I’ll be speaking at Oracle OpenWorld on September 30– October 4, 2012.

The details of my sessions are:

Session ID: CON6172
Session Title: How to Manage a Successful R12 Upgrade and Overcome the Challenges

 

If you are going to be there, please join my session and few of the benefits of attending Openworld are:

• Learn about the latest IT technology, upgrades, trends, and best practices
• Choose from more than 2,000 sessions and dozens of hands-on labs that will be led by the world’s foremost IT experts
• Share notes in special interest groups and product and industry sessions
• Network with peers and industry luminaries
• See hundreds of partners and customers as they present product demos and solutions in two Exhibition Halls
• Learn about Oracle product lines, plus overarching topics such as strategy, tools, and technology
• Join Oracle product experts and industry leaders in discussing Oracle’s industry roadmap, transformational business strategies, and solution-specific challenges

As the Oracle Fusion Applications is going into swing in the market and number of questions are coming up for licensing components, what will be license for technology components? I just thought share few of points. Refer Oracle’s Global price list

Oracle Fusion Applications Global Price List

Oracle Fusion Applications Licensing Information

Mandatory:

What will be Technology Licensing for Oracle Fusion Applications?

• Database Enterprise Edition (Database is full-use license)
• Business Intelligence Foundation Suite for Oracle Applications (or for HCM only Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus for Oracle Applications)
• Identity and Access Management Suite Plus for Oracle Applications
• Oracle Webcenter Portal for Oracle Applications
• WebLogic Suite for Oracle Applications
• SOA Suite for Oracle Middleware for Oracle Applications
• Application Management Pack for Fusion Applications

Optional:

• Informatica PowerCenter and PowerConnect Adapters
• Real-Time Decision Server (full use)
• Database EE Option: Data Mining
• Unified Business Process Management Suite for Oracle Applications
• WebCenter Imaging for Oracle Applications
• Data Integrator Enterprise Edition for Oracle Applications
• GoldenGate (full use)
• Enterprise Repository (full use)

The takeout from last ATG Live Webcast June 14 was ‘no more downtime’ in Oracle EBS R12.2 for patching and transformation of term ‘Downtime’ to ‘Cut Over’. In R12.2 downtime will be measured in minutes not hours or days. It is a customary thought process to wait for suitable time when to apply new patch, how to get approval for business applications downtime and usually you will get a slot on weekend nights.

Let’s review how we will be going to get possibility of ‘no more downtime’ in R12.2.  we all know EBS downtime is a major concern and this outages interfere with core business activity:

–      Reluctance to upgrade to take advantage of new feature

–      Barrier to staying current with recommended patches

Now let’s understand commonly what force us to go for production down time; 1-Major Release upgrades, 2-Maintenance Rollups (RUPs), 3-Critical Patch Updates (CPUs). 4-Legislative and Regulatory updates

EBS will remain online during patching through Online Patching; refer earlier post to get basic idea. In 12.2 all patching operations are online so its mean – EBS will remain available to users during patching operations, – HR Legislative updates can be applied during a payroll run & Users can enter expense reports while Payables is being patched

Online patching will use the latest features of Oracle’s Integrated Stack like – Edition Based Redefinition (EBR) & – Web Logic Server

Patches will be applied to a Copy of Production

EBS will use both the file system and the database to store the code and data that make up the application – Copy the Code, NOT the Data

–      Where is Code

• Stored both on the File system & In the Database
• Any code object changed in a patch is copied

–      Where is Data

• Stored both on the File system & In the Database
• Application data is NOT copied by a patch

“Downtime” will be redefined as “Cutover”. Cutover is the time taken to switch users from the production system to the newly patched copy.

-Cutover changes the unit of measure for downtime & will be measured in minutes NOT hours or days.

