[July 25, 2007 Update: The Linux Early Adopter Program is on hold. Please see this article for more details]
[June 27, 2007 Update: This certification is now Generally Available. All E-Business Suite customers can now deploy this configuration in production. With the release of this certification, the Early Adopter Program for this configuration is now concluded.]
[May 23, 2007 Update: We expect Sun to release a fix very soon for a focus issue that’s been holding up this configuration’s release into General Availability. When we’ve verified that this fix is included in Sun’s latest JRE plug-in, it is likely that this Early Adopter Program will end shortly afterwards. In other words, this Early Adopter Program is in the final phase right now, and is expected to end very soon.]
[Apr 3, 2007 Update: This Early Adopter Program is still running, and I’m still accepting customer nominations for new participants. If you’d like to nominate your organization for this program, please drop me an email.]
[June 27, 2007 Update: This certification is now Generally Available. All E-Business Suite customers can now deploy this configuration in production. With the release of this certification, the Early Adopter Program for this configuration is now concluded.]
[May 23, 2007 Update: We expect Sun to release a fix very soon for a focus issue that’s been holding up this configuration’s release into General Availability. When we’ve verified that this fix is included in Sun’s latest JRE plug-in, it is likely that this Early Adopter Program will end shortly afterwards. In other words, this Early Adopter Program is in the final phase right now, and is expected to end very soon.]
[Apr 3, 2007 Update: This Early Adopter Program is still running, and I’m still accepting customer nominations for new participants. If you’d like to nominate your organization for this program, please drop me an email.]
[July 3, 2006 Update: We now support Sun Java 1.5.0_07 for Windows desktops. All references changed internally below.]
Given a recent comment from a new reader, this seems like a good opportunity to cover one of our currently-running Early Adopter Programs in detail. Although I’ve been promoting this program aggressively within our Oracle field community, this program’s existence may be one of our best-kept secrets.
What’s Oracle JInitiator?
The E-Business Suite Release 11i has two interfaces: a web-based model for modules like iProcurement and iStore, and an Oracle Forms-based model for our professional services modules like Financials.
Oracle Forms are Java-based and require a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to run. Oracle JInitiator is Oracle’s licenced version of Sun’s JVM, and the E-Business Suite Forms-based modules are certified to run with Oracle’s JInitiator.
Conflicts with Other Java Virtual Machines
This situation would be fine if it weren’t for the existence of other Java Virtual Machines. Sun, Microsoft, IBM, and other vendors each offer their own JVMs, and many of our customers run other Java-based applications with dependencies on specific JVM releases.
Naturally, complications ensue when multiple virtual JVMs are installed on the same Windows desktop. For example, some customers encounter problems when running Oracle JInitiator concurrently with Microsoft’s JVM. Other customers encounter problems when running Sun JVM-based applications after running Oracle JInitiator.
Replacing JInitiator with Sun’s Native Java Virtual Machine
It may not solve all of your desktop management issues around clashing JVMs, but we’re trying to eliminate the E-Business Suite’s dependency on Oracle JInitiator, which should remove at at least one JVM from the mix.
Today, we’ve certified the E-Business Suite Release 11i with the native Sun JVM: J2SE 5.0 (also known as 1.5). Specifically, we’ve certified all E-Business Suite Forms-based modules to run with J2SE 1.5.0_07.
We plan future certifications with later 1.5.x releases, such as 1.5.0_08. We also plan future certifications with J2SE 6.
Minimum Requirements for Microsoft Windows Desktops:
The prerequisites for this configuration are:
- E-Business Suite 11.5.9 and higher
- End-user desktops running Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or Mozilla Firefox 1.0.4 and higher
- Browsers running Sun J2SE 1.5.0_07
The prerequisites for this configuration are:
- Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10 with ATG 11.5.10 CU2
- Desktop client running Java2 Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 internal version 1.5.0._05 and higher
- Desktop client requirements:
- Intel x86 processors
- Red Hat Linux Desktop 3.0 and higher
- Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 and higher
This configuration requires a patch to the E-Business Suite’s technology stack (our team produces and certifies this patch, by the way).
The interesting thing about this configuration is that the patched E-Business Suite instance can be accessed simultaneously by both Oracle JInitiator users as well as Sun JVM users. For example, Robert can be running Oracle Jinitiator at the same time that Janice is running Sun’s JVM.
This allows companies to experiment with this configuration for a subset of their users, which minimizes the risk of upgrading the entire end-user desktop in a single Big Bang project.
Known Issues
There are a few known issues with this configuration. These issues are bugs within Sun’s JVM and we’re working with Sun to resolve them. Issues include:
- Occasional focus problems, where focus on the Sun JVM is lost in certain circumstances. There are workarounds for this.
- Limited support for certain bidirectional character sets. There are no workarounds for this, unfortunately.
There are approximately a dozen early adopters registered in this program today. All Early Adopter Program participants agree to test this configuration thoroughly in internal testbeds. If the testing goes well, we support the use of this configuration in their production environments.
The required interoperability patch to support this is released in specific Builds. Because of the difficulty of supporting multiple versions of the interoperability patch, all early adopters agree to keep current with the latest Build released for this configuration. This includes upgrading to the latest patch after we release this configuration into General Availability.
If early adopters encounter an issue with an older Build that can’t be reproduced in the latest Build, we try to find a workaround or – ideally – encourage them to install the latter.
Registering For This Program
We’re eager to get as many early adopters into this program as possible. If you’d like to experiment with this configuration, even if it’s for just a single lab desktop, please consider registering your company in this Early Adopter Program.
To register, contact your Oracle account manager and ask him/her to read this post. Then, your Oracle account manager should contact me to get your company properly registered.
If you have trouble identifying your Oracle account manager, let me know. I look forward to hearing from you.
Related