I’m running R12.0.4 on OEL5.3 with Virtualbox 2.2.2 having a Windows 7 machine.

R12

R12 is installed on OEL with the hostname: localhost.localdomain

Firefox works locally against R12 so the EBS stack in working at this point.

Start the database, listener and apps. See Managing R12:

$ addbctl start

$ addlnctl start VIS

$ adstrtal apps/apps

To test if a database network connection would work try:

$ sqlplus apps/apps@VIS

Virtualbox

Installed Vbox 2.2.2 on OEL. Get it from http://www.virtualbox.org

Setup Vbox host-only network in \File\Preferences

and give it a ip like 192.168.2.7 on the adapter tab:

and setup the dhcp tab like this:

When the Vbox machine is started you should be able to ping it:

Windows 7 in Virtualbox

I use Windows 7 RC.

Create a Vbox machine and mount the downloaded Win7 ISO as CDROM and run install:

You get it from here:

Setup Vbox networking like this:

This will communicate through the 192.168.2.7 ip address.

When Window 7 is installed create a new entry in the file:

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

like this:

Pointing to localhost.localdomain so Firefox R12 login works.

To ensure everything work try to ping localhost:

SQLDeveloper

If you want to do development then this tool is great. Get it from:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/sql_developer/index.html

I installed version 1.5.1.

Setup the connection:

I just used the ip address here and it works fine.

Firefox

To run R12 forms and framework you need Firefox 2.

Install Firefox 2 in Win7. I installed version 2.0.0.14. Get it from:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

Allow localhost.localdomain is Firefox security:

and pop-ups:

To start R12 enter the URL:

http://localhost.localdomain:8000/OA_HTML

And you get the login screen:

Java

Java is a must for R12. Check the version required when you have logged in to R12 and click a forms screen

In 12.0.4 it is 1.5.0.13:

Then install Java 1.5.0.13 to ensure you don’t get plug-in issues with R12. Get it from:

http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/5.0_13/index.html

As Firefox only supports one Java plug-in at any one time check the directory for plug-ins:

C:\ > DIR “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins”

Ensure you only have one Java plug-in here. If it is missing the do this:

C:\ > copy C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_13\bin\NPJPI150_13.dll C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins

Restart Firefox and now everything should work.

OEL is in reality a Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is a bit amputated in term of applications and drivers.

The reason for this constellation is OEL 5.3 Supports eBusiness Suite R12 and RDBMS 10g.

Next step is to make Win7 to speak to a R12 installation.

Using
c:> net use x: d:/path
To assign drive.

Copy and paste of files works fine but if you try to install any software from the shared drive or read media it doesn’t work.

Even running WIN7 on top of Vista resulted in errors using shared folders.

Would be nice to resolve this problem…

Until then just copy/paste files from the shared drive to C: and work from there.

I recommend you to start with this article to get R12 up and running.

Run as Oracle user:

$ . ./vis.sh

Note the dot and space in front of a script to assign variables to the current environment.

EBS 12.0.4 on OEL5.3
EBS 12.1.1 on OEL5.4
RDBMS 10g on OEL5.3
RDBMS 11g on OEL5.3 and OEL5.4

I recommend you to start with this article to get R12 up and running.

Login

This is my own login script which you can see here.

Login to OEL as Oracle and run login script:

$ . ./vis.sh

Ensure you also got the first dot so it is the current environment you are setting environment variables for.

Startup

Start database:

$ addbctl start

Start database listener:

$ addlnctl start VIS

Start application server and concurrent managers:

$ adstrtal apps/apps

Shutdown

Start with shutting down application server and concurrent managers:

$ adstpall apps/apps

Wait until all concurrent processes has stopped.

