Oracle E-Business Suite R12 DBA Best Practices · 2020. 6. 18. · EBS R12 DBA Best Practices • Oracle Applications DBA • Independent Consultant • 15 years as an E-Business

EBS R12 DBA Best Practices

Oracle E-Business Suite R12

DBA Best PracticesDBA Best Practices

James J. Morrow

Red River Solutionsmailto:[email protected]


• Oracle Applications DBA

• Independent Consultant

• 15 years as an E-Business Suite DBA

James Morrow

• E-Business Suite versions 9.4 through R12

• Oracle RDBMS 7.0.16 through 11g


Establish an SLA

• Understand business expectations

• Understand business requirements

• Business may want 24x7 but may actually need less


Establish an SLA

• Typical “Financials” customer

• Office workers Monday-Friday 6:00AM to 7:00PM (local time)7:00PM (local time)

• Understand the requirements vs. expectations


Establish an SLA

• By understanding requirements vs. expectations

we gain flexibility

• You still have a 24x7 system• You still have a 24x7 system

• During critical business hours downtime may be

nearly impossible to obtain

• However, by understanding requirements vs.

expectations, scheduling outages outside of

critical business hours can become easier


Establish an SLA

• Define/Document key stakeholders, approvers, notification procedures for unscheduled outagesunscheduled outages


Establish Regular Maintenance

Windows• Stable systems don't tend to have code

updates (migrations, patches) on an ad-hoc updates (migrations, patches) on an ad-hoc basis

• Changes are documented, rehearsed, validated

• Monthly or Weekly


Documented Procedures

• Reduce ambiguity

• Reduce confusion

• Process leads to stability


Procedures: Maintenance

Window

• COB Monday, 6 days prior – The DBA will

produce a list of patches that are identified as produce a list of patches that are identified as

potential promotion candidates. This list will

contain patches applied to lower level environments

that have not yet been migrated. The list should be

sent to various pre-defined approving personnel.

The DBA should also send out a calendar of “DBA

Events” for the next couple of months at this point.



Window

• COB Wednesday, 4 days prior – All patches

destined for PROD during the maintenance window destined for PROD during the maintenance window

should be applied to the QA (PROD -1) instance.


Procedures: Maintenance Window• COB Thursday, 3 days prior – DBA will prepare a

“Maintenance Plan” for the outage (based on a standard template). DBA will also create a Change Request in the CM portal with the Maintenance Plan attached. The maintenance plan shall include:

– Contact information for key individuals– Contact information for key individuals– Email lists for individuals to be notified of specific changes upon

completion– General objectives for the maintenance window– List of patches to be applied– Patch prerequisite research– List of tasks performed in advance of the outage– List of tasks to be performed during the outage (with specific

commands and timing estimates, where applicable)



Window• COB Friday, 2 days prior – Management will

give final approval for the outage.


Procedures: Cloning

• Technically challenging

• Even though Oracle provides tools and documentation, site-specific procedures are documentation, site-specific procedures are still required


Procedures: Cloning

• Site-specific steps

– Preparation of the target environment

– Information about the nature of the backup that will be used

– Instructions on how the backup should be restored

–– Detailed instructions on how the database should be

recovered by the DBA

– Detailed instructions on how the Oracle cloning utilities are

used

– Detailed instructions on extra post-cloning tasks


Procedures: Password Change

• Don't use default passwords!

• Change production passwords on a regular basis

– Enforce complex passwords

– Be aware of special characters

•• Avoid sharing passwords whenever possible

– Delegation of authority

• Use a secure “Password Safe” when passwords need to be

shared


Procedures: Migration

• Code and patches should follow a strictly defined migration pathdefined migration path

DEVL → TEST → QA → PROD

• PROD and QA (PROD-1) should be restricted access instances


Patching Philosophy

• Define/understand your organization’s patching philosophy

• Security Patches• Security Patches

– May be dictated externally

– PCI (Credit Card) requirements: Vendor

supplied security patches applied within 30

days


Patching Philosophy

• Don't get caught in prerequisite hell

– Stay current on AD, TXK, ATG patches.

They're the most likely prerequisites!They're the most likely prerequisites!

– Minimum requirements for security patches


Patching Philosophy

• Patchsets.sh script (Note 139684.1)

ftp://ftp.oracle.com/support/outgoing/PATCHSETftp://ftp.oracle.com/support/outgoing/PATCHSET

_COMPARE_TOOL/patchsets.sh

• Patch Wizard in Oracle Applications Manager

(Note 976188.1)


Patching Philosophy

• Premier Support for E-Business Suite 11.5.10

ended November 30, 2010.

• First year of 11.5.10 EBS Extended Support • First year of 11.5.10 EBS Extended Support

fees waived.

• Minimum Baseline Patches for Extended Support

• 11.5.10 – After December 1, 2010 (Note 883202.1)

• Patch Wizard Update for 11i (Patch 9803629)


Patching Philosophy• Release 12.0 Support Milestones

• February 1, 2012 - Premier Support Ends (R12.0.6)

(845809.1)

• Release 12.1 Support Milestones• Release 12.1 Support Milestones

• July 1, 2011 – You must apply R12.ATG_PF.B.delta.2

(R12.1.2 Technology RUP) (845809.1)

• February 1, 2012 – You must apply

R12.ATG_PF.B.delta3 (R12.1.3 Technology RUP)

(1066312.1)

• February 1, 2013 – You upgrade to EBS R12.1.3


Concurrent Managers: Purging

• Performance Impact

• Disk Management Impact

• Define maximum retention for all requests

• Schedule daily “blanket purge”

• Schedule more aggressive purges for specific jobs


Concurrent Managers: Tuning

• Concurrent Manager Tuning is traffic management

• Tune based on runtime and frequency• Tune based on runtime and frequency• Jobs are either exiled from a queue or eligible

for a queue• Don't over-complicate your queues!• Remember some jobs require specialized

managers!


Statistics and Pinning

• Pin stored procedures

– PIND.sql (Note: 301171.1)

• Gather Schema Statistics• Gather Schema Statistics

– Run periodically

– Optimizer requires current statistics to

effectively do it's job


Workflow Mailer: Test Address

(Outbound)• Use in all non-production environments

• Is NOT set by RapidClone

• Defined through Oracle Applications Manager• Defined through Oracle Applications Manager

• Traps outgoing notifications

• Allow multiple users (testers) access to the mailbox

• Allows full-cycle testing of the outbound Workflow

Notification process


Workflow Mailer: Test Mailboxes

(Inbound)• Use in all non-production environments

• Is NOT set by RapidClone

• Defined through Oracle Applications Manager

• Prevents non-production instances stealing

messages from production

• Allows full-cycle testing of inbound Workflow

processing


Thank You!

Oracle E-Business Suite

R12 DBA Best PracticesR12 DBA Best Practices

James J. Morrow

Red River Solutions

[email protected]

Documents

Oracle E-Business Suite R12 DBA Best Practices · 2020. 6. 18. · EBS R12 DBA Best Practices • Oracle Applications DBA • Independent Consultant • 15 years as an E-Business