Installation of Oracle Apps R12.2.x Step by Step guide

In this article, installation of R12.2.x has been shown with detail installation screen. This is a single node installation where database and apps will be installed in same server. This installation was done on a linux 
x64 bit machine.
As a prerequisite step, after procuring the server, check that following executables are available. Linux x86-64 = ar, gcc, g++, ld, ksh, make, X Display Server
Check for other prerequisites as per your environment in the installation guide.

Step1 Build Stage Area
As a first step create the staging area. Keep all the downloaded installer zip files in one directory in “StageR122”. Next run the following commands.
cd StageR122/
Unzip only “start_here” labeled zip files.
unzip start_here_*
Then run “buildStage.sh” command from following location.
cd startCD/Disk1/rapidwiz/bin
./buildStage.sh

select option "1". Give downloaded zip file location.

Step 2 Installation

For starting the installation run rapidwiz executable from following location.
cd /D03/StageR122/startCD/Disk1/rapidwiz
./rapidwiz

click on next.

I have not selected the “express installation” to give all parameters manually.

Give email address where you want to get security update.

In the above screen choice to create a new configuration.

In the “Global System Settings” select the port values for main and patch instance.

In the above screen select whether to install fresh database or vision demo database. If it's a fresh database provide all the details like hostname or SID.

Select the licencing option in the above screen.

Select country specific customization.

Select proper character set of the database.

Provide weblogic admin password in the above screen.

After this a prerequisites test will happen. If warning or error comes in this test, you need to fix that. Then again you need to run the prerequisites test. After this the installation will start.

After installation is complete, check whether login page is coming or not. Then provide default SYSADMIN/sysadmin to login for testing.

Step 3 Finishing Task
Change all default passwords.

Check Value of Context Variable s_adminservertimeout
1. Check for available memory and clear the cached memory.
2. Using Oracle Applications Manager, change the value of s_adminservertimeout from 1000 to 3000.
 Do not run AutoConfig.
3. Stop all application tier services.
4. Delete the WLS domain that was not successfully created.
5. Run the deployment scripts again.
6. If the error recurs, repeat steps 2-5, this time specifying a value of 6000 for s_adminservertimeout.
Run autoConfig
use the adadmin utility to force regeneration of all JAR files.

How to apply patch in Oracle Apps R12.2 A step by step guide

From R12.2 onwards oracle has introduced online patching functionality.
Online Patching
Online patching uses the latest feature of the Oracle database 11gR2 which is called “Edition Based 
Redefinition” and also uses multiple file systems on the application side. During online patching, business application users continue using the Oracle application and simultaneously a patch or a sequence of patches can be applied to another edition of the same database and application. Another edition here means another exact copy of database and application. And once the patching is complete the users are switched over to a patched file system/database in cutover phase by just bouncing middle tier services.

File System
A R12.2.0 is installed with three file Systems.

1.FS1 – Production file system that is used by application users when system is being patched.

2.FS2 – Exact copy of production used by the patching tool. This copy is patched by the patching tool. It gets synchronised with FS1 by the patching tool before it gets updated by a patch. When patching is complete, the patching tool swaps the FS1 and FS2 file systems. FS2 file system becomes FS1 and FS1 is switched to FS2. This way, FS2 is again ready to be used for any future patching tasks.

3.FS-NE – This is a non-edition file system which stores data that is stored in a file system like data import/export files, report out and log files.

Phases of ADOP(online patching)

ADPATCH utility is no longer used in R12.2.0 and is being replaced by ADOP – AD Online Patching. There are five phases or life cycles of ADOP which are:

a) PREPARE

b) APPLY

c) FINALIZE

d) CUTOVER

e) CLEANUP

Steps:-

1. Download the patch and unzip on patch_top and go through the read me to check,what its going to do.
2. Prepare the system for patching
   a. Run environment file(optional)
   Note: The adop utility sets its own environment. There is therefore no need to source the environment before running it.
   b.adop phase=prepare
3. Apply Phase -
   adop phase=apply patches=, workers=

After patch has been successfully applied,complete the patch cycle

4. Finalize phase - Used to perform the final patching operations that can be executed while the application is still online:

adop phase=finalize workers= (called automatically)

5. Cutover phase - Used to perform the transition to the patched environment:

adop phase=cutover workers=

6. Cleanup phase - Used to remove old objects that are no longer needed:
   adop phase=cleanup (called automatically)

Now synchronise the technology level between patch and run fc_clone.

