, and how you will apply the patch?

Ans: We will check the inventory directory permission, try to apply the patch after giving 777 permissions to that inventory directory. If still it won’t work we will apply patch with the following command:
Opatch apply no_inventory

172. Have you applied rdbms patches and for what?
Ans : We got ORA-7445 error in alert log, for which oracle recommended to apply a rdbms patch.

173. What are the patch errors , you have encountered?
Ans :
1)Patch fails with the error, unable to generate perticular form, do u want to continue. We continue patching by saying “yes”, then we manually regenarate the form using f60gen utility.

2) Unable to generate jar files under JAVA_TOP AutoPatch error: Failed to generate the product JAR files Solution:Run adjkey -initialize -----------to creat identitydb.obj file which will beused by adjava to sign jar files.

174. What is adjkey? What files it will create?
Ans : adjkey is an adutility which will create digital signature, which will be used to sign all t" admin? mailto:adsign.txt@APPL_TOP>adsign.txt@APPL_TOP/adminappltop.cer@APPL_TOP/admin identitydb.obj@applmgr home

175. What are the post installation task?
Ans : Running adjkey –initialize and then runnning adadmin to regerate jar files.
177. What are the clone errors, you have encountered?
Ans : Error:
RC-50013: Fatal: Failed to instantiate driver/u01/fms2c/appfms2c/fms2cora/iAS/appsutil/driver/instconf.drvCauseThe source instance has files that adpreclone flags as 'autoconfigable' but in reality they are not. So adpreclone.pl adds these files into the instconf.drv. Then when adcfgclone.pl is run on target it looks for the template file to instantiate for these files and since there isn't a template file adcfgclone.pl fails. SolutionModify the target's instconf.drv and remove the offending lines. Then rerun adcfgclone.pl
178. What are the real time problems you have encountered and how you trouble shooted that?
Ans:1. Concurrent Program is erroing out with snapshot too old error. To resolve this we have added space to temp tablespace.2. Concurrent Program is erroing out with unable to extent a perticular tablespace by so and so extents. To resolve this we have added on more data file to that tablespace.3. When we are trying to start apache with adapcctl.sh script after a autoconfig run, its saying that “node id is not matching with the application server id”. To resolve this we have updated the server id column in fnd_nodes table with the server id value in dbc file.
179. How you will find workflow version?
Ans : Run wfver.sql@FND_TOP/sql script as apps user
180 . When forms are running in servlet mode then the environment variables required for forms must be defined in what file and its location?
Ans : formsservlet.ini@$APACHE_TOP/Jserv/etc.
181. How to find out which patch driver is applied(like c,d,g or u)?
Ans: query ad_patch_drivers.
182. How to find out whether a language patch is applied for a perticular patch?
Ans : Query ad_patch_driver_langs.
183. How to validate that sysadmin password is correct or not from backend?
Ans: select fnd_web_sec.validate_login('SYSADMIN','Qwert8765') from dual;
184. How to compile jsp's(other than from adadmin)?
Ans: Force compilation of all jsps using the following command ojspCompile.pl --compile --flush
185. How to rotate logs for apache logs?
Ans: Using rotatelogs executable in httpd.conf file. Use Errorlog for error_log file rotation. Transferlog for other log files.
186. Other way of checking whether MRC is enabled or not besides using adadmin?
Ans : select multi_currency_flag from fnd_product_groups;
187. How to compile rdf?
Ans: Either using adadmin or rwcon60
189. How to change file/directory owner in linux/solaris?
Ans : chown - R :
Ex: chown - R applmgr:dba testappl

190. How to change the permission of file/directory in linux/solaris?
Ans : chmod –R
Ex : chmod –R 755 testappl

191. What are the files which contain apps password?
Ans :
1. wdbsrv.app@IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/modplsql/cfg
2. CGIcmd.dat@806_ORACLE_HOME/reports60/server
3. wfmail.cfg@FND_TOP/resource - optional
4. CatalogLoader.conf@OA_JAVA - optional
5. CatalogLoader.xml@OA_HTML - optional
192. What is the script to find out ICM status?
Ans : afimchk.sql@FND_TOP/sql
193. What is the script to list the concurrent request status?
Ans: afrqrun.sql@FND_TOP/sql
194. What is the script that Lists managers that currently are running a request?
Ans : afcmrrq.sql@FND_TOP/sql