I use this commend to check for that:

$ ps –fed | grep VIS

When only the database processes are left then shut down the database:

$ addbctl stop

Then finally stop the listener:

$ addlnctl stop VIS

Connect

Enter the following URL in Firefox to connect to EBS

http://localhost.localdomain:8000/OA_HTML/AppsLogin

Login as SYSADMIN and password SYSADMIN

Modify Managers

After installing R12 you have more than 200 oracle processes running – check with:

$ ps –fed | grep VIS | wc –l

The managers take up cpu and disk i/o.

Reduce the number of concurrent managers running to something like this:

Use Define Concurrent Managers and reduce to workshift to 0 for non-essential managers.

Also reduce the Standard Manager to 2. You need a minimum of two of a program starts a sub process.

This should get you down to around 120 processes. The system should feel more responsive now.

If you need to work with Inventory or similar find the managers relating to this application and re-activate.

Errors

Remove Persistent Locks (error 204)

If the adstrtal.sh returns error 204 it may be due to locks. Use the following script rmlock.sh:

Timeouts (error 150)

If the adstrtal.sh returns error 150 it may be due to timeouts. This can happen for any of the subscripts called by adstrtal.sh especially if you try to start EBS within Virtualbox or you have a slow USB disk.

To remedy do the following:

$ vi $CONTEXT_FILE

Manually search and replace >100< with >900<

$ vi opmn/config/opmn.xml

Manually update timeout from >600< to >1800<

Internal Server Error (error 500)

If the browser comes out with:

500 Internal Server Error

…and much more…

Then the JSP files may be corrupt.

I fixed it by compiling them:

Compile JSP:

$ cd $FND_TOP/patch/115/bin
$ perl ojspCompile.pl –compile –flush -p 2

Temp Tablespace Exceeded (ORA-01652)

The default temp tablespace datafile is around 1G which may be too small

In order to change this you can issue this command from SQL as SYSTEM:

sql> alter database tempfile ‘/oracle/VIS/db/apps_st/data/temp1_01.dbf’ autoextend on maxsize 10000m ;

Which enables the system to extend the file to 10Gb

Be sure to extend all tempfiles which on a standard VIS installation is temp1_01.dbf and temp2_01.dbf.

Unable to authenticate session

You might see this screen instead of the login screen.

If this happends in Firefox but IE works ok then try to clear the Firefox cache in \Tools\Clear Private Data and then ensure to also select Cookies.

Slow database connection

You might see Oracle Applications starting very slowly – like taking more than a half an hour. This could be due to slow sqlnet connection.

First open a command line and type:

$ sqlplus apps/apps

This should connect fast as it bypasses sqlnet. If not you have a CPU or IO performance problem.

Next try:

$ sqlplus apps/apps@VIS

If this is slow then you might have a slow sqlnet connection.

Check /etc/hosts:

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1               localhost.localdomain localhost
::1                     localhost.localdomain localhost

I have experiences either the ::1 is missing or pointing to the wrong ip name. Ensure the two lines points to the same name. The problem arises as the new sqlnet has started to use ipv6 which is the ::1 entry.

In 12.0.4 ipv6 was not used but in 12.1.1 ipv6 was introduces maybe with RDBMS 11g

ORA-01031: insufficient privileges

If you get this during database startup on 11g on OEL 5.4 it may be because you have incorrect security setup.

This was not a problem in 10g but Oracle can’t stop changing things…this is also called progress!

1. Check /etc/passwd and ensure you got the following line:

oracle:x:500:500:oracle:/home/oracle:/bin/bash

This is normally set correct. The important bit is the default group – the second 500 value.

2. Check /etc/group and ensure you got the following lines:

bin:x:1:root,bin,daemon,oracle
deamon:x:2:root,bin,daemon,oracle
sys:x:3:root,bin,adm,oracle
adm:x:4:root,adm,daemon,oracle
oracle:x:500:oracle
oinstall:x:501:oracle

So add oracle user not only to the usual oralce created groups but also to bin,daemon,sys and adm groups.

I recommend you to start with this article to get R12 up and running.