7. adop phase=fs_clone

Abort phase - Used only if the online patching cycle needs to be terminated before completion:

$ adop phase=abort

Important: The abort phase can only be run after the prepare phase and before completion of the cutover phase. After the cutover phase completes, it is no longer possible to abort the online patching cycle.

Last two commands for adop

a. adop -help

b. adop -examples

Patch Log Files:-

To review the relevant log files after any patching operation. The adop log files are located on the non-editioned file system (fs_ne), under:

$NE_BASE/EBSapps/log/adop//__//log

Oracle 11204 Clusterware upgrade - ASM glitch

Yet another tough challenge thrown at my team right after the disaster recovery (DR) simulation drill which performed barely couple of weeks ago. The new task (challenge) in hands is to upgrade the existing four cluster environments from 11.2.0.2 to 11.2.0.4 as Oracle already stopped supporting v11.2.0.2.

Although last week we had a 3 node successfully upgrade track record, we encountered ASM upgrade troubles whilst running rootupgrade.sh in a new cluster environment (7 nodes). The following error was reported during the course of rootupgrade.sh script execution:

CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.asm' on 'node01' 
CRS-5017: The resource action "ora.asm start" encountered the following error: 
ORA-48108: invalid value given for the diagnostic_dest init.ora parameter 
ORA-48140: the specified ADR Base directory does not exist [/u00/app/11.2.0/grid/dbs/{ORACLE_BASE}] 
ORA-48187: specified directory does not exist 
HPUX-ia64 Error: 2: No such file or directory 
Additional information: 1CRS-2674: Start of 'ora.asm' on 'node01' failed 
CRS-2679: Attempting to clean 'ora.asm' on 'node01' 
CRS-2681: Clean of 'ora.asm' on 'node01' succeeded 
CRS-4000: Command Start failed, or completed with errors. 

When tried to start-up the ASM instance manually through sqlplus prompt, the following error was thrown:

SQL> 
ORA-32004: obsolete or deprecated parameter(s) specified for ASM instance 
ORA-48108: invalid value given for the diagnostic_dest init.ora parameter 
ORA-48140: the specified ADR Base directory does not exist [/u00/app/11.2.0/grid/dbs/{ORACLE_BASE}] 
ORA-48187: specified directory does not exist 
HPUX-ia64 Error: 2: No such file or directory

Sadly, there wasn't much info available about the nature of this problem. As usual, after giving it 1 hr try with different options, we opened a SR with Oracle support and agreed to rollback the upgrade from the node where the rootupgrade script failed. Luckily, this was the first node we tried and other 6 nodes were just running fine. After rolling back to the previous cluster version, ASM instance error was still persist.

To resolve the ASM instance startup issues, the following action was taken:

• export diagnostic_dest=/u00/app/oracle
• From active ASM instance on another node, executed the following statement:
• SQL> ALTER SYSTEM STOP ROLLING MIGRATION;

Cause:

The problem caused an ASM instance startup issue was reported/logged as a known bug (17449823).

Workaround:

According to the MOS Doc ID (1598959.1), the bug is still being worked by the development team, they suggest the following work around on each node just before running the rootupgrade.sh script:

• mkdir <New-GI-HOME>/dbs/{ORACLE_BASE} 

Third successful attempt

The upgrade failed in first 2 attempts, and the 3 attempt was successful and we managed to upgrade all 7 nodes from 11.2.0.2 to 11.2.0.4. It was also learnt that CRS_HOME, ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_BASE was not unset before the runinstaller was initiated. In 3rd attempt with unsetting those parameters, upgrade went successfully.

