OraNA :: Oracle News Aggregator

BI & EPM at OpenWorld

Rob Reynolds — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:18:08 PDT

Oracle OpenWorld is less that 2 weeks away. If you haven't registered yet, there is still time. With more than 80 scheduled sessions devoted to BI & EPM, Openworld 2010 will offer you the best opportunity to learn more and dive deeper into Oracle's BI & EPM solutions, including the new Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g and Oracle's EPM System release 11.1.2.

In particular, the Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance Management tracks will highlight:

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g

Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management, which provides closed-loop management of extended financial close processes

Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management module, which helps organizations create regulatory filings and XBRL instance documents

Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting

In addition to individual sessions, conference plans include more than 30 demos, hands-on labs, and user group SIGs specific to Oracle BI & EPM.

Its not too late to register and attend Oracle OpenWorld .

VirtualBox and Linux Kernel Updates

Fat Bloke — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:08:51 PDT

If you use Oracle Enterprise Linux as a VirtualBox Host and you've updated the kernel lately, you may have seen the knock-on effect of VirtualBox no longer working. Similarly, if you have OEL as a Guest in VirtualBox, your Guest Additions may stop working after a kernel upgrade.

To understand what on earth is going on, and to get instructions on fixing things, check out the FatBloke's Other Blog

-FB

Irish software at Oracle OpenWorld 2010

Peter O'Brien — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:11:19 PDT

Preparation for the trio of Oracle's major conferences (Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, Oracle Develop) has been underway for months, but once September comes around the pace really quickens. The final touches get put to product demonstration scripts, keynote speeches, and honing the elevator pitch. In product development you know it's September because you can not find a product manager without scheduling a meeting days in advance. Of course, this is not unique to Oracle. There will be over 300 exhibitors at Oracle OpenWorld and many of them will be making sure their product or service is presented in the best possible manner. Having announced a major certification over the summer with Oracle's Global License Management Services, the staff at one Irish software company will be no different.

iQuate is an Irish software company which produces network inventory and network management solutions for large, complex networks. Using a multitude of protocols iQuate queries PCs, servers, network devices, databases to not only build up a profile of what is installed, but also what is actually being used. This information allows companies to potentially save a fortune on their software licencing fees, by simply not paying for what they are not using. Check them out at stand 3130 in the Moscone Center, West Exhibition Hall, Level 1.

Come to thing of it, Oracle has development centres around the world and the Dublin offices have staff working on server technology, tools and application software. So some portions of the Oracle software on show will have been made in Ireland too! :-)

Is iQuate really the only Irish software company exhibiting? It is the only one on the list of exhibitors with an Irish HQ. There might be other software companies that originated in or do the majority of their development in Ireland but have not listed an Irish address as their headquarters when registering as an exhibitor. In an effort to get into the US market and not appear as a foreign company, some businesses move their HQ to the US. This also demonstrates their commitment to the market. If you know of any other Irish software companies exhibiting this year please let me know and I would be delighted to include them.

Oracle Manufacturing Summit Co-Located with Panduit Showcase (Oct 26-28, Chicago)

stephen.slade@oracle.com — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:46:08 PDT

The 3rd Annual Oracle Manufacturing Summit will be held October 27 - 28, 2010 in Lisle, Illinois. It's part of "Manufacturing Week" and is co-located with, and follows, the Panduit Reference Event. The Oracle Manufacturing Summit starts with a reception on October 27 and continues the next day with thought leadership content from Cummins, Leggett & Platt, Ingersoll Rand, Sherwin Williams, Cabot Microelectronics, and others. The agenda includes tracks for discrete, process, and lean manufacturing. Please note: The Panduit "Next Generation Enterprise" reference showcase is set for October 26 to 27 at the nearby Panduit HQ and features a site tour. Customers can attend either event, but encouraged to attend both.
Learn more about the Manufacturing Summit.
Check out the Panduit Showcase

I’m in the Wrong Business

osborne — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:47:01 PDT

Well I stayed at home today to do some writing on a book project while one of my sons and one of my daughters and my wife went to the Fort Worth Natural Science Museum. So I was feeling a little overworked and like I was missing out because I’ve been slaving away writing “scholarly technical material”. Then I got a text from my son. Just a picture that’s all.

