Recent email asks, “Why not wait for 12.2 to upgrade from 11.5.10.2″

One of the important things to consider with 11.5.10.2 is support. I think Extended Support ends Nov 2013 and without support I’m sure your business will want to upgrade.

You could wait for 12.2, but I wouldn’t want to implement a product with a brand new application server, until a few bugs settle out. 12.2 will use Weblogics.

The 12.1 upgrade is a functional upgrade and the 12.2 is a tech stack upgrade, probably with 11.2.0.3 for the DB. The big deal is WLS and the administration of possibly much more complicated configurations.

At OOW, a development manager at Oracle said that all the platforms, Peoplesoft, JDEdwards all have to run on WLS before they can attempt a “fusion” of the products. This seems a bit obvious, but illustrates the fact that Oracle will be really pushing us hard to 12.2.

If you really want to take on the complexity of educating your users in a completely new way of accounting and trying to resolve new undocumented AS issues at the same time by doing a 12.2 upgrade, good luck.

I think the more sensible approach would be to upgrade to 12.1.3 and then 2 years later upgrade to 12.2. Since, it’s primarily a tech stack upgrade with bug fixes, the users should not need to be retrained.

Posted in R12.1 Upgrade, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Database Tuning for Packaged Applications

December 7th at 14:25, Track 1

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Database Tuning for Packaged Applications

Packaged Applications such as E-Business Suite and Demantra may require significant hardware and performance tuning resources. Large investments in hardware will benefit from periodic tuning of the application and underlying database. Tuning the database for these packaged applications can utilize similar techniques, however the hardware resources required may be vastly different. We are faced with the constraint that we can’t tune the sql in these packaged applications, but we can make the database run faster and thereby, “fix” the offending sql. In addition to the generally used techniques of reorg-ing tables or gathering better statistics, there are six more tuning techniques that can be used to help improve the performance of your packaged application.

This is a practical presentation for those packaged application users that need better performance but without the purist’s focus on tuning sql.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Performance Tuning | Comments Off

Meetings with Gustavo and Max at Oracle

The two Senior Development Managers I met this morning were Max and Gustavo.  We talked about 12.1.3, 12.2, Fusion Applications and Fusion Middleware. This is  my recollection of our discussion.

First, topics from 12.1.3:

OATM – TruTek suggests that OATM be run we before the upgrade to 12.1.3, but  running OATM after the upgrade will remove fragmentation by running “ALTER TABLESPACE MOVE TABLE” on all the tables in each tablespace .  However, in the interest of minimizing downtime during the upgrade, TruTek recommends running OATM before the upgrade and run OATM  after the upgrade, to remove any fragmentation, if present.

Parallel Concurrent Processing and Dead Connection Detection using 11g – with versions of the database before 11gR1, dead connection detection was dependent on TCP Keepalive settings. Now, with 11gR1 and above the dia0 database process eliminates dead connections within 10 seconds and sometimes seems almost immediate.  Special setup of TCP parameters is no longer necessary to perform PCP failover.

Edition Based Redifinition (EBR) was introduced in 11gR2.  Hot Patching uses this database feature in 12.2 with the introduction of “adop” AD Online Patching, the new admin tool for patching that keeps a copy of the Apps Tier for ADOP patching.

TruTek suggested an enhancement to adpatch: to allow a different number of workers for different phases. For example, normal patch jobs run better with fewer workers, in part because of less contention for deferred jobs, while the ad parallel compile runs fastest using all available CPUs.

Topics from 12.2:

In 12.0 and 12.1 the application server is 10gAS and the configuration parameters are incorporated into AutoConfig, leaving out the AS Control management console. In 12.2 the application server is WebLogic and while some parameters, such as DBC configuration parameters for AOL/J are still managed by AutoConfig, the WebLogic Server (WLS) is managed through the WLS Console. This allows admins to configure domains, managed servers,  server clusters, machines, node managers, virtual hosts, work managers and security realms.

All the AOL/J components are essentially the same, including calls to FND_GLOBAL.APPS_INITIALIZE. This sets the FND_GLOBAL_USER_ID, Function Security, NLS and Multi Org parameters. The call to the NLS setting is especially expensive, which is why the JDBC Connection pool will save this session info and try to reuse it if possible.

In 12.2 the OHS will connect to Weblogic with a reverse proxy using the Apache Plugin that supports the APG14 protocol.

12.2 supports EBR and needs the functionality of 11gR2 for EBR. Therefore, 10gR2 and 11gR1 will not support 12.2. Steven Chan’s blog mentions that 11.2.0.3 is on the horizon.

Fusion Applications:

Get ready for Fusion by upgrading to 12.1.3

Introduce SOA to begin to replace existing non-Fusion compatible customizations

Co-Exist with Fusion to take advantage of new functionality in Fusion and use SOA interface with EBS.

