The document discusses tips and tricks for patching Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. It introduces the Patch Application Assistant (PAA) tool, which allows administrators to complete failed or interrupted patch operations. The document also covers best practices for patching performance, availability, and maintenance in Release 12, including using distributed patching, merge patches, restricted Apache mode, and timing reports.

1. Tips and Tricks for Patching R12
Oracle Applications E-Business Suite
Ben Prusinski
ben@ben-oracle.com

2. About the Speaker
• Ben Prusinski , Oracle ACE and OCP
• More than 13 years experience with Oracle
• Author

3. Agenda
• Oracle Release 12 Patching Tips
• Focus on E-Business Suite Patching
• New features for Release 12 Patching
• Will not discuss database patching (opatch)
• Performance and Availability for patching

4. New Features Release 12
Oracle Applications E-Business Suite
• Oracle 10gAS replaces previous version for
application server with three OC4J instances
• New file system changes: INST_TOP
• Oracle 10gR2 database standard for 12.0
• Oracle 11gR1 database standard for 12.1
• New patching features

5. New Patching features EBS R12
• Patch Application Assistant (PAA)
• Allows you to update patch activity
• Available in GUI or CLI versions
• Based on perl script called admsi.pl under
$AD_TOP/bin directory

6. Patch Application Assistant (PAA)
Oracle Applications Release 12 EBS
• Completed previous failed patching or
terminated sessions that have not completed.
• Performs automation for patch tasks which
were a manual process before Release 12
• Available in graphical interface (GUI) and
command line (CLI) versions.
• Required for some patches per README.txt
file instructions.

7. Using Patch Application Assistant for
previous patch operations

8. Patch Applications Assistant (PAA) –
incomplete patch operations previous patch

9. Patch Application Assistant (PAA)-
Incomplete patch operations: Step 2
• Provides instructions to complete patches that failed
to run to completion
• Useful tips and scripts provided

10. Example:
Using Patch Application Assistant (PAA) for
Incomplete Tasks

11. Patch Application Assistant (PAA) for Patch
Configuration with Oracle EBS Release 12
• View instance details for a patch

12. Patch Application Assistant-
View Instructions for patch
• Useful tool for preparation for major patches such as
Release Update Packs (RUP) and Maintenance
Packs (MP) with EBS Release 12
• Simplifies planning for patch strategy
• Eliminates common mistakes for EBS patching
• Self documenting tool

13. Patch Application Assistant (PAA) Continued

14. Patch Application Assistant (PAA)
Instructions

15. Using Command Line (CLI) Patch Application
Assistant (PAA) for EBS Release 12
• Useful for quick generation of scripts before apply patch versus
GUI version. Use admsi.pl –cli –help for options with PAA.

16. Example: PAA with CLI for Release 12
Oracle E-Business Suite
• Specify options for PATCH_TOP directory
• Generates HELPME files with patch
instructions

17. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite
• Availability
• Performance
• Minimize Downtime
• Maintenance and Communication

18. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Availability
• Use hotpatch option for Auto Patch to avoid
downtime
• Syntax: adpatch options=hotpatch
• Be careful with hotpatch for adpatch
• No way to recover if patch fails other than
restore/recovery
• Do not use for patches that have templates or
require Auto Config!

19. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Availability
• Use staged APPL_TOP
• Use shared APPL_TOP

20. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Availability
• Why use shared APPL_TOP?
• Simplifies patch maintenance since you can
apply patch to one node for a multi-node
configuration

21. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Availability
• Why use Staged APPL_TOP file system?
• Allows you to apply patch without incur
downtime to applications tier to production
system.

22. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Performance
• Distributed AD with Auto Patch
• Merge Patch Utility
• Multiple Workers for Auto Patch
• Compile invalid objects before patching

23. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Performance
• Distributed AD for Patch Performance
Uses multiple parallel processing to spread the load of apply the
patch across multiple nodes for an Oracle Applications
environment. It is especially useful for multi-node configurations.
Now let’s explore the method to setup distributed AD.
• Start Auto Patch (adpatch) or AD Controller (adctrl) with the
distributed option.
localworkers=<number of workers on node>
workers=<total number or workers>
Example:
AutoPatch session with a total of twelve workers (four workers on
the local node and eight workers on a remote node):
$ adpatch workers=12 localworkers=8

24. Example: Distributed AD
• Node 1:
• $ adpatch localworkers=5 workers=15
• Node 2:
• $ adctrl distributed=y
Enter the worker range: 1-10
• Node 3:
• $ adctrl distributed=y
Enter the worker range: 11-15

25. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Performance
Merge Patch option (admrgpch)
• Reduces patch time in many cases
• Patch consolidation
• Fewer maintenance windows required
• Net result= more availability, less downtime

26. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Performance
• Options for merging patches with admrgpch

27. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance
• Maintenance Notification
• Restricted Mode with Apache
• Timing Reports for Patch Activity
• Patch Wizard for Automation of Patch Tasks

28. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance
Manage Downtime Schedules Feature
• Useful for scheduling patch activity
• Provides communication to user community
and management
• Easy to setup and configure

29. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance

30. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance
• Notification webpage for maintenance
window

31. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance
Enable Restricted Mode for Apache
• Useful for the Applications DBA when
performing maintenance activity and need to
access Oracle Applications Manager (OAM)
• Allows limited use of OAM interface
• Easy to setup
• Toggle on/Toggle Off as needed
• Uses txkrun script to configure

32. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance
How to configure Restricted Mode for Apache?
• Login as applmgr account to applications tier and
source environment
• Shutdown application tier service with adstpall.sh
script under $INST_TOP/admin/scripts or
$ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME directory
• Run txkrun.pl script under $FND_TOP/bin directory
with following options:
txkrun.pl –script=ChangeApacheMode
Restart application tier services with
$ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME/adstrtal.sh script

33. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance
• Example:

34. Patching Oracle Release 12 EBS
Example: Restricted Mode for Apache

35. Example Continued: Enable Restricted Mode
Apache for R12 Oracle EBS

36. Access During Restricted
Apache Mode
• Requires usage of ad_monitor account
• ad_monitor schema account must be unlocked from
SQL*PLUS since it is disabled by default
• Access to URL must be specified in Apache
configuration files for httpd.conf
• Auto Config variable
s_trusted_admin_client_nodes must contain
hostname to access OAM during downtime
• Metalink (MOS) Notes 789450.1 and 310969.1 have
further details.

37. URL for Restricted Mode Access to OAM For
Release 12
• For Release 12 the default URL for Restricted
access to OAM with ad_monitor:
http://<host>.<domain>:<port>/OA_HTML/weboamLocal/oamLogin
• Default password for ad_monitor account is lizard

38. Configure ad_monitor account for Restricted
Mode Access to OAM During Maintenance

39. Example: Access Restricted URL with
ad_monitor

40. Restricted Mode for Patch Monitoring with
OAM
• Restricted Mode provides monitoring of patch
activities but not all functions available from
OAM

41. Disable Apache Restricted
Mode
• Shutdown application tier services
(adstpall.sh)
• Run txkrun.pl script under $FND_TOP/bin
with following options:
txkrun.pl –script=ChangeApacheMode
Specify Mode as Normal for Apache
Enter name and location for Context file
• Restart application tier services (adstrtal.sh)

42. Worked Example:
Disable Restricted Mode for Apache

43. Worked Example:
Disable Restricted Mode for Apache

44. Worked Example:
Disable Restricted Mode for Apache

45. Worked Example:
Disable Restricted Mode for Apache

46. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance
Timing Reports for Patch Activity
• Provides accurate method to measure
requirements for maintenance windows
• Useful when apply patches between
environments to estimate downtime for
service level agreements (SLAs)
• Excellent way to troubleshoot a patch process
• Should be used as part of DBA patch strategy

47. Best Practices Patching Release 12 Oracle
Applications E-Business Suite- Maintenance
• Using Timing Reports for Patch Activity
• Available from Patch Wizard Utility in OAM
• Requires SYSADMIN level access
• Navigation Path:
Site Map-> Maintenance->Timing Reports

48. Best Practices Patching Release 12 EBS
Maintenance: Using Timing Reports
• Excellent way to track status for patch
activities

49. Best Practices Patching Release 12 EBS
Maintenance: Using Timing Reports
• Allows you to measure and track patch run
times and issues during and after patch
sessions.

50. Best Practices Patching Release 12 EBS
Maintenance: Using Timing Reports
• Provides macro to micro level of detail for
patch status and log files

51. Best Practices Patching Release 12 EBS
Maintenance: Inside the Patch Wizard
• Patch Wizard arrived in 11.5.10.2 (11iCU2)
release for E-Business Suite
• Excellent tool to simplify and automate many
tedious patch functions:
• Such as download recommended patches
• Also useful for patch impact analysis
• Helpful when you don’t have a test
environment for patching!

52. Best Practices Patching Release 12 EBS
Maintenance: Inside the Patch Wizard
• Navigation Path to Patch Wizard:
• SYSADMIN then Site map->Maintenance

53. Best Practices Patching Release 12 EBS
Maintenance: Using the Patch Wizard
• Recommended Patches
• Patch Analysis

54. Demonstration
Oracle Applications
Release 12 Patching Tips and Tricks
• Patch Wizard
• Patch Application Assistant (PAA)
• Timing Reports for Patching R12 EBS
• Schedule Maintenance Window

55. Q&A Discussion

56. Thank You!
• Please provide feedback
• Email: ben@ben-oracle.com
• I will be available in the Oracle ACE lounge
• My blog has further tips on Oracle
technology:
• http://oracle-magician.blogspot.com