I’m sure these two books will probably sell a few orders of magnitude more copies than any book that I contribute to. Kind of puts it all in perspective. I think next weekend I’ll go to the zoo with them.

EBS DBAs be warned! NOLOGGING can hit you badly …

Yury - a DBA from down under — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:13:00 PDT

Hello Apps DBA,

I’ve just come across an old known issue again today. Was working in the greatest and latest 12.1.2 Oracle e-Business Suite environment. Surprisingly, I face the old issue when WF_LOCAL_ROLES and WF_LOCAL_USER_ROLES objects (among other objects) are set to NOLOGGING mode. Strictly speaking, the LOGGING attribute was set to YES at the table level, but several partitions of that table were set to LOGGING = NO! The SQL’s below will help you check if your environments are effected. Keep in mind that you should sound the alarm at your business if any other modules’ objects are in the list.

The easiest solution is to switch the whole database to FORCE_LOGGING mode:

ALTER DATABASE FORCE LOGGING;

If you don’t have that luxury because of huge REDOLOG volumes I would suggest you to put all your stage/temp/interface – unrecoverable objects in the APPS_TS_NOLOGGING tablespace. It looks like someone at Oracle thought about the issue and designed the new tablespace model specifically for that purpose. Just put all your high volume unrecoverable objects in that tablespace and switch FORCE_LOGGING for all other tablespaces.

ALTER TABLESPACE < TBS name > FORCE LOGGING;

Protect yourself and your EBS environments,

Don’t say that Pythian didn’t warn you :)

Yury

SQLs to be used:

select tablespace_name, owner, table_name from dba_tables
where logging = 'NO'and partitioned = 'NO' and temporary = 'N'
and IOT_TYPE is null order bytablespace_name, owner,table_name;

select tablespace_name, table_owner,table_name, partition_name
from dba_tab_partitions where logging = 'NO' and (table_owner, table_name) not in
(select owner,table_name from dba_tables where temporary = 'Y' and IOT_TYPE is null)
order by tablespace_name, table_owner,table_name,partition_name;

select tablespace_name, force_logging from dba_tablespaces
where contents = 'PERMANENT'
order by force_logging desc, tablespace_name;

select tablespace_name, owner, index_name
from dba_indexes where logging = 'NO'
and temporary = 'N' and partitioned = 'YES'
order by tablespace_name, owner,table_name;

select tablespace_name, index_owner,index_name, partition_name
from dba_ind_partitions where logging = 'NO' and (index_owner, index_name) not in
(select owner,index_name from dba_indexes where temporary = 'Y' )
order by tablespace_name, index_owner,index_name,partition_name;

select owner,segment_name,partition_name,segment_type
from dba_segments where tablespace_name='APPS_TS_NOLOGGING'
order by segment_type desc, owner, segment_name;

Oracle Data Integration Webcast - 11g Release

Rob Reynolds — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:27:54 PDT

Oracle continues to bolster its data integration offerings with the release of its new data integration products: Oracle GoldenGate 11g, Oracle Data Integrator Enterprise Edition 11g, and Oracle Data Quality and Data Profiling 11g.

With these products, Oracle—already a leader in data integration—provides customers with the most open and complete solutions for ensuring that critical business data is timely, continuously available, and actionable.

Join this launch Webcast to hear from Oracle customer Avea on how they benefit from these data integration solutions, and from Oracle experts on how these new Oracle data integration products deliver:

Expanded heterogeneity and flexibility by supporting more databases and applications

A complete solution for data integration with enhanced performance

Tighter integration with leading Oracle applications and technologies

Oracle OpenWorld, the countdown has begun

Alex Nuijten — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:08:01 PDT

One week from now I am flying to San Francisco. Very excited to go as this will be my first Oracle OpenWorld.

