A Lifeline for EBS Customers Still on RDBMS 11gR2 and 12cR1

Yesterday, the Oracle E-Business Suite Applications Technology Group made a couple of very significant announcements for E-Business Suite customers.

• RDBMS 12cR1 (12.1.0.2) Extended Support is available through July 31, 2022
• The Extended Support fees have been waived for 12cR1 databases used for E-Business Suite through July 31, 2022.  [Previously, December 2020]

• RDBMS 11gR2 (11.2.0.4) Extended Support is available through December 31, 2020.
• The Extended Support fees have been waived for 11gR2 databases used for E-Busines Suite through December 31, 2020.

The current certified versions of the Oracle RDBMS for use with E-Business Suite R12.1 and R12.2 include 11gR2, 12cR1, and 19c.

What should E-Business Suite customers do now?

If you're on 12cR1, you should upgrade to 19c as soon as reasonably possible.
If you're on 11gR2, you too, should upgrade to 19c as soon as reasonably possible..  You could upgrade to 12.1.0.2, but you would be forcing yourself into another upgrade (to 19c) pretty soon.

Should I wait for the next release?

The Oracle Server group has switched to a "yearly" release schedule.  So, sometime during 2020, there should be an "Oracle RDBMS 20c" and, sometime in 2021, we should expect an "Oracle RDBMS 21c".

However, given that it takes a while to certify the database against E-Business Suite on the variety of platforms that are necessary, the E-Business Suite team has indicated their intention to certify on every other release.  Also important is that the certification for E-Business Suite tends to lag the database release by at least 6 months.  So, that means that the next certified release of the Oracle RDBMS for E-Business Suite should be RDBMS 21c and you might not see that certification until late in 2021.

So, if you choose to wait for the next release, you may find yourself praying for another extension... which is increasingly unlikely.

References

• Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1)
• Extended Support Fee Waiver for Oracle Database 12.1 and 11.2 for Oracle E-Business Suite (Doc ID 2522948.1)
• Oracle Applications Technology Group Announcement
• Oracle Support Blog Announcement
• Oracle Lifetime Support Policy for Technology Products
• Oracle Lifetime Support Policy for Applications

Windows 10 and E-Business Suite

Tomorrow (July 29, 2015) we will see the release of Windows 10 into the wild.  PC's all over the world that aren't under "enterprise control" have been signing up to download the update through Microsoft's "Windows Update" delivery mechanism and it is "going to drop" on July 29^th, 2015.

For us (E-Business Suite DBAs) there should be at least some level of concern.

Because they are using this mechanism, this will likely be the largest mass deployment of software that anyone has witnessed.  Also, due to the delivery method, I would expect that Windows 10 uptake will significantly surpass any other Windows roll-out in history.

Remember, with previous Windows upgrades, you either had to go out and purchase the software or you got it when you acquired a new laptop.  This meant that, with few exceptions, those of us who have to deal with these changes at least had some breathing room before we really felt it.

Beginning tomorrow, however, anyone with a licensed copy of Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, or Windows 8.1, could potentially upgrade to Windows 10.  While this really isn't a concern for most corporate PC's (where software updates/upgrades are managed by the centralized IT department), if you're on a project where users and/or consultants have "unmanaged" PCs, you could encounter some questions.

The first thing you need to know is that, of course, nothing about Windows 10 has been officially "certified" by anyone at Oracle yet.  So, you could always stand behind that statement.  And, certainly, if your IT department is even considering rolling out Windows 10 to anyone, they should wait until that certification information is released.

Now, for those of you who are just wondering, does it even work?  The answer is, yes, it appears to... but there are a few things you should know.

First, Windows 10 ships with a new minimalistic browser called "Microsoft Edge" (also known as "Project Spartan").  The browser works pretty well and the interface is clean, which is nice.  But, Microsoft Edge doesn't support plug-ins (specifically, it no longer supports Active-X).   This means that you will be unable to launch Java from the Edge browser which, in turn, means that you won't be able to launch Oracle Forms from within E-Business Suite.

But, never fear.  Windows 10 also ships with Internet Explorer 11, which is certified in many E-Business Suite configurations.  I performed some rather limited testing (log into R12.1.3, launch forms, basic navigation) using a recent pre-release version of Windows 10 (x86-64, build 10301) and Java JRE 1.8.0_51 (32-bit) and everything appears to function without much issue.  Obviously, this was far from a complete test and I wouldn't go into production with it.  Fortunately, since Oracle has already certified Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7 and 8.1 (notably, not Windows 8) with EBS, I doubt that certification for IE11+EBS+Windows 10 will find too many problems.

So, the long and short of it is, should you encounter that Windows 10 early adopter, they should have some luck using Internet Explorer 11 (assuming that you're patched up to support it per MOS 389422.1, of course).    Of course, should the user be technically inclined and still want to remain an early adopter, I strongly recommend running an older version of Windows (Windows XP or Windows 7) in a VirtualBox VM.   It's a great way to be current and still be able to use some of the really old tools.  (Workflow Builder, anyone?)

