Friday, July 31, 2015

RAC: Getting information about the application or users

I have been working in a RAC environment for so long that the lesson being taught in "How To Get Information on Application / Users in a RAC Environment?" from MOS document ID 2003350.1 is second nature to me, but I think this is really useful information to have so I have decided to share it tonight!

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Wait event "Library Cache Locks" seen during invalid logins

Of course the My Oracle Support article "High "Library Cache Locks" Wait Time Due to Invalid Login Attempts" has some straightforward value in note ID 1309738.1 but there are some scripts in here to allow you to design some proactive alerts around exclusive locks AND incorrect login attempts/attacks!

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

R12 Payables: Error APP-SQLAP-10065 if supplier name changes

Have you ever seen "APP-SQLAP-10065: The Supplier Name Has Changed Since Payment Creation" that is being reported via MOS document ID 2032954.1?  It looks like this is a rather benign issue, but it does help point out another way that testing suites can help out by looking at how we can change the data and see how it affects the EBS application!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

RAC: ORA-245 can be thrown due to controlfile not being shared

Make sure you check out article "ORA-245: In RAC environment from 11.2 onwards Backup Or Snapshot controlfile needs to be in shared location" on My Oracle Support from document ID 1472171.1 to learn a bit about RAC and RMAN!

Monday, July 27, 2015

EBS: Managing proxy setup to grant access

If you have been supporting an EBS application for some time, one of the common issues is granting proxy access for workflows or approvals but did you know you can use proxies to grant access AS a person?  I did not realize this either until I read MOS article "How To Add People (Grant Access) Through Preference--> Manage Proxies Setup" from document ID 1378402.1 and now I get to think how I can bring this back to our environment!

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Weekend Learning: iProcurement and Oracle Exchange supported SSL certifications

Do you know "Which Type Of Certificates Are Supported By Oracle Exchange And iProcurement Punchout. Does It Support SHA 256RSA ?"  If you answered no, then check out note 1999543.1 on My Oracle Support to find out the answer and learn if you need to be making extensive plans to test and work with your suppliers/vendors and what conditions require different certification paths!

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Weekend Learning: Critical Exadata issues

Did you know that Oracle keeps a list of "critical" issues for the Exadata platform?  It is true and MOS document "Exadata Critical Issues" is found from article ID 1270094.1 and might give you a lot of information this weekend about possible patches that you may need to apply to avoid potential problems!

Friday, July 24, 2015

Clusterware OC4J resource marked as OFFLINE

It seems like everybody knows that the localhost address is 127.0.0.1 if you are in IT, but what happens when Oracle does not remember that fact?  Well, you get what we had here in MOS article "ORA.OC4J Resource in Clusterware keeps going OFFLINE" via note ID 2025042.1 where you have to change configuration to hardcode the localhost address because it was not being resolved correctly and failing what looks like a heartbeat check.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

R12 Payables: Invoice Approval Workflow problem

I usually advocate creating testing suites on many different aspects of the system, and one I try to touch on regularly is file/file system checks and MOS note 1989619.1 has a good article "Problem With Invoice Approval Workflow" that highlights how a possible check like this could prevent an issue before it happens!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

R12 Assets: Exchange rate incorrect used in tax book

In the My Oracle Support document "R12 Incorrect Exchange Rate Used For Calculating YTD And Accumulated Depreciation In Tax Book" in note ID 1932466.1 we find out that there are different rates for assets, YTD depreciation, and accumulated depreciation too due to a bug which has had patches released for both R12.1 and R12.2!

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

EBS: Removing username and password hint

Not only do you learn something about how to "Remove/Change User Name/Password Hint" for the Oracle EBS from My Oracle Support document ID 1585864.1 but the article also has another link for personalizing the login page for R12!

Monday, July 20, 2015

EM: Ops Center shuts down every day around the same time

Sometimes we get abstract lessons which we can apply, and the MOS article "The Enterprise Manager Ops Center Node is Shutting Down automatically approximatively at the same time of the day" from note ID 2026395.1 has that kind of lesson for us where our automation might get away from us if we let it!

