Best Practices For Patching and Maintaining Oracle E-Business Suite Session # CON8478 Copyright © 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved

Best Practices For Patching and Maintaining Oracle E-Business SuiteSession # CON8478

Copyright © 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |

William Burbage Jason BrincatSenior Principal Technical Support Engineers

Date: 2nd October 2014

Copyright © 2014 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |

Safe Harbor StatementThe following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

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• Senior Principal Technical Support Engineer• Proactive Support Delivery• Orlando, FL • 16 Years Oracle Support • 5 Years Center of Expertise• 3 Years Proactive Support• Workflow Expert, Patch Wizard Expert

William Burbage (Bill)E-Business, Applications Technology Group

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Agenda

• How to find EBS & EBS Technology Stack Patches on My Oracle Support

12.1.3 RPCs

EBS Patch Wizard

EBS Patch Advisor

Application Management Pack (AMP) an EBS Plug In

• 12.2 Online Patching

12.2 Patching Best Practices

12.2 Patching Advisor

12.2 Information Center

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NEW How to Find E-Business Suite & E-Business Suite Technology Stack Patches (Doc ID 1633974.2)

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TABBED NAVIGATION


EBS Patches Tab

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Copyright © 2014 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 8


Recommended Patch Collections for EBS 12.1.3

One Consolidated patch across product families

Recommended Patch Collection 2 (RPC2) includes:o Applications Technology (ATG)

o Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

o Financials (FIN)

o Human Resources Management (HRMS)

ReleasedRPC 2

o Procurement (PRC)

o Projects (PJ)

o Supply Chain Management (SCM)

o Value Chain Planning (VCP)

Oracle 12.1.3+ E-Business Suite Recommended Patch Collection 2 [RPC2]Note 1920628.1



Patch Wizard

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• Patch Wizard analyzes and compares patches currently applied in your instance with the ones included in the Recommended Patch List

• Patch Wizard performs an impact analysis, and allows for easy download of patches you decide to apply


Patch Wizard - Patch Impact Analysis

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Patch Wizard – Responsibility & Menu Navigation Paths



Patching Community

• The Patching Community changes the way to get information on EBS Patches.

• Start a thread directly in order to receive expert advice around your patching needs.

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Patching and Maintenance Advisors

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Patching and Maintenance Advisors

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• Contains proven methodologies for patch application

• Shares full details to successfully complete pre-patch, patch application, and post-patch requirements

• Provides tracking lessons learned in testing your original patch plan

• Checks to ensure satisfactory patch and code levels are in place




• Senior Principal Technical Support Engineer• Advanced Resolutions Support, Security Engineer• Adelaide, Australia• 15 years @ Oracle

• Procurement, Cloud, ATG

• 2 years @ Customer• Implementing EBS 10.7

• Focus areas• Technology stack, Applications tier performance tuning, 12.2 patching, installation and security

Jason BrincatE-Business, Applications Technology Group

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12.2 Online Patching Best Practices• 12.1 patching

• The online patching cycle

• Upgrade / Install

• AD and TXK Code levels

• Technology Patches

• Patching Modes

• Tips and Tricks

• Information Resources

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Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 Patching

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2

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5

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Enable Maintenance Mode

Users Log-off the System

Shutdown Services

Apply Patch

Disable Maintenance Mode

Start Services

Users Log-in

adpatch


The Online Patching Cycle

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• adop – AD Online Patching, utility to apply patches to EBS

• 12.2 patching is online. EBS is available while most of the patching operations are performed

• Application is only offline during the Cutover phase

• See technical planning guide, maintenance guide and concepts guide.

CleanupFinalizeApply

• Create patch edition in the database

• Sync run to patch file system.

• ADZDPATCH• Cleanup

Prepare

Users Online

Users Online

Users Offline

• Apply one or more patches to the patch edition/fs

• Adop tool is used

• Ready the system for cutover.

