Oracle Applications 11i Concepts II Brian Hitchcock OCP 11i DBA -- OCP 10g DBA Sun Microsystems Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 1

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 2 Presentation is Available

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 3 Contents  Oracle Applications Concepts I – What is Oracle Applications? – 11i Architecture – Oracle Application Tiers – Login to Oracle Applications – Online Oracle Application environments  Oracle Applications Concepts II – 11i Applications Filesystem – Applications DBA utilities – Database DBA vs 11i DBA – Backups – Resources

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 4 Focus  Generic Oracle Applications concepts  Not tied to specific installation(s)  Provide background for how Apps works  Help with support tasks in general  Technical – how it works – how to make it go

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 5 11i Applications File System  $APPL_TOP – Top directory for all Oracle Application software – Contains $PROD_TOP for each product – Applications patches make changes in APPL_TOP  Environment variables setup at login – Environment files  Can be shared (shared APPL_TOP) – NFS mounted filesystem – Shared by two or more application tier servers – Apply patches once for all application tiers – Single point of failure

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 6 11i Applications File System  Home directory of applmgr UNIX user – APPL_TOP  Contains product directories – ORA_TOP  Forms ­ORACLE_HOME for forms server  iAS Web Server (Apache) ­ORACLE_HOME for web server – COMMON_TOP  Directories/files used across products

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 7 11i Database File System  Database has – ORACLE_HOME  ORACLE_HOME for database  Database software – /oradata01-05  Database tablespace datafiles  Three ORACLE_HOMES – When applying applications patches  Patch applied in ORACLE_HOME

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 8 Environment Files  Many pieces of software  All need to be configured  Many environment variables to be setup  How is this done? – Overall configuration file –.xml  Context is _  Stored in $APPL_TOP/admin – Multiple environment files sourced at login  Stored in $APPL_TOP  APPSORA.env – calls other environment files

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 9 OS Users  Can install with single OS user  We use two – UNIX user ‘oracle’ – UNIX user ‘applmgr’  Note that ‘applmgr’ is used in Oracle docs – Refers to the application code owner – Will be different for other installations

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 10 11i AutoConfig  Many configuration files – Changes required manually editing multiple files  Tedious, error prone  Autoconfig utility – Automates most configuration tasks – Make changes to context file – Execute autoconfig – Changes propagated to configuration files  Doesn’t handle customizations – May overwrite non-standard modifications

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 11 11i Cloning  Create exact copy of applications environment – Database – Application software  More involved than just a copy of database  Multiple steps – Somewhat automated – Rapid clone utility

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 12 11i Patching  Never ending process  Applications patches applied with adpatch – Some database patches applied with opatch – Must be in maintenance mode to apply patch ( ) – Patch can’t be removed  Only recourse is to recover from filesystem backups  Patches change product software  Patches change database objects  Applied patches recorded in database – Database must be running while patch applied – Applications tier processes down while patching

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 13 11i Applications Manager  GUI tool for managing environment  What can it do? – Show patches applied – Show impact of new patches – Performance metrics – Monitor security – Configure environment  Edit context file, run autoconfig

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 14 Database DBA vs 11i DBA  Users – Oracle Database Users  Access database (SQL*Plus, etc)  Have specific privileges on database objects  Stored in DBA_USERS table – Oracle Application Users  Don’t access the database directly  Don’t have privileges on database objects  Have responsibilities in Oracle Applications  Access db through APPS db user ­Access limited by responsibilities  Stored in FND_USER table

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 15 Database DBA vs 11i DBA  Administrator – Database  SYS, SYSTEM, db user with DBA role – Oracle Applications  SYSADMIN  User with System Administrator responsibility

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 16 Database DBA vs 11i DBA  Privileges vs Responsibilities  Database privileges – Granted on specific db objects – Granted to specific db users or roles  Oracle Applications responsibilities – Assigned to Oracle Applications users – Allow access to groups of db objects – Access is through APPS db user

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 17 Database DBA vs 11i DBA  Users and responsibilities  Oracle database users and privileges – Can be dropped (removed)  Oracle Applications users – Can’t be removed, only ‘end-dated’  When created, user has start and end date  Oracle Applications user responsibility – Can’t be removed, only ‘end-dated’  When assigned, responsibility has start/end dates

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 18 Database DBA vs 11i DBA  Multiple ORACLE_HOMEs  For database DBA – Single ORACLE_HOME  For Oracle Applications – Three ORACLE_HOMEs  Database  for Oracle Forms  iAS Web Server (Apache)

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 19 Backups  How can this be complicated?  Database backups well defined – Copy all database datafiles (*.dbf files) – Copy init.ora, tnsnames.ora etc. – Copy archived redo logs if needed (hot db backup)  Oracle Applications environment backup – Database – Application software tree

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 20 Backups  Complete cold backup – Most conservative, most downtime – Single tier  Shutdown application tier processes (servers)  Shutdown database and database listener  Copy all filesystems to tape – Multi-tier  Shutdown all tiers  Backup all filesystems on all tiers to tape

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 21 Backups  Hot backup – version 1 – No downtime, some risk – Single tier  Application/db tier processes are running  Hot db backup to disk  Copy all filesystems to tape – Multi-tier  Hot db backup to disk  Copy all filesystems to tape for all tiers

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 22 Backups  Hot backup – version 1 issues – Assumes application code tree is static – Assumes configuration static – Log files may be lost  Generated during tape backup – Database can be recovered to point of failure  Restore backup files, apply redo logs – Applications code tree recovered to latest tapes  No equivalent to database archived redo logs

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 23 Backups  Hot backup – version 2 – No downtime, more risk – Single tier  Application/db tier processes are running  Hot db backup to disk  Copy only db backup files to tape – Multi-tier  Hot db backup to disk  Copy only db backup files to tape

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 24 Backups  Hot backup – version 2 issues – Same as for version 1 – Over longer time – Applications file system recovery  Back to most recent tape backup  Out of synch with db backup – Is this acceptable recovery?

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 25 Backups – DR Systems  How to keep DR system in synch? – Database  Apply redo logs from primary  Keep DR database up with primary db – Applications code tree  No equivalent to database redo logs  Need to refresh DR code tree from primary ­How to do this? ­How often to do this? ­How far behind db can code tree for DR?

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 26 Resources  Oracle Documents – Oracle Technology Network -- otn.oracle.com  Oracle Technical Support – Metalink -- metalink.oracle.com  Oracle online training –  Oracle University training – education.oracle.com  Solution Beacon – Oracle Applications Environments  Books

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 27 Oracle Documents

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 28 Oracle Documents

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 29 Oracle Documents

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 30 Oracle Documents

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 31 Oracle Documents

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 32 Oracle Documents

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 33 Documentation  Technical Overview – Oracle Applications Concepts  Release 11i ( )  Part No. B – Available at  rrent/acrobat/11iconcepts.pdf

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 34 Oracle Technical Support

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 35 Oracle Technical Support

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 36 Oracle Technical Support

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 37 Oracle Online Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 38 Oracle Online Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 39 Oracle Online Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 40 Oracle Online Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 41 Oracle Online Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 42 Oracle University Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 43 Oracle University Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 44 Oracle University Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 45 Oracle University Training

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 46 Oracle 11i Books

Brian Hitchcock February 10, 2008Page 47 Oracle 11i Books