On Thursday and Friday I am going to attend the Director Briefing at Oracle HQ in Redwood. Another first. I did pass by the Oracle HQ before and looked at it and that’s as close as I got.

There are so many sessions to choose from during the conference, it's going to be tough to figure out where to go. That’s going to be the choir for this afternoon.

Some of the social events are already on my calendar.


Sunday, September 19

07:00 PM	Annual ACE dinner	Commodore Cruises, Pier 40


Monday, September 20

04:00 - 05:00 PM	Ace Director and Java Champions Meet and Greet	Mason Street Tent

06:30 - 08:30 PM	Benelux Happy Hour	Restaurant Lulu, Folsom Street

07:30 - 10:30 PM	OTN Night Party	Howard Street Tent


Tuesday, September 21

07:30 PM	APEX Meetup	4th Street Bar & Deli

09:00 PM - 01:00 AM	Benelux Cocktail Party	Ruby Skye Club, 420 Mason Street


Wednesday, September 22

05:30 PM	Bloggers Meetup	Lower Dining Room, Jillian’s Billiards @ Metreon, 101 Fourth Street

07:30 PM - 12:00 AM	Oracle Appreciation Event	Treasure Island

It’s going to be a busy week,... Now you know what I will be doing in the "off hours", hopefully we get a chance to meet face to face.

Single Sign On to the Database (or WNA for SQL*Plus)

Frank — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:15:02 PDT

In this entry, I'll demonstrate how easy it is to do Kerberos authentication to the database, or -rephrasing that- how to do WNA in the database.The goal of this exercise will be to allow users to log on to a remote database using the following syntax:sqlplus /@db10g ScenarioI like to think major sites have serious machines and ditto operating systems. Workstations are uncannily often based on MS

So Many Moving Parts

fteter — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:20:02 PDT

I recently received a pretty cool little gift in the mail from MIchael Stewart at Red River Solutions. Seems he's teamed up with my pal John Stouffer to produce a new book: Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i & 12 Apps DBA 101. Nice of the guys to send me a copy.

After spending a few hours reading through the book and checking out some of the references, I suspect it will spend more time in the field with me than on my bookshelf.

The premise of the book is that, with the E-Business Suite, there are so many moving parts. Despite covering all those moving parts, It's a quick read, coming in at 105 pages. But it's chock full of references (Oracle Support notes, blog urls, ideas and lessons learned by experience. The book is a pretty powerful reference work for an Apps DBA managing an Oracle E-Business Suite environment.

Keep an eye out for the book at OpenWorld this year. Highly recommended reading.

The Girl Who Played with Fire…

Tim... — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:54:11 PDT

Wow! The Girl Who Played with Fire is awesome. I reall enjoyed the first book, but I think this one is even better. It’s just relentless. I was lying in bed reading it last night, desperate to finish it, but also not wanting it to end.

The book ends rather abruptly, making you desperate to start book 3 to see what happens next. Sure enough, book 3 continues on from where book 2 ends. It took me about 30 pages before I felt in a position to put it down and go to sleep. Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen.

Cheers

Tim…

Advert: Asia Pacific PL/SQL Masterclasses…

Tim... — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:44:12 PDT

It’s a little over a month before I start a run of four PL/SQL Masterclasses in the Asia Pacific region.

Singapore (14-15 October)
Syndey (18-19 October)
Melbourne (21-22 October)
Hong Kong (25-26 October)

If you are interested, contact Oracle and get booked on. The details are here: APAC Seminars.

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle BPM Suite: Overview

Dietrich — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:40:02 PDT

In my last posting i provided some links to the documentation. After reading some pages, i will try to give a summary.

In Business Process Composer User's Guide for Oracle Business Process Management i found the folling picture:

Here some explanations to these boxes:

BPM Studio = Jdeveloper 11g with BPM installed
Business Process Composer = a web-based application that enables business
users to collaborate with process developers and designers
BAM = a complete solution for building interactive, real-time dashboards and proactive alerts for
monitoring business processes and services

But how do this components fit into Oracle Fusion? Take a look at this picture:

Here you can see, that the BPMN and BPEL Service Engines share the same process core.

