What is Oracle Applications

Oracle Apps is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) that caters to overall business need of an enterprise in the areas of Finance, Supply Chain Management,HRMS, Customer Relationship Management etc.  Oracle released an enterprise product called Oracle Application EBusiness suite. 

 Initially Oracle became very popular in Financial services industry as its financial modules like AP,AR and GL covers all major business processes in Financial domain. With that reputation,Oracle has expanded its presence in ERP space with introduction of Supply chain(PO,INV & Order management),Project accounting (Project costing,Project Billing and Project resource Management),HRMS(HR,SSHR,Oracle Advanced Benefits,Oracle time and Labour) and CRM modules.

    Oracle Application - Real time projects are classified into three major categories.

1. Oracle application Implementation (Starting form Initial system study to Go-live, In terms of duration-minimum six months)

2. Oracle Application Upgrade (Upgrading Oracle Application from One version to another like Oracle apps 11i to Oracle apps R12; Duration : based on complexity of upgrade with minimum period of four months)

3. Oracle application support (Oracle Apps Maintenance after Go-live.Not much challenging,only bug fixing or report development)

There will be three main roles that all consultants will be placed in Oracle apps real time projects

1. Functional consultant : Consultant with domain knowledge in Financials,Supply Chain will take the functional consultant role and do the Oracle apps implementation. Those who would like to become Functional consultant, prior domain experience is mandatory and then take the training in Oracle apps to understand the real time business process mapping in Oracle Apps.

2. Technical consultant : Consultant with technical knowledge like PL/SQL and  Reports development can become technical consultant. Their role in implementation is on  new reports development,Interface between Oracle Apps and Third party legacy systems. Basic knowledge in PL/SQL is mandatory to become technical consultant. Now a days Oracle is moving R12 version which is predominantly in Java technology and hence it will be good to have Java exposure to become technical consultant.

3. Database Administrators : Database Administrators will maintain Oracle Apps Database with activities like  periodic backup, system recovery , Patch management ,raising service request with Oracle on any major application issues and Performance tuning. Those who worked as Oracle DBA is a minimum pre requisite to become Oracle Apps DBA.

A typical Oracle Apps Implementation goes through the following phases.

1. Gap analysis

2. Solution design

3. Build

4. Conference room Pilot(Testing)

5. Go-Live

Installing Oracle Applications E-Business Suite R12 (12.1.1) on Windows XP / Windows 2003 Server / Windows 7

Minimum Hardware Requirements:
1. Windows XP (professional or Home) Service Pack 2/Windows7 / Windows 2003 Server with 2 GB RAM and make sure you have NTFS file system.
2. Hard Disk 300 GB where 233 GB space is required for vision installation (excluding media pack; which needs around 37 GB space). You can use external hard drive too. Don’t listen to those who advise you to install EBS R12 without vision database. I know you are installing all this for learning etc.

Very Important Note: 

1. Make sure there is no oracle product installed on your system. No entry of oracle should be in windows registry except system default by windows itself. So it is recommended to use fresh system for this purpose. If you tried a failed installation before on your PC then reinstall the Operating System again otherwise you will waste your time. You can check how to clean up windows for verfication if any oracle installed  Metalink Note ID 567507.1

2. There should be !!!!NO!!! JDK installed on your machine. EBS will install JDK version on your machine otherwise you will get errors I don’t want to discuss all this here. Just NO JDK on your machine.


Create nessecary directory and add the following entry's in environments

(In this case C drive)Create the following directory in the Windows’s root(c) directory.

C:\Cygwin 
C:\VC2008
C:\temp
C:\tmp. temp
C:\tmp.
Directory C:\tmp must be created even if C:\ is not the windows root.

Pre-requisites; Utilities:

