What You Need to Know About Release 12.

2 John Stouffer, Just a DBA

Independent Consultant john.w.stouffer@gmail.com Introduction
While it is still too early to make the jump to E-Business Suite Release 12.2 (it hasnt been released yet), Oracle has plenty to say about what this new release will offer. Release 12.2 will replace several of the Application Server technology components with WebLogic components. They are also introducing an exciting change to how we do Applications patching. This new change will take advantage of an RDBMS 11.2.0.2 feature specifically requested for the E-Business Suite Edition Based Redefinition. There are other changes as well, and this paper will describe the planned new features, what organizational impacts to consider while waiting for this release, and how to prepare for the new WebLogic software and Release 12.2.

Whos Talking About It

To understand more about E-Business Suite Release 12.2, take a look at these papers and presentations: MOS Doc. ID: 1302189.1: Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Documents Oracle E-Business Suite Directions: Deployment and System Administration - excellent presentation/webcast Oracle E-Business Suite Directions: Slashing Downtimes with Online Patching - Kevin Hudson, Senior Director Minimizing Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Downtimes - Ivo Dujmovic, Director & Kevin Hudson, Senior Director Glimpses of E-Business Suite 12.2: WebLogic Server and Online Patching - Steven Chan Oracle E-Business Suite's Use of Edition-Based Redefinition for Online Patching Bryn Llewellyn and Kevin Hudson - Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12+ intends to bring near-zero-downtime patching. The hardest challenge is to change database objects while they are in use. Oracle Database 11g Release 2 brings a capability for exactly this purpose called edition-based redefinition (EBR). Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12+ intends to make full use of it. EBR adoption requires some changes to the design of an application's schemas, and then upgrade scripts must be written in a special new way. Adoption is done by an application's developers, but administrators of installed production systems will need a basic understanding of EBR to drive and monitor online upgrades at their sites. This presentation teaches Oracle E-Business Suite customers what they need to know about EBR. Although we didnt spot any Release 12.2-specific presentations planned for Release 12.2, Elke Phelps and Kevin Hudson will be discussing Minimizing Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Downtimes at Collaborate. Their session will start with an architecture review of Oracle E-Business Suite fundamentals and then move to a practical view of the different tools and approaches for downtimes. Topics include patching shortcuts, merging patches, distributing worker processes across multiple servers, running ADPatch in nointeractive mode, staged APPL_TOPs, shared file systems, deferring system-wide database tasks, and avoiding resource bottlenecks. This session also describes the online patching capabilities coming in Release 12.2.

Our hope, of course, is that Release 12.2 is ready in time for Oracle OpenWorld. The developer group does a particularly good job of showing off their work at Hands On Sessions, and it would certainly be interesting to COLLABORATE 12 Copyright 2012 by John Stouffer 1

participate in a patching exercise using the AD Online Patching (ADOP). We must note, however, that we do not know when Release 12.2 will be released, so well just have to wait for information to be released as it comes. If you have a more technical bent, you may want to dig into the underpinnings of Online Patching. In order to make it possible, a new feature was incorporated into the database. Thus, Release 12.2 relies on Edition Based Redefinition, which is a feature of RDBMS 11.2.0.2. To upgrade to Release 12.2, then, you will have to upgrade your database to at least RDBMS 11.2.0.2.

The Most Important Things You Need to Know About Release 12.2
Release 12.2 will include significant changes. The Database Tier will change because it will need to use RDBMS Version 11.2.0.2 or higher to enable Edition Based Redefinition for hot patching. On the Application Tier, Oracle plans to replace the OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME with Fusion Middleware 11g. Fusion Middleware 11g will include Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) and WebLogic Server (WLS). Patching will change significantly thanks to Edition Based Redefinition, and Cloning will change by necessity because the cloning scripts will need to be rewritten to support WebLogic instead of OraclAS 10.1.3.

Release 11i Architecture Components

**Oracle 9i comes as part of the install, Oracle 10gR2 and Oracle 11gR2 are now certified with R11i. Oracle 10.2.0.5 and Oracle 11.2.0.3 are the latest certified database versions. JInitiator is no longer supported for the Desktop.

Release 12 Architecture Components

* Oracle 10.2.0.5 and 11.2.0.3 are the latest certified database versions.

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Future Release 12.2 Architecture Components

What is WebLogic?
WebLogic is a tool acquired by Oracle when they purchased BEA in 1998. The E-Business Suite Release 12.2 will replace the 10.1.3 Oracle Home with the Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) and WebLogic Server (WLS). The old web tier, Apache and OC4J, will be replaced by WebLogic. The Application Technology Stacks 10.1.2 Oracle Home will stay the same. This will be a major technology change and learning challenge for Applications DBAs even those with years of experience managing and maintaining the E-Business Suite.
WEBLOGIC BENEFITS

End users will experience always on applications and services. WebLogic includes comprehensive, lowoverhead application monitoring and deep diagnostics. WebLogic will integrate with Oracle RAC to provide the highest levels of application availability. WebLogic will enable rapid development of applications without lost time due to system restarts. Comprehensive tooling will simplify customization development and speed new application delivery. See Oracle E-Business Suite Directions: Deployment and System Administration - Max Arderius, Manager & Ivo Dujmovic, Director for more details.
DO YOU NEED TO BE A GURU TO SUPPORT WEBLOGIC?