195) How can I determine whether a template is customizable or non-customizable?
Ans : If a keyword "LOCK" is present at the end of the file entry in the respective driver, then it is a non-customizable template. If the "LOCK" keyword is not seen, then that template can be customized.
196) How to find out JDBC version :
Ans : In the middle tier, edit the jserv.properties file located in the IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Jserv/etc directory- Locate the wrapper.classpath that is pointing to the jdbc zip file/opt/oracle/apps/$TWO_TASK/comn/java/jdbc14.zip
197)How to findout XML Parser Version
Ans : SQL> select WF_EVENT_XML.XMLVersion() XML_VERSION from sys.dual;
198)How to find out WorkFlow Version
Ans :
SQL> select TEXT Version from WF_RESOURCES where TYPE = 'WFTKN' and NAME = 'WF_VERSION';
199) How to find a file version in Application DB:
select v.version,v.CREATION_DATE,c.CREATION_DATE from AD_FILES c,AD_FILE_VERSIONS v where c.FILENAME like 'ARPURGEB.pls' AND c.file_id = v.file_id AND c.app_short_name = 'AR';
When a copy driver (C) or the copy portion of a unified driver (U) are aborted for any reason, upon reapplying, the CREATION_DATE and/or LAST_UPDATE_DATE columns in the patching history tables (Ex: AD_FILE_VERSIONS)are not updated to show the proper installation date but are left with the 01-01-1950 date. you can resolve the issuse by applying the latest ad.I patch.
200) How to check whether the product is install,shared and Not installed in Apps.?
Ans :
SQL>select t.application_name, t.application_id, i.patch_level, decode(i.status,’I',’Fully Installed’,‘N’,'Not Installed’,'S’,'Shared’,'Undetermined’) statusfrom fnd_product_installations i, fnd_application_vl twhere i.application_id = t.application_idorder by t.application_id;

Thanks

Patch Impact Analysis

2011-03-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

Hi,

As DBA, we are frequently asked to apply patch in the test environment. Sometimes the requestor may ask the file version which is very easy for a DBA.

But when the requested ask us to find the object impacted by the patch needs some attention. There may not be lot of links available in the net. Easy way to find the object impacted by a patch is to issue the query which will ask for patch number. Voila!!! you get the objects...

Patch Impact Analysis (or) Object Impact Analysis:-

set lines 300
column site_version format a30
column patch_version format a30
select f.bug_number "BUG_NBR",
a.filename "FILE_NAME",
substr(c.version,1,20) "PATCH_VERSION",
substr(d.version,1,20) "SITE_VERSION",
b.executed_flag,
b.creation_date "PATCH_DATE"
from
ad_files a,
ad_patch_run_bug_actions b,
ad_file_versions c,
ad_file_versions d,
ad_patch_run_bugs e,
ad_bugs f
where a.file_id=b.file_id
and c.file_version_id=b.patch_file_version_id
and d.file_version_id=b.onsite_file_version_id
and b.executed_flag = 'Y'
and e.bug_id=f.bug_id
and e.patch_run_bug_id=b.patch_run_bug_id
and f.bug_number='&Patch_number'
order by b.creation_date desc;

Sometimes, the requester may ask us which patch has affected a particular file. we can use the following query to find the answer:-

set lines 300
column site_version format a30
column patch_version format a30
select f.bug_number "BUG_NBR",
a.filename "FILE_NAME",
substr(c.version,1,20) "PATCH_VERSION",
substr(d.version,1,20) "SITE_VERSION",
b.executed_flag,
b.creation_date "PATCH_DATE"
from
ad_files a,
ad_patch_run_bug_actions b,
ad_file_versions c,
ad_file_versions d,
ad_patch_run_bugs e,
ad_bugs f
where a.file_id=b.file_id
and a.filename like '&FILE_NAME' -- use %
and c.file_version_id=b.patch_file_version_id
and d.file_version_id=b.onsite_file_version_id
and b.executed_flag = 'Y'
and e.bug_id=f.bug_id
and e.patch_run_bug_id=b.patch_run_bug_id
order by b.creation_date desc;

I hope this will be useful to many Apps DBAs

Thanks & Regards
Punith