1. Microsoft VC++
• Make sure that it must be VC 8 or above because VC 6 was valid up to 11i. If you do it with VC 6 then utilities check will not give error but you will stuck at 13% or 66% installation.
• While installing VC++ make sure it is done in C:\MSVS\VC. No spaces in any directory structure of any software you install as pre-requisite for Oracle Apps.
• Copy cl.exe from C:\MSVS\VC\bin to C:\WINDOWS\System32
2. Perl – http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
• Version 5.8 or more and use MSI package type.
• Perl is only needed if you are using Oracle Media Pack. If you are downloading from oracle site then you can skip this installation.
3. CYGWIN – http://cygwin.com/
• Download setup.exe to your machine.
• Run setup.exe and click Next, which will bring up the Choose Installation Type screen.
• Select ; Install from Internet and Click Next
• Select ; Root Directory C:\cygwin and select radio button
• Install for ; All Users and Default Text File Type ; DOS / text ; Next Local Package Directory can be any but C:\cygwin is recommended. ; Next Direct Connection.
• Click on Next again to get to the Select Packages screen, and select the following packages (click on to toggle):
a. All Default
b. Archive Default, plus manually select the zip package
c. Base Default, plus manually select the following extra packages: ash, coreutils, diffutils, findutils, gawk, grep, sed, tar and which
d. Devel Default, plus manually select binutils, gcc, gcc-core, gcc-g++, make and mktemp
e. Doc Default, plus manually select cygwin-doc and man
f. Editors Default, plus manually select vim
g. Interpreters Default, plus manually select gawk
h. Shells Default, plus manually select ash and tcsh
i. Utils Default, plus manually select cygutils and file
• Click on Next again to download the selected files. It will take some time depending upon mirror site you selected and after download cygwin setup will be automatically starts.
• After installation completed, Open folder C:\cygwin\bin and rename followings:
• gawk.exe to awk.exe
• grep.exe to egrep.exe
• make.exe to gnumake.exe
• gcc.exe to cc.exe
• You can override the name if system says that awk or egrep or cc already exits just remove or move to some other place.

4. Set the Path to include the C:\cygwin\bin
• C:\> set PATH = %PATH%;c:\cygwin\bin
• And then check your PATH to see that it include C:\cygwin\bin
• C:\> echo %PATH%

Oracle Media:
You should be having Lasted available Oracle media pack (recommended) or Software download from oracle site and follow the unzipping instruction as per oracle documentation. I have downloaded it from: https://edelivery.oracle.com/


Domain Name Configuration:

5. Open file c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Enter a domain next to localhost entry you will be using this domain while installing Oracle Applications. I used mydomain so you can replace what ever you want. 198.168.*.* is IP Address of my PC you should enter your machine’s IP. If you don’t know it you can find it.

Host entry will be like


# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1       localhost
# ::1             localhost
127.0.0.1          localhost.localdomian
192.168.*.*  apps.oracle.com apps


Step – 6 Loop Back Adaptor Setup

(Recommended over Step 7, even if your system is connected to network)

Loop Back Adaptor Installation

Disconnect the network cable from the system.

Navigate to Control Panel – Add hardware – Yes, I have connected hardware – Add a new hardware – Install a hardware I manually choose – Network Adaptors – Microsoft – Micro soft Loop Back Adaptor and continue to install. Then go to Start – Control panel – Network Connections and open the new connection that has been just installed.

Ensure that the Loop Back adaptor is mentioned in the “Connect Using” Box.

Then navigate to Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) – Properties – Use the following IP address for loopback

“IP address” 10.10.10.10,

“Subnet mask” 255.255.255.0,

Use the following DNS sever –

“Preferred DNS server” 10.10.10.10. 


C:\>ipconfig --It will show all the three value and should return value when you ping all the IP and Systemname.domainname

Example

127.0.0.1 localhost
198.168.*.* SystemName.mydomain.com
10.10.10.10  SystemName.mydomain.com

 Host name Verification

Verify your hostname – Start – Run - cmd > hostname. It must return apps

Ping your host > ping apps.oracle.com --when with out lan or wireless installation and also you can see media disconnected other than Loopback.

It will now return  loop back ip address 10.10.10.10 for the read write operation

7. Go to Control Panel > Systems > Computer Name Tab > Click on Change > Click on More > Enter Primary DNS Suffix as ‘mydomain’.

8. Open Network connections, Select your Connection on which your machine is connected (You will find Wireless or LAN) and right click and select properties. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click on to properties. Click on Advanced button and go to DNS tab. Enter DNS suffix for this connection as ‘mydomain’.

9. Restart the PC.


Step 10 Setup Printer

Install a Laser printer (even if it is not connected to the server). Make that as the default printer. This step is required for the smooth running of your Concurrent Manager.

Step 11 Staging the Oracle:
If you have Oracle Media Pack then:
Insert the Start Here DVD in DVD Rom and go to folder:
StageR12\startCD\Disk1\rapidwiz in DOS Prompt and type:

D:\StageR12\startCD\Disk1\rapidwiz\adautostg.pl
And follow the wizard.
Finally you must have these five folders in StageR12 Directory:
1. oraAppDB
2. oraApps
3. oraAS
4. oraDB
5. startCD
Note: If you have downloaded the media from oracle site, then you just need to put the downloaded and extracted folders in the proper directories… No need to do staging.

Recommended (Not necessary):
There steps are only if your installation fails due to any reason so you can restore your registry and system to pre-installation state:
1. When Staging is done successfully then export the registry and save it on a file.
Start > Run > regedit > File > Export and select the location where you want to store it .
2. Take a Computer Restore Point.
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > Create a Restore Point > Enter name of restore point for example ‘PreOra’ and Press the Create.
3. Restart the PC.