-Cutover time is very predictable & the time taken to bounce the Middle Tiers

Downtime Limited to Short Cutover

Patching Occurs on a Copy of following:

File system: a-All patches are applied to the secondary file system b-Synchronization of the file systems is managed by the patching tools

Database: A separate copy is maintained of all database code objects that are changed by a patch

Downtime Patches

–      No online Users

–      Wall clock time very important

–      Consumes all resources

–      Upgrade designed to run as fast as possible

Online Patches

–      Users remain online

–      Wall clock time is no longer an overriding concern

–      Online Users share resources

–      Data upgrades designed to not affect the running application

In 12.1.3 Single File System – Patches applied while system is down & another method is Optional staged APPL_TOP

–      Patches applied to staged file system while the system is online

–      System is off line to apply database updates

–      Staged APPL_TOP provided the basis for the 12.2 design

You can refer My Oracle Support note for further details (Using a Staged Applications System (APPL_TOP) to Reduce Patching Downtime in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 [ID 734025.1])

EBS 12.2 will be installed with 3 file systems

–      FS-1 (Production file system)  – Used by the current users of the system

–      FS-2 (Copy of Production file system) – Used by the patching tools

–      FS-NE (Non Editioned file system) – Stores data that is stored on the file system (Data import and export files, Report output & Log files)

All three file systems serve a single database. The file system in use by the running application is never patched. All patches are applied to secondary file system

Edition-Based Redefinition (EBR) 11g R2

What it will do?

Enables the online upgrade of the database tier and allows an application to efficiently store multiple copies of its application definition in the same database. It will also provide an isolation mechanism that allows pre-upgrade and post-upgrade schemas to co-exist.

–      Changes to database objects are made in the isolation of an “Edition”

–      Changes to database objects do not effect the running Application

You can also refer earlier post to get more info about Edition Based Redefinition.

What is Database Editions?

Our code chooses The Edition that it connects to, if it will connect to Run Edition (1-Used by Online Users, 2-Never changed by a Patch). Patch Edition (1-Used by the Patching Tools 2-Changes do no affect the running Application)

Online Patching will Interacts with 3 different Edition Types

Run Edition

–      The edition currently in use by the running application

–      This is always the default database edition

Patch Edition

–      The edition currently in use by the patching tools

–      This edition is only present when patching is in progress

–      Always the direct child of the Run Edition.

Old Edition(s)

–      There maybe zero or more Old Editions

–      When the Patch Edition is promoted to production the previous Run Edition is now regarded as an Old Edition

–      Only retained until a full cleanup operation is run

Other posts on Oracle E-business suite R12.2:

A Journey from Oracle E-Business Suite R12.1 to R12.2

Online Patching

One of the hot topic during Collaborate 12 at Las Vegas along with Fusion was what is going to come in R12.2 and this post is subsequent to my earlier post…where we have reviewed what new release will bring to us, lots of new features, usability improvements and new technology stack components (Oracle Database 11g R2 and Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g R1 as the application server) and the most important feature will be online patching so finally what we are going to get as ……planned for R.12.2 – all patching operations will be online, Oracle E-Business Suite will remain available to business users during patching processes.

The online patching will be changing the game completely. We all know that E-Business Suite environments requires downtime for patching. Although based on our experience it can be reduced with various techniques (e.g. staged APPL_TOP), some downtime is still required to apply a number of patches. Online patching will not eliminate downtime completely, but will reduce it significantly by using “Edition Based Redefinition” feature of 11g.

So what we will be getting just to summarize:

• Business Operations Downtime will be measured in minutes not hours or days
• Business Operations Downtime windows will be very predictable
• Patches will be applied while the Oracle Production Application remains online

11gR2 Edition-Based Redefinition will enable us following:

• Allows an application to efficiently store multiple editions of its Application Definition in the same database
• Provides an isolation mechanism (The Edition) that allows pre-upgrade and post-upgrade schemas to co-exist
• Client code chooses the particular “Edition” that it wants to connect to

Dual File System for R.12.2

End Notes:

http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/glimpses_of_e_business_suite