Planning and Performing Pre-Upgrade Tasks

This chapter covers the following topics:

Planning Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 Deployment Architecture

An upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 may require upgrades to your operating system and hardware. This section provides requirements to address hardware that will run Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.

Installed Components and System Requirements

This section lists the certified components installed with Rapid Install, and the system requirements for an Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 installation.

Technology Stack Components

Rapid Install automatically installs and configures the required technology stack components for both the database node and the application tier node.

The database tier technology stack for a new Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 installation consists of an Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2) Oracle home. Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2) is in Upgrade Support, the successor to Market Driven Support (MDS). We strongly recommend that you upgrade to Oracle Database 23ai or Oracle Database 19c following the installation. For more information on Upgrade Support and how to upgrade, see My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2997711.1, Alert: Oracle E-Business Suite On-Premises Customers and Upgrade Support for Oracle Database Releases 12.1.0.2 and 11.2.0.4.

Important: For databases running on-premises or on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle E-Business Suite requires Oracle Database Enterprise Edition. No other Oracle Database editions are certified for use with Oracle E-Business Suite environments on-premises or on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

The application tier node technology stack includes, among other components:

Note: In Release 12.2, the required Java Development Kit (JDK) is automatically installed by Rapid Install. You do not need to install the JDK separately.

Note: Oracle E-Business Suite requires Oracle homes to be writable, not read-only.

Product-specific documents on My Oracle Support describe use of these components with Oracle E-Business Suite.

You can also check product certifications from My Oracle Support by clicking the Certifications tab (which may be under the More tab).

Note: If you are performing an Oracle E-Business Suite upgrade to Release 12.2 on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, it is strongly recommended that you follow the standards listed in Sections 3 and 4 of My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2656874.1, Standards Used by the Oracle E-Business Suite Cloud Manager for Provisioning Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Important: Do not deploy custom applications into the Oracle E-Business Suite technology stack. The Oracle E-Business Suite database Oracle home must be used exclusively for that database, and not shared either with other Oracle E-Business Suite databases or with other applications. Similarly, the Oracle E-Business Suite application tier Oracle homes should be used exclusively to run Oracle E-Business Suite services.

Sharing a database Oracle home between multiple Oracle E-Business Suite instances is not recommended because Oracle E-Business Suite tools are designed to work with a single database associated with a single Oracle E-Business Suite instance. Running these tools in an environment where multiple Oracle E-Business Suite instances are associated with the same database Oracle home can have unpredictable results.

Combining custom applications into the Oracle E-Business Suite technology stack is not recommended for the following reasons:

Instead, it is recommended that you deploy a custom application and its required technology stack prerequisites on a separate server.

System Software, Patch Level, and Networking Requirements

This section describes system software requirements, patch level requirements in multinode installations, and essential networking requirements.

Operating System

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 requires a 64-bit operating system. If you have not already done so, then you must plan for and upgrade the operating system of your Oracle E-Business Suite application and database tiers to a 64-bit operating system.

Action: Follow the instructions in the Oracle E-Business Suite Installation and Upgrade document for your platform to ensure that you meet all operating system requirements:

Oracle Applications are developed and tested on Oracle Linux, which is optimized for performance, stability, and security.

Tip: In addition to the platform-specific maintenance tools listed in the Installation and Upgrade Notes, the following utilities are required on all UNIX-based operating systems: unzip, df, ps, and wall.

Note: In this guide, the term "UNIX" refers to all variants of that operating system, including Linux.

Conditional Action: If you are installing on Exadata or Exalogic, follow the instructions in Oracle E-Business Suite Installation and Upgrade Notes Release 12 (12.2) for Linux x86-64 (My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1330701.1) above, taking note of the exceptions listed for packages that are already contained in Exadata systems.

Operating System Requirements in a Multinode Installation

In a multinode installation, all application tier nodes are required to be on the same platform and operating system. This is a requirement for adding nodes by cloning in a multinode deployment.

Additional Information: Refer to My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1383621.1, Cloning Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 with Rapid Clone.

For all the nodes of a particular tier, either application tier nodes or database RAC nodes, Oracle recommends that you use the same operating system kernel parameter settings when using identical machines, or adjust the settings based on the machines' load. Using the same operating system kernel parameter settings simplifies management and maintenance.

Note: When you run Rapid Install as part of an upgrade, the upgrade process is performed with only one application tier and one database tier. You must complete the upgrade to the latest Oracle E-Business Suite code before you can perform optional advanced configurations, such as scaling your environment by adding application tier nodes and database RAC nodes, as a post-upgrade step. However, if you plan to use a multinode deployment after the upgrade, it is recommended that you prepare the hardware infrastructure in advance as part of the preparation for the upgrade.

Networking

The key networking requirement is for the hosts file to include an entry for the installation machine, formatted as follows:

<IP address> <host name>.<domain name> <host name>

Note: If you are performing an Oracle E-Business Suite upgrade to Release 12.2 on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, it is strongly recommended that you follow the standards listed in Section 2 of My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2656874.1, Standards Used by the Oracle E-Business Suite Cloud Manager for Provisioning Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Shared Memory Permissions

On applicable UNIX platforms, ensure that the /dev/shm directory has neither the 'noexec' nor 'nosuid' permissions set. If it has, you may encounter the following Oracle JVM JIT runtime error:

ORA-29516: Aurora assertion failure: Assertion failure at joez.c:
Bulk load of method java/lang/Object.<init> failed; insufficient shm-object space

CPU, Memory, and Disk Space Requirements

Because there are different product combinations, different user profiles, and different configurations, there is no one sizing answer for all hardware platforms. Some hardware vendors have sizing worksheets that model the CPU and memory requirements of Oracle E-Business Suite on their hardware.

