Oracle E-Business Suite Technology

Editor Sep 20 Update:  Added discussion of performance impact for this configuration

It's now possible to encrypt the SQL*Net traffic that flows between your E-Business Suite Release 11i application and database tier servers.

This long-awaited certification is delivered through an Oracle database feature called Oracle Advanced Security Option (ASO).  For reasons too arcane to discuss here, this is also  referred to as Advanced Networking Option (ANO).

The process involves installing an E-Business Suite Concurrent Manager patch and Oracle Advanced Networking, changing several configuration files, and then relinking your Apps executables.

The minimum prerequisites for this configuration include:

• Oracle Applications 11.5.10 users with RUP 3 or later (11i.ATG.PF.H RUP3 patch 4334965 or later)

Exception for HP-UX Users

HP-UX users cannot enable ANO/ASO until the resolution of bug 5398088. This bug prevents access to MOD PL/SQL from the $IAS_ORACLE_HOME.

Negligible Impact on Performance

Several readers have asked about the performance overhead for this configuration.  According to our E-Business Suite Performance Group, the overhead is approximately 5%, mainly due to an increase in round-trips and payload size as well as some trivial amount of packet processing when ASO is enabled.

For security-conscious customers, this overhead is a small price to pay for the added security for encrypting this sensitive traffic.

Related

• Encrypting EBS 11i Network Traffic using Advanced Security Option / Advanced Networking Option (Note 391248.1)