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Weekend Learning: Recovering with RMAN from before last resetlogs

Did you know that each time you open an Oracle database using the resetlogs parameter it will synchronize with RMAN and as a result it remembers what "version" of your database has been opened so restoring to a point prior to that takes some work.  Take a peek at note ID 1070453.6 on My Oracle Support for the document "RMAN: Point-in-Time Recovery of a Backup From Before Last Resetlogs" that has all of the details!

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Weekend Learning: Oracle Hyperion Planning - Information Center

Make sure you brush up on Hyperion with "Information Center: Oracle Hyperion Planning" from MOS via note ID 1349181.2 and add this to your favorites in MOS as well as adding some more to your toolbox of skills this weekend!

Friday, July 17, 2015

Selected for Best of COLLABORATE 15!!

While this week may have started off with the disappointing news about not being selected for Oracle OpenWorld this year, it sure as heck is not ending with disappointment!  Are you an OAUG member?  Did you leave COLLABORATE this year thinking you missed something, or wished that you could have had just a little more learning packed into your conference?  Well look no further than the "Best of COLLABORATE 15" webinar series with about 40 FREE sessions for OAUG members!!  Not only is there that great news, but also I was selected to be part of this awesome assembly to re-present my COLLABORATE 15 session "E-Business Suite R12: Application Lessons Learned for Support and Implementers" via webinar early (for me in Phoenix) Monday morning August 17th at 11:00 ET!!

I look forward to hearing from you about the content I share, what you may have wanted to see instead/also, AND helping me with some pointers if you think there are some things I could do differently the next time I present this (materials, or manner of presentation, etc).

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Hyperion: Analytic Provider Services does not start post Financial Close Management installation

Due to an unpublished bug, document "After Installing Financial Close Management (FCM) Analytic Provider Services (APS) Will Not Start." from My Oracle Support note ID 2032952.1 gives us a workaround based in WebLogic administrative setup on FCM 11.1.2.4.000 and later versions!

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

"Latch free"/"Real-time plan statistics latch" wait events seen during slow system performance

Tonight provides us an opportunity to learn more about the SQL Monitor interface from MOS document "Slow Performance Featuring Contention on "latch free" with "Real-time plan statistics latch" Having the Most Sleeps and Causing High Operating System Activity" by searching for article ID 2030320.1 which will lead you not only to the Database SQL Tuning Guide if you were not already familiar with it, but ALSO the section detailing the Real-Time SQL Monitoring and Real-Time Database Operations.  Why would you be concerned with this?  Well, do you know how your system is setup to monitor SQL?  Would you like to AND feel comfortable that this feature will not cause you problems in the future?

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Hyperion Planning: EPMA Dimension Server does not start using RAC

If you have Hyperion in your environment, how much do you know about Planning?  The EPMA Dimension server?  How about where some of the configuration files are you can run?  Learn about all of them by reading My Oracle Support note "EPMA Dimension Server Not Starting When Oracle RAC is Used for Database" via article ID 1672160.1 to add to your toolbox!

Monday, July 13, 2015

Oracle OpenWorld 15: Rejected!

While I may have been rejected for OOW last year, this year I thought for SURE I would get in this year!  Well, it was not to be!  What seems to be different this year is how many other people have been rejected as well, which from what the grapevine says is, because the Moscone Center is being renovated and not 100% completed yet so the conference is going to be smaller than it has in years!  Wondering who else got rejected?  Click on #TeamRejectedByOracleOpenWorld on Twitter and then follow some of these people, because there are a lot of Oracle ACE Directors, Presidents of companies or Oracle User groups which have been rejected and maybe you can get something positive out of this!

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Weekend Learning: Oracle Database Support News via Oracle Premier Support

I am not too sure if document 230.1 on My Oracle Support is always for their Premier Support group, or just for the latest Oracle Database Support News, but I am going to bookmark article "Oracle Premier Support - Oracle Database Support News - Issue June 2015, Volume 52" on the off chance it gets updated each month and then I will be bookmarking "Oracle Premier Support - Oracle Database Support News Archive" from note ID 1284265.1 as well so I can stay up to date on news from Oracle Support groups!