The most reliable strategy to ensure that the hardware is sized appropriately is to install a test environment, and then conduct a benchmark test with a configuration, product mix, and user load that simulates your own current and expected workloads. These conditions can help verify performance before you install your production-ready environment. An alternative is to ask Oracle Consulting Services or your hardware vendor to find another Oracle E-Business Suite system running a product mix, throughput, and user profile similar to yours.

CPU Requirements

Note: Unless explicitly noted otherwise, Oracle E-Business Suite documentation uses the term "CPU" to mean an actual CPU core rather than a logical core.

CPU requirements for running Oracle E-Business Suite for the database and application tiers depend on the following factors, which are listed in no particular order:

The number of CPUs and cores needed to support Oracle E-Business Suite depends on the specific platform implementation, and whether or not hyperthreading is in use.

Two useful formulae are:

You should also consult your platform vendor as required.

Memory Requirements

Memory requirements for Oracle E-Business Suite depend on both the application and database tiers.

Minimum Memory for an Oracle E-Business Suite Installation

The minimum amount of memory needed to run Oracle E-Business Suite is about 6 GB for the database tier machine, and 10 GB for a single application tier machine. This configuration would typically support no more than ten users.

Tip: For additional guidance, see Database and Application Tier Sizing Guidelines, Oracle E-Business Suite Installation Guide: Using Rapid Install.

Single-User Single-Machine Non-Production System

For the special case of a system that will only be employed by a single user to develop or test patches, the minimum memory requirement is 8 GB.

Important: This figure represents the minimum amount of memory that can be employed, and may rise either to meet the needs of new releases or the deployment of components such as additional managed servers.

Application Machine Memory Requirements

The total RAM memory for the application tier is the sum of:

Aside from the stack, the two main contributors to the application tier memory are the JVM memory and Forms memory (the frmweb process). For every 150 to 180 self-service users, you should allow 2 GB of JVM heap and 2 CPUs. The Forms Processes memory is equal to the (Number of Forms users) * 40 MB.

Important: These figures represent average usage. Your instance may use more or less memory depending on the applications you use.

The memory required per machine also depends on the number of application machines in your deployment. For general usage, it is not recommended that you allocate very large heap sizes. Instead, add more managed instances in the cluster to scale up to the target concurrency levels.

Note: Some transactions, such as those for Oracle Configurator, may require more memory.

Database Machine Memory Requirements

To determine the total memory requirements on the machine where the Oracle E-Business Suite database is installed, you must take the following into account:

When sizing the environment in which you will install Oracle E-Business Suite, you should aim to allow for any expected growth in usage over the planned lifetime of your system. It is, however, possible to scale up a system later to meet additional requirements subsequent to installation, either by adding nodes (machines) to the application tier or employing Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) on the database tier.

Action: To help determine your memory requirements for the various Oracle E-Business Suite database components, refer to My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 396009.1, Database Initialization Parameters for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.

Disk Space Requirements

Rapid Install installs the file system and database files for all products, regardless of their licensed status. The approximate file system disk space requirements for a standard installation are:

File System Space Requirements for Standard Installation
Node Space Required
Database node file system (Fresh install) 90 GB (includes database files and 12c Release 1 database Oracle home).
Database node file system (Vision Demo database) 200 GB (includes database files and 12c Release 1 database Oracle home).
Application tier node file system (OracleAS 10.1.2 Oracle home, Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle home, COMMON_TOP, APPL_TOP, and INST_TOP) 64 GB (for dual file system). Also, see note for language (NLS) considerations.

Tip: The minimum recommended space required for each active language is 16 GB in the file system for both APPL_TOPs, and 3 GB in the database.

Additional Information: For more information, refer to My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1314621.1, Oracle E-Business Suite NLS Release Notes, Release 12.2.

Warning: At present, Rapid Install does not support installing Oracle E-Business Suite into a directory that has more than 2 TB of free space. This is because of address space restrictions.

Stage Area

For a production database installation, running Rapid Install from a stage area requires at least 48 GB to accommodate the file system and database files in the stage area. See Setting Up the Stage Area.

Oracle E-Business Suite Log and Output Files

Many Oracle E-Business Suite products generate log and output files during runtime. The disk space needed varies with the number of users and transactions, and depends on how frequently you purge these files.

Tip: Log and output files are not automatically purged. The size of these files can increase quickly, which can impact the performance of your system. Determine a strategy for archiving and purging these files after the installation, particularly for files in the trace directories, and monitor the disk space they consume to determine how much space you may need in the future.

Temporary Disk Space Requirements

You should ensure that the $TMPDIR environment variable points to /tmp, and that this directory has at least 5 GB of free space for use by Rapid Install. The equivalent variables on Windows are %TEMP% and %TMP%.

At runtime, Oracle E-Business Suite requires temporary disk space. For example, each concurrent manager writes temporary parameter files, Oracle Reports writes temporary format files, and Oracle Forms writes temporary buffer records. Rapid Install sets the temporary directory based on the value you supply on node-specific settings screens. The directory defined by the TMPDIR variable is also used for some temporary files, such as certain patches.

The amount of temporary space will depend on the number of forms and concurrent manager sessions writing on the temporary file system. It is recommended that you use separate disk partitions for operating system and user data (that is, separate partitions for /home, /tmp, /var/tmp, /oracle, and so on). This strategy can prevent a "file system full" issue from impacting operations. Establishing disk quotas can also prevent a user from accidentally or intentionally filling up a file system.