The Oracle BPM Engine provides a run-time environment for running business processes. It provides native support for both BPMN and BPEL processes. The Process Core
provides engine functionality that is shared by the BPMN and BPEL engines.
Some of the key functionality performed by the process core includes:
– Manage security
– Generate audit trails
– Invoke services
– Manage persistence

Ok. But why are there two ways for creating business processes? And hwo do they interact with each other?
Here two pictures with typical worksteps:

With knowing all this we are able to start our first project. Finally a screenshot of the business process composer:

Oracle BI EE 11g – Patching Repositories and Migration from Development to Production

Venkatakrishnan J — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:34:04 PDT

One of the biggest problems that we have had with BI EE 10g was there was no automated way of making repository deployments in Linux environments. Some of us internally in Rittman Mead have adopted UDML to script the migration from development to production. But the problem with UDML is that it cannot not generate the encrypted passwords (primarily for connection pools) automatically. So, the encrypted passwords for production environment had to be stored externally, and every-time there was a need to do a repository migration, these encrypted passwords had to be retrofitted back to the development repository UDML. In some cases, UDML cannot be used, as the development and production repositories might be completely different in terms of security etc. In such cases, the recommended way of merging changes in 10g was to use the repository merge. But again to do a merge, one had to have an external windows machine and then do the merging which was a major issue in many automated environments.

In 11g, BI EE supports a concept called as repository patching. Mark has covered this already here. What this allows us is to do apply incremental changes to the repository in development directly to production through an automated process. This is based on the concept of Merge that was there in 10g. 11g basically extends this concept. This blog entry basically expands on what Mark has already explained before. There are 2 parts to patching. They are

1. Creating the Patch – This is done by creating an incremental XML patch file that will contain just the changes done in development. The incremental XML patch file is created using the Compare option.
2. Applying the Patch – This is done by applying the incremental XML file on the production repository.

Initially after any new BI EE install, the repository that is created in development will be tested and then will be moved over to production with changes to the connection pool settings (primarily passwords) done through BI EE Administrator. Unfortunately, this step mandates the use of a Windows machine for Linux deployments. This is still the same in 11g as well. This is highlighted in the sample flow diagram given below

Once a production RPD is deployed for the first time, end users might want more changes to be done in the repository. For example, some of the common changes that might be needed are

1. Renaming of columns
2. Adding new columns
3. Adding new subject areas
4. Changing Security
5. Bug Fixes

These changes will typically be done on the development RPD. The concept of patching basically extracts the incremental changes that were done to the development RPD and then apply them to the production RPD. This is depicted as shown below

Generating Patch File:

Applying Patch:

Lets try to understand this through an example. Given below is a screenshot of a sample repository that will be moved to production.

Lets name the above repository as DevRPD. Now during the first time migration to production lets assume the following changes are made.

1. All connection pool user names changed to point to the Prod database usernames
2. All connection pool passwords changed to point to the Prod database passwords

Lets name this repository as ProdRPD. After this repository has been migrated to production, let’s assume that we are getting more enhancement requests. Following are the changes requested

1. A new subject area called SH – Aggregate.
2. Rename some columns. For example, rename CHANNEL_CLASS column to something more user friendly like “Channel Class” in the SH subject area.

After the above changes have been done using the DevRPD, this new repository will be saved as DevRPDv2. Lets assume that the developer while making the changes inadvertently deleted the column AMOUNT_SOLD. The admin notices this and he recreates the column AMOUNT_SOLD in the repository. A screenshot of the DevRPDv2 is given below.

Now, we basically have 3 repositories. DevRPD – The development baseline repository for the first release. ProdRPD – The baseline repository that is in production. DevRPDv2 – The repository containing all the changes requested by end users.

To migrate the changes done in DevRPDv2 repository, we first start with opening up the DevRPDv2 using the Admin Tool. Then we click on File->Compare option and then choose the Dev Baseline Repository as shown below

As you see we now have the changes done to the baseline repository (within the DevRPDv2) listed. If you notice carefully, we will have the AMOUNT_SOLD column listed twice as Deleted & Created.

