Oracle E-Business Suite Technology tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101 2009-07-06T18:34:41Z The latest news directly from E-Business Suite Development Movable Type Enterprise 1.52-en-voltron-r47459-20070213 Comparisons of E-Business Suite Release 12 Rapid Install Techstacks tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.13196 2009-07-03T21:09:08Z 2009-07-06T18:34:41Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html [Jul 6, 2009 Update: Database version for 12.0.4 Rapid install was 10.2.0.3, not 10.2.0.4. Table corrected now.

A reader recently asked where she could find a summary of the E-Business Suite Release 12 technology stack components for different R12 releases.  As it turns out, there's a long answer to this deceptively-simple question.  This level of information is spread in a variety of release-specific Notes, making it tricky to compare which components were delivered as part of each Apps 12 Rapid Install. 

Here's a high-level architectural diagram showing an overview of the major techstack components in R12:

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 architecture diagram showing three tier database application server client and major techstack components

It's possible to add on additional database options not shown above, including 11g Advanced Compression, 11g Advanced Security, and others. 

Here's a summary of the versions for the important major techstack components that were included in the Rapid Install footprints for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12:

  EBS Release 12 Rapid Install Version
  12.0.0 12.0.4 12.1.1
Database 10.2.0.2 10.2.0.3 11.1.0.7
OracleAS 10.1.2 Forms & Reports 10.1.2.0.2 10.1.2.2 10.1.2.3
OracleAS 10.1.3 OC4J 10.1.3.0.0 10.1.3.0.0 10.1.3.4
App Tier Java (JDK) 1.5.0_10 1.5.0_13 1.6.0_10
Desktop Client Java (JRE) 1.5.0_10-erdist 1.5.0_13 1.6.0_u10
]]> The Case Against Finer-Grained Listings for Internal Components

The table above shows only the major internal components that Apps DBAs can upgrade themselves.  Individual upgrades for finer-grained components aren't required or recommended unless you're experiencing a particularly severe bug.  There are approximately 120 technology stack components in the E-Business Suite.  The fine-grained listings of these components are important to us in EBS Development, since we build the E-Business Suite on them, but they're mostly irrelevant to EBS sysadmins whose goal is maintaining their systems. 

For example, we track the versioning of individual application tier components like OJSP, Servlet, and SOAP separately from the overall Oracle Containers for Java (OC4J) component.  That doesn't affect your configuration management and operational plans, though.  An Apps sysadmin would simply install the latest certified Oracle Application Server 10g 10.1.3 update to get all of the latest 10.1.3 components bundled with that release.

Integrating EBS with External Oracle Products

Naturally, it's possible to integrate your EBS environment with a variety of other Oracle products.  These products can be running on external -- i.e. physically standalone -- servers or in a separate ORACLE_HOME on the same server where the E-Business Suite instance is installed. 

Commonly used external integrations are Single Sign-On and Oracle Internet Directory, used respectively for integrating with existing corporate authentication systems like Windows Kerberos, and with existing LDAP directories like Microsoft Active Directory.  External certified product integrations for the E-Business Suite are summarized here.

Updating Individual EBS Components After a Rapid Install

Using Rapid Install to create your initial E-Business Suite environment is convenient, but new Apps DBAs should understand that this is a starting point.  Your journey doesn't end here -- it begins.  If you haven't already seen these two articles, they're mandatory reading for Apps DBAs:

We regularly release new certifications for EBS technology stack components.  Our certification announcements archive tells the tale.  Including incremental announcements for specific operating system platforms and special architectures, we released almost 40 new certifications for Apps 12 in 2008.  We're already up to 20 new certifications for 2009. 

You can keep up with the news about the latest certifications by monitoring or subscribing to this blog.  If you're looking for a one-page summary of all of the latest technology stack components certified with the E-Business Suite, bookmark this Certification Summary.

Related Articles

]]> Interim Update #1: Certifying Windows 7 with Oracle E-Business Suite tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.13155 2009-07-01T20:01:45Z 2009-07-01T20:20:53Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

Microsoft Windows 7 has been getting a lot of headlines recently.  This seems to have triggered an small but noticeable increase in questions about our plans for certifying this operating system for E-Business Suite desktop clients. 

We're working with pre-release versions of Windows 7 right now.  For the usual reasons that regular readers could have predicted, I can't share any certification schedules or date estimates here. I can provide an interim update on the following Win7 questions:

  1. Which EBS releases will be certified with Windows 7?
  2. Which browsers will be certified?
  3. Will Oracle JInitiator Be certified for EBS on Windows 7?
  4. Which Windows 7 editions will be certified?
  5. What about Windows 7E?
  6. What about Windows XP Mode?
]]> This is the first of what I expect will be multiple updates on our Windows 7 certification process.  You're welcome to monitor or subscribe to this blog for later updates.  As always, the answers to these questions may change as we move through the certification cycle. 