Updates and Patches

You will need adequate disk space for applying updates, patches, maintenance packs, family packs, and minipacks, as well as for any backup files that may be created.

Additional Information: For more information about the amount of disk space needed for the various types of patching operation, see Patching Utilities, Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Guide and Patching Procedures, Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Guide. Also see Applications DBA System Maintenance Tasks and Tools, Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Guide.

Other Files

The total disk space estimate must account for the requirements of files other than those directly related to Oracle E-Business Suite. For example:

Input/Output (I/O) Subsystem

Performance during an upgrade depends heavily on the speed of the Oracle database system input/output (I/O) subsystem. Oracle recommends an average disk response time (average service time) below 10-15 milliseconds for better performance.

Additional Information: Detailed information, including input/output operations per second (IOPs) calculations, is available in My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1597531.1, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2: Upgrade Sizing and Best Practices and My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2115481.1, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.5 Upgrade Sizing and Best Practices.

To monitor the I/O performance, you should use OS tools like iostat or sar (Unix) during your test upgrade. Use similar tools for other operating systems, for example Performance Monitor for Windows. You can also monitor I/O performance on your production system during peak load to get an idea about your I/O subsystem performance before the upgrade. However, you should note that the I/O load and, therefore, the average service time on existing applications, is different from that of an upgrade.

While you are monitoring the I/O performance, you should focus on the average service time (the average of elapsed time in milliseconds that the disk drive takes to complete an I/O request) and the average wait (the average amount of time requests are left outstanding). Higher averages for these two indicators signal an I/O bottleneck. An average service time longer than 50 milliseconds is reason for concern if it lasts too long or it is continuously at a high level. Small intervals of high average service time should not be of concern.

Additional Information: See the Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide for your Oracle Database version.

Database Size

Database sizing is dependent on the following main factors:

You should ensure that proper planning is in place for database footprint management, in conjunction with appropriate purge and archive policies defined as part of your instance management strategy.

To estimate the increase in required disk space for upgrading, consider the products, the number of languages being installed, and changes in the data model. For example, in a test upgrade of the largest Oracle production system (oraprod), the database increased 10-20 percent. In a test upgrade, the Vision database increased 5 percent.

Additional Information: For guidelines based on an upgrade of the Oracle production system, see My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1597531.1, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2: Upgrade Sizing and Best Practices and My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2115481.1, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.5 Upgrade Sizing and Best Practices.

Tablespace Sizing

Make sure you allocate sufficient tablespace.

Additional Information: For guidelines based on an upgrade of the Oracle production system, see My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1597531.1, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2: Upgrade Sizing and Best Practices and My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2115481.1, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.5 Upgrade Sizing and Best Practices.

Block Size

This release requires a database block size of 8K. In addition to providing significant performance improvement, this setting accommodates the Oracle E-Business Suite indexes that require this block size.

Configure and Use /dev/urandom on the Application Tier (applicable for UNIX platforms)

In Oracle Database releases 11.2.x and later, JDBC connection establishment uses a new connection mechanism called o5logon that requires the use of random numbers. These numbers are typically generated by a special device, /dev/random. However, this random number generator relies on entropy in order to generate sufficiently random numbers. Unlike /dev/random, /dev/urandom is an unlimited, non-blocking random source.

Before you begin an Oracle E-Business Suite installation using Rapid Install, you must configure /dev/urandom and use it for the duration of the installation. If you do not set this configuration, you may encounter issues with Oracle WebLogic Server domain deployment and Oracle HTTP Server instance setup if the entropy on your system is low. To avoid these issues, prior to running Rapid Install on the application tier, you must configure /dev/urandom and use it for the duration of the installation. After Rapid Install has completed, you can revert to your previous configuration.

If /dev/urandom is configured on your machine, you can temporarily replace /dev/random with /dev/urandom by using a symbolic link. The following sample commands show an example of how to set up the symbolic link:

mv /dev/random /dev/random_orig 
ln -sf /dev/urandom /dev/random

Note: This configuration must be in place while you are running Rapid Install to perform the following actions as part of an upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.0:

For information on keeping this setup for the remainder of the upgrade process when running Rapid Install as part of an upgrade, review the recommendations in My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1581549.1, Best Practices for Minimizing Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.n Upgrade Downtime.

If the /dev/urandom file is not available and configured, refer to My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1065393.1, Upgrade From 11.5.10.2 Is Very Slow as XDOLOADER Task Hangs, which is referenced from My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1581549.1, Best Practices for Minimizing Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.n Upgrade Downtime.

Note: You should check the use of /dev/urandom with the relevant security team in your organization, as the keys produced by /dev/urandom are pseudo-random. However, provided that the entropy pool has started using genuine randomness (from entropy), /dev/urandom is not predictable or less secure, even though it uses a reduced number of bits. Only the most sensitive uses of random numbers need the entropy guarantee that /dev/random provides.

General Sizing Guidelines for the Database and Application Tier

Below are some general sizing guidelines for Oracle E-Business Suite.

Be aware of the following important points:

Oracle Application Framework Transactions

The following table shows the machine memory used for Oracle Application Framework-type transactions with light to medium workload characteristics:

Note: The figures in this table do not take into account any Online Patching requirements.

