Oracle Priority Service Infogram This Week: EBS, WLS and Java, Technet, OIM/OAM, GoldenGate, Data Mining, Siebel, Hyperion, OBIEE11g, Exadata

EBS

Lots of goodies this week at the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog:

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Certified with E-Business Suite

Reminder: ATG Live Webcast Feb. 24th: Using the R12 EBS Adapter

Choosing the Right JDeveloper Release for Your EBS Environment

Discoverer 11.1.1.4 Certified with E-Business Suite

Oracle Internet Directory 11.1.1.4 Certified with E-Business Suite

Portal 11.1.1.4 Certified with E-Business Suite

Identifying Data Model Changes Between EBS 12.1.3 and Prior EBS Releases

WLS and Java

Some good on demand sessions: "Virtual Developer Day: Oracle WebLogic Server" On Demand. over at Technet.

Also over at Technet we Arup Nanda's excellent series on 11g Top New Features for DBAs and Developers

as well as this list of EM/Grid control articles posted by Porus Homi Havewala at the Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control blog.

OIM/OAM

I haven't read the reviews yet, but I'm sure this new ebook from Atul Kumar will be a welcome addition to the literature on the subject. Read about it over at the Online Apps DBA blog: “Oracle Identity & Access Manager 11g for Administrators” is now available in RAW format

GoldenGate

Regular readers of the Infogram know that I consider GoldenGate one of the best products we've acquired in a really long time. Here's a useful technical article on Exploring Oracle GoldenGate - Creating Dump Files over at DBASupport.com.

Data Mining

Data miner? I always wanted to be one. The digital hard-hats with the little binary data beacons on the front are just way cool. The BI-Quotient blog shares that the New Oracle Data Miner tool is now Available.

Siebel

SRF, what is it? The Sabian Refugee Fund? The Sartorian Refurbishment Foundation? Nah, it's a Siebel Repository File. Siebel Essentials tells us some more: SRF Secrets.

Hyperion

Some particulars of SQL for the Essbase developer from Gary Crisci's BI Blog: SQL queries for Essbase developers.

OBIEE11g

Mark Rittman of the eponymous Rittman Mead Consulting blog, has an article in the latest issues of Oracle Magazine on the OBIEE11g Action Framework.

Exadata

Looking for study materials (and study partners) on Exadata? Have a look at the material Surachart Opun has gathered over at this blog.

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Oracle Database Upgrades

Upgrading to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 provides the latest in efficient, reliable, secure data management for mission-critical on-line transaction processing applications, query-intensive data warehouses, and content management and Web2.0 applications. The right planning, preparation, and upgrade steps will make the upgrade process simpler, faster, and more predictable from start to finish. A ton of information is available at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/upgrade/index-088044.html

Oracle Infogram This Week: Linux, Java Security Update, EBS, UCM, APEX, SQL, Internet et al., Solaris Studio, StorageTek

Linux

Looking for the latest disks/RPMs? The Oracle Linux Blog has the news: Oracle Linux 6 DVDs Now Available.

Java Update

There's an important security update out there for Java. Please find the details here:

The Oracle Java SE and Java for Business Critical Patch Update February 2011 was released on February 15th, 2011. Oracle strongly recommends applying the patches as soon as possible.

The Critical Patch Update Advisory is the starting point for relevant information. It includes the list of products affected, a summary of the security vulnerabilities, and a pointer to obtain the latest releases and patches. Supported products that are not listed in the "Supported Products Affected" section of the advisory do not require new patches to be applied.

Also, it is essential to review the Critical Patch Update supporting documentation referenced in the Advisory before applying patches, as this is where you can find important pertinent information.

The Advisory is available at the following location:

Oracle Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html

Oracle Java SE and Java for Business Critical Patch Update February 2011:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/javacpufeb2011-304611.html

EBS

From the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog this week:

Sun JRE 1.6.0_24 Certified with Oracle E-Business Suite

EBS 12.0 Minimum Requirements for Extended Support Finalized

ATG Live Webcast Feb. 24th: Using the EBS 12 SOA Adapter

ATG Live Webcast Replay Available: EBS 12 OAF Rich UI Enhancements

New Whitepaper: Upgrading EBS 11i Forms + OA Framework Personalizations to EBS 12

UCM and Siebel

I don't think we've linked to Blogging about Oracle Applications blog before, and am happy to start. This article on Using UCM as content management system for Siebel is certainly interesting.

APEX

The APEX Blog Aggregator has some useful code to play with for Validating e-mail in PL/SQL. Have a look and see if you have any suggestions/improvements for the author.

SQL

Are you a guru of the SQL command line? A knight of the relational domain? Here's a a contest for you, as relayed by the Pythian Blog: Hear ye, hear ye: Announcing the 2nd Intl. NoCOUG SQL Challenge

Also of interest from the Pythian Blog is this venture in remote disk admin that reminds me of building a ship in a bottle: MacGyvering a Remote Disk Usage Utility

Internet et al. over at Tom Kyte's Blog

I'm always happy to find out I have something in common with Tom Kyte, and now I can add: 'Uses Google Chrome browswer' to the list. Tom has an item in his blog on blocking undesirable pages from a Google search in Chrome that you can read here: Searching on Google just got a lot safer...

Another item from Tom Kyte's blog is a link to a posting on using Oracle as a calculator. I wonder if someone has worked out as an exercise the transaction cost of using an enterprise RDBMS as a pocket calculator? The link: What is even worse...

Seems to be our week for linking to Tom Kyte's posts. Here he points out a very eductional article on security and the role of bind variables. A lot of developers find it easier to hard wire values rather than 'bothering' with bind variables. Well, in a web context, the bad guys are very pleased to reward you for your cutting of corners: An interesting read...