Laptop

My laptop is a Dell XPS M1530 with the following specs:

Virtualbox

Get it from http://www.virtualbox.org

I have tried to run EBS from Vbox both using a VDI and direct to EXT3 however it just doesn’t perform on a laptop.

I even tried to use my eSATA as well to no avail.

Ubuntu

Get it from http://www.ubuntu.com/

Using Virtualbox you install Ubuntu to a VDI and when booted into this you can install it onto a USB stick attached with a USB Vbox filter.

If you then boot into Ubuntu using a USB stick file transfers is much faster. Very useful indeed when transferring Oracle files from NTFS to the external OEL USB disk.

I recommend you to start with this article to get R12 up and running.

This flavour of Linux is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5) so if you can’t find the answer here google for RHEL issues instead.

Having played around with this operating system for a while I have to say the only reason I would use this is to get EBS up and running. For any desktop work I will stick to Vista SP1. If you are bitten by a mad Linux I would recommend Ubuntu – but I would not try to install EBS on Ubuntu – stick to OEL. OEL installation failed to recognise video, sound, wireless and Network card amongst others when installing directly on my laptop. Got network up and running by downloading and installing a driver though.

I can recommend installing VirtualBox and installing on an external USB drive to avoid overwriting your existing operating system by accident.

Files

Put all below in same directory on your laptop:

Download:

• Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.3 – OEL (yes, it is certified and all that)
  Enterprise-R5-U3-Server-i386-disc1.iso
  Enterprise-R5-U3-Server-i386-disc2.iso
  Enterprise-R5-U3-Server-i386-disc3.iso
  Enterprise-R5-U3-Server-i386-disc4.iso
  Enterprise-R5-U3-Server-i386-disc5.iso
  from: http://edelivery.oracle.com/linux
• OEL additions (have no idea why they didn’t include this in OEL)
  openmotif21-2.1.30-11.EL5.i386.rpm
  xorg-x11-libs-compat-6.8.2-1.EL.33.0.1.i386.rpm
  binutils-2.17.50.0.6-6.0.1.el5.i386.rpm
  from: http://oss.oracle.com/projects/compat-oracle/files/Enterprise_Linux

Extract OEL libraries from OEL discs (easily done by mounting ISO image in VirtualBox):

• Enterprise-R5-U3-Server-i386-disc3.iso
  libXp-1.0.0-8.1.el5.i386.rpm
  sysstat-7.0.2-3.el5.i386.rpm

From metalink get:

• Download p6078836_101330_LINUX.zip
  from http://metalink.oracle.com search for p6078836

Virtualbox

Create a VirtualBox machine and add all ISO as CD images and select first CD image:

Note the active filter for external USB hard disk.

If you downloaded the files on XP or VISTA then create another Virtualbox machine and install Ubuntu on this so you can transfer files between NTFS and EXT3 partitions.

Install

Start the OEL Vbox machine and boot into the CD:

Click next a few times (pick the options that suit you) until you get to the Partitioning screen:

If you use default setup you will get Logical Volume Manager setup which is less compatible.

I recommend to create 3 fixed partitions:

/ (boot): 10Gb

Swap: 5Gb

/Oracle: around 240Gb (180Gb for VIS and 40 Gb for stage directory)

If you also want the downloaded ISO disc EBS files and OEL files on this add 40Gb and 3Gb

Click next a few more times and pick “software development” as default installation type.

One more next click and the installation starts.

When done OEL want to restart.

Don’t do that – yet.

Shut down the OEL virtual machine.

Patching

This is where it gets complicated.

I used Ubuntu on a USB 8Gb stick to move files around with between NTFS and EXT3 – but you can also use Ubuntu on Virtualbox.

What you need to do is to put the installation and patch files on the new /oracle partition.

