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Greetings!
Are you ready for Oracle OpenWorld? We just can't wait. There are lots of interesting presentations, and we're looking forward to attending as many as possible. We'll be at Oracle OpenWorld next week. Check out Confio's booth to receive a free copy of the little r12.1.2 upgrade guide, while supplies last.
Also, if you're attending OOW and would like to talk to me about your upcoming upgrade to Release 12, send a note to sherri@trutek.com and we'll set up a time. I'll save a free copy of the little r12.1.2 upgrade guide, and we can talk about your concerns, along with what we've learned along the way.
And stay tuned, because I'm working on the next set of books, which will cover Release 12.1.3!
Don't miss the chance to take training from our experts!
Sincerely,
Mike Swing
TruTek |
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| What We Do |  TruTek is a national leader in technical and functional Oracle training and consulting. We also offer permanent placement services for part-time and full-time employees. We offer Oracle database and E-Business Suite consulting, training and remote services. We have a state of the art training facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.
If you have 5 or more people interested in a class, we can also bring classes to your company if you would like onsite training. And if you've wanted to take a training class, but were intimidated by the crowds, we also offer "Personal Training" for certain classes, as well as online training. |
| We Call Them the Oracle Upgrade Trio |
"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." -- Dr. Seuss
"Unfortunately, that is not the case with upgrading to R12." -- Mike Swing
PLAN PREPARE PERFORM
Are you the Mighty Oracle Foot Soldier, ready to tackle the upgrade to Release 12.1.2 for your company? We recommend you start here, with TruTek's 3-part guided tour.
One of the first steps you should take in preparing to upgrade is to actually try the upgrade. If you haven't already installed the Release 11.5.10.2 Vision Instance on a test environment, go ahead and do it. And then use Mike's guides to upgrade that instance to Release 12.1.2. Surprisingly, even the Vision Instance doesn't upgrade flawlessly. Mike includes pointers to additional patches and steps that you'll need to take to make your upgrade a success.
Mike's comprehensive trilogy consists of:
the little r12.1.2 upgrade guide - sponsored by the Oracle Application Users Group, this 414 page (so far) book provides the detailed steps to upgrading your Vision instance from R11i to R12.1.2. It includes the steps for upgrading your database to Version 11gR2. It includes pointers to more than 175 patches and 150 My Oracle Support notes. That's right, just because you've got this book doesn't mean you get out of downloading patches and reading the Readmes and assorted other explanations. But we tell you, all in one place, which documents to read, how to apply the patches, and "gotchas" that we've discovered along the way.
This edition is bigger and better than the last, as Mike continues to add information about patches and bugs and features that you need to understand to upgrade to E-Business Suite Release 12.1.
Are you looking for a guided tour? Don't worry, Mike uses this book as the basis for TruTek's Oracle E-Business Suite R11i to R12.1 Technical Upgrade class. He's also available to chat if you'd like to discuss your upcoming upgrade plans - just give him a call at 801 486-6655 or send him an email at mswing@trutek.com. Best of all, Mike has the hands-on experience that you'll need for an upgrade, so consider TruTek for meeting your consulting needs. |
| What You Need to Know About the July 2010 CPU by Barbara Matthews | |
Recently I listened to Integrigy's webcast about the database impact of Oracle's July 2010 CPU (Critical Patch Update). Here are just a few of the things I learned:
There are CPUs and PSUs. A PSU is a CPU with extra patches, ones that Oracle thinks would be helpful to you and that are not considered high risk. If you apply a PSU, then you have to continue applying PSUs until you upgrade to a new version of your database. PSUs are well and thoroughly tested, but not necessarily by the E-Business Suite Development Group. So, you might hit a problem with a PSU in your E-Business Suite environment. But Oracle stands by those patches, so if you hit a problem, they'll help you work through it.
If you are being a good defender of your database, you should be staying within P-1 as far as the CPUs or PSUs are concerned. That means that at the very least, you should have tested and then applied the April 2010 CPU or PSU to your production environment. And if you are really on the ball, you will already be testing the July 2010 CPU. Now, say you've applied that July 2010 CPU, and now you're getting ready to upgrade your database from RDBMS Version 10.2.0.4 to 11.2.0.1. Since 11gR2 was released PRIOR TO the July 2010 CPU, then when you're done upgrading, you must remember to RE-APPLY the July 2010 CPU. Change control really is a... challenge.