Which EBS Releases Will Be Certified with Windows 7?

We plan on certifying the following Oracle E-Business Suite release with Windows 7:

  • EBS 11i version 11.5.10.2
  • EBS 12.0.4 and and higher

Which Browsers Will Be Certified?

We plan on certifying the following browsers with the E-Business Suite on Windows 7:

  • Internet Explorer 8
  • Firefox 3.5

Will Oracle JInitiator Be Certified for EBS on Windows 7?

No.  We plan to certify only the native Sun Java Runtime Engine (JRE) with Windows 7.  We have no plans to certify Oracle JInitiator with Windows 7.  

Oracle JInitiator 1.1.8 was desupported in December 2008, and Oracle JInitiator 1.3 will be desupported for EBS customers at the end of July 2009.  For more information about JInitiator desupport and switching your EBS end-users from JInitiator to the Sun JRE, see:

Which Windows 7 Editions Will Be Certified?

We plan to test E-Business Suite compatibility against Windows 7 Professional Edition with the E-Business Suite.  We fully expect that other Win7 editions will work, but we have no current plans to explicitly test the Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, or Enterprise Editions with the E-Business Suite.

What About Windows 7E?

I've been following the latest developments on the awkwardly-named "E editions of Windows 7" with some interest.  Microsoft's current documentation on these E editions of Windows 7 is notably scant, but confirms that certain versions of Windows 7 released in the European Economic Area, Croatia, and Switzerland will not include Internet Explorer.

Our current plans are to certify the "non E" edition of Windows 7 with the E-Business Suite with the browsers listed above.  We're currently assuming that that will be functionally-equivalent to doing a custom (clean) installation of the E editions of Windows 7 and then subsequently installing IE or Firefox. 

If this turns out not to be true, we'll revise our certification plans accordingly.  In this scenario, it would be reasonable to expect that the certification of E editions of Windows 7 will lag behind the certification of the standard Windows 7 release.

What About Windows XP Mode?

Microsoft indicates that end-users will be able to run Windows XP in a virtualized environment running via Windows Virtual PC on a Win7 desktop client.  This will presumably be functionally-equivalent to running Windows XP natively.

We have no plans to conduct separate EBS certification efforts for WinXP+Virtual PC images running on Win7 clients. 

What Are Your Organization's Plans for Windows 7?

Anecdotal reports from some EBS customers seem to suggest that your plans for Windows 7 will parallel that of Windows Vista:  namely, that new PCs that arrive with Windows 7 will either stay that way or will be downgraded to WinXP for the short term.  I haven't yet heard of any customers with plans to deploy widespread upgrades across the enterprise.

I'd be very interested in hearing your plans for rolling out Windows 7 in your organization.  Feel free to post a comment here or drop me an email with more details about your deployment plans.

Related Articles

The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decision. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

]]> Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Certified with Apps 11i and 12 tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.13104 2009-06-29T19:29:42Z 2009-06-29T19:36:04Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

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:

]]> EBS Release 11i

Microsoft Vista SP 2 with IE 7 is certified as a client o/s level for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i with the following minimum requirements:-

  • Oracle Applications patch 10 (11.5.10) plus Maintenance Pack 11.5.10 CU2 or later
  • Oracle Developer 6i patchset 18 (6.0.8.27.x) or later (Note 125767.1)
  • Oracle Applications Technology 11i.ATG_PF.H Rollup 4 (RUP 4) (patch 4676589) or later
  • Sun Java Runtime Engine (JRE) 1.5.0_12 or later, JRE 1.6.0_03 or later (Note 290807.1)

Microsoft Vista SP 2 with Firefox 3.0 is certified as a client o/s level for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i with the following minimum requirements:-

  • Oracle Applications patch 10 (11.5.10) plus Maintenance Pack 11.5.10 CU2 or later
  • Oracle Developer 6i patchset 18 (6.0.8.27.x) or later (Note 125767.1)
  • Oracle Applications Technology 11i.ATG_PF.H Rollup 6 (RUP 6) (patch 5903765) or later
  • Applications Framework Patch 7651759
  • Sun JRE 1.5.0_12 or later, JRE 1.6.0_03 or later (Note 290807.1)

EBS Release 12.0

Microsoft Vista SP 2 with IE 7 is certified as a client operating system level for Oracle E-Business Suite 12.0 with the following minimum requirements:-

  • Oracle Applications Release 12, with R12.ATG_PF.A.delta.3 (patch 6077669) or later.
  • JRE 1.5.0_12 or later, JRE 1.6.0_03 or later (Note 393931.1)

Microsoft Vista SP 2 with Firefox 3.0 is certified as a client o/s level for Oracle E-Business Suite 12.0 with the following minimum requirements:-