This happens because when we delete an object, the upgrade id associated with the object is lost. The entire process of merge happens through the upgrade ids and not the names. Now you can imagine what will happen when we try to merge a lot of changes. We cannot have control on what developers do and hence we might see even more of these in the actual scenario. To reduce this and to treat the columns with matching names as the same, we have to equalize the repositories. So before every merge, it is always recommended to do an equalization that will ensure that the matching names have the same ids.

We can equalize non-matching objects (different names) as well one by one. In this case, I will use the automatic equalization that will apply the matching name-matching id principle. This would show all the objects that have been equalized as shown below, in our case just the AMOUNT_SOLD

If you now look at the compare screen, you will notice that the AMOUNT_SOLD column will no more be there

So lets create a patch now without making any more changes by clicking on “Create Patch”.

This will create an XML file containing all the changes.

Now, to apply patch there are 2 ways. One is through the Admin tool Merge process and the other is by using a command line utility called patchrpd. Lets go through the process of patching the repository through the Admin tool.

To do this we start with opening up the ProdRPD in offline mode. Then click on Merge & choose the Patch Merging option. Choose the DevRPD as the Original Repository and the XML file generated above as the patch file. Enter the appropriate usernames and passwords.

By clicking next, we trigger the patching process. The patching process basically recreates the intermediary DevRPDv2 internally and then performs a 3-way merge. If we look at the repository now, you should see all the changes in the target repository ProdRPD – Patched.

The same patching can be done through command line utility patchrpd. To do the same process that we did through the Admin tool above, the command would be

/u01/app/Middleware/Oracle_BI1/bifoundation/server/bin/patchrpd -P Administrator -C /home/oracle/ProdRPD.rpd -W Administrator -G /home/oracle/DevRPD.rpd -I /home/oracle/DevtoProdPatch1.xml -O ProdNew.rpd -S /u01/app/Middleware/Oracle_BI1/bifoundation/server/bin/xudml1.xsd

One main difference between the command line utility and the Admin tool based patching is, if there is any conflict resolution, the patch utility will just display some warnings and come out without creating the RPD. But in the admin tool we have the opportunity to resolve the conflicts and then proceed with the patching.

Next up is a methodology to do Web Catalog Patching. BI EE 11g offers similar patching capability for applying incremental changes to web catalogs.

Oracle Setting High Naming standards (EVENTS “multiblock physical read” & “single block physical read”)

Yury - a DBA from down under — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:29:42 PDT

Hello Folks,

As part of my preparation for the Exadata OCP Exam – Oracle Exadata 11g Essentials (1Z1-536), I was reading through the “Oracle® Exadata Storage Server Software User’s Guide” (not available publicly at the moment as far as I know). I found that in the Exadata world the two famous events “db file scattered read” and “db file sequential read” that cause so much confusion in Oracle DBAs’ minds are renamed to “cell multiblock physical read” and “cell single block physical read” accordingly.

Hopefully Oracle will port those events’ names to the RDBMS world as well in version 12c.

PS: I passed the Beta exam this morning. As with any beta, Oracle will release results after a period of time. ETA: 3-5 weeks from now.

Stay tuned, more info is coming,

Yury

Defining Open standards

trond-arne.undheim — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:20:01 PDT

I have met those who claim defining open standards is next to impossible and hurts innovation. Neither is true. Usually, those who say it is hard to do have something to lose. Like a monopoly or something. Or, could it be that they find it hard but others find it easy?

Critics of open standards do not like the equalizing effect of openness on the market. Open standards are best for business. Open standards are best for governments. Those two facts make open standards a panacea. Recalling for a moment that in Greek mythology, Panacea was the goddess of healing, we can simply say that open standards are pure goodness. Those who defend them are heroes. Superheroes, even. Little iron men and women working silently in small meeting rooms for hours, days, months, years. Oh, how about that definition? Here it the ideal one should strive for, which should not be controversial at all (but, alas, it is):

Open standards are developed in accountable and transparent processes that are open to all stakeholders; open to multiple implementation paradigms including open source; and standards text is available at no cost to all interested parties. Open standards, as a fundamental building block of innovation, become widely implemented because they are supported by all major stakeholders.