Addendum (24-Aug-2014)
Couple of new challenges encountered in the last  upgrade task on 10 nodes.

1. OUI window from which runInstaller was initiated got closed due to PC rebooted.
2. Although the directory {ORACLE_BASE} created under the new GRID home, the issue were reoccurring.

Here is the solution:

1. How to Complete 11gR2 Grid Infrastructure Configuration Assistant(Plug-in) if OUI is not Available (Doc ID 1360798.1)
2. Ensure the diagnostic_dest is updated on ASM Spfile to the new location before running the rootupgrade.sh

References:

• Things to Consider Before Upgrading to 11.2.0.3/11.2.0.4 Grid Infrastructure/ASM ( Doc ID 1363369.1) 
• Things to Consider Before Upgrading to 11.2.0.4 to Avoid Poor Performance or Wrong Results ( Doc ID 1645862.1) 
• GI rootupgrade.sh on last node: ASM rolling upgrade action failed ( Doc ID 1598959.1) 
• bug 17449823

manual Upgrade from 10gR2 to 11gR1

Pre-Requisite:

You should have enough MEMORY, server space and SWAP SPACE on Oracle database 10g, which you want to migrate.

Also here we are upgrading 10g to Oracle Database 11g – Beta 6 (11.1.0.6)

Step 1) Installing Oracle 11g Home

We cannot upgrade the existing Oracle Home, since 11g is not a patchset. We have to install 11g oracle home as a separate ORACLE_HOME in parallel to 10g Oracle Home.

Step 2) Pre-Upgrade Utility

In 11g Home you installed, go to $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin and copy the file utlu111i.sql to some temp location.

$  cp   utlu111i.sql   /tmp

For more about utlu111i.sql :

 http://oracleflash.com/38/Oracle-11g-Release-1-Pre-Upgrade-tool-utlu111i-sql.html

Step 3) Executing the recommended steps

Following are the critical steps to be executed based on above warnings. These commands are to be executed while connecting to database from 10g Oracle Home

WARNING: –> Database is using an old timezone file version.
…. Patch the 10.2.0.1.0 database to timezone file version 4
…. BEFORE upgrading the database. Re-run utlu111i.sql after
…. patching the database to record the new timezone file version.

Finding the Version of existing timezone files:

SQL> select version from v$timezone_file;

          

          version

          ------------

                   2  

here oracle 10.2.0.1 has timezone file version of 2

Before you upgrade your timezone file version, you must run utltzuv2.sql to see if there is data that will be affected by the timezone file version upgrade. The script utltzuv2.sql creates a table named sys.sys_tzuv2_temptab, and fills it with data that may get affected by the timezone file version.

SQL >  select * from sys.sys_tzuv2_temptab ;

           no rows selected

here we see no rows but if we see any rows then we need to take that data backup and restore after timezone file version upgrade

Step 4) Run Pre-Upgrade Utility again

Run utlrp.sql to validate the objects if there is any invalidate objects.

SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/utlrp.sql

Check for any INVALID Objects in the database before upgrade starts:

SQL> select count(*),object_type,owner from dba_objects  where status = ‘INVALID’ group by object_type,owner;

SQL> purge DBA_RECYCLEBIN

Gather dictionary stats to run UPGRADE process fast,

SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_dictionary_stats;

Create pfile from spfile 

Shutdown  à shut down the database in oracle 10g.

Copy the pfile of database from ORACLE_HOME/dbs(10g) to ORACLE_HOME/dbs(11g) using cp command.

In that make changes shown below,

 1.     Remove BDUMP, CDUMP, UDUMP and their locations

 2.     Add Diagnostic_dest=/’$ORACLE_BASE/diag’-àlocation for diagnostic dest

 3.     Change audit_file_dest location

 4.     Change compatibility to 11g and save it.

After executing the recommended steps, run the pre-upgrade utility once again to make sure, you don’t get any critical warnings. If everything looks fine, shut down the database from 10g Oracle Home.