E-Business Suite R12.2 Is now available!

The long-awaited update to E-Business Suite R12.2 is now available. I'm sure we'll hear more at OpenWorld this week, but until then:

The press release can be found here:

http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/2016931

Also, it is available for download on E-Delivery:

See me at Oracle OpenWorld

Oracle OpenWorld 2013 starts on Sunday, 22 September and runs through Thursday 26 September, 2013. This will be my first time presenting at an OpenWorld conference (I've presented numerous times at Collaborate and other OAUG-related events). I'm looking forward to meeting you!

E-Business Suite DBA Best Practices (CON4733)

Moscone West Room #3016

Thursday, 26 September 2:00PM - 3:00PM

And, while you're there, stop by the Atherio/RedRiver Solutions booth #122 in Moscone South. I'll be hanging out there from time to time as well! Enjoy the conference!

Internet Explorer 10 and E-Business Suite

In case you hadn't noticed, Microsoft started pushing out Internet Explorer 10 to Windows 7 customers back in early March.  Internet Explorer 10 is, at this point, not certified with any versions E-Business Suite.

You can read more about it on the E-Business Suite Technology blog (otherwise known as "Steven Chan's Blog").  A link to that posting can be found here.

Why I don't depend on TOAD (or OEM) and neither should you.

My apologies in advance, as this posting may sound like something of a rant.

The first thing I'd like to point out is that I have no real problem with TOAD, Oracle Enterprise Manager, or Windows-based editors. They are all excellent tools that can be extremely helpful in your environment. My objection to these tools is based solely on a lowest-common-denominator argument.

First, a little background. Back in the early 1990's, I was working as a Unix Systems Administrator for a company in Kansas City, MO. Since then, I've worked mainly as a consultant.

Shortly before I started that job in Kansas City, the company had hired a new CIO who let go about half of the legacy (mainframe, COBOL) IT department. The new direction for the company was implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite on Data General Unix (DG/UX).

The mainframe IT staff that survived were being re-trained in the new technology. At one point, several of them came to me insisting that I install ISPF (an editor they were used to on the mainframe) onto the DG/UX boxes because they were struggling to learn to use the vi editor. I informed them that, while they (as a group) may carry enough weight to convince the CIO to direct me to install it (assuming it was even available). However, when they go to their next job and claim that "they know Unix", they would be alone and wouldn't have that leverage.  My suggestion was that I would help them to learn the vi editor. (I did offer emacs as an alternative, since it is and was extremely common on Unix systems... Unfortunately, friendlier editors like pico, nano, and joe didn't exist yet.)

If your primary job is software development, a tool like TOAD is generally something you can depend on having. However, as a DBA, you can't necessarily depend on having TOAD (or even Oracle Enterprise Manager) at your disposal at all times. Maybe you're starting a new job and the previous DBA hadn't set up Enterprise Manager (or you haven't gotten around to it yet). Even in environments where those tools are available, they may or may not be working when you need them.

So, my advice? There are certain tools that are almost ALWAYS there. Get comfortable with ssh, SQL*Plus, and vi (or vim).  They are your friends.

– James

Oracle Support Changes for EBS (part deux)

On Monday, Cliff Godwin announced some significant changes to E-Business Suite support. The official announcement is now available on MOS (Note: 1495337.1). The text of the announcement is below:

As part of Oracle’s continued commitment to our customers, we will be providing an exception for the first 13 months of Sustaining Support on Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10 (11i10), valid from December 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014. This exception support will be comprised of three components: (1) new fixes for Severity 1 production issues, (2) United States Form 1099 2013 year-end updates, and (3) payroll regulatory updates for the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia for fiscal years ending in 2014.

In addition, the Extended Support period for E-Business Suite Release 12.1 has been extended through December, 2018. Customers with an active Oracle Premier Support for Software contract will automatically be entitled to Extended Support deliverables for E-Business Suite 12.1.

NOTE: The changes to 11i Sustaining Support do NOT extend to the security patches. Oracle will NOT provide Quarterly CPU patch for 11i will come out in October, 2013. The one exception to this is that they will provide fixes for "P1" security issues.

– James

E-Business Suite Current Release and Roadmap

Current release is R12.1.3 (but you already knew that!). Enhancements coming with R12.2 include Online Patching (20 years in the making) based on a database feature specifically requested by the E-Business Suite group called "Edition-Based Redefinition". The expectation is that you will be able to apply patches of any size with minimal downtime (less than an hour, target is more like 15 minutes).  (I will discuss this feature in a more in-depth posting later).

Other enhancements include integration with Endeca to provide an e-commerce shopping experience to many of your ERP business processes. (I've heard the "shopping for shoes" reference three times already at OpenWorld when discussing this feature). Cliff Godwin provided an interesting demo of this feature during his presentation earlier today. It is expected that this capability will be released "within the year". Cliff made a point to indicate that initial releases will cover several modules (I believe it was eight at initial release) but that new modules and Endeca-related features should come along quickly (due to the rapid development cycles available with Endeca). He was unclear, however, as to whether the Endeca feature set will be available on releases prior to R12.2.