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Weekend Learning: Assets archiving, purging and restoration

Are you archiving or purging anything from Oracle Assets?  Did you know that you can restore what you archive and purge?  Learn more this weekend from My Oracle Support document "Oracle Assets Troubleshooting Guide For Archive, Purge And Restore" from note ID 144432.1 and see if you can't make your EBS footprint just a bit smaller!

Friday, July 10, 2015

Payables: Performance issue with purge routine

Even though you may be on R12 the article "Slow Performance When Running Payables Purge" on My Oracle Support deals with 11i, which can be found by document ID 2030741.1, and will remind you that there are purging routines for the Payables EBS module if you have not already set them up!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Exadata: Cell corruption due to repeated CREATE and ALTER GRIDDISK CLI commands

Tonight you need to read "Oracle Exadata Storage Server Software 12.1.1.1.1 and Earlier may Cause Cell Disk Metadata Corruption if Many 'Create' or 'Alter' griddisk Commands are Run Over Time" via note 2029568.1 on My Oracle Support and then open up the referenced document inside to verify if you have disks which have this corruption so you can open up an SR with Oracle as this corruption cannot be resolved and you need to engage them immediately!!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

R12 Payables: Payment Exception Report returns no data after 12c DB upgrade

Note 2029537.1 on My Oracle Support for article "R12:AP Payment Exception Report Does Not Retrieve Data After Database Upgrade to Version 12c" reminds us that any type of change we introduce into our systems is reason enough to run through our testing suites to validate each and every piece of the application because any change can cause problems for us!

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

PeopleSoft: Is PeopleTools 8.54 supported by Internet Explorer 11 Compatibility Mode?

To find out the answer to if it is supported for either Classic or Fluid in PeopleTools 8.54, you will need to visit My Oracle Support document "E-PIA: Does Peoplesoft PT8.54 support IE 11 Compatibility Mode?" by clicking on note ID 2029032.1!

Monday, July 6, 2015

Using an array update statement may cause row or block corruption

While advanced PL/SQL programming structures like an array can be advantageous at times over row by row (Cary Millsap's slow by slow), the article "ALERT: Bug 7662491 - Array Update can corrupt a row. ORA-600 [kghstack_free1] ORA-600 [kddummy_blkchk][6110/6129]" found on My Oracle Support by way of note ID 861965.1 shows that not every decision we make is without consequences!  Think you do not need to know about this if you are in Support?  Think again, unless you already know what table holds data about blocks which get corrupted and in that case you probably already have an alert built looking at that table to see when corruption occurs right?

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Weekend Learning - Enhancement requests for 11i and R12 Receivables

Tonight, you should brush up on "Receivables Top 20 Enhancement Requests and Processes" with 20 for R12 and 20 for 11i EBS platforms via document ID 1589474.1 to see if some of your common issues or pain points are addressed here so you can add your voice to the bug reports!

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Weekend Learning: Exadata security information

Do you run an Exadata installation?  Are you responsible for the security of said system?  Well then you might want to check out document "Responses to common Exadata security scan findings" on My Oracle Support note ID 1405320.1 and prepare for a lot of homework/investigation on your platform because this document is EXHAUSTIVE!

Friday, July 3, 2015

Booting multiple PeopleSoft Application Servers ends in error

Tonight the article "E-PRCS/E-AP - When booting multiple Application Servers/Process Scheduler an Error is received (ORA-12537: TNS:connection closed)" on MOS from document ID 2015847.1 teaches us something about DB connections in general for ANY Oracle DB so check it out!

Thursday, July 2, 2015

An explanation of what killing a process really does

Tonight I want to introduce My Oracle Support article "Kill A Process - Not able to clear session" via note ID 1493261.1 which will give you the commands to kill the process, and terminate it, but what happens when that still does not disconnect the session?  The article has a fairly detailed explanation of what the interaction between the DB and target session is, which may surprise you as there are steps where commands are not given and instead are interpreted as asking!!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

JDBC query with bind variables can have performance issue

It seems like I am on a performance kick after finding this note on My Oracle Support "Poor Performance With Query Called From JDBC Using Bind Variables Compared To A DATE Column" from document ID 1557194.1 which teaches us about the reasons a JDBC query might not use the best access path/plan based on what kind of DATE or TIMESTAMP variables you use.