Now, you might wonder just how dangerous it is to be behind on your CPUs or PSUs. The Integrigy speaker was kind enough to show us how to google a snippet of code that could exploit a vulnerability, drop it into Oracle Developer, and then, well, exploit the vulnerability. My mother could take you down if she knew how to cut and paste.
You can limit some of your risk from outside attacks by enabling the Managed SQL*NET Access and Server Security features. This feature will limit the people who can attack you to those whom you have given access to. You can still be hacked, so your best line of defense is to test and apply the CPUs as quickly as possible. More details about how to enable these features, and what enabling them entails, are covered in Integrigy's April 12, 2007 Security Advisory. There are also a number of other recommendations in this document about how to reduce your security risk.I recommend that you put the Integrigy website on your Favorites list, and check them out whenever a new quarterly CPU/PSU becomes available. They do a terrific job of evaluating and explaining what the security patches do, and what your risks are if you choose not to apply them. If you missed out on Integrigy's webcast, they have more coming up:
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| Two Instances - Getting Unstuck from 11i by Chris Busbee, eprentise | |
Summary Comparison Between Migration and Consolidation
If you are running OracleŽ E-Business Suite (EBS) and have an 11i instance and a R12 instance in production, there are two approaches to get from multiple instances and reach the goal of a single EBS R12 instance in which to run an entire business:
ˇ data migration plus sunset instance, and
ˇ an upgrade of the 11i instance to R12 followed by eprentise Consolidation.
Migration is the way things have been done in the past when it was necessary to combine two instances, and it is characterized as relying on highly skilled technical staff, is labor intensive, and is supported by very general purpose software utilities such as Oracle Data Loader. The end result is usually a compromise between schedule, business, and technical constraints. Migration generally takes a long time and is expensive; it has been the only game in town and follows practices and techniques generally used in the Oracle EBS community.
Consolidation is new, characterized as relying on a purpose-specific software product that displaces labor, elapsed time, and technical risk. The end result has no business or IT compromises. We have developed the eprentise Consolidation software to meet Oracle EBS customer needs, reduce the costs of EBS, and improve the business results.
Migration
A migration approach generally calls for data to be extracted from one instance, transformed by custom scripts, and loaded into a new instance. During a migration companies generally only bring master data, open business transactions, and 1 - 2 years of closed transactional data into the new global instance. As a result, one of the byproducts of the migration approach is a recycled instance that must remain in a "sunset" state for 5 - 10 years, the exact duration being based on external regulations for data retention and internal business operational requirements.
Consolidation
The consolidation approach involves a software-assisted combination of all data from all current instances, whether your current instances include 11i, R12, or both. If you are running both 11i and R12, this approach calls for Oracle's standard upgrade process to transform any 11i instances into new R12 instances. The next step of the approach relies on eprentise Consolidation software to combine the newly upgraded R12 instance data and setup configurations into the existing R12 instance, resulting in a single, global R12 instance. If you are only running two 11i instances, eprentise consolidation becomes the first stage of the process, followed by a single Oracle upgrade to R12. If you are only running two or more R12instances, an upgrade is eliminated and consolidation becomes the only stage of the process.
Timewise, it may be difficult to run an upgrade and the eprentise Consolidation in a single cutover weekend. In that case, the newly upgraded R12 instance will have to go into production and all upstream and downstream interfaces will need to be reviewed and possibly modified to work in the R12 environment. So you don't need to rewrite the interfaces twice (once for the upgrade to R12, and once for after the instances are consolidated), it will be necessary to ensure that the interfaces are re-written to utilize the reference data (such as customer number, invoice number, vendor number, item number, etc.) rather than the system identifiers such as customer_id, invoice_id, vendor_id, and item_id.
Read More |
| Thinking About Reimplementing? | | Talk to us. We're very impressed by eprentise's solutions, and think you will be too. |
| Confio Igniter Suite |
 Confio builds performance management software that improves the effectiveness of IT systems and the people who run them. The Confio Igniter Suite currently includes products that help Oracle DBAs, managers, and developers continuously monitor the performance of databases and the applications that depend on them, isolate specific problems, and identify solutions in production systems. |
| Master Oracle Results Cache ... and improve performance 1000% by Confio |
The new Results Cache lets DBAs re-use query results by caching them in the shared pool. Results Cache reduces I/O operations considerably if you have a query that is executed repeatedly and reads data that rarely changes. Reduce I/O = improve performance. Take some time out to listen to Confio's recorded webinar:
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| Your Claim to Fame... |  Oh, go on. Maybe you've written a great presentation or paper and want to tell people about it? Here's your chance. Drop us a line, and if we publish your article, we'll send you a $50 Gift Certificate from Amazon!