Solaris Studio

Leaks. Politicians hate 'em. Plumbers make a living from them. Programmers hate them too, but they still manage to get through. The new Oracle Solaris Studio has some new tools for catching memory leaks as you can read about here: Discover and Uncover in Solaris Studio 12.2

StorageTek

A white paper on a pretty exciting feature of Oracle's StorageTek: Using Oracle's StorageTek Search Accelerator

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Oracle Experts Launch Day of Real World Performance Tour for Oracle Customers

Hosted by the Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG) beginning February 21, 2011, the Day of Real World Performance event series is a one-time-only opportunity for Oracle customers and partners to learn more about database performance from the Oracle experts who literally wrote the book.

The IOUG Day of Real World Performance tour, which starts on the U.S. West Coast, moves east across the nation, and then travels on to Europe, is a very interactive event featuring—for the first time on stage together—these Oracle performance experts:

Tom Kyte: Author of the popular AskTom Blog

Andrew Holdsworth: Head of Oracle's real world performance group

Graham Wood: Oracle performance architect and the father of the key components of Oracle Database 11g's intelligent performance infrastructure—Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM), Active Session History (ASH), and Automatic Workload Repository (AWR)

These Oracle experts will debate, discuss and delineate the best practices for designing hardware architectures, deploying Oracle databases, and developing applications that deliver the fastest possible performance for your business.

Oracle Priority Service Infogram This Week: Security, Performance, Tape Storage, Risk, Synch and Asynch, Scaling, Siebel

Security

Some of the leading figures in Oracle security will be speaking at this:

Oracle Security Online Forum

Live Date/Time: February 24, 2011 | 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time

Performance

If you get a chance to hear Tom Kyte speak about Oracle performance, jump at that chance! And here's one right here: Best Practises for Real-World Database Performance.

Tape Storage

Tape is often a 'fire-and-forget-it' kind of technology for IT. But what about the long haul? The short-term utility of tapes to restore vital data after a mishap are obvious, but there are some tape archives that are established for the long term, and the admins of those archives should find this new Oracle white paper interesting:

Protecting Your Archival Data With Improved Tape Dimensional Stability

This article on Evaluating Tape Drive Performance should also be of great interest to those involved in long term data storage and archiving as well as a more general audience.

Blogs of Note: Pythian

Pythian, one of our favorite blogs here at the Infogram, has come out with its listing of Q1 Webinar Schedule Updates. Appropriately enough, they entitle it: Q1 Webinar Schedule Update.

Also of interest is this article on risk and the DBA. Sometimes risk aversion is risky business:

The DBA and the Trigger

Synch and Asynch

Always a ground for confusion, especially due to the intersection of OS and database settings. This article at C0T0D0S0.ORG is worth a read: Synchronicity in asynchronicity

Scaling

I found this article interesting since I have experienced all the ups and downs of scaling SL myself over the years. Their database is MySQL, by the way:

Scaling Second Life

Siebel

Siebel Essentials blog continues to bring us interesting items: Google Maps in Siebel - Extreme (Part 1)

EBS

EBS

Some links from the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog (a few more than usual since I've been out on vacation for a while).

Safari 5 certified with EBS Release 12 on Apple Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6

Oracle Discoverer (10.1.2.3) certified with EBS R12 on IBM: Linux on System z

Database 10gR2 10.2.0.5 Certified with EBS on 14 Additional Platforms

In-Depth: Thoughts on Testing from a Battle-Scarred Support Engineer

Upgrading EBS 12 to DB 11g with Physical Standby Enabled

Reminder: Error Correction Support for DB 10gR2 10.2.0.4 Ends April 30, 2011

E-Business Suite Release 12 Certified With Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows x64)

Latest DSTv15 Timezone Patches Available for E-Business Suite

Customized Database Listener Names Now Supported for EBS

BPEL 11.1.1.2 Certified for Prebuilt E-Business Suite 12.1.3 SOA Integrations

Oracle Infogram Feb 3

Mapping Your Future
More than half of midsize companies are making plans to increase tech budgets within the next year and a half, according to a study released this month. But when your IT and business requirements are constantly changing, optimizing your infrastructure is not always easy. Are you sure you know what investments to make?Here, read a new series of articles designed to help you develop winning strategies for 2011, including an exclusive interview with Flash Foresight author Daniel Burrus.

Special Report: Growing Businesses
Take Oracle’s free self-assessment tests for midsize companies to figure out what your company needs— then read this special report to learn about other products and solutions Oracle designs to help its small to midsize customers compete and thrive, including some of its most recent releases. More...

Project: Management
According to Primavera cofounder Dick Faris projects used to describe work that was an exception to normal operations. But as sources at Leighton Contractors told Profit, the discipline and accountability of project management can have a positive impact on all aspects of a business. Learn more in Profit’s Primavera special issue. More...

Oracle Business Intelligence Forum On Demand
This virtual event offers you a unique opportunity to see, in one place, the full portfolio of Oracle’s Business Intelligence offerings, and to learn what sets Oracle apart from the rest. Hear Oracle executives and industry analyst, Howard Dresner, present the current state of Business Intelligence, along with a series of customers who will share their case studies of putting analytics in action. Register now...

Contribution by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

E-Business Suite Maintenance Wizard 2.18 Released

The Maintenance Wizard guides you through the code line maintenance and upgrade process for e-Business Suite applications. The tool:

Presents maintenance and upgrades as step-by-step processes

Enables validation of each step, tracks the completion of the steps, and maintains a log and status

Is a multi-user tool that enables the System Administrator to give different users assignments based on any combination of category, product family or task

Automatically installs many required patches

Provides project management utilities to record the time taken for each task, completion status and project reporting

Learn more at Note:215527.1