Oracle E-Business Suite Technology

Critical Data Protection + Security in EBS (OpenWorld 2009 Recap)

By Steven Chan on November 19, 2009 12:24 AM

Everyone gives lip service to the importance of security, but it's often relegated to the back-burner in actual practice. For example, my anecdotal experience is that when conference attendees are polled about Critical Patch Updates, usually fewer than 50% of the respondents state that they're up-to-date on the latest CPU. One potentially complicating factor is that there are many things that one can do to secure the E-Business Suite, and it may be hard to know where to start. At minimum, all Apps DBAs should be intimately familiar with these documents: * Best Practices for Securing Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i (Note 189367.1) * Best Practices for Securing Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 403537.1) There are many other security-related Oracle products that you can use with your E-Business Suite environment, too. Eric Bing and Robert Armstrong profiled all of the latest security-related tools and options that are relevant to E-Business Suite users in their recent OpenWorld 2009 session: * Critical Data Protection and Security in Oracle E-Business Suite (S307960, PDF, 1 MB)

Comments (2)

Running E-Business Suite on Exadata V2

By Steven Chan on November 12, 2009 11:34 AM

The Exadata Database Machine Version 2 was released at OpenWorld 2009 to great fanfare. Since its unveiling, I've been getting a steady stream of questions from E-Business Suite customers who are intrigued by Exadata V2's potential. All 11gR2 Database Applications are Compatible The E-Business Suite and other OLTP applications will run on the Exadata V2 system if they're certified with the 11gR2 Database on Linux. Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i is certified on the 11gR2 database, so it can run on Exadata V2 today.

Comments (0)

Secure Enterprise Search 10.1.8.4 Certified with E-Business Suite 11i

By Steven Chan on October 23, 2009 12:40 PM

Secure Enterprise Search 10.1.8.4 was certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.0 earlier this year. Our Applications Technology Group has just released their certification of Secure Enterprise Search 10.1.8.4 with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and 12.1.1.

Comments (6)

Critical Patch Update for October 2009 Now Available

By Steven Chan on October 21, 2009 7:51 AM

The Critical Patch Update (CPU) for October 2009 was released on October 20, 2009. Oracle strongly recommends applying the patches as soon as possible.

Comments (0)

Oracle Application Testing Suite 9.0 Supported with Oracle E-Business Suite

By Steven Chan on October 20, 2009 9:20 AM

Our recent article about our internal use of automated regression testing tools within E-Business Suite Development prompted many questions about the Oracle Application Testing Suite. I'm pleased to announce that the Oracle Application Testing Suite 9.0 is supported for use with the E-Business Suite.

Comments (10)

Using Oracle Application Server 10g with E-Business Suite (OpenWorld 2009 Recap)

By Steven Chan on October 16, 2009 11:38 AM

Every year I provide an OpenWorld update on the various ways that E-Business Suite users can use different Oracle Application Server 10g components. This presentation covers many of the topics that I visit regularly on this blog, neatly summarizing them in a single package with the latest Fusion Middleware certified versions (and desupport notices) in one place: * Using Oracle Application Server 10g with E-Business Suite (Session S307958, PDF, 1.3 MB)

Comments (2)

11gR2 Database Certified with E-Business Suite 11i

By Steven Chan on October 8, 2009 8:30 PM

I'm very pleased to announce that the 11gR2 Database version 11.2.0.1 is certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i version 11.5.10.2. Existing Apps 11i environments currently running Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2.0), Oracle 10g Release 10 (10.1.0), Oracle 10g Release 2 (10.2.0), or Oracle 11g Release 1 (11.1.0) may be upgraded to the 11gR2 Database.

Comments (5)

Internet Explorer 8 Certified with E-Business Suite Release 11i

By Steven Chan on October 6, 2009 11:04 AM

I'm very pleased to announce that Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is now certified as a client browser for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i. IE 8 Support Requires Forms6i Patchset 19 If you're running either Forms6i Patchset 18 or earlier in your EBS 11i environment, you will need to apply Forms6i Patchset 19 to get support for Internet Explorer 8.