  • Oracle Applications Release 12 with R12.ATG_PF.A.delta.6 (patch 7237006) or later
  • Applications Framework Patch 7602616
  • JRE 1.5.0_12 or later, JRE 1.6.0_03 or later (Note 393931.1)

EBS Release 12.1.1

Microsoft Vista SP 2 with IE 7 & Firefox 3.0 is certified as a client operating system level for Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 'Base Release' with JRE 1.5.0_12 or later, JRE 1.6.0_03 or later (Note 393931.1)

Related Articles

]]> Roundup: Oracle JInitiator 1.3 Desupported for EBS Customers in July 2009 tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.13077 2009-06-26T22:50:28Z 2009-06-29T16:19:07Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html [June 29, 2009 Update: The July 2009 desupport date for JInitiator 1.3 applies to E-Business Suite customers only. Generic Oracle Forms customers should see Note 761159.1 for generic JInitiator desupport dates.]

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 running 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 for E-Business Suite customers 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 E-Business Suite end-users to the native Sun JRE plug-in, I'd strongly recommend that you begin this process immediately.

Sun Java Website screenshot Screencap of Sun's Java SE website

]]> 1. Sun's Java Runtime Engine (JRE) is Certified with EBS 11i & 12

Oracle JInitiator was originally released as a licenced version of Sun's Java client back when specific features were required to support Oracle Forms. This was particularly necessary for E-Business Suite Forms-based functionality, since the E-Business Suite pushed the envelope of what Forms and Java could do collectively from a user interface perspective.

Sun has since incorporated all of the enhancements needed to support Oracle Forms into their native Sun Java Runtime Engine plug-in. This eliminates the need for Oracle to package its own Java client just for running Oracle Forms-based applications. 

To convert your E-Business Suite environment from JInitiator to the native Sun Java plug-in, see:

Benefits of Switching to the Sun Java Client

The elimination of Oracle JInitiator simplifies your desktop administration environment.  Apps DBAs who have migrated their users to the native Sun JRE no longer have to struggle with compatibility and coexistence problems between JInitiator and other Java runtime clients on the same desktop.

Minimizing Risks of Switching from JInitiator to Sun Java Clients

The majority of customers switching from Oracle JInitiator to the Sun Java Runtime Engine have experienced minimal issues with this conversion.  However, some customers have reported problems, some rather painful.  Problems typically fall into the following categories:

  1. Missing prerequisite E-Business Suite patches or configuration steps
  2. Known issues, e.g. focus-related problems
  3. Conflicts with legacy Java-based application requirements

I strongly recommend a careful review of the Notes above, to ensure that you don't miss any prerequisites or configuration steps.  We document all of the known issues in the respective Notes for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and 12.  We also update our Notes regularly whenever we find new JRE-related compatibility issues with the E-Business Suite.

Some of you might have legacy Java-based applications that require earlier Java clients.  Those legacy applications might only be certified with an old Java release like 1.4.x, and will not work with later JRE releases such as 1.5 or 1.6.  Oracle doesn't have much guidance on third-party Java application compatibility, naturally, so your best option in those situations would be to lobby your legacy application vendor to upgrade their certifications to include the latest Java clients. 

Sun has changed the options for handling multiple Java plug-ins through their "Classic Java Plug-in" and "Next-generation Java Plug-in" technologies.  Handling your requirements for multiple Java plug-ins will vary based upon the JRE versions installed and your default corporate browsers.  If you have multiple Java clients installed on the same Windows desktop, I would strongly recommend that you review the "Static vs. Non-Static Versioning and Set-Up Options" appendices in either Note 290807.1 or 393931.1. 

If you're encountering issues with your EBS conversion to use the Sun Java client, you might find the following document useful:

Minimum JRE Versions Required for E-Business Suite

Apps 11i was originally certified with Oracle JInitiator to run Oracle Forms-based content.  Apps 11i is now certified with the native Sun Java Runtime Engine plug-in.  Apps 11i end-users can use JRE releases on either of the following version levels:

  • JRE 1.5.0_13 and higher
  • JRE 1.6.0_03 and higher

Apps 12 was certified only with the native Sun Java Runtime Engine.  Oracle JInitiator is not certified or supported with Apps 12.

EBS Compatibility and Support for Future JRE Releases

E-Business Suite end-users can upgrade their JRE clients whenever Sun releases a new JRE release on either the 1.5 or 1.6 versions.  EBS users do not need to wait for Oracle to certify new JRE 1.5 or 1.6 plug-in updates with the E-Business Suite.

2.  JInitiator 1.3 will be Desupported for E-Business Suite customers at the end of July 2009

JInitiator 1.3.1.30 was the final certified version for Apps 11i.

Oracle JInitiator 1.3 was built on Sun's JDK 1.3.  Sun has long-since desupported JDK 1.3, so JInitiator 1.3 must be desupported, as well.  Oracle Forms Development has no plans to port JInitiator to JDK 1.4 or higher.

Support Implications for JInitiator Users

Here's what you can expect if you log an Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i Service Request against JInitiator after the respective dates shown above:

  1. Oracle Support will help you diagnose and isolate the root cause of any compatibility issues between JInitiator and the E-Business Suite.

  2. If there's a workaround or an existing Forms or JInitiator patch, Oracle Support will help you obtain the fix.

  3. If the issue requires a new Forms patch and can be reproduced using the native Sun JRE plug-in, a new bug will be logged against Oracle Forms.

  4. If the issue cannot be reproduced with the native Sun JRE client, no new Forms or JInitiator bugs will be logged.

3.  JInitiator 1.1.8 was desupported at the end of December, 2008

JInitiator 1.1.8.27 was the final certified version for Apps 11i.

I know that some of you continue to run JInitiator 1.1.8 with your E-Business Suite Release 11i environments for legacy compatibility reasons.  I'm afraid that the time has come for you to retire JInitiator 1.1.8.  Error Correction Support for JInitiator 1.1.8 ended on December 31, 2008.  In other words, the Oracle Forms group will no longer issue bug fixes via new versions of JInitiator 1.1.8.x as of December 31, 2008.

The "Support Implications for JInitiator Users" section, above, applies equally to JInitiator 1.1.8, also.

By the way, Oracle Forms Development has (somewhat inexplicably) published Metalink Note 789049.1 indicating that JInitiator will be generically supported until March 29, 2010.  I can't say that I understand this, myself, but the December 2008 desupport notice for JInitiator 1.1.8 for Apps 11i clients is published in Note 472154.1.

4.  JInitiator cannot be run on Vista Desktops

It's not possible to run Oracle JInitiator 1.3 on Microsoft Vista.  Here's why:

  • Oracle JInitiator 1.3 is based on Sun's JDK 1.3
  • Sun's JDK 1.3 is incompatible with Vista.
  • Sun has desupported JDK 1.3, so they have no plans to make it Vista compatible
  • Therefore, JInitiator is fundamentally incompatible with Vista due to its JDK 1.3 dependencies

On Hacking Up JInitiator

Various creative individuals have discovered that it's possible to replace a certain DLL in Oracle JInitiator 1.3 with a JVM from, say, JDK 1.6.  I can't personally testify that these hacks work.  I can say that this kind of surgery makes me intensely uncomfortable.

While it's nice to see creative initiative, I have to remind you that Oracle would regard this as a customization.  We don't recommend customizing Oracle JInitiator for production environments.

What Happens When Something Goes Wrong?

If you do choose to customize Oracle JInitiator 1.3, you should consider the support implications for your users.  If you encounter any issues specific to your customized version of JInitiator, Oracle's default recommendation will be to use the native Sun JRE plug-in.

What Does Oracle Recommend for Vista?

We recommend using the native Sun Java plug-in for Vista client desktops connecting to either Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i or 12.  The native JRE client is the only certified and supported Java client for E-Business Suite desktops end-users running on Microsoft Windows Vista.

Getting Support from Oracle for Your Conversion

Naturally, we're very interested in helping you get through this upgrade process with a minimum of pain.  If you hit any problems with your conversion to the native Sun JRE plug-in, please log a formal Service Request via Metalink.  Our Support engineers will work with you on this, and also track the underlying issues to see whether changes to our documentation or patches are warranted.  If necessary, we'll work with Sun to get fixes prioritized for future JRE releases, too.

Given my position in Oracle Development and the visibility of this blog, I sometimes think that my perspective on customer deployments might be a little skewed.  This blog's readers tend to be seasoned and highly-skilled Apps sysadmins and Oracle DBAs.  

I'd appreciate your help in getting an accurate view of how these conversions are going for you. I'd be very interested in hearing about your experiences, good or bad.  What went well?  What went sideways?  Please feel free to sound off in the comments or drop me a private email with more details about your migration.

Related Articles

]]> Understanding J2SE 1.5 End-of-Life Implications for Oracle E-Business Suite tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.13041 2009-06-25T13:58:06Z 2009-06-26T19:12:11Z Mike Shaw

As with my previous post about the desupport of Sun's Java 1.4 release, you should be aware that the equivalent end-of-life (EOL) for Sun's J2SE 1.5 is coming up in October 2009.

Implications for E-Business Suite Users

Here are the implications if your Apps 11i or 12 environments are running on servers with J2SE 1.5:

  • If you log a Service Request for your environment, Oracle will continue to perform its usual diagnosis, triage, and search through our knowledge base for existing patches and workarounds.   This assistance may be constrained by limited access to a small number of remaining environments running J2SE 1.5.  It is extremely unlikely that we will issue new Apps patches for new compatibility issues identified with the E-Business Suite and J2SE 1.5.
]]>
  • Issues isolated to J2SE 1.5 itself will be referred to your operating system vendor for more assistance.  Depending on your vendor, you may be able to purchase extended support for J2SE 1.5 directly from them.
  • Issues that can't be reproduced in E-Business Suite environments running on J2SE 1.6 (6.0) will likely result in a recommendation to upgrade to those later releases.

    • Upgrading to Java 1.6

    Given that Java 1.4 is already desupported and Java 1.5 is soon to be desupported later this year, we strongly recommend that you upgrade your EBS environments to Java 1.6, a.k.a Java 6.  For more information, see:

    References

    Related Articles

    ]]>     Applications Management and Change Management Packs Certified with Enterprise Manager Grid Control Release 5 tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12991 2009-06-23T21:33:11Z 2009-06-23T21:43:26Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html Our E-Business Suite Applications Technology Group released a new product, the Application Change Management Pack (ACMP), and a new version of their Application Management Pack (AMP) for Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Release 4 earlier this month.  They've just followed this up with a new certification with Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Release 5.

    Oracle-Enterprise-Manager-amp-screenshot showing iProcurement web application uptime and performance metrics

    ]]> For more details about the new features, documentation, and patches for the latest Application Management Pack and Application Change Management Pack releases, see:

    Oracle E-Business Suite Prerequisites

    • 11.5.10 with ATG_PF.H RUP5 and higher
    • Release 12.0.4 and higher
    • Release 12.1

    Certified Platforms

    • Linux x86
    • Linux x86-64
    • Sun Solaris SPARC
    • HP-UX Itanium
    • HP-UX PA-RISC
    • IBM AIX Based Systems

    Certification on Windows platforms are in progress.  You're welcome to monitor or subscribe to this blog for updates, which I'll post as soon as soon as they're available.  

    Related Articles

    ]]>     Tablespace Encryption 11.1.0.7 Certified with EBS 11i tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12827 2009-06-19T21:03:29Z 2009-06-19T21:15:08Z Allison Sparshott Oracle Advanced Security is an optional licenced Oracle 11gR1 Database add-on.  Oracle Advanced Security Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) offers two different features:  column encryption and tablespace encryption.  We certified the TDE column encryption feature with the E-Business Suite last year.  We're pleased to expand our 11gR1 Database certification to include the tablespace encryption feature.  Tablespace Encryption 11.1.0.7 is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i.

    What is Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) ?

    Advanced_Security_Overview.gif

    Oracle Advanced Security Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) allows you to protect data at rest. TDE helps address privacy and PCI requirements by encrypting personally identifiable information (PII) such as Social Security numbers and credit card numbers.

    TDE is completely transparent to existing applications with no triggers, views or other application changes required. Data is transparently encrypted when written to disk and transparently decrypted after an application user has successfully authenticated and passed all authorization checks. Authorization checks include verifying the user has the necessary select and update privileges on the application table and checking Database Vault, Label Security and Virtual Private Database enforcement policies.

    ]]> Existing database backup routines will continue to work, with the data at rest remaining encrypted in the backup. For encryption of entire database backups, TDE can be used in combination with Oracle RMAN.

    What is Tablespace Encryption ? TDE_Key_Management_Architecture.png

    New in Oracle Database 11g Release 1, the Oracle Advanced Security now includes support for tablespace encryption.

    When a tablespace is created through Enterprise Manager or on the command line, an option now exists to specify that the file be encrypted on the file system. When new data is added to the new tablespace using the insert command or datapump, entire tables will be transparently encrypted. When the database reads data blocks from the encrypted tablespace it will transparently decrypt the data blocks.

    With this certification, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i environments can be migrated to encrypted tablespaces. For more information, please refer to:

    Prerequisites

    • Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i version 11.5.10.2 or higher

    Platforms certified for 11i

    • Linux x86 (32-bit)
    • Linux x86-64 (64 bit)
    • Sun Solaris SPARC (64-bit)
    • IBM AIX Based Systems (64-bit)
    • HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit)
    • HP-UX Itanium
    • Microsoft Windows Server(32-bit)
    • Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit)

    References

    Related Articles

    ]]>     Introducing Allison Sparshott, Guest Author tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12955 2009-06-19T17:17:17Z 2009-06-19T18:19:18Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html Our panel of guest contributors to this blog continues to expand.  I'm pleased to welcome Allison Sparshott, another member of my EBS Certifications team, to our ever-growing group of authors.

    Allison Sparshott is a Principal Software Engineer in the Applications Technology Integration organization under Cliff Godwin. Since joining the Applications Technology Integration team in June 2005, she has been responsible for a variety of technology certifications from Web Browser to Oracle Application Server and Database.

