11gR2: Connections fail with ORA-12560 while SSL_VERSION is set to TLS 1.1 or 1.2

If you are getting ready to upgrade to 11.2.0.4 or if you are on that database version and need to change TLS settings, you really need to read My Oracle Support document "11.2.0.4 Connections Fail With ORA-12560 When Using TLS 1.1 or 1.2 (By Setting SSL_VERSION In Sqlnet.ora)" as a bundle patch needs to be applied to get the connections working!

Exadata: Cellsrv process could crash on Storage Servers during cell-to-cell offload operations

If you are running Exadata platforms, do you know what version of software you have in your Storage Servers or what is running on your Grid Infrastructure?  Find out because the article "(DB35) Cellsrv process on storage servers may crash when performing a cell-to-cell offload operation" on My Oracle Support affects only certain combinations of software and note ID 2074393.1 details both of the patches that are needed to combat this situation!

R12.1.3: Internal Concurrent Manager does not manage processes correctly after CPU patches applied

Regardless if you have already applied the CPU patch which causes this or not, you need to prepare for the potential to encounter the "Concurrent Managers Are Not Going Down Properly After Appling Patch 16735285 in R12(12.1.3)" issue reported in MOS document ID 2063862.1 after any change so make sure you add this to your test cases immediately!  You could also have another take away by finding out more about the Concurrent Managers by looking up the package FND_CONC_RAC_UTILS reported in the error message to see if there are other procedures that maybe you could utilize in the future!!

12c: DB 12.1.0.2 patch 12 known issues

Did you know that the latest patch for 12.1.0.2 has known issues already?  While article "Oracle Quarterly Database Patch 12.1.0.2.12 Known Issues" found on My Oracle Support by document ID 2052715.1 has a very small issue, it makes me curious going forward about how we find these known issues bug reports in the future for other DB patches as well!

Patches for SQL Plan Management issues

Did you know there are patches which you can apply to limit potential problems with SQL Plan Management?  Check out MOS note 2035898.1 for the document "Patches to Consider for 12.1.0.2 to Avoid Problems with SQL Plan Management (SPM)" which is directed at 12c, but has links for patches that can be applied to 11gR2 as well!

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!

ASM: ORA-15196 error encountered when disk is over 2TB

Always talking about getting to a better proactive position, My Oracle Support note 736891.1 gives us yet another angle to approach this from document "ORA-15196 WITH ASM DISKS LARGER THAN 2TB" because it affects many different versions of the database AND the Exadata platform!  There are patches available to prevent this from happening to you, and the aforementioned Exadata platform has patches available which allows a larger ASM disk!

R12.1.3 Payables: Error when adding bank account after patch

While you may upgrade to R12.1.3 and have no issues like those reported in this MOS document "ERROR PAGE ON ADDING AN EXISTING BANK ACCOUNT ON SUPPLIERS AND CUSTOMERS PAGE" via note ID 1908015.1, the details in the document show that this actually happens as a result of applying a patch to fix another issue so you could encounter this at pretty much any time!

R12.1.3 Purchasing: Workflow errors after editing requisition with approver completing checkout

While this affects R12.1.3, it also is encountered in R12.2.3 so "ORA-06512 In Workflow When Using Edit Requisition And Approver Completes Checkout" on My Oracle Support from document ID 1969203.1 is quite new and there are patches for both versions which you should check out to make sure you can resolve an issue which I have seen several times in our own R12.1.3 instance!

Exadata 12.1.2.1.1 has been released!

A few days ago I shared a post about Exadata 12.1.2.1.0 being released and today I see the document "Exadata 12.1.2.1.1 release and patch (20240049)" posted on MOS via note ID 1959143.1 which also addresses the issue I posted last weekend about how leap seconds are a problem on Exadata version 12!

R12.2.3: New profile option to run Create Accounting in detail

Upgrading to R12 brought a lot of changes from 11.5.10.2 across every module and Receivables with the transition from needing to run the "General Ledger Transfer" report to running the "Create Accounting" report.  With R12.2.3 enough people have requested a new feature so the Create Accounting can mimic the General Ledger Transfer a bit which My Oracle Support article "How to run create accounting in detail level with no merge in R12" goes into detail in document ID 1992895.1 about the patch required and the profile option which needs to be enabled to take advantage of this development.