• Compile invalid objects

• Run by cutover if not explicitly run

Users offline

Users online

• Cutover to patch edition of the database & fs

• Run finalize if not already run

• Shutdown and start services

• Cleanup old editions and objects to recover space

Dual file system (run/patch)

Abort


12.2 Patching Best PracticesUpgrade / Install

•Use the latest startCD and latest documentation – Current recommended startCD is startCD48 – patch 18086193

•Start topology simple, patch up, then add complexity (tiers, DMZ, LBR, OAM etc)

•Apply latest Cumulative update patches during upgrade. Merge AD patch 10117518 with latest AD CUP. Merge upgrade driver (u10124646.drv) with latest EBS CUP. New installation customer should apply the consolidated seed table upgrade patch. See 12.2 release notes (1320300.1).

•Read the release notes before during and after install/upgrade. Follow any required steps and apply patches

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12.2 Patching Best PracticesUpgrade / Install cont...

•Follow post upgrade steps in the upgrade guide carefully. These steps are run after laying down the file system and before Rapid Install configure is run. Do not forget to clean topology references to old instance if they exist - run fnd_conc_clone.setup_clean ! Only run it at as per the upgrade guide !

•Use shared application tier configurations for multi-app-node configurations. All application servers share the same file system including inventory. Simplifies patching, administration.

•Enable SSH for adop for remote invocation. Mandatory. One way SSH connectivity across DMZ.

•Do not start services until reaching 12.2.2+ code level

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12.2 Patching Best PracticesUptake the latest AD and TXK Code Levels

•Currently AD and TXK Delta 5: Applying the Latest AD and TXK Release Update Packs to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 Note 1617461.1. Check for additional critical patches! Check for known issues and understand new features

•Follow the correct path. Path A or B for release update packs (AD/TXK/EBS)

•Do not start patching/cloning/integrations etc.. until your system is on the latest AD and TXK code levels.

•Apply latest EBS Release Update Pack: Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.4 Readme Note 1617458.1

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12.2 Patching Best PracticesApplying Applications Technology Patches and Database Patches

•These patches are required to be applied before moving to latest AD and TXK code levels. Try and apply any newly recommended patches to maintain system stability.

•Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2: Consolidated List of Patches and Technology Bug Fixes Note 1594274.1

•Use the EBS Technology Codelevel Checker (ETCC) (patch 17537119) to check database patch levels. Warns of essential missing database bug fixes. Must be done for upgrade and new installation customers before upgrade and/or before AD and TXK patching. Patches to be applied will depend on startCD used for fresh install customers. Shows bug fixes to be applied, not patches.

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12.2 Patching Best PracticesApplying Applications Technology Patches and Database Patches cont..

•Database Patch Set Update Overlay Patches Required for Use with PSUs and Oracle E-Business Suite Note 1147107.1 resource for database patch conflicts

•How to Use the My Oracle Support Conflict Checker Tool [Video] (Doc ID 1091294.1)

•Use the txk inventory report to generate a list of applied middle tier patches. $ADPERLPRG $FND_TOP/patch/115/bin/TXKScript.pl -script=$FND_TOP/patch/115/bin/txkInventory.pl -txktop=$APPLTMP -outfile=$APPLTMP/Report_Inventory.html

•Oracle E-Business Suite 12.2 Patching Technology Components Guide (Doc ID 1355068.1)

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12.2 Patching Best PracticesUnderstand The Available Patching Modes

• Online mode: Default mode. Involves a patching cycle which is initiated with a prepare phase. Changes made available only after cutover. Patch is abortable

• Hotpatch mode: Patch is applied directly to the run file system when services are running. No patch cycle is required. Patch is not abortable. Patches can only be applied in hotpatch mode when instructed in the readme

• Downtime mode: Introduced in AD.C.Delta.5. Patch is applied directly to the run file system when services are down. Patch is not abortable. Only supported for production use where explicitly documented, or when directed by Oracle Support or Development. Before system scale up, single node dev or test environment where high availability and prod support is not required