    Allison has been with Oracle since 1994. She began her Oracle career in the support organisation in EMEA where she worked for four years supporting the Applications Technology products. She was then responsible for the inception, development and running of the EMEA Applications Test Centre, responsible for testing Oracle Applications in the National languages for EMEA. She then went on to work for two years in the DDR team, working with MLS (Multi-Lingual Support) and the UTF8/Unicode character set, creating configuration documentation and FAQs for UTF8 with Oracle Applications. She then worked for 3 years as a Product Manager for Oracle Workflow, working on product feature design in the Worklow Notifications area and assisting support in resolving technical issues with Oracle Workflow and developing a 'Supporting Oracle Workflow' course for support analysts.

    ]]>     Which is Better: Forms Servlet or Socket Mode? tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12915 2009-06-17T22:33:09Z 2009-06-25T02:38:42Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html Many products within the Oracle E-Business Suite have screens that are built with Oracle Forms.  Oracle Forms can be run in either servlet mode or socket mode.  Apps 11i is based on Forms 6i and is configured to run in socket mode by default.  Apps 12 is based on Forms 10g and is configured to run in servlet mode by default. What are these modes, and which is better?

    What is Forms Servlet Mode?

    The Forms Listener Servlet is a Java servlet that delivers the ability to run Oracle Forms applications over HTTP and HTTPS connections. It manages the creation of a Forms Server Runtime process for each client, as well as network communications between the client and its associated Forms Server Runtime process.

    The desktop client sends HTTP requests and receives HTTP responses from the web server. The HTTP Listener on the web server acts as the network endpoint for the client, keeping other servers and ports from being exposed at the firewall.

    Forms listener servlet diagram showing firewalls desktop client and oc4j container on application tier

    ]]> What is Forms Socket Mode?

    Initial releases of the Oracle Forms Server product used a simple method for connecting the client to the server. The connection from the desktop client to the Forms Listener process was accomplished using a direct socket connection.  The direct socket connection mode was suitable for companies providing thin client access to Forms applications within their corporate local area networks. For the direct socket connection mode, the client had to be able to see the server and had to have permission to establish a direct network connection.

    Although the direct socket connection mode is perfectly suited for deployments within a company’s internal network, it's not the best choice for application deployment via unsecured network paths via the Internet. A company connected to the Internet typically employs a strict policy defining the types of network connections that can be made by Internet clients to secure corporate networks. Permitting a direct socket connection from an external client exposes the company to potential risk because the true identity of the client can be hard to determine.

    Servlet Mode Advantages

    1. HTTP and HTTPS traffic is easily recognizable by routers, while socket mode communications is generally considered suspect and treated on an exception basis. 
    2. Existing networking hardware can be used to support basic functions such as load-balancing and packet encryption for network transit.
    3. More resilient to network and firewall reconfigurations.
    4. More robust: servlet connections can be reestablished if network connections drop unexpectedly for Forms, Framework, and JSP-based pages.
    5. Is the only supported method for generic Oracle Forms customers, and therefore is more thoroughly tested by the Forms and E-Business Suite product groups.
    6. Performance traffic can be monitored via tools like Oracle Real User Experience Insight (RUEI).
    7. Socket mode is not supported on Windows-based server platforms.

    Socket Mode Advantages

    1. Uses up to 40% less bandwidth than Forms servlet mode.  This may be perceived by Wide Area Network (WAN) users as causing slower responsiveness, depending upon network latency.
    2. Uses fewer application-tier JVM resources than servlet mode, due to fewer TCP turns and lack of overhead associated with HTTP POST handling.

    Switching Apps Deployments Between Modes

    Due to its numerous advantages, Forms servlet mode is the preferred and recommended deployment model for Forms on the web. 

    There may be circumstances where you need to switch between the default Forms modes.  You might wish to switch your Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 environment to socket mode to improve performance or reduce network load.  You might wish to switch your Apps 11i environment to servlet mode as part of your rollout to external web-based end-users outside of your organization.

    If you're running Apps 11i and would like to switch to servlet mode, see:

    If you're running Apps 12 and would like to switch to socket mode, see:

    Related Articles

    ]]>     Interim Update: ATG RUP 7 for E-Business Release 11i tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12885 2009-06-15T22:35:43Z 2009-06-19T21:15:08Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html The last major update to the E-Business Suite Release 11i's technology stack was released in late 2007.  This is available via the Applications Technology Group Rollup Patchset 6, also known as ATG RUP 6.  Since then, we've been a little preoccupied with Apps 12.  Now that we've gotten three new R12 releases under our belts, our attentions are turning back to Apps 11i.

    11i Technology Stack Architecture diagram

    ]]> We've been working on ATG RUP 7 for EBS 11i for a while now.  ATG RUP 7 will deliver a consolidated set of the latest security, stability, and performance fixes for all E-Business Suite technology stack components.  Here's a quick update on where we stand in the development cycle for this new patchset.

    ATG RUP 7 has just completed its development phase and is now in the formal testing phase for all E-Business Suite products.  Centralized divisional testing is underway now.  This is going smoothly.  We're going through the usual process of ironing out the inevitable issues that occur when such fundamental changes are made to the foundation of the E-Business Suite. 