Install winrar so that installation will be faster while unzip stage

Installing the the EBS R12
So far you have done a great job. Now time to get the job done.
1. Go to folder E:\StageR12\startCD\Disk1\rapidwiz or where you have done your staging on hard drive or external hard drive and just click RapidWiz
2. On welcome screen > Next and Select Install Oracle Applications E-Bussiness R12 Check on Use Express Installation > Next
3. In Express Configuration Information screen change the following (Leave all to default):

a. MKS directory = C:\cygwin\bin or where “cygwin\bin” is  OR C:\mks\mksnt

b. MSDEV directory = C:\MSVS\VC\bin or where VC++ was installed

c. Oracle Base directory =E:\oracle or where ever you want to install oracle applications
4. Follow the wizard and you should pass all the Pre-Install Checks. If not then you did not follow instructions above and help yourself.
5. If you passed all the checks then just Click Next and follow the Wizard and installation will be done in 5 steps and take about 2-3 hrs depends upon the system.
6. After the installation is completed successfully (it should be) then Post-Installation Checks will be preformed. If you passed all the checks It is really a Wonderful and You Rocks
7. If your system don’t pass the Post-Installation Checks even then don’t worry just smile coz installation is successful you need to restart your PC and Open Command Prompt open to staging directory: d:\StageR12\startCD\Disk1\rapidwiz
And now just type rapidwiz –restart
8. Follow the Wizard and Enter all the info as you enter before Now This time it will take few minutes and you should pass Post-Installation Checks
9. If still a problem just repeat above step again you will get to it . Restart the PC and enter the URL in web browser
http://hostname.mydomain.com:8000/
10. E-Bussiness Login Username = operations Password = welcome


Optional Steps for Remote Access

gpedit.msc

Computer Config > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment

--> Allow log on through Terminal Services

Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Install Terminal Server

Terminal Services Configuration

Server Settings > Restrict each User to one session


Other Useful links and References:

http://oraclepitstop.wordpress.com/2007/04/14/step-by-step-installation-of-r12-on-windows/
http://myappsdba.com/oracle-apps-r12-installation-on-windows-server-2003-and-2008/
http://rodgersnotes.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/installing-oracle-applications-r12-on-windows-7/
http://oraclecyborg.blogspot.in/p/step-by-step-installation-of-oracle.html
http://everythingoracle.com/ebswins.htm
http://dgoins.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/installing-oracle-ebs-on-windows-2008-and-windows-7/
http://rodgersnotes.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/installing-oracle-applications-r12-on-windows-7/
http://appsdbaworkshop.blogspot.in/2011/11/installation-of-oracle-applications.html
http://www.idbasolutions.com/en/oracle-ebusiness/install-e-business-12-on-windows-7.html
http://www.oracleport.com/how-to-install-oracle-r12-in-pc/
http://r12-install.blogspot.in/

[1] Oracle E-Business Suite Installation and Upgrade Notes Release 12 (12.1.1) for Microsoft Windows Server (32-bit) (Doc ID 761567.1)
[2] Note: 405293.1 (Oracle Applications Release Notes Release 12)
[3] Note: 402311.1 (Oracle Applications Installation and Upgrade Notes Release 12 (12.0) for Microsoft Windows)
[4] Note: 414992.1 (Using Cygwin to Maintain Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 on Windows)
[5] Oracle® Applications Installation Guide: Using Rapid Install Release 12 (Part No. B31295-02)
[6]Statement of Direction: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 - Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (Doc ID 867040.1)
How to migrate from Cygwin to MKS Toolkit (Doc ID 733303.1)
ID 414992.1
Metalink Note ID 567507.1 for How to Remove an Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Windows Environment


Interesting links around EBS Installation (Doc ID 958644.1) very important link for EBIZ

Oracle Applications Installation and Upgrade Notes Release 12 (12.0.4) for Microsoft Windows (Doc ID 402311.1)

I have done cleaning up windows system using below mentioned note id and installed oracle apps  in it work well too

11i: How To Clean Up The UNIX Environment After EBS 11i Install Fails (Doc ID 110372.1)
How to Remove an Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.x Windows Environment (Doc ID 567507.1)


Uninstalling Oracle -
1. Log in as the Administrator.
2. Stop all Oracle Services.
3. From a cmd window, run C:\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\deinstall\deinstall.bat.
4. Delete the C:\app\oracle directory.
5. Remove the following registry entries as perhttp://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/relnotes.112/e16777/toc.htm:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\Oracle Services for MTS
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\OracleDBConsole<SID>
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\Oracle.<SID>
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\Oracle.VSSWriter.<SID>
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Oracle11