Step 5) Starting Upgrade

Source the following variables for 11g Oracle Home

[oracle@/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1/dbs]$ export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1[oracle@/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1/dbs]$  export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH[oracle@/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1/dbs]$  export ORACLE_SID=orcl[oracle@/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1/dbs]$ export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

connected to the database sys as sysdba

sqlplus “/ as sysdba” –> will be connected to idle instance

SQL> startup upgrade

SQL> SPOOL upgrade.log
SQL> @$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catupgrd.sql

Once the upgrade finishes, It will shut down the database automatically.

Now export New oracle HOME and startup the database

[oracle@/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1/dbs]$ export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1

[oracle@/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1/dbs]$ export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

[oracle@/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1/dbs]$  export ORACLE_SID=orcl

[oracle@/opt/oracle/11.1.0/db_1/dbs]$  export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

Login again as sysdba and startup in normal mode.

Check the dba_registry for the components and its status

SQL> startup 

SQL> select substr(comp_id,1,10) comp_id, substr(comp_name,1,25) comp_name, substr(version,1,10) version, status from dba_registry order by modified;

All the components should be VALID state

Step 6) Post-Upgrade Steps

Once the upgrade completes, restart the instance to reinitialize the system parameters for normal operation.

SQL> STARTUP

Run utlu111s.sql to display/verify the results of the upgrade:

SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/utlu111s.sql

Run catuppst.sql, located in the ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin directory, to perform upgrade actions that do not require the database to be in UPGRADE mode:

SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/catuppst.sql

Run utlrp.sql to recompile invalid objects after upgrade

SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/utlrp.sql

SQL> select count(*),object_type,owner from dba_objects  where status = ‘INVALID’ group by object_type,owner;

Run utluiobj.sql after the upgrade to identify any new invalid objects

Edit /etc/oratab file with new 11g Oracle home and comment out 10g oracle home

How to share your Android WiFi connection over Bluetooth

What can you do if you want to get your laptop online but you only seem to be able to pick up a wifi signal on your phone? What about if you want to get multiple devices online, but only want to pay to connect one? There is a solution - you can share your phone's WiFi connection to more phones, tablets and computers using Bluetooth so other devices can get online. Here's our guide on how to share your Android phone's WiFi connection over Bluetooth.

If you don’t have access to a wireless internet connection, it's easy to share your phone's data connection to other devices so you can get them online. But it's a slightly different story if you're looking to share a single internet connection between multiple devices.

Share WiFi over Bluetooth

Get your phone online using a WiFi connection and you're then ready to configure the connection for sharing over Bluetooth. It's a great way to get multiple devices online if you happen to be in a coffee shop or other location that issues codes for getting connected to the internet and you want to keep the costs down. Sharing a wireless signal via Bluetooth is also a good option if you are having trouble getting a particular phone or computer connected to the network in the usual way.

To share your phone's wireless connection, start by enabling Bluetooth. 

Once you are connected, head straight to Settings and move to the Connections section. Under the Network connections heading, click More networks and then tap Tethering and portable hotspot.

Bluetooth tethering is a simple way to share your phone's internet connection. 

Enable the Bluetooth tethering option by ticking the box. You'll see a warning that Bluetooth visibility needs to be adjusted.

Before other devices can connect to your phone, you need to make sure it's visible. 

Open up Settings, make sure that Bluetooth is enabled, and then tap the Bluetooth link in the Connections section. Tick the box next to the name of your phone to make it visible to other devices.

Enable Bluetooth on another device and you can connect to the internet via your phone. 

With this done, you can then use the Bluetooth capabilities of your laptop, tablet or other device to connect to your phone and make use of its internet connection. To connect a Windows computer, open Devices and Printers in the Control Panel, right click the icon representing your phone and select Connect using > Access point and you're ready to start browsing the internet.