Don't be shy! Send your submission to editor@trutek.com by September 25th. We'll include the winning article in our next newsletter. |
| Upcoming TruTek Training |
We're always open to adding new classes, so let us know your interests! We add new classes regularly, so be sure to check the latest version of the schedule on our website.
*** Class Dates and Locations are Subject to Change
Time Zone for Online Classes is MST
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Oracle Apps Technical Classes |
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Sep 27-Oct 1 |
Oracle E-Business Suite R11i to R12 Technical Upgrade |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 4-8 |
Oracle E-Business Suite R11i to R12 Technical Upgrade |
Calgary | |
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APEX Classes |
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Oct 4-6 |
Introduction to Oracle APEX I Using 4.0with Scott Spendolini |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 7-8 |
Introduction to Oracle APEX II Using 4.0with Scott Spendolini |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 19-20 |
APEX 4.0 New Features with Scott Spendolini |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 21 |
Troubleshooting & Debugging APEX Using 4.0 with Scott Spendolini |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 22 |
APEX Installation and AdministrationUsing 4.0with Scott Spendolini |
SLC, UT | |
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Developer Classes |
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TBD |
21st Century PL/SQL (New) with Steven Feuerstein |
SLC, UT | |
Sep 20-23 |
Intro to PL/SQL |
SLC, UT | |
Sep 27-20 |
Oracle Web Based Performance Tuning for Developers |
Online | |
Oct 11-13 |
PL/SQL Fundamentals (New) |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 13-15 |
Oracle 11i Workflow Builder, Business Events and Administration |
SLC, UT | |
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DBA Classes |
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Sep 27-30 |
Oracle DBA Fundamentals |
Pennsylvania | |
Oct 4-8 |
DBA Boot Camp I |
Bay Area, CA | |
Oct 11-15 |
Oracle Database 11g New Features |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 18-22 |
Backup and Recovery using Oracle 11g RMAN |
SLC, UT | |
Nov 8-12 |
Oracle Database 11g New Features |
Pennsylvania | |
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Functional Classes |
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Sep 27-30 |
Oracle Release 11i/R12 Procure to Pay |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 4-5 |
Oracle Release 11i/R12 Accounts Payable |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 6-7 |
Oracle Release 11i/R12 Purchasing |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 13-14 |
Oracle Release 11i/R12 Fixed Assets |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 20-22 |
R12 AME(New) |
SLC, UT | |
Oct 20-22 |
Introduction to Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Project Management(New) |
Long Island, NY | |
Nov 1-5 |
Oracle Release 12 New Features (Functional) |
SLC, UT | |
Nov 10-12 |
Introduction to Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Project Management(New) |
SLC, UT | |
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Conferences and User Group Meetings - We'll Be There! |
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Sep 19-23 |
Oracle Open World 2010 |
San Fran, CA | |
Oct 7 |
Calgary Oracle User Group |
Calgary, AB | |
Oct 13 |
UTOUG SigFest |
SLC, UT |
If you'd like one of TruTek's experts to come to your local user group meeting,
let us know by calling 801-486-6655
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| Enough Already! |
Our newsletter editor's dad, who is 83, likes to spend a little bit of time every day shredding his junk mail and then putting it into the pre-addressed stamped reply envelope and mailing it back in. That's one way to deal with too much information! We know how it is. You're on everybody's mailing list, and maybe you're just not interested in being there. Hey, we don't want to cram your mailbox unless you'd like to hear from us. So here's what you can do:
If you like our newsletter and think someone you know would like it as well, click on this box to forward it:
And, if you're just not the right person for this newsletter, click on Safe Unsubscribe at the bottom of this newsletter and take yourself off the list.
And if you accidentally remove yourself from the list and want to be put back on, click here, enter your email and be sure to click Submit, then click Update Profile in the email that you receive.
And if we're just not hitting the topics that you want to hear about, either submit an article yourself, or click here and fill out our survey. We know people who know stuff - that's our claim to fame - and we'll get them to write about that stuff! |
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Contact us for Group Discounts and Additional Offers 801-486-6655 | | |
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