I use a subdirectory: /oracle/install

So copy like this is you use Virtualbox and Ubuntu:

BOOT Ubuntu and mount the shared folder:

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/oraclesrc
$ sudo mount –t vboxsf oracle /mnt/oraclesrc

Then copy to the external USB drive.
$ sudo cp –au /mnt/oraclesrc /media/oracle/install

The OEL partition /oracle gets auto mounted into /media

Or if you boot using a Ubuntu USB stick:

$ sudo cp –a /media/oraclesrc /media/oracle/install

REBOOT and boot into OEL

Login as root

All OEL installation should be done as the root user.

You need to install the additional components needed according to Oracle® Applications Installation and Upgrade Notes:

The following i386 packages are not part of the OS distribution media and must be downloaded separately (from http://oss.oracle.com/projects/compat-oracle/files/Enterprise_Linux for both OEL 5 and RHEL 5) and installed manually:

• openmotif21-2.1.30-11.EL5.i386
• xorg-x11-libs-compat-6.8.2-1.EL.33.0.1.i386
• binutils-2.17.50.0.6-6.0.1.i386

The following i386 packages must be installed from the OEL 5 or RHEL 5 distribution media:

• compat-glibc-2.3.4-2.26
• gcc-4.1.2-14.el5
• gcc-c++-4.1.2-14.el5
• glibc-2.5-12
• glibc-common-2.5-12
• glibc-devel-2.5-12
• libgcc-4.1.2-14.el5
• libstdc++-devel-4.1.2-14.el5
• libstdc++-4.1.2-14.el5
• make-3.81-1.1
• gdbm-1.8.0-26.2.1
• libXp-1.0.0-8.1.el5
• libaio-0.3.106-3.2
• libgomp-4.1.2-14.el5
• sysstat-7.0.0-3.el5
• compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-138
• compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-61

The ones I recommended to extract should be enough but if a package is missing – extract it from the CD-ROM ISO file.

You can mount the image using Ubuntu and Virtualbox.

Another way is to mount the ISO file directly in Linux using:

$ mkdir /mnt/cdrom
$ mount –o loop {isofile} /mnt/cdrom
$ cp /mnt/cdrom/server/{rpmname} /oracle/install/oel5.3

This is just tedious work using:

$ rpm –i {rpmname}

But you also need to do it in correct sequence as there is dependencies.

I created a script for this (supplied as is – as I know it is flawed) – see this link

Kernel Update

When booted into OEL you can update the OEK kernel with the following minimum parameters – again from:

Oracle® Applications Installation and Upgrade Notes

First make a backup copy of /etc/sysctl.conf and then modify.

Then to update the kernel run the command:

$ sysctl –p

Then reboot. Yes, that happens in Linux as well.

Hostname and ip

Verify that the /etc/hosts file is formatted as follows:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

::1 localhost.localdomain localhost

<ip_address> <node_name>.<domain_name> <node_name>

or

<ipv6_address> <node_name>.<domain_name> <node_name>

The last ::1 line is needed for the new sqlnet in 11g – otherwise your connections will slow down making startup and shutdown take forever. All thanks to ipv6.

Verify that the /etc/sysconfig/network file is formatted as follows:

HOSTNAME=<node_name>.<domain_name>

If the /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/network file exists, remove it.

If you changed any files in the previous steps, restart the system

Patch 6078836

Unzip /oracle/install/oel5.3/p6078836_101330_LINUX.zip and:

$ cp /oracle/install/oel5.3/6078836/libdb.so.2 /usr/lib

Motif fix

Link to Motif library for Oracle Application Server 10.1.2 (on OEL 5 and RHEL 5 only)

Perform the following command (as root on your system) to update a required link to a Motif library prior to relinking or patching the 10.1.2 Application Server Oracle Home:

$ unlink /usr/lib/libXtst.so.6
$ ln -s /usr/X11R6/lib/libXtst.so.6.1 /usr/lib/libXtst.so.6

Just copy/paste the above lines into a terminal.

Open File Descriptors

In /etc/security/limits.conf  set the following parameters: