How to configure Load Balancer in Oracle E-Business Suite R12

This post covers steps to configure Load Balancer (with assumptions mentioned below) with Oracle E-Buisness Suite R12 . For overview and various options for High Availability (at application tier level) follow Metalink (Oracle My Support) note 380489.1Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

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AssumptionsConfiguration steps mentioned in this post are based on following assumptions

1.E-Business Suite (Apps) is installed and accessible using at least one apps server via web server port (assume port pool 0 i.e. 8000) i.e. http://ebsapp01.domain.com:8000

2. There is hardware load balancer available with port translation (8000 to 80) – (Optional and required only if you want port translation or URL on non default port)

Note: If your load balancer does not have port translation feature and you would like to use standard HTTP(s) port i.e. 80 or 443 then additional steps are required to reconfigure EBS on 80/443

3. If you want URL to be SSL/HTTPS (port 443) then Load Balancer should have capability to SSL encryption/decryption (In this case SSL will terminate at Load Balancer and from Load Balancer to Web/Apps Tier configure is HTTP)

Note: If you want SSL to be configured all the way till Web/Apps Tier then additional steps are required to re-configure EBS on 443

4. EBS R12 supports multiple URLs pointing to same application. (For this setup you need minimum 2 apps tier + additional profile option configuration)

Follow section 2.2 Using Hardware Load Balancer with Multiple Web Entry Points of Note # 380489.1

5. Session Persistence is configured at Load Balancer (Mandatory if you have multiple middle/apps tier)

Configuration below are based on following setup (change values where required)

1. There are two application tier (appserver1.localdomain.com and appserver2.localdomain.com) with web port as 8000

2. Load Balancer URL after setup is mylbr.lbrdomain.com (listening on port 80)

3. Load Balancer is configured with entry mylbr.lbrdomain.com:80 forwarding request to appserver1.localdomain.com:8000 & appserver2.localdomain.com:8000 (with session stickiness)

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Step to follow to re-configure Oracle Apps to use Load Balancer

1. Update following five values in Context File ($CONTEXT_FILE) (Context file is at $INST_TOP/appl/admin) of application tier. To know more about INST_TOP and CONTEXT_FILE click here and here

a) s_webentryhost – To load balancer URL i.e. mylbr (Do not enter full name with domain)b) s_active_webport -to load balancer port i.e. 80 (For SSL use 443) c) s_login_page – Full URL pointing to Load Balancer http://loadbalancer.domain:port/OA_HTML/AppsLogin i.e. http://mylbr.lbrdomain.com:80/OA_HTML/AppsLogin (For SSL use https and port as 443)d) s_external_url – Load Balancer URL http://loadbalancer.domain:port i.e. http://mylbr.lbrdomain.com:80 (For SSL use https and port as 443)e) s_webentryurlprotocol – http (Change to https if using SSL)f) s_webentrydomain – Load Balancer Domain i.e. lbrdomain.com

2. Run Autoconfig on application tier

3. Repeat step 1 & 2 on all nodes running Web Server. (To check which servers are running as Web Nodes, login to database as user apps and run query “select node_name from fnd_nodes where SUPPORT_WEB=’Y';”)

4. Test load balancer configuration by accessing load balancer URL i.e. http://mylbr.lbrdomain.com

5. If you get page not found error then check if request is coming from load balancer to Web Server access logs at $LOG_HOME/ ora/10.1.3/ access_log.NNNNNNNN (sort access log based on time stamp “ls -ltr access_log*”)

Reference

380489.1Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

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Related Posts for Apps HA

1. Configure Load Balancer in Oracle Apps 11i , E-Business Suite 2. Configure Hardware Load Balancer at HTTP Server Layer 3. Hardware Load balancing at HTTP Layer in Apps Contd.. 4. Oracle Apps Load Balancer Setup for HTTP Server 5. Add new Application Tier/Node to Oracle Apps/E-Business Suite (11i/R12/12i) 6. How to configure Load Balancer in Oracle E-Business Suite R12

Oracle Apps Load Balancer Setup for HTTP Server

I am going to cover most common load balancer setup in Oracle Apps 11i i.e. Setup Two or more Middle tier with Web Server & Form Server with Hardware Load balancer in front of middle tier . This type of setup is also called as “HTTP Layer Hardware Load balancing” in Oracle Applications.

Below are steps you need to follow to configure Multiple Middle Tier (Web & Forms Server ) with Hardware Load balancer in front.

1. Setup a Load balancer such that it forwards requests to first middle tier only.

2. Make sure sticky bit is set on load balancer for session persistence (Check Load balancer documentation), You can Network level switch as well to send requests to multiple middle tier

3. Apply Prereq. patches (3175852, 3077386, 3209878)

4. Edit following entry in XML or Context File directly ($APPL_TOP/admin/$CONTEXT_NAME.xml) or via Oracle Application Manager

– 4.1 “Web entry point Host” to the HTTP load-balancer machine name

– 4.2 “Web entry point Domain” to the HTTP load-balancer domain name

– 4.3 “Web entry protocol” to the HTTP load-balancer protocol e.g. “http” or “https”

– 4.4 “Active Web Port” to the value of the HTTP load-balancer’s external port

– 4.5 “Login Page” to include “Web entry protocol”://”Web Host entry point”.”Web domain entry point”:”Active Web Port”

– 4.6 “disco_machine” to load balancer machine

5. Run Autoconfig

6. Start Services & check if you can login to applications via Load balancer

7. Now clone this middle tier to another node (where you want to add another node)

8. Make sure above parameter are pointing to load balancer in second node as well

9. Change load balancer to point to second node only

10. shutdown services on first node

11. try accessing application from second node (you should be able to access application without issues)

11.1 — If forms are not opening properly , check “ICX Form Launcher ..” Profile option should point to load balancer

12. Now start application on both middle tier

13. Point load balancer to both middle tier

14. You should be able to access applications

Things to Note :

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Above solution is for HTTP Layer load balancing & HTTP Server will forward Forms request to form server running on same node .

Related Links

Metalink Note : 217368.1 Advanced Configurations and Topologies for Enterprise Deployments of E-Business Suite 11i

http://teachMeOracle.com/forum

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Oracle Apps R12: Load Balancer Context Variables s_webentryurlprotocol: Protocol that desktop clients use to communicate with the web entry point server.Old value: httpNew value: https

s_webentryhost: Name of the host that receives the first HTTP request from the desktop client.Old value: appsrv1 , appsrv2 New value: LoadBalancerName

s_webentrydomain: Domain name of the host that receives the first HTTP request from the desktop client.Old value: oracle.comNew value: oracle.com

s_active_webport: Port on the web server or load balancer that listens for HTTP requestsOld value: 8050New value: 443

s_login_page: URL used to access the Applications log on pageserver.Old value:http://appsrv1.company.com:8050/OA_HTML/AppsLogin on AppSrv1http://appsrv2.company.com:8050/OA_HTML/AppsLogin on AppSrv2

New value: https://LoadBalancerName.company.com/OA_HTML/AppsLogin s_external_url: URL that third party tools use to connect to the E-Business Suite System. This is used only by the Oracle Web Services productOld value:http://appsrv1.company.com:8050/ on AppSrv1http://appsrv2.company.com:8050/ on AppSrv2

New value: https://LoadBalancerName.company.com