Machine Memory for Oracle Application Framework Transactions
Number of Concurrent Users Database Machine Memory Number of Database Machine CPUs Application Tier Machine Memory Number of Application Tier Machine CPUs
0-10 4 GB 2 6 GB 2
100-200 8 GB 2 8 GB 2
200-400 12 GB 4 10 GB 4
400-800 20 GB 8 14 GB 8

You should plan your resources using these figures as guidelines.

Important: Figures of this kind represent a minimum amount of memory, and your specific requirements may need more.

Oracle Forms Transactions

On the application tier, each Oracle Forms process requires approximately 40 MB of memory. So the total memory required, using the average, is given by the formula:

(Number of concurrent Oracle Forms users) * 40 MB

The following table lists the additional machine memory needed for different numbers of users:

Machine Memory for Oracle Forms Users
Number of Users Required Machine Memory
100 4 GB
200 8 GB
400 16 GB
800 32 GB

On the database tier, there is one Oracle Forms session per open form, and each of these sessions requires approximately 30 MB of PGA memory.

The following table lists the memory required for different numbers of sessions:

Machine Memory for Oracle Forms Sessions
Number of Oracle Forms Sessions Required Machine Memory
100 3 GB
200 6 GB
400 12 GB
800 24 GB

JVM Parameter Settings for Java on WLS Web Tier

If you are running Oracle E-Business Suite on 64-bit Java, bear in mind the following points:

Note: These guidelines are provided here to aid in your resource planning prior to installation. By default, Xms and Xmx are both set to 1024 MB during installation. You can configure the JVM parameters to alter these settings as part of performance tuning after the installation.

Suggested Reading: For more information, see Customizing the number of instances of a particular service type, Technical Configuration, Oracle E-Business Suite Setup Guide and Oracle E-Business Suite Performance Best Practices, My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2528000.1.

If you need to accommodate more users, we recommend doing so by adding managed instances to the cluster. The maximum heap size should be no more than 4 GB. The JVM heap size is dependent on the number of CPUs available for the JVM to support incremental and full garbage collection cycles, in addition to the actual concurrency workload. There are two benefits from scaling by using additional managed instances:

Careful sizing is needed for the concurrent manager components, especially Java concurrent programs. If you will be processing relatively large volumes of data, you may need to increase the Xms/Xmx settings for the Java concurrent programs. This is normally done via the options field of the define concurrent program screen. Note that when you increase the number of workers, the memory requirements may increase significantly: this is because each Java concurrent worker will require at least an amount of memory specified by the value of Xms.

Advanced Configuration

Optional advanced configurations for Oracle E-Business Suite are deployed after you upgrade to Release 12.2. However, consideration of these options is a critical component of planning your upgrading to Oracle E-Buisness Suite Release 12.2.

Your requirements for advanced configurations of Oracle E-Business Suite may include the following:

Conditional Action: Review the following for the required steps to plan and set up your final Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 deployment architecture:

Review AD Patch Level and Upgrade Tasks

In this section you will perform steps that provide a general checklist of tasks that are required for the upgrade using The Upgrade Manual Script (TUMS).

TUMS examines your current configuration and creates a report that lists upgrade tasks that do not apply to your system. This report contains information that is unique to your system configuration. Therefore, its output is relevant to your individual upgrade. Omitting the steps listed in the TUMS report can significantly reduce upgrade downtime. Create the TUMS report by applying a Release 11i patch, which loads objects into your APPS schema that TUMS uses to examine your applications configuration. Your current Applications environment is not affected. The patch uses the TUMS step keys identified in this guide to uniquely identify each task. The generated report lists the step keys, in addition to the type of step (for example, pre-upgrade) and step number for each upgrade task.

It also contains a reminder that you must have applied the 11i.AD.I.7 Minipack before you can continue with the remaining upgrade preparation tasks.

Note: If you have not already reviewed the information in Business Impact and Functional Changes in Chapter 1, do so before you begin. It is especially important that both the DBA and the application specialists be familiar with the tasks in the appendices as this information can help reduce system downtime and verify data migration.

  1. Apply 11i.AD.I.7 (conditional)

    Supported in EURC-DT: Yes

    Applies to 11i release level: All

    TUMS step key: N/A

    If you have not previously done so, apply the 11i.AD.I.7 minipack on all application tier nodes. It must be present in your system in order to upgrade to Release 12.2.

    Note: See About Oracle Applications DBA Minipack 11i.AD.I.7 (Doc ID: 233044.1).

  2. Run TUMS utility (recommended)

    Applies to 11i release level: All

    TUMS step key: N/A

    The TUMS report lists tasks that you can omit from the upgrade because they do not apply to your system (for example, a task required for a product that you do not use or for applying a patch that you have previously applied). TUMS is delivered in a patch, which supplies the scripts you need to examine your system and create the report. Oracle strongly recommends that you create and review the TUMS report before you begin the upgrade.

    1. Download and apply AD TUMS patch.

      Download patch 21900924 and apply it to the administration server node on your Release 11i APPL_TOP. It supplies you with the script (adtums.sql) you need to generate the TUMS report (tumsr12.html).

    2. Generate the TUMS report.

      To generate the report:

      Unix

      $ cd $AD_TOP/patch/115/sql
$ sqlplus <APPS username> @adtums.sql <DIRECTORY>

      Windows

      C:\> cd %AD_TOP%\patch\115\sql

      For the <DIRECTORY> value, enter the full path of the directory that you want the report to be written to. This directory must be defined as a database directory for PL/SQL file I/O before TUMS can write the report, and the directory must have the appropriate WRITE permissions.