Weekend Learning: GoldenGate availability and patch notes

If you need to support the Oracle GoldenGate product, you may want to favorite these My Oracle Support articles and visit them this weekend to brush up on your general knowledge about the product!

Oracle GoldenGate Core Product - Release Availability and Support Status - Note ID 1920237.1
Master Note for Oracle GoldenGate Core Product Patch Sets - Note ID 1645495.1

R12.1.3 Purchasing: Tax does not default on PO lines

Did you know that there are problems on R12.1.3 with the Purchasing module where information is being lost behind the scenes after hitting the save button?  The MOS document "19176183 Type_1099 Tax Is Not Defaulting To PO Line" from article ID 1991078.1 shows how to replicate this and also what patch is required to fix it too!

R12.1.2: Internet Expenses may throw Java Unparseable errors

Following a lot of what I have been doing on the blog lately, My Oracle Support document "Expenses Unparseable Date Error" from note ID 1986536.1 has yet another lesson about verifying your application changes because this issue stems from an ICX profile option which changed with the patch/upgrade.  Sure R12.1.2 is lower than R12.1.3 that I see a lot of error reports for, and it seems like most people have gone to R12.1.3 also, but there is no reason we cannot learn something from this issue by preparing for this type of change going forward so that we do not get caught out by any of these changes in the future!

OS: Missing backout data and unable to remove patch

Do you want to add more tools to your toolbox?  How much do you know about OS patching?  Would you like to know how to remove an OS patch?  Read up on MOS document "Unable to remove patch due to missing backout data" from article ID 1984126.1 to learn the commands for backing out a patch, and how you might be able to salvage a bad situation!

11.2.0.3: Gather stats job hangs due to parallel processing

While I did not actually post describing our issue (this post actually mentions the problem though) when we upgraded our DB to 11.2.0.3 on Exadata we ran into some serious issues as soon as we fired up all of our Gather Schema Statistics reports because of the parallelism that was enabled for the process.  Enter MOS note "Dbms_Stats.Gather_Table_Stats For a Table is Hanging With the Wait Event "PX Deq: Execute Reply"" via document ID 1946632.1 which sounds exactly the type of situation we had with our nodes conflicting with each other due to the parallel processing that was enabled!  Did we patch to fix the issue?  Nope, what we did was actually use the report parameter that gave us control over how many parallel processes would get spawned and then ran everything in a single Gather Schema Statistics report since we were on Exadata and had processing power to spare!

R12: Reversal date has to be entered in WebADI journal that is not a reversal

Obviously the situation described in the title does not seem right, and the only reason it happens is because of a bug!  Document ID 1929245.1 on My Oracle Support directs you to the article "Your Reversal Date Must Be The Same As Or After Your Accounting Date Error" with all of the details on which patch you need for the BNE product depending on which R12 codeline you have installed.  Here is another testing scenario to add to our testing suite!

Weekend Learning: RAC patching skipping database defined as ORACLE_HOME

In a continued effort to expand what I might know in a Support role, or what the term even means, I have been keeping my eyes open for nuggets of information that I can add to leverage in the future.  Tonight the My Oracle Support article "Why "opatch auto" not patching RAC database ORACLE_HOME?" via note ID 1479651.1 is one such type of nugget as I typically do not get to look at patching (opatch), ORACLE_HOME, or even GI (Grid Infrastructure) so this is another sneak under the covers of what is happening "at the database level".

R12.2: Invalid PA objects after upgrade

From the title of MOS article "Invalid Objects after Upgrading to 12.2" in document ID 1953062.1 I thought that I would find a large list of objects or even important objects that were preventing an upgrade, but instead there are 2 tables prefaced with PA which are at issue here that do not seem to be holding up your upgrade at all.  Sure, if you want to use your system post upgrade you will have problems because of them being invalid, but it should be found in a TEST instance way before you hit PROD so it does not seem that horrible of a thing.  Read the article and follow the instructions to get the required patch from the Oracle Payroll team as it appears they have it locked down at the moment.

Weekend Learning: R12 A/R Patching - Information Center

Do you want to stay up to date for A/R patching related information on EBS R12?  Then look no further than the MOS note "Information Center: R12 Critical, Rollup and Recommended Patches for Oracle Receivables (AR)" found through document ID 1433375.2 for all of the details you need!