Comments (14)

Interim Update: Certifying the 11gR2 Database with the E-Business Suite

By Prasad Akkiraju on September 6, 2009 12:55 AM

New database updates from Oracle are the mostly closely-watched releases across our Oracle user community. The 11gR2 version 11.2.0.1.0 is the next major release after 11gR1 version 11.1.0.6.0. This version -- for Linux x86 32-bit and 64-bit platforms only -- is now available for download on the Oracle Technology Network.

Comments (1)

Using the Oracle Applications Testing Suite with EBS: Interim Update #1

By Steven Chan on August 18, 2009 10:04 AM

It's encouraging to hear that many of you are interested in automated regression testing for your E-Business Suite environments. Yesterday's article about our WinRunner and QTP automated regression tests prompted a number of follow-up questions about our plans for using Oracle Application Testing Suite with the E-Business Suite.

Comments (8)

Evolutionary Steps for Automated Testing for E-Business Suite

By Steven Chan on August 17, 2009 10:35 AM

My, how time flies. It's been over two years since I last covered automated regression testing for the E-Business Suite. Our strategy for this area continues to evolve, so it's high time for an update. The E-Business Suite Test Starter Kits consist of sample test scripts from our own E-Business Suite QA group, along with a Starter Guide, Best Practices Guide, and Installation instructions. The test scripts were created against an EBS Vision Demo database displaying American English. You can use these kits as a model for building out your own automated regression tests for your Apps environment. Back in 2006, you could download our Quality Assurance teams' automated WinRunner QA scripts for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i via a Test Starter Kit. A few things have changed since then:

Comments (6)

Confused About E-Business Server vs. Desktop Operating System Certifications?

By Steven Chan on August 12, 2009 1:40 PM

The E-Business Suite is designed with a three-tier architecture, with functions running on a client tier, an applicatione server tier (also called a middle tier), and a database tier. I handled a customer question on an internal Oracle mailing list today that confused our certification policies for these tiers. I then realized that I've answered variants of this question many times lately, so it's clearly of broader interest. These two questions are mirror images of each other: * Can I install the E-Business Suite on a desktop operating system like Windows Vista? * Can I run end-user E-Business Suite functions on a server operating system like Oracle Enterprise Linux?

Comments (6)

Latest Apps 11i Techstack (ATG RUP 7) Now Available

By Steven Chan on July 28, 2009 11:17 AM

I'm very pleased to announce that the latest ATG Family Pack H Rollup 7 for the E-Business Suite Release 11i technology stack is now available for download from Metalink.

The official name for this patch is:

• Oracle Applications Technology 11i.ATG_PF.H.delta.7 (RUP7) (Patch 6241631)

In other words, this is the seventh consolidated rollup of patches released on top of 11i.ATG_PF.H. For the Oracryptoanalysts out there who like to track nomenclature variants of these things, this patch is also referred to as the Applications Technology Group (ATG) Family Pack H Rollup 7.

This Rollup patch is a collection of technology-stack patches that can safely be applied on top of the ATG Family Pack H. This Rollup patch is cumulative: all previous patches released for Family Pack H since the initial 11.5.10 release are included in this latest patch, including:

• ATG Rollup 6 (Patch 5903765)
• ATG Rollup 5 (Patch 5473858)
• ATG Rollup 4 (Patch 4676589)
• ATG Rollup 3 (Patch 4334965)

Comments (12)

New Apps 11i Autoconfig Rollup Patch T Now Available

By Prasad Akkiraju on July 23, 2009 1:10 AM

E-Business Suite 11i Technology Stack latest Rollup(patch 8217898) for Autoconfig is now available for download. This Rollup includes fixes and enhancements to Autoconfig and its configuration templates. You should review the README before applying the patch. This cumulative patch includes all previously released AutoConfig updates, including the previous Autoconfig Rollup - RUP-S 6372396. RUP T can be applied standalone. It will be included in the next EBS Applications Technology Family Pack - ATG PF-H RUP 7.

Comments (0)

Updated Tips for Debugging Sun JRE + Forms Focus Issues for EBS 11i and 12

By Steven Chan on July 22, 2009 1:15 AM

Oracle Jinitiator 1.3 will be desupported for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i users at the end of this month, July 31, 2009.  If you haven't already begun your conversion from JInitiator to the native Sun Java Runtime Engine (JRE) plug-in, now is the time to start. 