    It's expected that we will go through multiple interim builds of ATG RUP 7.  Each iterative test cycle requires product teams to retest to ensure that existing known issues are fixed, new features function as designed, and no new bugs (regressions) have been introduced.

    Supporting the Current and Previous ATG RUPs

    Way back in 2006, in this blog's salad days, I posted this article:

    Remember that our support baseline for the E-Business Suite is comprised of the current (N) and immediately preceding (N-1) ATG RUPs.  New EBS patches are tested and released on top of these two technology stack baseline configurations. 

    What Does This Have to do with ATG RUP 7?

    When the upcoming Apps 11i ATG RUP 7 is released, it will be supported along with ATG RUP 6.  In other words, if you encounter any issues with ATG RUP 6 or 7, we'll be able to release new E-Business Suite patches for those configurations as necessary.

    If your Apps 11i environment is on ATG RUP 5, you will no longer be able to request new patches for that technology stack level.  If your environment is running ATG RUP 4 or earlier, you already know that you haven't been able to request new patches for those older rollup patchsets.

    A Short Aside About Related Support Policies

    This is similar but not identical to the support policy for our Server Technologies and Fusion Middleware products, which I've discussed in more detail in these important articles:

    Remember that our Server Technologies and Fusion Middleware support policies are subtly different and from EBS policies:  they support the current (N), as well as the immediately preceding (N-1) release for 12 months after the N release.

    When Will ATG RUP 7 be Released?

    As usual, I'm not permitted to discuss specific dates for unreleased software on this blog.  You're welcome to monitor or subscribe to this blog for updates, which I'll post as soon as soon as they're available.

    Related Articles

    The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decision. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

    ]]>     Oracle Tutor 12.1 Certified with Word 2007 and Vista Clients tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12858 2009-06-12T19:17:45Z 2009-06-19T21:11:48Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html Oracle Tutor enables you to create, customize, and maintain process documentation, training, and reference materials related to Oracle Applications.  Several seasons have passed since Oracle Tutor was last mentioned tangentially on this blog.  Our Tutor Development team hasn't been dormant, though.  They've just released two new patches with the following updates for Oracle Tutor:

    • Support for Word 2007
    • Support for Microsoft Vista desktop clients
    • Global font change to Arial
    • Actor Bar color changed to blue in Word documents

    Tutor_patch_8561798_screenshot.png ]]> These new updates are available via the following Metalink patches:

    You can use the following query to find Tutor patches on Metalink:

    • Application = "Applications R12"
    • Platform = "Microsoft Windows (32-bit)

    For more details on locating and downloading Tutor patches, see:

    ]]>     Interim Update #3: Using IE8 with E-Business Suite tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12850 2009-06-11T18:10:36Z 2009-06-19T21:15:08Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html

    As of today, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is still not certified with either Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i or 12.  Our standing recommendation is that your desktop administrators use Microsoft's IE8 Blocker Toolkit to prevent your end-users from inadvertently upgrading to IE8.  For full details about this toolkit, see:

    We recommend that you deploy this as soon as possible, to prevent your EBS users from accidentally upgrading their desktops to IE 8. 

    What's Holding Up this EBS Certification?

    If you recall from our previous updates, the way that we currently launch Forms-based EBS products is not workable in IE8.  We need to do the following things before IE8 can be considered certified with the respective E-Business Suite releases:

    ]]>
  • Rework the Forms launching code in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i
  • Manually test all Apps 11i products with IE8
  • Rework the Forms launching code in Apps 12
  • Manually test all Apps 12 products with IE8

    • Remember also that IE8 is not compatible with HP Mercury WinRunner, our current automated regression testing software.  This means that all of the tests that would ordinarily be tested via our automated testing process need to be done by hand.  This is time-consuming and rather painful.

    What If You Upgrade to IE 8 Before It's Certified With Apps?

    If you don't need to access Apps 11i or 12, there won't be any problems with upgrading to IE 8.

    If you access only the web-based, Self-Service, OA Framework based content, there shouldn't be any notable issues.  HTML-based E-Business Suite screens should theoretically work with no issues in IE8, although we haven't formally certified all of them yet.

    If you attempt to access the E-Business Suite for Oracle Forms-based content (i.e. the Professional User Interface):

    • You will experience issues launching Forms-based EBS Release 12 products with IE8.
    • You may experience some odd issues launching Forms-based EBS Release 11i products with IE8.  Forms may work sporadically and may generate sporadic issues.

    For now, Oracle Support engineers will try to reproduce any reported IE compatibility issues with IE 7, not IE 8. If issues can be reproduced with IE 7, then Oracle Support will provide a workaround or log a bug, as appropriate.

    If you experience issues that can only be reproduced on IE8, you will be advised to downgrade your browser to IE7 if you need to access the E-Business Suite.

    When Will This Be Certified?

    As I've noted before, I'm not permitted to discuss specific schedules.  That said, looking at the outstanding tasks I've listed above, you might not be surprised to hear that this certification may take a while to complete. 

    The majority of this work was queued up behind our Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1 release.  Now that Apps 12.1.1 is out the door, we're turning our attention to other big projects, including the IE8 compatibility rework.

    You're welcome to monitor or subscribe to this blog for updates, which I'll post as soon as soon as they're available.

    Related Articles

    ]]>     EBS 11i Certified with 10gR2 10.2.0.4 DB on IBM Linux on Power and Linux on System Z tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12832 2009-06-10T17:40:13Z 2009-06-19T21:15:08Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html Our Applications Platforms Group has just released a new split configuration for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i.  Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10.2 is now certified with the 10gR2 Database version 10.2.0.4 on the IBM Linux on Power and IBM Linux on System z (formerly known as 'zSeries Based Linux') platforms. Operating systems covered are:

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 and 5
    • Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 9 and 10
    ]]> This is a database-tier only certification (also known as a "split configuration").  The application tier must be on a supported Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i platform.

    References

    Related Articles

    ]]>     Updating the Default JDK Installed in OracleAS 10g tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12819 2009-06-09T20:56:41Z 2009-06-19T21:15:09Z Steven Chan http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/about.html [June 12, 2009 Update: Added link to JDK 1.6 Note 444462.1]

    Java logo

    If you run Java-based applications in your organization, you're aware that you may wish to optionally update the Java Development Kit (JDK) libraries periodically to get the latest fixes for security, stability, and performance.  This applies to the E-Business Suite, naturally, so we regularly release new certifications for the latest Java releases for EBS.

    Perhaps lesser-known is that this also applies to external servers running Oracle Fusion Middleware -- also known as Oracle Application Server 10g.  You may have deployed Oracle Application Server 10g on one or more application tier servers to use Discoverer, Single Sign-On, Oracle Internet Directory, Portal, or other Fusion Middleware services with the E-Business Suite.

    ]]> How Do You Update Java for other Oracle Products?

    Oracle Security has published the following advisory:

    That note is important reading for all Oracle administrators.  It contains links to three additional documents:

    If you're looking for the latest JDK 1.4 release to update an Oracle Application Server 10g instance, you can find it here:

    Special thanks to those readers (you know who you are) whose persistence helped us make this JDK patch available for all of our customers.

    Related Articles

    ]]>     Sneak Preview: Integrating EBS with Desktop Apps via Web ADI Development Framework tag:blogs.oracle.com,2009:/stevenChan//101.12799 2009-06-08T23:15:00Z 2009-06-19T21:15:09Z Rekha Ayothi Web Applications Desktop Integration (Web ADI) is an enterprise framework for integrating the Oracle E-Business Suite with desktop applications. It's a Self-Service Oracle Application that lets you download and upload selected data between EBS products and  Microsoft Excel.  It allows you to modify bulk data in Microsoft Excel, working either online or offline, and upload the modified data using Web ADI.  It also allows you to generate Microsoft Word documents for mail merges.

    What's Coming for Web ADI?

    Are you interested in integrating EBS application with desktop application using Oracle’s Web ADI framework? Are you interested in creating custom Web ADI integrators with the ability to define validations, lookups, and business rules? Well, you're in the right place! The Oracle Applications Technology Group is working on providing a new development framework to create and manage custom desktop integrators.

    Web ADI integration architecture diagram

    ]]> We're building out this upcoming framework to provide rich functionality to:

    Define integrators

    • Security rules
    • One or more interfaces to import data-to EBS
    • One or more contents to extract data-from
    • Validation rules – flex fields, description flex fields, SQL-based lookup
    • Business rules to import data to EBS

    Manage integrators

    • Create integrators
    • Edit and delete custom integrators
    • View Oracle-seeded and custom integrator definitions

    Define and Manage UI components and lookup screens

    Let Us Know About Your Integration Requirements

    We're very interested in hearing about your requirements for integrating the E-Business Suite with your desktop applications.  If you're using Oracle Web ADI or have a requirement to create custom integrators, please email the following questionnaire to:

    Rakha Ayothi email

    For Oracle-seeded Web ADI Integrators:

    1. Does your company use Oracle Web ADI?
    2. What is your current version of Oracle Applications? (11i RUP __ / R12 RUP __ )

    For Custom Integrators:

    1. What requirements do you have for developing custom integrators?
    2. How are you creating custom integrators? (In-house development / Vendor Product _<name>_)
    3. Are you interested in participating in an Early Adopter Program for the Web ADI Development Framework?

    Your Contact Details

    • Company Name:
    • Contact Person:
    • Contact Number:
    • Contact E-mail address:

    Related Articles

    ]]>