Install R12 on Enterprise Linux Check List

Before installing R12 on Enterprise Linux, better check the availability of some programs or library. They are:

• glibc-2.3.4-2.25
• glibc-common-2.3.4-2.25
• binutils-2.15.92.0.2-21
• compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-132.7.2
• gcc-3.4.6-3
• gcc-c++-3.4.6-3
• libgcc-3.4.6-3
• libstdc++-3.4.6-3
• libstdc++-devel-3.4.6-3
• openmotif21-2.1.30-11.RHEL4.6**
• pdksh-5.2.14-30.3
• setarch-1.6-1
• make-3.80-6.EL4
• gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-44.1
• sysstat-5.0.5-11.rhel4
• compat-db-4.1.25-9
• control-center-2.8.0-12.rhel4.5
• xscreensaver-4.18-5.rhel4.11
• libaio-0.3.105-2
• libaio-devel-0.3.105-2

To do the checking, use this command: rpm -qa | grep [name]
just replace [name] with program/library name without version, for example:
rpm -qa | grep libaio-devel
Some differences on version number should be OK.
If the command returs nothing, then issue command to update: up2date [name]
for example: up2date libaio-devel
Make sure you have configure the up2date service.

Using free Lineox update for Oracle Enterprise Linux

Currently I am testing Oracle Enterprise Linux (EL) to install Oracle EBS R12. I am on Linux preparation phase now. I am using EL 4 which is certified for Oracle EBS R12.
There was almost no problem with installation. The only problem was NIC card, RTL8169 was not supported by EL 4. This problem was easily resolved. Realtek already have the driver, so all I had to do was install the driver.
Be sure to select gnome windows interface and development tools. System tools may be usefull too.
After EL 4 installed, you will be asked to connect to Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) to be able to get updates. Well that would be $99 a year.
Lineox.net provide a free update, but with 30 days delays. That is OK for me, this is just for testing purpose. The problem is how to switch update from ULN to Lineox.
First configure the up2date with ULN to make sure up2date can connect to internet. If proxy is used, there are some settings to be defined. Just enter anything on ULN page (user, password, CSI). If the message is CSI not valid, then the connection is OK.

Now update the file /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources. Comment up2date defaults (add # in the front), and add this line in the end of the file:
### Lineox Enterprise Linux 4.x channels
yum lel4-Updates http://www.raimokoski.com/pub/lineox/4.0/updates/$basearch/RPMS

You may have to restart the machine. After that, up2date will not connect to ULN anymore.

You can also use this mirror:
### Lineox Enterprise Linux 4.x channels
yum lel4 http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/lineox/4.0/$basearch/os/Lineox/RPMS/
yum lel4-Updates http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/lineox/4.0/updates/$basearch/RPMS/

For more information visit http://www.lineox.net/lel4updates.php

aiosp2() Error: failure in usdspn()

If you ever encountered error like this when running adpatch or adadmin:
aiosp2() Error: failure in usdspn()
Contents of error buffer are:
"usdsop cannot create a new process

Cause: usdsop encountered an error creating a new process. [Reason].

Action: Check that your system had enough resources to start a new process. Cont
act your system administrator to obtain more resou (RE"

You are using cygwin and you can't find any log about this error, then you should check your sh. Open command window, then type sh, press enter. If there is error, you should go to cygwin\bin directory and copy bash.exe to sh.exe. If there is no error, then you are facing another problem.

Install Windows 2003 on HP Compaq dx2700

This is out of this blog topic, but I experienced this on my way to install a development instance of Oracle e-business R12 on HP Compaq dx2700.
After copying installation files, Windows 2003 installer will restart the computer. Normally setup will continue in GUI. On dx2700, there will be error because Windows cannot read from hard disk.
I have tried to install Intel ICH8 driver and integrate to Windows 2003 installation according to this source, but no luck.
Then I set my hard disk on BIOS to none. Boot again using Windows 2003 install CD. Windows installation can find my hard disk although it was not set on BIOS. Redo all installation steps.
After restart, go to BIOS and enable all hard disk. Boot normally, no error encountered.

Can't use remote desktop for Oracle EBS 11i installation

Yesterday I was installing a new instance on training server. I was installing a vision demo for user training. I used remote desktop provided by MS Windows to connect to the server. I ran the installation and then it failed when starting database listener.
Then I tried to use VNC. There is a free version available on www.realvnc.com. I installed VNC server on the server and VNC viewer on my PC. I also removed files created from failed intallation, I also removed the oracle entries from windows registry.
I used VNC to connect to server. The installation ran well and successfully.

Install 11.5.8 and R12 on same machine

I have installed 11.5.8 and R12 on the same windows machine successfully. I installed R12 on a server running 11.5.8. After installation both run smoothly (but not fast -- my machine is only 2GB in memory and is a standard Pentium 4 PC).
Because disk space was low, I had to compress both instance. No problem arise yet, even on patching.
The only problem was I had to change 11.5.8 to use cygwin because I removed all MKS Toolkit.

Clean up MKS Toolkit if you want to use Cygwin

MKS Toolkit have to be uninstalled if you want to use Cygwin. More than that you will also have to clean up some environment setting left by MKS Toolkit. If you don't clean up, you will get error on Cygwin shell when running some ad programs such as adrelink.

Using Cygwin with Oracle EBS R12

Note from Oracle: Cygwin is free software and is not supported unless you purchase a support contract from a third party providing Cygwin support. We recommend MKS toolkit for all critical production and test systems.

