System Upgrade

Project Background

In order to cope with business growth and maintain system functionality, usability and scalability, The customer decides to upgrade the system and enhances the systems to a supported version.

Oracle E-Business Suites & Database support have been expired. In order to cope with business growth and maintain system functionality, usability and scalability, The customer decides to upgrade the system and enhances the systems to a supported version. It provide users a more efficient and sophisticated operation with the system.

The customer is planning to upgrade its Oracle E-Business Suite financial system from 12.2.4 to 12.2.12, with the Oracle Database upgrades from 12.1.0.2.0 (12c) to 19.18.0.0.0 (19c).

IaaS for E-Business Suite: E-Business Suite applications can be run on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Rather than buying and maintaining hardware and network components, customers can instead subscribe to physical hardware and storage capacity and use these to run E-Business Suite.

Source: https://www.oracle.com/erp/move-e-business-suite-to-cloud/faq/

ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE

Oracle E-Business Suite has evolved over time, and Oracle’s commitment to customers, this suite of applications, and creating best-in-class products remains steadfast. The Oracle E-Business Suite product has expanded significantly in functionality, scalability, usability, and reduced cost of ownership over the past few releases, including dramatic leaps with the recent Oracle E-Business Suite Release

· Release 12.0 – January 2007:

Major architectural improvements to the Financials products to support global and shared service operations, improve operational efficiencies, and reduce risk.

· Release 12.1 – May 2009:

Significant enhancements to all of the product areas, including Procurement, Supply Chain Management, Asset Lifecycle and Service, and Human Capital Management. It also includes usability improvements and centralized life cycle management.

· Release 12.2 – September 2013

· EBS 12.2 represents our most-groundbreaking release in years (Press Release). It includes new product functionality, new Fusion Middleware and database components, and introduces new tools for installing, configuring, and maintaining E-Business Suite environments:

- Hundreds of new features

- Online Patching - WebLogic Server - Streamlined installation

Source: https://blogs.oracle.com/ebstech/post/oracle-e-business-suite-12211-now-available

POST – UPGRADE TASKS

Upgrade of your base version R12.2.0 to the version R12.2.12 or R12.2.x, we need to perform post-upgrade tasks which ensures the stability of thesystem and it includes:· Minimize Downtime: MOS ID 1581549.1 Best Practices for Minimizing Oracle E- Business Suite Release 12 Upgrade Downtime· Best Practices & Performance: MOS ID 1581549.1 Best Practices for Minimizing Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Upgrade Downtime· Troubleshooting & Logs

ORACLE SUPPORT (EBS)

Oracle has announced on March 2021, they are following a “Continuous Innovation” release model for Oracle E-Business Suite 12.2, delivering ongoing applications and underlying technology stack updates for 12.2 without requiring a major upgrade. As well, 12.2 is the long-term support release for Oracle E-Business Suite, with Premier Support for 12.2 available through at least 2034, and there will be no 12.3 release. https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/support/advanced-custom

EBS 12.2 Premier Support extended through at least 2034

Latest version: 12.2.12 release date: 23-11-2022

https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/applications/ebusiness/ebs-continuous-innovation-on-release-12-2.pdf

https://blogs.oracle.com/ebstech/post/oracle-e-business-suite-12212-now-available

ORACLE DATABASE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE SUPPORT

Oracle Database Release Roadmap

There are two types of Oracle Database releases: Long Term Release and Innovation Release.