      Additional Information: See My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2525754.1, Using UTL_FILE_DIR or Database Directories for PL/SQL File I/O in Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 for more information.

  3. Review the report.

    The tumsr12.htm report lists the steps (identified by the TUMS step key in this book) that do not apply to your installation. You may safely ignore any steps listed in this report.

Preparing Products To Reduce Upgrade Downtime

This section discusses tasks that you can perform in advance of the upgrade. By completing these optional tasks in advance of the actual upgrade, you may be able to substantially reduce the amount of time that your system is offline during the upgrade process.

Customer Relationship Management

The steps in this section are suggested only if you are using Customer Relationship Management products in your system.

Trading Community Architecture

Apply patch 9572834 (can be applied as a hotpatch) to your 11i environment prior to the Release 12.2 upgrade. This patch creates database objects required for party usage functionality in Release 12.2 . It also populates the table HZ_PARTY_USG_ASSIGNMENTS by running the arhmgtpu.sql script.

If the patch is not applied to the 11i environment, then these activities will be performed during the Release 12.2 upgrade and may increase the patching time, depending on the volume of data. If the patch is already applied to the 11i environment, then only party relationship and account records created or modified after the patch will need to be inserted in table HZ_PARTY_USG_ASSIGNMENTS during the upgrade, resulting in improved patching downtime.

Financials and Procurement Tasks

The steps in this section are appropriate only if you are using Financials and Procurement products in your system.

Assets

Completing these tasks could substantially reduce the downtime required for your upgrade.

Depreciation

If you have a large volume of depreciation data in the current open period in the books that are in use, and you are experiencing a long running time with facpupg.sql, consider running depreciation with or without closing the current period as permitted by business prior to the upgrade. Doing so can potentially reduce downtime by processing additions, back-dated transfers, and pending retirements and reinstatements in the current open periods in the books that are in use.

Post Mass Additions

If you have a large volume of pending mass addition lines from Payables and Projects that are for books in Assets with reporting books, and you are experiencing a long running time with faumamcr.sql, you can substantially reduce downtime by preparing and posting these pending Mass Addition lines before the upgrade.

General Ledger

Completing these tasks could substantially reduce the downtime required for your upgrade.

Posted Journal Entries Pre-upgrade Stand-alone Upgrade

TUMS Step Key: GL_CREATE_JE_SEGVALS

Review this section if you use General Ledger with a large number of posted journals and you are experiencing a substantial running time when running glrsgup2.sql.

The General Ledger Journal Entries Pre-Upgrade is an optional program that can reduce the duration of downtime while upgrading. It upgrades posted General Ledger journal entries before the planned downtime, leaving only unposted journals and newly posted journals to upgrade during downtime.

The GL Journals Entries Pre-Upgrade consists of the Program - Prepare Posted Journals Before Upgrade concurrent program, which you run from the Standard Request Submission form. Since this program is resource-intensive, it should be scheduled to run during non-peak times, such as evenings or weekends. It can, however, be terminated at any point, and, when restarted, it resumes from the point where it left off. Even after the program is complete, you can run it again at a later time. It processes only journal entries posted after the last time it was run.

In order to install the functionality necessary to run the Program - Prepare Posted Journals Before Upgrade concurrent program, apply patch 4685497.

Advanced Collections

This Step is necessary only if you are using Advanced Collections.

Large numbers of Score History rows in the IEX_SCORE_HISTORIES table can cause the collections upgrade scripts to run slow. You can avoid this by running the following concurrent program that truncates the IEX_SCORE_HISTORIES table.

From the Collections Administrator Responsibility, select Submit Request and select the concurrent program; IEX. Enter the following Purge Score History Table parameters:

Leave the remaining parameter values 'null'. The concurrent program should complete in a few minutes.

Legal Entity

By setting the country code in your Release 11i environment before you upgrade to Release 12.1, you will prevent Form errors. This step is necessary to assure that your legal entities (which are defined in HR and used by EBS Subledgers) are upgraded from Release 11i to Release 12.1.

Navigate to the Locations window to query the location record and set the country code. Go to: Setup > Organization > Locations. Query the location record and set the country code.

iProcurement

Completing these tasks could substantially reduce the downtime required for your upgrade.

The Catalog Data Pre-upgrade Process

This pre-upgrade process is strongly recommended if you are upgrading iProcurement from 11.5.9 or 11.5.10 to Release 12. It pre-processes bulk-loaded content to reduce the actual time required for the upgrade and to ensure the upgrade process runs smoothly. You can run it multiple times. If exceptions are found, then make corrections and re-run the program until no exceptions are noted. Running this program does not require users to log off the system. Note: Exceptions noted and not fixed before the upgrade will not be available in the iProcurement Catalog. Specifically, this program shortens the time it takes to run these upgrade scripts:

Run the Extractor

  1. Run the extractor to ensure that the iProcurement extracted catalog data is updated.

    For additional information, see iProcurement Setup and Usage: Internal Catalog Extract Process (Doc ID: 215530.1).

  2. Apply patch 4914492.

    This step applies patch 4914492 to all appropriate nodes. Review the log file for this step VERY CAREFULLY to ensure that the patch applied without problems.

    If there are errors in the AutoPatch log file, then correct the issues and have your DBA manually re-apply this patch using the adpatch utility. Once done, mark the Execute step as manually completed, and continue on to the Validate step.

  3. Apply patch 5452131.This step applies patch 5452131 to all appropriate nodes. Review the log file for this step VERY CAREFULLY to ensure that the patch applied without problems.