Download the Cygwin Software
Perform the following to download the Cygwin software:

• Navigate to http://www.cygwin.com and click on "Install or Update Now!" to download setup.exe to your machine.
• Run setup.exe and click Next, which will bring up the Choose Installation Type screen.
• Choose Option 2, Download without Installing.
• Click on Next to go through the next few screens, where you will be asked to choose the directory to store the packages (called the Local Package Directory), your Internet connection type, and a download site.
• Click on Next again to get to the Select Packages screen, and select the following packages (click on cygwin to toggle):

• All cygwin Default
• Archive cygwin Default, plus manually select the zip package
• Base cygwin Default, plus manually select the following extra packages: ash, coreutils, findutils, gawk, grep, sed, tar and which
• Devel cygwin Default, plus manually select binutils, gcc, gcc-core, gcc-g++, make and mktemp
• Doc cygwin Default, plus manually select cygwin-doc and man
• Editors cygwin Default, plus manually select vim
• Interpreters cygwin Default, plus manually select gawk
• Shells cygwin Default, plus manually select ash and tcsh
• Utils cygwin Default, plus manually select cygutils, diffutils and file

• Click on Next again to download the selected files.

Install Cygwin
Once the download is complete, perform the following steps to install Cygwin:

• Launch setup.exe again to conduct the install.
• From the Choose Installation Type screen, choose Option 3, Install from Local Directory.
• Click Next, and specify the Root Directory where you wish to install Cygwin (created in Step 2), and DOS as the Default Text File Type.
• Click Next and specify the same Local Package Directory from Step 3.
• Click Next to get to the Select Packages screen.
• Choose All cygwin Install (click on cygwin to toggle). Note: Do not choose All cygwin Default, since this will not include all the necessary files.
• Click on Next again to conduct the installation

Verify Package Versions
Verify that the versions of packages, such as Bash and Make, are supported for use with Oracle Applications Release 11i. See the Attention at the top of this document for supported versions.

To determine the package versions:

C:\> cd
C:\> make --version
C:\> bash --version

Note: Depending on how the packages are installed, the Cygwin Installer may display the incorrect package version information. Use the command-line interface to verify the correct package version.
Note: Make versions 3.79.1-7 and 3.80-1 and Bash versions 3.0-11, 3.1-9, 3.2.9-11, and 3.2.25-16 from Cygwin are supported for use with Oracle E-Business Suite R12. Other versions are currently not supported.

If any of the package versions are not supported, perform the following to update the package:

* Download a supported version of the package from http://cygwin.paracoda.com/release/.
* Overwrite the existing version of the package with the supported version of the package:

C:\> cd
C:\> tar -xjvf \

Update Compatibilty with Shell Scripts
Type these commands to maintain compatibility with existing shell scripts:
C:\> copy gawk.exe awk.exe (answer yes to copy over existing file)
C:\> copy grep.exe egrep.exe
C:\> copy make.exe gnumake.exe
C:\> copy gcc.exe cc.exe

Note: There may be a problem overwriting files, delete the destination file first before overwriting.

Add Cygwin Bin Directory to Path
Add the cygwin bin directory to the system path. For instance:
C:\> set path = %path%;D:\cygwin\bin

Next Step
If you have installed MKS Toolkit before, uninstall it and clean up windows environment from MKS Toolkit leftovers.
On Oracle EBS installation, when you asked to input UNIX Toolkit directory, use D:\cygwin\bin

Stage area is mandatory on R12 install

I have tried to install R12 directly from DVD and failed. I asked metalink and the answer was I have to create stage area. Wow that would be 33 GB.

Oracle Applications R12 for Windows

Oracle Applications R12 for Windows finally released. I am downloading it now. I'm going to try it on test server (which is not a server, just a PC with 2GB RAM and plenty of disk space). It contains of 44 parts with total of 35 GB. It has almost been 2 weeks of download. I limit myself only to download 1 file at a time.

Creating FSG with beginning, debits, credits, and ending balance report

I have managed to get FSG debit and credit equal to trial balance - summary 1 . I need to calculate debit and credit on FSG first. Note that I was trying to make YTD report and this was done on column set.
Beginning Balance = BAL-Actual (FY Start) amount type.
For FSG Debit Column, I need to create 2 other column first. One for YTD-actual amount type and DR activity on account assignment, say A column. One for BAL-Actual (FY Start) amount type and DR activity on account assingment. This will be B column. Both are not shown. Then the real and shown debit column = A - B.
The same applies to Credit Column with CR activity.
Ending Balance will equal to Beginning Balance + Debit Column - Credit Column.

On the case of PTD report, I can use DR and CR activity directly. But I have to use YTD (-1 offset) on beginning balance and YTD on ending balance. There is no calculation on PTD report.

Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 is safe

Just updated to Windows 2003 SP2. No problem has been found. My version of Oracle Applications is 11.5.8.

Discoverer Plus access through firewall

Follow the directions below to setup the Gatekeeper. Skip the NAT & PAT steps if you are not using them.

1. Run gkconfig.bat. You can find it E:\\VBROKER\bin
   
2. You should start on the MAIN tab
3. Put gatekeeper.ior in the IOR File
4. Put gatekeeper.log in the Log File
5. Change to the EXTERIOR tab
6. Put the physical IP address of the server where the Gatekeeper is listening into Exterior Address, this is the IP address of your server running Discoverer Server
7. Put the open port in the firewall into Exterior Port, I use port 15000, you must exclude this port on Windows Firewall
8. File => Save As
9. Save the file as gatekeeper.properties in the following location:
   Windows: \Apache\Apache\htdocs\discwb4\applet
10. Start the Gatekeeper
    Ensure that HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Oracle\DCW4_START_GATEKEEPER in the Windows registry is set to 1 & Restart the OracleDiscoverer4i Service in Services to start the Gatekeeper
11. Ensure a new gatekeeper.ior file was created. It should be in the same location you saved the gatekeeper.properties file, the applet directory. Check the file timestamp. This file contains information that the client applet reads to determine the settings of the gatekeeper.properties.