Long Term Release:Oracle Database Long Term Releases are ideal for use cases that benefit from less frequent upgrades to newer releases. Long Term Releases offer the highest level of stability and the longest length of error correction support. These releases have at least 5 years of Premier Support followed by 3 years of Extended Support. As necessary, we may extend the Premier Support Period or we may waive the Extended Support fee. When combined with Extended Support, customers typically have 4 or more years to upgrade from one Long Term Release to the next Long Term Release.
Innovation Release:In between Oracle Database Long Term Releases, Oracle delivers Oracle Database Innovation Releases that include many enhancements and new capabilities which will also be included in the next Long Term Release. Innovation Releases are designed to enable customers to continuously use leading-edge technologies to rapidly develop or deploy new applications or augment existing applications. Support for Innovation Releases includes at least 2 years of Premier Support, but there is no Extended Support. Production workloads can be deployed on Innovation Releases if upgrading to the next database release within one year after the next database release ships is factored into the deployment plan.19c - Long Term 21c - Innovation Releases:

Project Background

In order to cope with business growth and maintain system functionality, usability and scalability, The customer decide to upgrade the system and enhances the systems to a supported version.

ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE

· Release 12.0 – January 2007:

Major architectural improvements to the Financials products to support global and shared service operations, improve operational efficiencies, and reduce risk.

· Release 12.1 – May 2009:

· Release 12.2 – September 2013

- Hundreds of new features

- Online Patching

- WebLogic Server

- Streamlined installation

Source: https://blogs.oracle.com/ebstech/post/oracle-e-business-suite-12211-now-available

EBS ARCHITECTURE CONCEPTS: A THREE-TIER ARCHITECTURE:

1. Client Tier

2. Application Tier

3. Database Tier

Fusion Middleware: WLS & OHS:

· Software layer that lies between business application and database

· Infrastructure which facilitates the creation of business applications

· Includes Web Servers, Application Servers, Content Management, Identity Management, SOA, Business Intelligence

· Oracle EBS R12.2 uses WebLogic & OHS from FMW

R12.2 File System:

· R12.2 has a dual File system.

· Run File system and Patch File system and are identical.

Patching In EBS R12.2:

· In 12.2 all patching operations are online

· EBS will remain available to users during patching operations

EBR (Edition Based Redefinition):

· Edition-based redefinition allows multiple versions of PL/SQL objects, views, and synonyms in a single schema, which makes it possible to perform upgrades of database applications with zero downtime.

· Edition-based redefinition is a single technology that provides high availability during upgrades.

· 12.2 Uses Edition Based Redefinition to Support Online Patching (ADOP)

· Check Customizations Support 12.2 Development

· During Online Patching conversion make existing code compatible for EBR

Apply Latest CUP+other performance patches – no downtime

Preparation (Lay Down 12c & R12.2) no downtime

· Plan & Prepare for Upgrade – We need to plan and also document all the issues reportedso that during the Final-Production upgrade downtime can be minimal. We needto plan and check all the intermediate versions are supported if not operational. That is the key point during planning.

· Prepare forUpgrade– This phase starts afterthe planning phase and includes Database and Application preparation for upgrade activity. This is the main upgrade phase where we perform allthe upgrade activities

Online Clone Database + Upgrade to 12c

· Database Upgrade – Select the latest version for the database. If 11g database, consider for 11.2.0.4 versionor you can plan for 12c versions too. Also, apply the latest Consolidate patches as per the database versions. On the application side, we need to be on the Minimum baseline patchesas per the Oracle recommendations.

· File System Lay down- As weknow R12.2 comes with the latest technology and file-system, so we needto lay down the R12.2 file-system using the latest startCD. Currently,StartCD 51 is available.

Upgrade to 12.2.0-

We need to first upgrade to 12.2.0 and need to apply AD and TXK patches on the 12.2 filesystems. As this is the intermediate stage we need toperform it as a pre-install activity. At this stage, the Application will not be operational.

Upgrade further to 12.2.X-

We are at 12.2 with the latest database now. Now on the application side, we can come to the suggested version (12.2.11). We need to apply the latest technology patches (Delta 12 till now) and EBS RUP patches after that.

· Middle Tier patches -> 1594274.1

· AD-TXK RUP patches -> 1617461.1

· EBS R12.2.X Document -> 12.2.9 or 12.2.11

· All the post-upgrade patches and steps

Apply Post – Upgrade Patch

Enable Online Patching – As you know new feature of R12.2 is online patching so we need to enable our old instance for the same. (MOS ID: 1531121.1)

Deploy Customization & External Integration

· Translations – In the case of multiple languages are there then we need to take care of Translation patches as well. 12.2and then 12.2.X translated patches and also we needto apply TSP (Translation Sync Patches).

· Customization – Once standard/seeded codeis at R12.2.X level we need to take care ofthe customizationsin our old versions. For R12.2 we have new development standards and need to follow the same to get the custom code compliant with our applications.

Configuration

· Check the Sizing’s

· Add Nodes for Horizontal Scale-up

· Add Managed Servers for Vertical Scale-up

Post – Upgrade Tasks

· After the successful upgrade of your base version R12.0 to the version R12.2 orR12.2.x, we need to perform post-upgrade tasks which ensures the stability of thesystem and it includes:

· Minimize Downtime: MOS ID 1581549.1 Best Practices for Minimizing Oracle E- Business Suite Release 12 Upgrade Downtime

· Best Practices & Performance: MOS ID 1581549.1 Best Practices for Minimizing Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Upgrade Downtime

Troubleshooting & Logs

Oracle Support (EBS)

Oracle understands that your on-premises applications are critical to your success. With Orac

Latest version: 12.2.12

release date: November 2022 https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/applications/ebusiness/ebs-continuous-innovation-on-release-12-2.pdf

Application software support and maintenance (EBS)

Historical frequencies for Oracle E-Business Suite major upgrades

Contents for each release are based on bugs and enhancement requests logged by both existing customers (as part of their support provisions) and internal Oracle professionals. Oracle also has multiple user communities whereby representative customers from each major industry / business area will offer valuable suggestions for improvements in the application functionalities. Oracle takes feedback from our customers seriously when planning for each upgrade release. Each client is free to perform upgrade any time as they prefer based on their current needs and business requirements --- Oracle will NOT force our clients to perform upgrades just for the sake of it. Delivery method for future upgrades will be via Oracle Metalink requests or through Oracle Support.

Suggestion:

Run latest E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is an IaaS platform for building and running applications such as E-Business Suite. OCI lets you use the computing, network, and storage capabilities of Oracle Cloud on a subscription basis, increasing automation, speed, and agility while minimizing the cost of hardware and routine maintenance.

OCI provides an infinite amount of capacity that automatically scales up and down. This provides increased performance, improved security, and reduced TCO. With OCI, Oracle manages an all-Oracle stack that includes hardware, database, and applications, which improves overall lifecycle management.

Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud (OCI)

(Latest technology from Oracle on EBS)

Running Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) on Oracle Cloud enables you to:

• Increase business agility

• Better manage growth

• Reduce time and cost for new projects

• Maximize the productivity of your IT staff

You can utilize Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and its associated database cloud services, or alternatively leverage Exadata Cloud at Customer in your own data center, to run your EBS workloads.

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E72030_01/infoportal/ebsoc.html

E-Business Suite reference architecture on OCI

System Upgrade

Project Background

ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE

Source: https://blogs.oracle.com/ebstech/post/oracle-e-business-suite-12211-now-available

POST – UPGRADE TASKS

ORACLE DATABASE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE SUPPORT

ORACLE DATABASE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE SUPPORT

Our suggestion: Oracle Database 19c

Project Background

ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE

Source: https://blogs.oracle.com/ebstech/post/oracle-e-business-suite-12211-now-available

EBS ARCHITECTURE CONCEPTS: A THREE-TIER ARCHITECTURE:

EBR (Edition Based Redefinition):

Apply Latest CUP+other performance patches – no downtime

Preparation (Lay Down 12c & R12.2) no downtime

Online Clone Database + Upgrade to 12c

Upgrade to 12.2.0-

Upgrade further to 12.2.X-

Apply Post – Upgrade Patch

Deploy Customization & External Integration

Configuration

Post – Upgrade Tasks

Suggestion:

Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud (OCI)