The end of this month marks the end of the JInitiator era for Apps 11i.  After this point, we will only support the Sun JRE for Forms users connecting to the E-Business Suite.  I've summarized everything you need to know about the EBS switch from JInit to the Sun JRE in this roundup article.

Clusters of Common Focus-Related Issues

As more of you make the cutover, we've seen that your reported issues are clustering around some common themes.  Based on your feedback and reported issues, we've updated our internal training for all Support engineers who cover Applications Technology area.  Our latest diagnostic and debugging techniques for EBS Forms focus-related issues have been refreshed. 

Our Support and Development teams published notes for diagnosing Forms focus-related issues with Apps 11i earlier this year.  That troubleshooting guide's scope has been broadened to include additional guidance and tips for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 environments, too:

• Diagnosing Forms Mouse Focus Problems Using JRE (Note 760250.1)

Comments (21)

10gR2 10.2.0.4 Certified on Solaris x86-64 and HP Tru64 for EBS 11i

By Steven Chan on July 21, 2009 9:43 AM

Our Applications Platforms Group continues to round out our certification matrix for supported operating systems for the E-Business Suite.  They've released two new platform certifications for Apps 11i on the 10gR2 (10.2.0.4) database:

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i (11.5.10.2) is now certified with Oracle Database Server 10gR2 version 10.2.0.4 on Sun Solaris x86-64 (64-bit).  The Solaris x86-64 certification is for Solaris 10 and is a database tier only certification (also known as a "split configuration"), where the application tier must be on a certified Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i platform.

E-Business Suite Release 11i (11.5.10.2) is now certified with Oracle Database Server 10gR2 version 10.2.0.4 on and HP Tru64.  This certification is for HP Tru64 5.1b and is a fully-certified configuration for both the application server and database tiers.

Comments (0)

Database Vault 11.1.0.7 Certified with Oracle E-Business Suite

By Prasad Akkiraju on July 17, 2009 1:15 AM

Oracle DB Vault allows security administrators to protect a database from privileged account access to application data.  Database objects can be placed in protected realms, which can be accessed only if a specific set of conditions are met.  

Database Vault 10gR2 was certified last year with Oracle E-Business Suite.  We're pleased to announce that the latest Database Vault 11gR1 Version 11.1.0.7 is now certified with E-Business Suite Release 11i and 12.

You can now enable Database Vault 11gR1 on your existing E-Business Suite 11.1.0.7 Database instance.  If you already have DB Vault 10gR2 enabled in your E-Business Suite environment, you can now upgrade to the 11gR1 Database.  We also support EBS patching with Database Vault 11.1.0.7 enabled. Our DB Vault realm creation and grants-related scripts have been revised to reduce patching downtimes.

Comments (0)

Latest DSTv11 Timezone Patches Available for E-Business Suite

By Steven Chan on July 10, 2009 11:16 AM

For reasons mysterious to me, world governments apparently like to change their timezones on a regular basis.  If your E-Business Suite Release 11i or 12 environment has been configured to support Daylight Saving Time (DST) or international time zones, it's important that you keep your timezone definition files up-to-date.  They were last changed in February 2009, and they've been updated once again:  DSTv11 is now available and certified with the E-Business Suite.

Comments (0)

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Certified with Apps 11i and 12

By Steven Chan on June 29, 2009 11:29 AM

Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) is now certified for end-user desktops connecting to the E-Business Suite Release 11i, 12.0, and 12.1.  Supported Windows browsers are Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Firefox 3.0, with the following minimum prerequisites:

Comments (4)

Roundup: Oracle JInitiator 1.3 Desupported for EBS Customers in July 2009

By Steven Chan on June 26, 2009 2:50 PM

We've covered the impending demise of JInitiator and the certification of the native Sun Java client in many articles already.  With the sun setting on Oracle Jinitiator next month, this is a good time to summarize the essentials about Windows-based Java clients with the E-Business Suite:

1. Sun's Java Runtime Engine (JRE) is certified with both EBS 11i and 12
2. JInitiator 1.3 will be desupported at the end of July 2009
3. JInitiator 1.1.8 was desupported at the end of December, 2008
4. JInitiator cannot be run on Vista Desktops

If you haven't already started migrating your end-users to the native Sun JRE plug-in, I'd strongly recommend that you begin this process immediately.

Comments (4)