Oracle ERP – Blogs

First-rate announcement from Oracle through Steven Chan Blog for Mobile Apps strategy on Oracle eBusiness Suite.  With the rapid advent of social media and our behavior to see everything on smart phones. We as users of Oracle eBusiness suite started feeling old fashioned with the release of Oracle Fusion Applications where everything was coming for smartphones.

Finally we have got the update and new apps for Oracle Timecards, Oracle approvals. Oracle apps are being developed using Oracle Mobile Application Framework and it will be for both Apple iOS and Google Android.

Will not write more lets go directly to Steven’s blog on Mobile Apps for Oracle eBusiness Suite:

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Mobile app strategy

We’re building our family of mobile apps for the E-Business Suite using Oracle Mobile Application Framework.  This framework allows us to write a single application that can be run on Apple iOS and Google Android platforms. Mobile apps for the E-Business Suite will share a common look-and-feel.

The E-Business Suite is a suite of over 200 product modules spanning Financials, Supply Chain, Human Resources, and many other areas. Our mobile app strategy is to release standalone apps for specific product modules.

Our Oracle Timecards app, which allows users to create and submit timecards, is an example of a standalone app.

Some common functions that span multiple product areas will have dedicated apps, too. An example of this is our Oracle Approvals app, which allows users to review and approve requests for expenses, requisitions, purchase orders, recruitment vacancies and offers, and more.

You can read more about our Oracle Mobile Approvals app here:

• Now Available: Oracle Mobile Approvals for iOS

Our goal is to support smaller screen (e.g. smartphones) as well as larger screens (e.g. tablets), with the smaller screen versions generally delivered first.  Where possible, we will deliver these as universal apps.  An example is our Oracle Mobile Field Service app, which allows field service technicians to remotely access customer, product, service request, and task-related information.  This app can run on a smartphone, while providing a richer experience for tablets.

Deploying EBS mobile apps

The mobile apps, themselves (i.e. client-side components) can be downloaded by end-users from the Apple iTunes today.  Android versions will be available from Google play. You can monitor this blog for Android-related updates.

Where possible, our mobile apps should be deployable with a minimum of server-side changes.  These changes will generally involve a consolidated server-side patch for technology-stack components, and possibly a server-side patch for the functional product module. Updates to existing mobile apps may require new server-side components to enable all of the latest mobile functionality.

All EBS product modules are certified for internal intranet deployments (i.e. used by employees within an organization’s firewall).  Only a subset of EBS products such as iRecruitment are certified to be deployed externally (i.e. used by non-employees outside of an organization’s firewall).  Today, many organizations running the E-Business Suite do not expose their EBS environment externally and all of the mobile apps that we’re building are intended for internal employee use.  Recognizing this, our mobile apps are currently designed for users who are connected to the organization’s intranet via VPN.  We expect that this may change in future updates to our mobile apps.

Mobile apps and internationalization

The initial releases of our mobile apps will be in English.  Later updates will include translations for all left-to-right languages supported by the E-Business Suite.  Right-to-left languages will not be translated.

Customizing apps for enterprise deployments

The current generation of mobile apps for Oracle E-Business Suite cannot be customized. We are evaluating options for limited customizations, including corporate branding with logos, corporate color schemes, and others. This is a potentially-complex area with many tricky implications for deployment and maintenance.  We would be interested in hearing your requirements for customizations in enterprise deployments.

Prerequisites

• Apple iOS 7 and higher
• Android 4.1 (API level 16) and higher, with minimum CPU/memory configurations listed here
• EBS 12.1: EBS 12.1.3 Family Packs for the related product module
• EBS 12.2.3

References

• Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps, Release 12.1 and 12.2 Documentation (Note 1641772.1)
• Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator’s Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2 (Note 1642431.1)

Related Articles

• Using Mobile Devices with Oracle E-Business Suite
• Apple iPads Certified with Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1
• Now Available: Oracle Mobile Approvals for iOS

Heartbleed leads to ‘heartattack’ 🙂 during earlier this week to all Internet users and companies due to the OpenSSL Security vulnerability. Thought to share Oracle’s take on different Oracle Products depend on OpenSSL, you can go through following docs:

OpenSSL Security Bug-Heartbleed (Doc ID 1645479.1)

And public link of the info provided by Oracle:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/opensslheartbleedcve-2014-0160-2188454.html

other information to refer

http://heartbleed.com/

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA14-098A

http://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140407.txt

Update on 18-April-2014:

Oracle has issued Security Alert for OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability CVE-2014-0160 by describing as:

The Security Alert for OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability CVE-2014-0160 was released on April 18th, 2014. This Security Alert addresses CVE-2014-0160 (‘Heartbleed’), a security vulnerability which affects multiple OpenSSL versions implemented by various vendors in their products. This vulnerability also affects multiple Oracle products.
Due to the severity and the reported exploitation of CVE-2014-0160 “in the wild,” Oracle strongly recommends applying the patches as soon as possible.
The Security Alert for OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability CVE-2014-0160 is the starting point for relevant information. It includes links to other important documents that provide a list of affected products and the patch availability information.
Also, it is essential to review the Security Alert supporting documentation referenced in the Advisory before applying patches, as this is where you can find important information.
The Security Alert for OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability CVE-2014-0160 is available at the following location: Oracle Technology Network: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alert-cve-2014-0160-2190703.html
All Oracle Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts are available at the following location: Oracle Technology Network: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html

Now available for download: most of the sessions from Oracle OpenWorld.

If you missed sessions, want to review what you learned, or spread the knowledge to others, now you can download most of the sessions presented at Oracle OpenWorld.

There are two ways to access the sessions for download (or online review):

1. Directly through Content Catalog
2. Indirectly through Schedule Builder to Content Catalog (registered attendees only)

Note:

– Sessions will be available for download for approximately six months (March 2014)
– Some presenters chose not to make their sessions available

I arrived in San Francisco on midday Saturday after 16hours flight from Dubai to attend Oracle OpenWorld as a Speakerand Oracle Excellence Award Winner. After check-in to hotel, went outside with another my friend for late lunch and visited Ferry Building area. Sunday morning started very early and OpenWorld registration went very smoothly, the first session I went to was DBA Expert Panel Discussion, where all leading DBAs were present.

Next was to spend 1 hour on IOUC User group booth to represent MEOUG. IOUC booth was setup to spread user group messages to OOW attendees. I met few of other User Group presidents and representatives, from there it was off to the OTN Lounge to meet other Oracle OTN/ACE folks. Finally reached to keynote of Sunday from Larry Ellison.

Following were the main announcements from keynote:

Oracle’s introduction of in-memory option for 12C database, as well as Big Memory Machine-M6-32

Ellison said that the in memory option will make getting responses to queries 100 times faster and we can now get responses faster than we can come up with the questions. The M6-32 Big Memory Machine, which is said to be ideal for in-memory databases is a high-powered server featuring a new processor in the form of the SPARC M6. The chip incorporates 12 cores – twice the number in the current M5, it can run 96 threads per processor.

Monday was big day for me as I was getting Oracle Excellence Award for Oracle Proactive Support Champion. Thank you Oracle for awarding me such a prestigious award. The Oracle Proactive Support Champion Individual Award recognizes individuals, who have made a significant impact on their company’s adoption and use of proactive support tools, best practices and have been able to influence others to adopt proactive tools.

This year my session got slot on Thursday 26^th Oct, I was presenting on Oracle eBusiness Suite…

[CON2828] Upgrade in Three Months: Secrets to a Rapid, Cost-Effective Upgrade

Finally a week full of oracle technology rhythm is over in San Francisco starting from 30-Sep to 4 Oct.

I reached to SFO on 28^th Sep Friday evening; weather was cloudy just checked out of my hotel in Union Square named as Oracle Square… Was there a big arrangement for with Music festival

Saturday 29^th Sep, I spend roaming in San Francisco, visited Farmer Market in Ferry building, China Town, Lombard Street and to end with to visit Alcatraz.

Saturday evening I just spend on doing some cosmetics changes in my presentation. This year I was attending as speaker in Oracle OpenWorld and my session ‘CON6172 – How to Manage a Successful Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Upgrade and Overcome the Challenges’ was scheduled on 1^st Oct Monday at -4:45pm to 05:45pm.

Sunday morning, registration went very smooth as Oracle really has organized very well the entire registration process, after that I have attended few of the sessions and finally the time comes for Key Note from Larry Ellison with the title ‘Hardware and Software, Engineered to Work Together: Why It’s A Different Approach’. He spoke to few announcements about IAAS, Oracle Database 12c and Exadata X3, in memory database.

Oracle announces new version of oracle Database 12c for 2013. A multitenant Database for the Cloud.  Complete new database architecture with the concept of “container” database which may handle several isolated databases within this container.

The pluggable databases feature enables multiple databases to share a common instance it will treat as they are on separate instances. This will enable to save lots of memory and lots of time to do routine patching and upgrading databases. users through Pluggable Databases feature can also very easily spin-up instances without the usual process of dedicating and initializing a server. We can also upgrade the software for multiple database instances simultaneously, instead of doing one at a time. This feature will provide flexibility and simplify administration, and will be useful to manage a database within either a public or private cloud.

2^nd key feature is multitenancy support in the 12c database. This feature enables the DBAs  to define resource allocation and priority by tenant and so separately manage the service level of each tenant.

Oracle Database 12c will also feature more advance use of memory and data compression, reducing dependency on disk I/O not only delivers better performance with ease of administration

Prior to this session there was another keynote from, Noriyuki Toyoki, Senior Vice President of Fujitsu Limited (sponsor of the OOW) introduced “Athena”, a new technology architecture for SPARC processors as the result of a long partnership between both Oracle and Fujitsu.

Oracle also announced a new version of the Exadata X3 machine with much more memory and flash drives to push entire database into a flash cache.

I was just planning for schedule of different sessions/events should be attended during this year’s Oracle OpenWorld 2012, came to know about Oracle Bloggers Meetup 2012, feel overwhelming about this event and…… sure will be attending, ARE YOU ? just go through this link and get more info ….

What: Oracle Bloggers Meetup 2012

When: Wed, 3-Oct-2012, 5:30pm

Where: Main Dining Room, Jillian’s Billiards @ Metreon, 101 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (street view).

http://www.pythian.com/news/35421/oracle-openworld-2012-bloggers-meetup

This is a 2^nd part of takeout from last ATG Live Webcast June 14 was an introduction of new ‘Online Patching Cycle’ in Oracle EBS R12.2. ADOP (AD Online Patching) will replace ADPATCH as the 12.2 new patching tool. The first-hand information about ADOP shows that it will be follow phases from Prepare, Apply, Finalize, Cutover to Clean-up.

Oracle Application will be only offline during the Cutover phase as presented below:

In the Prepare phase (Preparing the File System) Patch Edition and Run Edition will be synchronized on the file system and a new Patch Edition in the database will be created. All files on the Patch Edition are an exact copy of the files on the Run Edition.

What type of synchronization?

• Incremental synchronization is the default
• Only files changed in the last patch application are copied
• Full synchronization available if necessary

Patch Edition is created in the database and all code objects in the Patch Edition begin as pointers to code objects in the Run Edition. Objects are only “Actualized” into the Patch Edition when a new revision of the code is applied. Storage objects such as tables are not copied. New patching standards are followed for upgrading storage objects.

In the Apply phase (applying patches) execution of patch drivers to update Patch Edition will be done. We can apply multiple patches and patches are applied to the copy (Patch Edition) as the production application is unaffected by the changes. Users are connected to the Application and can perform their work unaffected by the patch. Changes are made in the isolation of an Edition and the running application is unaffected by these changes

In the Finalize phase we will be performing the final operations that can be executed while the Application is Online like compile invalid objects, generate derived objects and Pre-compute DDL to be run at Cutover

In the Cutover phase downtime will be taken and users are logged off the system. The Patch file system is promoted to be the Run file system and the Patch database edition is promoted to be the Run database edition. Next action will be to perform final maintenance operations and finally users are brought back online on the patched system. We can also pause patching cycle at this stage for as long as it is required to wait for an appropriate downtime window (minutes)

In the Clean-up phase Cleanup occurs after users have been brought back online to the newly patched Application. The pre-patch file system is now ready for the next patching cycle and Database code objects patched in the latest patching cycle are deleted from Old Editions and once all objects are deleted from an Old Edition it is also deleted.

In the Abort phase the Online Patching Cycle can be aborted at any time prior to Cutover

Two complete file systems are always present Run Edition – Used by the running Application Patch Edition – Either, Currently being patched or waiting for the next patch cycle. These two files systems are rotated between Run and Patch during every patch cycle. Old Editions these editions are only used to store code objects that have not been patched in a later edition and we can remove by cleanup when no longer needed.

Old threads on R12.2:

http://oraerp.com/blog/e-business-suite-r12-2-no-more-downtime/

http://oraerp.com/blog/a-journey-from-oracle-e-business-suite-r12-1-to-r12-2/

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)