ADF does not support flexfields, but OAF still supports flexfields. These pictures are from Nadia’s presentation at Open World. You can launch ADF pages from OAF:

ADF objects can be embedded in in OAF pages.

ADF no longer supports flexfields, but OAF still supports flexfields.

Begin using ADF extensions for EBS to help protect your investment, better enable co-existence with Fusion Applications and ensure your upgrade path to Fusion in the future.

 

 Fusion Middleware:

Prepare for Fusion by implementing Identity Management and Access Manager:

 

 Prepare for Fusion by Implementing OBIEE:

 

 Prepare for Fusion by implementing BI Publisher:

 

Posted in 11g Database, Dead Connection Detection, E Business Suite, Fusion, Fusion Applications, Middleware, Parallel Concurrent Processing and Failover, R12.1 Upgrade | Comments Off

We can Generate 11i & R12 BR100s and Find All your Customizations

TruTek provides as part of our assessments the ability to generate BR100s and find all customizations using our favorite partner’s software, 2e2 / ConfigSnapshot. This is compatible with any version of the E-Business Suite from 11.0.3 to 12.1.3+ and for 130+ modules & technical areas. Free trial and web demos available on request - sherri@trutek.com or barb@trutek.com for details.

BR100s and customizations are just the start, see details below for a general summary of basic capabilities available out of the box:

Setup Management
•Automatically generate setup documentation for > 130 modules
•Plan configuration in ConfigSnapshot before deploying to the E-Business Suite
•Control setup for new changes
•Directly compare setups across multiple environments
•Compare operating units, sets of books etc. within or across environments
•Create date stamped copies of setup for historic reporting and comparison over time
•Covers key technical areas including workflow, database objects etc.
•Extensible to cover custom application setups
•Annotate important setup items to assist managing key setups
•Compare actual setups with model values

Reduce Time – Reduce Errors – Reduce Cost – Reduce Risk

Patching / Upgrades
•Identify customizations
•Compare setups across different versions – understand the impact
•Identify all components affected to help prioritise testing
•Manage any additional setup required
•Ensure each iteration is accurately repeated

Assess Impact – Determine Scope – Simplify Execution

Support / Audit
•Flexible reporting targets data effectively and ensure results can be formatted to simplify understanding
•Thousands of reporting requirements provided as standard
•Define additional reporting in minutes; assist system administration, problem resolution and enforcing policies
•Feature-rich online inquiry
•Consolidated reporting for complex setups, e.g. security and user access – including Role Based Access Control
•Identify changes to key setups

Support Proactively, Not Reactively – Enforce Control

Posted in E Business Suite, R12.1 Upgrade | Tagged , | Comments Off

Dead Connection Detection works in 11.1.0.7

A couple of years ago I wrote a paper on how to adjust the TCP settings so that TNS would detect a dead connection. I also demonstrated how Oracle cleans up processes, but may leave sessions connected to the database. ALTER SYSTEM DISCONNECT SESSION is the new command for cleaning up the session and process at the same time in 11g.

In the white paper, “Improve Performance with Dead Connection Detection”, I showed with 10gR2 how blocking locks are not released when the user session was abnormally terminated. The same test in 11.1.0.7 shows the blocking locks released almost immediately after the first session was abnormally terminated.

I believe this is due to the new process, dia0, dia(zero), in 11g.

Posted in 11g Database, Dead Connection Detection, Performance Tuning | Tagged , , | Comments Off

shell script to check for 11.5.10.2 rpms for linux 4

 

echo “Checking for required RPMs, refer to note: 303859.1″

 echo ” ”

 echo ” * Required OS Components ”

 rpm -q compat-db-4.1.25-9

rpm -q compat-db-4.1.25-9

rpm -q compat-gcc-32-3.2.3-47.3

rpm -q compat-gcc-32-c++-3.2.3-47.3

 rpm -q compat-oracle-rhel4-1.0-3

 rpm -q compat-libcwait-2.0-1

 rpm -q compat-libgcc-296-2.96-132.7.2

 rpm -q compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-132.7.2

 rpm -q compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3

 rpm -q gcc-3.4.3-9.EL4

 rpm -q gcc-c++-3.4.3-9.EL4

 rpm -q gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-44

 rpm -q gnome-libs-devel-1.4.1.2.90-44

 rpm -q libaio-devel-0.3.102-1

 rpm -q libaio-0.3.102-1

 rpm -q make-3.80-5

 rpm -q openmotif21-2.1.30-11

 rpm -q xorg-x11-deprecated-libs-devel-6.8.1-23.EL

 rpm -q xorg-x11-deprecated-libs-6.8.1-23.EL

 echo ” “

Posted in 11i Install | Comments Off

Oracle Demo Presentations

Here are some of the URLs for the presentations at the Oracle Demo area:

http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/optimized-solutions-171609.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/em-oow2011-content-454204.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/goto/optimizedsolutions?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/storage/index.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization/oraclevm/index.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/adf/overview/index-092391.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/soasuite/overview/index.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/em-oow2011-content-454204.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/adf/overview/adf-mobile-096323.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/soa/index.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/upk/index.html?msgid=QROOW11

http://www.oracle.com/webcenter?msgid=QROOW11

Posted in Oracle Open World | Comments Off

Oracle Open World 2011

Oracle Open World 2011 was the best ever! Everything is big at OOW. Exadata was everywhere.

Awesome presentations including some of my favorite presenters/authors, Tim Gorman, Cary Millsap, Debra Lilley, Dennis Horton and Deep Ram, Tanel Poder, Nadia Bendjedou and Cliff Godwin.

My Favorite presentation was from Cary Millsap on his presentation on “Skew”. Skew is everywhere. Did you know the average number of legs per person was 1.99? Why is it not greater than 2, because there are no three legged humans. (This is the best picture I could get of Cary, he thinks best when he’s moving).

The James Bond joke, if you don’t know what a Thermos is and someone tells you that it keeps hot things hot, and cold things cold, why didn’t it work when I put my coffee and my popsicle in my thermos?  Understand your data.

Skew exists everywhere, especially in systems, charaterized by CPU, memory, disks and networks. In 11.2.0.2 there are 1118 system calls, 6 dba calls and 2 psuedo calls. The system  processes are dominated by system calls, with a few critical DBA calls.

The Upgrade SIG

From Oracle: Nadia Bendjedou, Max Arderius, Lester Gutierrez , Anne Carlson

Chairperson – Barb Matthews, Panelists included: Sandra Vucinic (moderator), Kaberi Nayak, Bill Dunham, Michael Brown, Susan Behn and Mike Swing.

 Oak Table dinner sponsered by our gracious host Mogens Norgaard of Miracle AS included Tanel Poder, a real superman. Tanel has an excellent book out on ExaData.

The dinner was held at the Franciscan Crab Restaurant and the crab was truly better than I’ve ever had.

The conference had lots of exhibitors, two of our favorite are 2e2 (with a product called ConfigSnapshot) and ePrentice.  

One of the exhibitor gifts was a sumo wrestler from Hitachi Consulting, who looks interested in the Oracle Racing Team.

 

 

 

But the best gift of all, was winning back the America’s Cup. Thanks, Uncle Larry. The first model ship I ever built was the America, after reading a book about sailing.

 

 

Posted in Oracle Open World | Tagged | Comments Off

Best two quotes from OOW on Monday

The first quote came from the presentation of the day, when Cary Millsap said. “When I look at the sky I see Mickey Mouse’s head”, in relation to understanding skew in idle wait events.

The second best quote came from Debra Lilley with regard to upgrading to R12.1.3 or waiting for Fusion. “Don’t Do Nothing”.

Posted in Oracle Open World, Performance Tuning | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Monday at Oracle Open World

Awesome presentations including some of my favorite presenters/authors, Tim Gorman, Cary Millsap, Debra Lilley, Dennis Horton and Deep Ram, Tanel Poder, Nadia Bendjedou and Cliff Godwin.

My Favorite presentation was from Cary Millsap on his presentation on “Skew”. Skew is everywhere. Did you know the average number of legs per person was 1.99? Why is it not greater than 2, because there are no three legged humans.

The James Bond joke, if you don’t know what a Thermos is and someone tells you that it keeps hot things hot, and cold things cold, why didn’t it work when I put my coffee and my popsicle in my thermos?  Understand your data.

Skew exists everywhere, especially in systems, charaterized by CPU, memory, disks and networks. In 11.2.0.2 there are 1118 system calls, 6 dba calls and 2 psuedo calls. The system  processes are dominated by system calls, with a few critical DBA calls.

This system basically makes calls to the system and to the database.

The main idea was to illustrate the common misconception that idle wait events can be ignored. The answer is, you have to drill down to the exac cause of the wait and not look at summary data that represents median values or averages.

Cary summarized his Method R process: Identify the Important Task, Measure the Response Time, Optimize Response, Repeat until satisfied.

Check out Simpson’s paradox, a baseball statistical conundrum. Bobby Bragan the 1966 manager of the Atlanta Braves, was quoted as saying, “If you have one foot in the oven and one foot in the icebox, the percentages would say you’re fine”.

Drill down on each issue and remove the skew from each case by understanding the details of each wait.

 

 

Posted in Oracle Open World, Performance Tuning | Tagged , , | Comments Off