Do all standards out there fit this definition? Of course not, but there are a few, and they are important, especially for things such as the Internet and they will be important for cloud computing. Do all standards organizations work towards this ideal? Actually, no, but some do. Certainly, the best of them do. In fact, there are people in all standards organizations who have these ideals. Sometimes they dominate the discussion, sometimes not. But the idea of openness is firmly out there, and that idea is important. I will discuss my view of openness as a policy topic in a subsequent blog entry, stay tuned.

Despite the variety of standards out there, open standards are easy to recognize. Open standards, like HTTP, HTML, TCP/IP, XML and SQL, are evolved collaboratively by software engineers. These engineers typically come from software companies. They meet in standards organizations such as W3C, OASIS, and ISO. They talk. They disagree. They negotiate. Debates over how a standard should look could be lengthy. In the end, there is agreement, of sorts. This is important. Without agreement, no standard, at least no good standard. A good standard is not only open, but it is widely implemented. Without being put to use by the majority of the market, a standard is quite meaningless, and becomes just another weapon in the fruitless fight for final lock-in.

There are many striking aspects of standardization. The fact that competitors come to the table, spend endless hours together discussing and agree is only one. The fact that governments allow such discussions to take place is another. Standardization, when it works well, is good for competition.

Telling when a standard is not open is even easier. Those involved in the struggle to establish an open document format know that very well. After some debate over a company owned document format, the owner decided to submit it for standardization. In the end, it became an ISO-standard, but that does not make it open, or useful, or important. Being developed in a transparent manner does. Listening to input does. Taking on board input counts even more. Meanwhile, another format was also being standardized. After a long fight, only one truly open standard remains, ODF. That standard came late to the table and is currently working on becoming widely available. When it is, and it will, the debate will be over. Innovation will then occur on top of the standard, using the standard as a platform.

Despite the ease with which one may talk of openness and closeness, there is a continuum within open standards, from the completely open to the less open. There are times when the degree of openness of a standard is particularly important, such as in software-to-software interoperability. In fact, if interoperability is the main, agreed purpose of a standard, the best thing for all stakeholders, whether they be governments, multinationals, NGOs, non-profits, or individuals, is that the standard is licensed royalty free. However, these things have to be agreed in each instance. Once everybody agrees to follow certain rules, things flow smoothly. I tell that to my kids daily. Not that it always helps.

Some stakeholders are pragmatic. Whereas they may prefer open or closed standards depending on their business model, if a particular standard potentially is important to them, they participate in standardization regardless where it occurs. That is reasonable. It also explains why defending openness does not need to be a naïve position. Rather, it makes business sense. For most of us.

Oracle Forms Look and Feel : All Feature List

(author unknown) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 03:24:00 PDT

Sometimes, I receive mails from LAF (future) users to ask me if the tool can do this or that.

I realized that, actually, there is nothing that describes, in a single document, all the functions that are part of the LAF tool.

So, I created a new page, reachable from any page of the LAF[...]

Oracle Forms : Forms Magnifier Tool

(author unknown) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:53:00 PDT

Develop your Oracle Forms application for one screen resolution, then run it in full screen with no visual change for any other resolution!

This new commercial tool is capable of moving and scaling every Canvas and Item at runtime to fit the new window size.

It ensures that your[...]

The Look and Feel site URL has changed

(author unknown) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:13:00 PDT

The LAF site URL has changed.

Here is the new LAF site URL.

Francois

Oracle Forms Look and Feel version 1.6.1

(author unknown) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:07:00 PDT

The new Forms Look and Feel Project 1.6.1 version is out.

It is just a (very) minor version that corrects a few bugs and add little enhancements:

Enhancement on Robot feature

You can, now, have Bubbles with HTML content
Bubble text can contains commas
The SHAPE_PROPERTY method[...]