Exceptions to be Fixed and Reloaded

Whenever possible, an XML file is provided to help you fix the catalog data. You can download the XML file, fix data issues, and reload data back into the catalog using the loader feature in eContent Manager. Examples of these exceptions are:

The following table lists exceptions for which you can download an XML file. It also indicates the file Type - price or item. The Delete? column indicates whether a delete file is provided to eliminate old data.

Exception Type Delete? Instructions for Fixing Data
Currency code is invalid or disabled in the currency setup Price Y Fix the Currency definition or download the file and re-load it, providing a valid currency.
Supplier site is invalid, disabled, on hold, or missing Price Y Fix the Supplier Site definition or download the file and re-load it, providing Site in the file or in the load options user interface.
Supplier site is invalid due to expired Central Contractor Registration (CCR) supplier registration Price Y Fix the Supplier Site definition in Purchasing or download the file and re-load, providing Site in the file or in the load options interface.
"All buyers" option is deprecated Item Y Download the file and re-load, providing Operating Unit, Supplier, and Supplier Site in the file or in the load options user interface.
Supplier invalid or missing Item Y Fix Supplier definition or download the file and re-load, providing Supplier and Supplier Site in the file or in the load options user interface.
Operating Unit invalid Item Y Fix the Operating Unit definition or download the file and re-load it, providing Operating Unit, Supplier, and Supplier Site in the load options interface.
UOM code is invalid in the setup, or missing Price N Fix the UOM definition or download the file and re-load it, providing a valid UOM.
No Purchasing category that maps to the iProcurement category in the catalog Item N Map the iProcurement category to a valid Purchasing category or download the file and re-load it, providing an iProcurement category mapped to a valid Purchasing category.
Purchasing category is invalid Item N Fix the Purchasing category definition, or map the iProcurement category to a valid Purchasing category. Or, download the file and re-load it, providing an iProcurement category mapped to a valid Purchasing category.

To fix exceptions using the XML files, perform the following steps:

  1. Download the XML file.

    The download link provides a compressed file called ItemException.zip for each supplier/supplier site/contract/language combination. This file contains two XML files: one for the SYNC and the other the DELETE action. There may be multiple SYNC files (for multiple languages), but there will always be only one DELETE file.

    SYNC files are named ItemException_Language_SYNC.xml. They are in Release 11.5.9 or 11.5.10 format, which allows you to later re-load these items (after the SYNC action). The DELETE file is named ItemException_DELETE.xml. It is also in Release 11.5.9 or 11.5.10 format that deletes the old file from the system (DELETE action).

    Note: In Release 11.5.9 and 11.5.10, there are two types of files: item and price. The language applies only to the item file.

  2. Fix the data. Refer to the table to see the appropriate changes in the SYNC file.

  3. Re-load the data. First, re-upload the items using the SYNC file.

  4. Delete old data. Use the DELETE file, if provided.

  5. Run data exceptions report. Re-run the data exceptions report to verify that the fix was successful. Repeat the process until no exceptions are noted.

Exceptions to be Fixed by Correcting System Defaults

In order to create GPBAs, you must fix other exceptions that are due to invalid default values. In these cases, you fix the system setup. The exceptions should not be listed when you re-run the pre-upgrade or data exceptions report.

The following table lists these default value exceptions:

Attribute Exception Error Message
Rate

  1. Rate type is invalid or disabled in the rate type setup.

  2. No rate for the date/type combination.

  1. Default rate type is invalid.

  2. There is no rate for the rate date and type default combination.
Buyer

  1. Buyer missing.

  2. Buyer invalid.

  1. The system cannot obtain the default value for the buyer.

  2. Default buyer is invalid.
Ship to location

  1. Ship to location is missing.

  2. Ship to location is invalid.

  1. The system cannot obtain the default value for the ship location.

  2. Default ship to location is inactive or invalid.
Bill to location

  1. Bill to location is missing.

  2. Bill to location is invalid

  1. The system cannot obtain the default value for the bill to location.

  2. Default bill to location is inactive or invalid.
Terms and conditions Terms and conditions invalid. Default payment terms is inactive or invalid.
Shipping options

  1. Freight carrier invalid.

  2. FOB invalid.

  3. Freight terms invalid.

  4. Shipping control invalid.

  1. Default freight carrier is inactive or invalid.

  2. Default freight on board (FOB) carrier is inactive or invalid.

  3. Default freight terms is inactive or invalid.

  4. Default shipping control is inactive or invalid.

The following rules govern the way the migration process defaults values to the new GBPA attributes listed in the preceding table.

Bulk-loaded items that refer to a contract purchase agreement (CPA)

The migration uses the CPA information as default for the new GBPA.

Bulk-loaded items that do not refer to a contract purchase agreement (CPA)

The migration relies on Oracle Purchasing to default values for Rate, Ship/Bill to Location, Terms and Conditions, and Shipping Options. For more details, see the Oracle Purchasing Guide.

For the buyer in the GBPA header, the migration tries to source a document to obtain a buyer. It looks for the most recently created document in any status in the following order. Matching is based on Supplier, Supplier Site, Currency, and Operating Unit.

Agreement Summary

The agreement summary provides a list of all newly created agreements for bulk-loaded items. There is one table for agreements that refer to contract purchase agreements and another for agreements that do not refer to any CPA. In the first case, the system uses CPA information to create the GBPA. In the second case, it uses Oracle Purchasing defaults to create the GBPA. You do not have access to the newly created GBPAs until the upgrade is complete.