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12.2 Patching Best PracticesTips and Tricks

• adop is always executed from the run file system

• adop logs can be found in fs_ne file system $ADOP_LOG_HOME

• Apply multiple patches in one cycle

• Can run multiple phases automatically adop phase=prepare,apply patches=XXX, finalize

• Keep patches in $PATCH_TOP directory until the next prepare phase is complete

• In a non-shared multi- node system, patches must be downloaded to all nodes

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12.2 Patching Best PracticesTips and Tricks

• To improve apply phase completion times set workers to maximum number that your system will support; Utilize distributed AD remote worker invocation when running multiple application tiers to utilize resources on other application tiers. Requires shared FS.

• Reduce cutover by: running explicit finalize, shutting down managers before running cutover

• Run adscanlog utility to quickly collect adop failure information from log files: adopscanlog; adopscanlog -session_id=<number>; adopscanlog –help

• Run the adop diagnostic script to collect logs, configuration and other information to diagnose issues with adop and other AD/TXK utilities. Upload results to support. Note 1901242.1

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12.2 Patching Advisor – 1590494.1

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12.2 Information Center

DOC ID: 1581299.1 One Stop Shop for 12.2

Multiple Tabs for more information Home Tab:

New Features Planning Guide Online Patching FAQ Training

Documentation Announcements Install Tab:

Concepts & Requirements Globalization/Localization Release Notes


Q&A


Appendix


EBS Patching Documents

• E-Business Suite and EBS Technology Stack Patches – Doc 1633974.2

• EBS Patch Wizard – Doc 976188.1

• EBS R12.1.3+ Recommended Patch Collection 1 (RPC1) – Doc 1638535.1

• Patching Advisor (11i - 12.1) – Doc 313.1

• Patching Advisor (R12.2) – Doc 1590494.1

• Oracle AMP for EBS Plug-In – Doc 1532970.1

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Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite, Release 12.1.0.2.0. – Doc 1532970.1

The Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.0.2.0 includes functionality that was available in previous releases of the Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite (AMP) and the Oracle Application Change Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite (ACMP).

"Previous releases" specifically refers to AMP 12.1.0.1.0, AMP/ACMP 4.0, AMP/ACMP 3.1 and AMP/ACMP 3.0

All of the functionality that was previously available for AMP is now classified as "System Management for Oracle E-Business Suite".

All of the functionality that was previously available for ACMP is now classified as "Change Management for Oracle E-Business Suite".

The term 'AMP' now refers to the single pack, Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.0.2.0.

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Spotlight on some key offerings

Patching and Upgrading•How to find EBS patches (1633974.2)•Advisors and Patch Wizard updated for 12.2•12.2 Info center (1581299.1)•Pre-Install patches (1448102.1)

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EBS Support Analyzers•31 EBS Analyzers•Diagnose and Maintain•Read Only•Enable Functional Users

SR Guided Resolutions•SR create decision tree•Targeted solutions•Expedite resolution•WIP: Simplify template selection and routing

Future: SR File Uploads and Analysis•Step 1 – Automated file handling and validation•Step 2 – Analyze data, find problem•Step 3 – Match to solutions

Copyright © 2014 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |39


• Follow Oracle Premier Support through social media channels to hear the latest on Proactive Offerings!– Blog

• Newsletters – now news consolidations from Blog articles

– Twitter | Oracle_EBS | myoraclesupport – My Oracle Support Community– Facebook

• Participate in Advisor Webcasts and hear from Oracle Premier Support subject-matter experts who will offer methods and solutions to help you avoid potential pitfalls

• Expand your existing knowledge with E-Business Suite accreditation. (1580100.1). A guided learning path of best practices, product-based use cases and recommendations from subject-matter experts.

Stay Informed


Safe Harbor StatementThe preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

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