e-business suite dba best practices

Session ID:

Prepared by:

E-Business Suite DBA Best Practices

10256

James J. Morrow, Viscosity NA

@kansasdba

April 2-6, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV USA #C17LV

James Morrow

• Oracle Applications DBA

• Viscosity NA

• BlueStone Solutions Group, Inc.

• 22+ years as an E-Business Suite DBA

• 24+ years as a Unix/Linux Administrator

• E-Business Suite versions 9.4.2 through R12.2.6

• Oracle RDBMS 7.0.16 through 12.1.0.1

Release Information and Support Timelines


E-Business Suite Releases(Oracle, 2016)


Support Timelines(Oracle, 2016)


Database Patch Set Release Roadmap [MOS 742060.1] (February, 2017)


Database Support Changes (12.1)

Database 12.1

Premier Support through July 31, 2018

Extended Support through July 31, 2021

Extended Support Fee Waived through July 31, 2019SOURCE: E-Business Suite Technology Blog, February 8, 2017

https://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/db121_extfee



Database Support Changes (11.2)

Database 11.2

Premier Support expired July, 2015

Extended Support through December 31, 2020

Extended Support Fee Waived through December 31, 2018SOURCE: E-Business Suite Technology Blog, February 7, 2017


Establish an SLA


Establish an SLA

• Understand business expectations

• Understand business requirements

• Business may want 24x7 but actually need less


Establish an SLA

• Typical “Financials” customer

• Office workers Monday-Friday 6:00AM to 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

• 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 outages

Maintenance Windows


Establish Regular Maintenance Windows

• Stable systems don't tend to have code updates (migrations, patches) on an ad-hoc basis

• Changes are documented, rehearsed, validated

• Monthly or Weekly

Documented Procedures


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 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.



• COB Wednesday, 4 days prior – All patches destined for PROD during the maintenance window should be applied to the QA (PROD -1) instance.



• 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• 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)



• 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 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 path

DEVL → TEST → QA → PROD

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

Patching Philosophy


Patching Philosophy

• Define/understand your organization’s patching philosophy

• Security Patches• May be dictated externally

• PCI (Credit Card) requirements: Vendor supplied security patches applied within 30 days

28


Patching Philosophy

Don't get caught in prerequisite hell

• Stay current on AD, TXK, ATG patches. They're the most likely prerequisites!

• Minimum requirements for security patches

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Patching Philosophy

• Patchsets.sh script (Note 139684.1 and Note 549180.1)sftp –o Port=2021 <mosusername>@sftp.oracle.com

cd support/outgoing/PATCHSET_COMPARE_TOOL

get patchsets.sh

• Patch Wizard in Oracle Applications Manager (Note 976188.1)

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Patching Philosophy

• Premier Support for E-Business Suite 11.5.10 ended November 30, 2010. Extended ends November 30, 2013. (Note 1495337.1)

• Exceptions for 11i Sustaining: • YE 2013 1099 Patches, and 3 payroll updates for FYE 2014 (US,

Canada, UK, Australia)

• SEV1 bugfixes, CPUs through December, 2015 NEW

• Minimum Baseline Patches for Extended Support

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

• Patch Wizard Update for 11i (Patch 9803629)

31


Patching Philosophy

• Release 12.0 Support Milestones• January, 2007 – R12.0 Released

• February 1, 2012 - Premier Support Ends (R12.0.6) (845809.1)

• Extended Support Fee waiver until January, 2015

• January, 2015 – Extended Support Ends

32


Patching Philosophy

• Release 12.1 Support Milestones• May, 2009 – R12.1 Released

• 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

• December, 2016 – R12.1.3 Premier Support Ends NEW

• December, 2019 – R12.1.3 Extended Support Ends (1495337.1) NEW

33


Patching Philosophy

• Release 12.2 Support Milestones• September 19, 2013 – R12.2.2 Released to GA

• September, 2021– Premier Support Ends NEW

• September, 2021 – Extended Support Ends NEW

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Concurrent Managers


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

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Concurrent Managers: Tuning

• Concurrent Manager Tuning is traffic management

• 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!

37

Statistics and Pinning


Statistics and Pinning

• Pin stored procedures (Except on RDBMS 11g!)• PIND.sql (Note: 301171.1) [Note has been pulled]

• Gather Schema Statistics• Run periodically

• Optimizer requires current statistics to effectively do it's job

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Workflow Mailer


Workflow Mailer: Test Address (Outbound)

• Use in all non-production environments

• Is NOT set by RapidClone

• 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

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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

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Session ID: 10256

e-business suite dba best practices

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