Set the profile option POR:Autocreate Shopping Category and Mapping to Yes to map automatically. Otherwise, the categories will not be mapped automatically in the upgrade process and will require datafix scripts to map them.

Protecting Data in Renamed Files

Because files may be renamed for a variety of reasons, it is good practice to protect them from being accidentally overwritten during the upgrade. Therefore, if you have renamed files using the <filename>old, <filename>new, or any other generic designation, then rename them again to something meaningful before you begin the upgrade.

Preparing Customizations

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 introduces a new set of compliance, code, and patching standards that customizations must adhere to. This section describes the new standards and tools available for preparing your customizations for the Release 12.2 upgrade.

Creating a Customizations Inventory

All Oracle E-Business Suite customers should compile a comprehensive inventory of their existing customizations. Enhancements delivered with Release 12.2 may make some of these customizations unnecessary. Preparing customizations for the Release 12.2 Upgrade include:

Ensure that the catalog identifies all of the following artifacts:

Run the Online Patching Readiness Reports

Run the Online Patching Readiness Reports using the following process:

Apply the latest Oracle E-Business Suite Online Patching Readiness and GSCC Report Patch

Action: As part of planning and preparation, you must apply the Oracle E-Business Suite Online Patching Readiness and GSCC Report patch corresponding to your existing Oracle E-Business suite instance. You must use adpatch to apply this patch. For example, if you are at the Oracle E-Business Suite 11i level, then you must apply the patch marked for Release 11i.

Run the Online Patching Enablement - Readiness Reports

Refer to Using the Online Patching Readiness Report in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 (Doc ID: 1531121.1) for instructions on how to download these utilities.

You must run the following utility from the application tier APPL_TOP. It reports EBR violations that include objects not complying with the EBR rule about Non-Editioned Objects (data storage objects such as Tables and Materialized Views), and referencing editioned objects (code objects such as: Packages, Triggers, Object Types, and so on). This report also lists several naming standard violations that must be fixed prior to applying the online patching enablement patch.

  1. Source the environment file of current APPL_TOP

    UNIX

    $ . ./<APPL_TOP>/APPS<CONTEXT_NAME>.env

    Windows

    C:\> <APPL_TOP>\envshell<CONTEXT_NAME>.cmd

    Note: The subsequent steps assume that you are running in the same session which was initialized with this environment file. If you need additional operating system level sessions, ensure that you initialize the environment with this same environment file.

  2. Create the online patching log file location and set it as the current directory:

    $ mkdir $LOG_HOME/appl/op
$ cd $LOG_HOME/appl/op

  3. Run the following Readiness reports:

    • ADZDPSUM.sql - Provides a summary of the schemas that will be editioned and also schemas with objects that depend on E-Business Suite code that is recommended to be editioned. You can register these schemas with the application by running the commands that will be listed in the last section of this report. Oracle recommends that you run this report again after the custom schemas are registered with the application. You should run ADZDPSUM.sql repeatedly to handle dependent schemas until no further EBR violations are reported.

      Note: Enter the system password when prompted. You can ignore APPS_NE, and ODM schemas which may appear in section 2 of the report.

      $ sqlplus system @$AD_TOP/sql/ADZDPSUM.sql
      $ mv adzdpsum.txt adzdpsum_pre_dbprep.txt

    • ADZDPMAN.sql - Lists objects with different categories of violations to EBR rules that must be fixed prior to running the enablement process to avoid errors during this process. Oracle recommends that you run this report after all custom schemas are registered with the application according to instructions in the above report ADZDPSUM.sql.

      Note: Enter the system password when prompted.

      $ sqlplus system @$AD_TOP/sql/ADZDPMAN.sql
      $ mv adzdpman.txt adzdpman_pre_dbprep.txt

    • ADZDPAUT.sql - This report lists all the objects with violations to the EBR rules that will be fixed automatically from the enablement process. This report is provided for information purposes and no action should be taken from this report.

      Note: Enter the system password when prompted.

      $ sqlplus system @$AD_TOP/sql/ADZDPAUT.sql
      $ mv adzdpaut.txt adzdpaut_pre_dbprep.txt

Implementing Code Remediation

Fix Violations Listed in the Online Patching Readiness Report that Require Manual Intervention

The Online Patching Readiness Report contains sections with different violation types.

  1. Review all sections listed from the ADZDPMAN.sql report. Follow instructions in each section to fix violations.

    Note: Many violations in the Readiness report can be automatically fixed by registering your custom schemas. Review the last section of the Summary Readiness Report (ADZDPSUM.sql) for sample commands on how to register your custom schemas.

    The following schema should NOT be registered:

    • SYS

    • SYSTEM

    • CTXSYS

    Any dependency between these schemas and Editioned Objects is a coding standards violation and must be fixed manually.

  2. Oracle recommends that you perform the chosen fix by customizing template file $AD_TOP/sql/ADZDPCUST.sql

  3. Repeat the Run the Online Patching Enablement - Readiness Report step above until all violations have been addressed.

Database Object Development Standards for Oracle E-Business Suite System Schema Migration

The Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 database architecture has been modernized by adoption of the Oracle E-Business Suite System Schema, EBS_SYSTEM. Prior to the introduction of the EBS_SYSTEM schema, Oracle E-Business Suite installed application objects in the Oracle Database SYS and SYSTEM schemas. Migration to the EBS System Schema obviates the need for any EBS-owned objects to reside in the SYS or SYSTEM schemas.

