2.1 What's New In This Release?

Oracle Reports 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) is integrated with Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle WebLogic Server, which provide the architectural enhancements listed in Table 2-1 (a subset of Table 1-1, "11g Functionality vs. 10g Functionality"):

Table 2-1 11g Architecture Features vs. 10g Functionality

11g New Features Equivalent 10g Functionality

Server Stability

Database-backed job queue repository. Use of the database as the job repository helps to avoid Reports Server DAT file corruption, and also ensures no loss of scheduled jobs. It is also easier to manage jobs in the database.

Only file system-based DAT file repository.

New command line argument: JOBRETRY. When specified, this value takes precedence over the retry attribute of the job element. Jobs are retried for all unexpected errors. For more information, see Section A.6.15, "JOBRETRY".

Number of times to retry a failed job can be specified in the server configuration file using the retry attribute of the job element, or on the command line for scheduled jobs only Jobs are retried only in the case of engine crash failures.

High Availability

Database-backed job queue repository. Use of the database as the job repository provides the following High Availability (HA) benefits:

  • Ability to view consolidated jobs for the complete group of Reports Servers in Oracle Enterprise Manager, and perform operations on this consolidated jobs. See Section 7.15.2, "Displaying a Consolidated Job Queue".

  • Scheduled jobs do not get lost even if the Reports Server where the jobs are scheduled goes down.

The administrator must view the job queues for each Reports Server separately.

A scheduled job is lost if the Reports Server where the job was scheduled goes down.

Oracle Reports Server Cluster with shared job repository and cache, including Java Object Cache. Reports Servers communicate via peer-to-peer mechanisms for job management, to minimize manual administration and for automatic failover of jobs. Access to cached output even when the Reports Server that processed the master job is not available.

Use of Oracle Reports caching mechanism. Cache not shared among Reports Servers. Cached output is not available to other servers if the Reports Server where it is cached goes down.

Proprietary clustering and HA mechanism.

For more information about High Availability, see Section 2.5, "Setting Up a High Availability Environment".