Youll follow the My Oracle Support upgrade documentation (when it is released) to upgrade to Release 12.2, and that will install WebLogic. You may want to take training to learn how to configure WebLogic to take advantage of more advanced features you may need a WebLogic Administrator on your staff. Fortunately, there are experts in the field WebLogic is widely used in the industry.

Online Patching Features

Online Patching will allow users to continue to use the E- Business Suite while a DBA applies patches. This will reduce downtime to minutes instead of hours or days, and will make the downtime windows very predictable. Patches will be applied while the Production environment remains online. Online Patching will allow an application to efficiently store multiple editions of its Application Definition in the same database. This will provide an isolation mechanism (The Edition) that allows pre-upgrade and post-upgrade schemas to co-exist. The client code will choose the particular Edition that it wants to connect to. For more details, see Oracle EBusiness Suite Directions: Deployment and System Administration - Max Arderius, Manager & Ivo Dujmovic, Director.

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To use online patching, users will continue to use the Applications while the Applications DBA creates a Patch Edition, patches it, and synchronizes any changes between the Run Edition and the Patch Edition. hen patching is done, the Apps DBA will set the Patch Edition as the new Run Edition and restart the application servers so users point to it. For more details, see Business Value of Upgrading from E-Business Suite 11i to 12.1 - Nadia Bendjedou.

Since Online Patching represents such a significant change to patching, we should expect to see a new patching tool from Oracle called AD Online Patching (ADOP). See Oracle E-Business Suite Directions: Slashing Downtimes with Online Patching Kevin Hudson, Senior Director, Max Arderius, Manager & Ivo Dujmovic, Director for more details. Since the middle tier will change, we must also expect to see changes to Oracles cloning scripts. Cloning the database tier will stay the same, but the Application Tier will need a revised tool to deal with cloning the WebLogic Server. The commands adpreclone, adcfgclone will stay the same, and the cloning procedure itself will essentially work the same, but the code will need to change to clone the WebLogic Server. If youve scripted your cloning procedures, you may need to review and update those procedures, just as you likely had to do when upgrading from Release 11i to Release 12.

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These diagrams show how cloning works with Release 12.1 versus Release 12.2. See Oracle E-Business Suite Directions: Deployment and System Administration - Max Arderius, Manager & Ivo Dujmovic, Director for more details.

Other Changes
NATIVE TECHNOLOGY STACK INSTALL

Oracle is planning some improvements to Rapid Install with Release 12.2; it will be integrated better with the Oracle Universal Installer and AutoConfig. Installing the technology stack using silent-mode calls should be faster. Oracle will use the best tool for installation and configuration tasks, which improves Rapid Install by changing what is going on under the hood.
USE EXISTING 11G ORACLE HOME FOR UPGRADES

This new feature will remove an irritant to upgrading EBS. With Release 12.1, if youve upgraded your RDBMS to a point release (say 11.2.0.3) higher than what is included on the EBS media (11.1.0.7), you must install the older Oracle Home and then point to your higher version. With 12.2, youll be able to click on the Use Existing Oracle Home box during the install, and it will use your higher version. The advantage to this fix is that it will save time and be less confusing.
DATABASE RMAN RESTORE

Release 12.2 will easily integrate with Grid Infrastructure for RAC and Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and different storage methods (OCFSW, NFS, etc.)
R12.2 NEW TERMINOLOGY

AD Online Patching (ADOP) note that it has a new name, but we dont know yet how different it will look Copyright 2012 by John Stouffer 5

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Edition-Based Redefinition (EBR) WebLogic

Links
http://blogs.oracle.com/chan - Steven Chan, Director of Applications Technology Integration for Oracle wonderful articles explaining the nuances of the Applications - THE ORACLE APPLICATIONS BLOG www.RedRiverSolutions.com Release 11i and Release 12 Upgrade Health Checks and Oracle EBusiness Suite consulting and books

www.oaug.org Oracle Applications User Group www.integrigy.com Independent analysis of quarterly CPU/PSU www.OnCallDBA.com E-Business Suite books, Health Checks and Assessments and concurrent manager expertise www.justadba.com thats me!

About the Author

John Stouffer has more than 19 years experience with Oracle database administration and more than 16 years experience supporting Oracles E-Business Suite Applications environments, including architectural design, installation, implementations, upgrades and system assessments in the federal, public and commercial industries. John is an Oracle ACE for his contributions in the area of Oracle Fusion Middleware. John is a past chair of the OAUG Upgrade SIG, was the founding chair for OAUGs Fusion Council and actively participates in other GEO and SIG activities. John served on the 2010 Board of the OAUG.

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Copyright 2012 by John Stouffer