As part of your upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2, you should prepare your customizations for mandatory compliance requirements introduced with the EBS System Schema Migration. EBS System Schema Migration development standards are either recommended guidelines or mandatory compliance requirements for custom-defined objects. Mandatory compliance requirements must be resolved so that your customizations will run without error after applying the completion patch. Failure to do so will result in invalid database objects for your custom code.

Additional Information: For additional information, refer to the following:

Customizing Help Files

The help files in this release are in HTML format, making them easy to modify. You can reapply previously customized help files to your upgraded system if you convert them to HTML. If you don't convert customized help files to HTML and reapply, then it is important that you save the pre-upgrade customized help files as a reference.

Conditional Action: See Customizing Oracle E-Business Suite Help in the Oracle E-Business Suite Setup Guide.

Schemas Not Used by Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2

The following schemas are not used by Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2. If you have developed customizations that depend on these schemas, then you may recreate these customizations and delete the schemas after the upgrade is complete. Deleting schemas is a documented step in Chapter 5, Performing Post Upgrade Tasks.

Schema Name Schema ID
Oracle Single Sign On ORASSO
ORASSO_DS
ORASSO_PA
ORASSO_PS
ORASSO_PUBLIC
Oracle Internet Directory ODS
OracleAS Certificate Authority OCA
ORAOCA_PUBLIC
Discoverer OLAP D4OSYS
Discoverer Portlet Provider Metadata DISCOVERER5
Oracle Portal-to-Go and OracleAS Wireless PTG
WIRELESS
Oracle Warehouse Builder OWBRT_SYS
OWBSYS_AUDIT
E-Business Suite product schemas DSR and MOC for Oracle Warehouse Builder integration DDROWNER
DDRUSER
DSROWNER
MTHUSER
Oracle Business Intelligence Applications OBIA
MapViewer MVDEMO
OracleAS UDDI Registry UDDISYS
SOA Suite ORABPEL

Preparing External Integrations

Obsolete Technology Integrations

In preparation for the upgrade, you must migrate your external integrations to releases or products that are certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2. The following table identifies a migration path to certified releases or products:

Technology Integration Description
OSSO 10 For single sign-on integration, you must migrate to Oracle Access Manager 11gR1 or 11gR2. Oracle recommends that you migrate to Oracle Access Manager 11gR2.
OID 10g You must upgrade to Oracle Internet Directory (OID) 11g. If upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.5 or greater, then you can also upgrade to OID 11g or Oracle Unified Directory (OUD) 11g.
OBIEE 10g If you are using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) with products Oracle Incentive Compensation (OIC), Manufacturing Operations Center (MOC), Advanced Planning Command Center (APCC), or Demand Signal Repository (DSR), then you must migrate to OBIEE 11g.
ODI 10g If you are using Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) with products Oracle Incentive Compensation (OIC), Product Information Management (PIM), Distributed Warehouse Management System (WMS), or Demand Signal Repository (DSR), then you must migrate to ODI 11g (11.1.1.5.0).
JPDK Portlet Producer If you are using E-Business Suite Portlets based on the proprietary JPDK Portlet Producer implementation, then you must migrate these to use the WSRP standards compliant Portlet Producer implementation.
BPEL 10g If you are using BPEL 10g, then you must migrate to SOA Suite 11g.
SES 10g If you are using SES 10g, then you must upgrade to SES 11g.
Oracle Portal You must migrate to Oracle WebCenter Portal 11gR2.

Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway

Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway enables service generation, deployment, and invocation.

Conditional Action: If you want to use the product features, then perform the steps documented in Installing Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway, Release 12.2 (Doc ID: 1311068.1).

Note: Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway has product dependencies on Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle E-Business Suite Adapter for SOAP based web services. REST based web services do not have this dependency. You are not required to install Oracle SOA Suite if you plan to use only the REST based web services provided by Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway.

Oracle XML Gateway1

In Release 12.2, Oracle XML Gateway Web services are enabled through the Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Service Provider and can be viewed from the Integration Repository. If an earlier release of the Oracle XML Gateway Web service feature or Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway has been leveraged, then install Oracle SOA Suite first, before the upgrade to Release 12.2.

Conditional Action: The Oracle XML Gateway Web service feature depends on Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway. Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Release 12.2 has product dependencies on Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Adapter for Oracle Applications (informally known as Oracle E-Business Suite Adapter). See Installing Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway, Release 12.2 (Doc ID: 1311068.1).

Preparing Third-Party Integrations

Integrations with Oracle E-Business Suite may need to be modified to comply with new deployment and development standards to work correctly with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2. Examples include:

Additional Resources: For information on integrating third-party products, refer to Guidance for Integrating Custom and Third-Party Products With Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 (Doc ID: 1916149.1).

EBS 12.2 Upgrade Readiness Checker - Database Tier (EURC-DT)

The EBS 12.2 Upgrade Readiness Checker - Database Tier (EURC-DT) performs checks based on key technical requirements as described in this guide.

Specific to: EURC-DT

The system administration and other pre-upgrade technical steps in this guide have been tagged as Supported in EURC-DT: Yes if the check is part of the EURC-DT tool.

You can run EURC-DT as part of planning, test upgrades, and production upgrade.

For more information about EBS 12.2 Upgrade Readiness Checker - Database Tier, refer to My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 2749775.1, EBS 12.2 Upgrade Readiness Checker - Database Tier (EURC-DT).

Additional Information: For additional information, refer to EBS 12.2 Upgrade Readiness Checker - Database Tier (EURC-DT), (DocID: 2749775.1) on My Oracle Support.