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Our hope, of course, is that Release 12.2 is ready in time for Oracle OpenWorld. The developer group does a particularly good job of showing off their work at Hands On Sessions, and it would certainly be interesting to COLLABORATE 12 Copyright 2012 by John Stouffer 1
participate in a patching exercise using the AD Online Patching (ADOP). We must note, however, that we do not know when Release 12.2 will be released, so well just have to wait for information to be released as it comes. If you have a more technical bent, you may want to dig into the underpinnings of Online Patching. In order to make it possible, a new feature was incorporated into the database. Thus, Release 12.2 relies on Edition Based Redefinition, which is a feature of RDBMS 11.2.0.2. To upgrade to Release 12.2, then, you will have to upgrade your database to at least RDBMS 11.2.0.2.
The Most Important Things You Need to Know About Release 12.2
Release 12.2 will include significant changes. The Database Tier will change because it will need to use RDBMS Version 11.2.0.2 or higher to enable Edition Based Redefinition for hot patching. On the Application Tier, Oracle plans to replace the OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME with Fusion Middleware 11g. Fusion Middleware 11g will include Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) and WebLogic Server (WLS). Patching will change significantly thanks to Edition Based Redefinition, and Cloning will change by necessity because the cloning scripts will need to be rewritten to support WebLogic instead of OraclAS 10.1.3.
**Oracle 9i comes as part of the install, Oracle 10gR2 and Oracle 11gR2 are now certified with R11i. Oracle 10.2.0.5 and Oracle 11.2.0.3 are the latest certified database versions. JInitiator is no longer supported for the Desktop.
* Oracle 10.2.0.5 and 11.2.0.3 are the latest certified database versions.
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What is WebLogic?
WebLogic is a tool acquired by Oracle when they purchased BEA in 1998. The E-Business Suite Release 12.2 will replace the 10.1.3 Oracle Home with the Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) and WebLogic Server (WLS). The old web tier, Apache and OC4J, will be replaced by WebLogic. The Application Technology Stacks 10.1.2 Oracle Home will stay the same. This will be a major technology change and learning challenge for Applications DBAs even those with years of experience managing and maintaining the E-Business Suite.
WEBLOGIC BENEFITS
End users will experience always on applications and services. WebLogic includes comprehensive, lowoverhead application monitoring and deep diagnostics. WebLogic will integrate with Oracle RAC to provide the highest levels of application availability. WebLogic will enable rapid development of applications without lost time due to system restarts. Comprehensive tooling will simplify customization development and speed new application delivery. See Oracle E-Business Suite Directions: Deployment and System Administration - Max Arderius, Manager & Ivo Dujmovic, Director for more details.
DO YOU NEED TO BE A GURU TO SUPPORT WEBLOGIC?
Youll follow the My Oracle Support upgrade documentation (when it is released) to upgrade to Release 12.2, and that will install WebLogic. You may want to take training to learn how to configure WebLogic to take advantage of more advanced features you may need a WebLogic Administrator on your staff. Fortunately, there are experts in the field WebLogic is widely used in the industry.
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To use online patching, users will continue to use the Applications while the Applications DBA creates a Patch Edition, patches it, and synchronizes any changes between the Run Edition and the Patch Edition. hen patching is done, the Apps DBA will set the Patch Edition as the new Run Edition and restart the application servers so users point to it. For more details, see Business Value of Upgrading from E-Business Suite 11i to 12.1 - Nadia Bendjedou.
Since Online Patching represents such a significant change to patching, we should expect to see a new patching tool from Oracle called AD Online Patching (ADOP). See Oracle E-Business Suite Directions: Slashing Downtimes with Online Patching Kevin Hudson, Senior Director, Max Arderius, Manager & Ivo Dujmovic, Director for more details. Since the middle tier will change, we must also expect to see changes to Oracles cloning scripts. Cloning the database tier will stay the same, but the Application Tier will need a revised tool to deal with cloning the WebLogic Server. The commands adpreclone, adcfgclone will stay the same, and the cloning procedure itself will essentially work the same, but the code will need to change to clone the WebLogic Server. If youve scripted your cloning procedures, you may need to review and update those procedures, just as you likely had to do when upgrading from Release 11i to Release 12.
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These diagrams show how cloning works with Release 12.1 versus Release 12.2. See Oracle E-Business Suite Directions: Deployment and System Administration - Max Arderius, Manager & Ivo Dujmovic, Director for more details.
Other Changes
NATIVE TECHNOLOGY STACK INSTALL
Oracle is planning some improvements to Rapid Install with Release 12.2; it will be integrated better with the Oracle Universal Installer and AutoConfig. Installing the technology stack using silent-mode calls should be faster. Oracle will use the best tool for installation and configuration tasks, which improves Rapid Install by changing what is going on under the hood.
USE EXISTING 11G ORACLE HOME FOR UPGRADES
This new feature will remove an irritant to upgrading EBS. With Release 12.1, if youve upgraded your RDBMS to a point release (say 11.2.0.3) higher than what is included on the EBS media (11.1.0.7), you must install the older Oracle Home and then point to your higher version. With 12.2, youll be able to click on the Use Existing Oracle Home box during the install, and it will use your higher version. The advantage to this fix is that it will save time and be less confusing.
DATABASE RMAN RESTORE
Release 12.2 will easily integrate with Grid Infrastructure for RAC and Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and different storage methods (OCFSW, NFS, etc.)
R12.2 NEW TERMINOLOGY
AD Online Patching (ADOP) note that it has a new name, but we dont know yet how different it will look Copyright 2012 by John Stouffer 5
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Links
http://blogs.oracle.com/chan - Steven Chan, Director of Applications Technology Integration for Oracle wonderful articles explaining the nuances of the Applications - THE ORACLE APPLICATIONS BLOG www.RedRiverSolutions.com Release 11i and Release 12 Upgrade Health Checks and Oracle EBusiness Suite consulting and books
www.oaug.org Oracle Applications User Group www.integrigy.com Independent analysis of quarterly CPU/PSU www.OnCallDBA.com E-Business Suite books, Health Checks and Assessments and concurrent manager expertise www.justadba.com thats me!
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