– James

Oracle Support Changes Announced for EBS

During his session earlier today, Cliff Godwin announced some significant changes to the E-Business Suite support deadlines. I will put together a more polished post later, but for now, here are the details:

EBS 11i (11.5.10.2) is STILL on Sustaining Support until December 31, 2013. However, they are making a few exceptions to the Sustaining Support policy. First, they will continue to provide bugfixes for Severity 1 production problems until December 31, 2014. Secondly, they will continue to provide updates for US Form 1099 through 2013 Year End. And finally, they are committing to provide Fiscal Year End 2014 Payroll updates for US, Canada, and UK.

For customers on Release 12.1, Oracle is waiving the Extended Support fees until December of 2018.

-- James

MINOR CORRECTION: EBS 11i is not "still on sustaining support". EBS 11i is actually on Extended Support until Nov 2013. (Thanks, Srini, for pointing this out!)

Impact of EBS R12.2 changes – WebLogic

A number of very smart people seem to think that the introduction of WebLogic is going to be a major "game changer" for E-Business Suite DBAs. There is certainly some truth to that thought. WebLogic is a completely different animal than the Apache or Oracle Application Server that we've gotten accustomed to in E-Business Suite 11i and R12.

But consider this. I suspect that most environments are fairly vanilla. When it comes to the basic degree of interaction that an E-Business Suite DBA has with the Applications Server, I suspect that the change will be largely transparent. Consider what you do with the current Applications Server product. Start and stop? That's done through AutoConfig managed scripts. Basic configuration for EBS? That's handled through AutoConfig. Why would we expect these things to change just because they've changed out the tool?

What will it change?

I'm certain that the log files will be different. The naming convention will probably change and the location of the files might change. The content of the files will certainly be different. As will the configuration files (but, again, I would expect those to be AutoConfig managed).

The big place where you will notice the WebLogic change (from an Administrator standpoint) is if you're trying to do something else with it. If you're dealing with Discoverer or deploying APEX, for example, you'll certainly get up-close-and-personal with WebLogic.

So, should you be afraid of the WebLogic change? I don't think so. Yes, custom deployments (anything that actually requires you to "deep-dive" into the configuration of WebLogic) will have a learning curve. That said, many of the components of Oracle Fusion Middleware already use WebLogic and, if you're doing any custom deployments, odds are you're also already dealing with WebLogic elsewhere and will have some familiarity by the time you go to tie it into E-Business Suite.

When you factor in these things with the fact that WebLogic is a more mature and overall better product than the current applications server used in E-Business Suite, I think that the change is probably a good thing.

– James

Speculation about EBS Release 12.2

Floyd Teeter raises some good points in his blog posting out today. You can read the full posting here (http://orclville.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-wonder-what-tomorrow-has-in-mind-for.html). Primarily, that we won't actually have EBS R12.2 released during OpenWorld (as many of us were hoping).

Don't get me wrong, there will certainly be some good EBS R12.2 information out there. Oracle put together a very informative presentation and discussion surrounding the patching changes at Collaborate in Las Vegas this past spring. You can almost certainly bet that there will be an updated version at OpenWorld.

But, considering that the closed Beta program is still underway and the Early Adopter program hasn't started, any path of deduction should tell you that you're not going to have a R12.2 "GA" announcement for a few months at best. Which most means that sometime around Collaborate 2013 (Denver) would be a decent guess.

– James

URGENT BULLETIN: Disable JRE Auto-Update for All E-Business Suite End-Users

This notice just came out on Steven Chan's blog. If you're not following it, you definitely should.

The issue at hand is not that Auto-Update in itself causes problems. The real issue is that Oracle is going to push (through Auto-Update) the JRE 1.7 update. The JRE 1.7 update is NOT certified with E-Business Suite (any versions) at this time.

So, in order to keep your user's desktops on JRE 1.6, you MUST turn this auto-update feature off!

The update for JRE 1.7 could be pushed as early as July 3, 2012. The update WILL definitely be pushed after September 7, 2012 (after the release of JRE 1.6.0_35).

Steven Chan's blog has more information (including instructions on what you can do to undo the JRE 1.7 update if you get hit by it). The full link to the posting on Steven Chan's blog can be found here:

https://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/bulletin_disable_jre_auto_update

– James

OAUG Connection Point 2012 in Austin, TX (July 11-12, 2012)

OAUG Connection Point 2012 is coming to Austin, TX, July 11-12, 2012! The conference will be held at the Omni Austin Hotel in beautiful downtown Austin, TX.

The keynote will be given by Jeanne Lowell, Vice President, Oracle E-Business Suite Strategy, Oracle Corporation. (Hopefully we can extract some R12.2 news from her!)

Other featured speakers include:

Elke Phelps, Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle E-Business Suite Applications Technology, Oracle Corporation. (Elke always gives interesting and informative presentations!)

David Bowin III, Oracle Fusion Applications Product Development, Oracle Corporation

Amrita Mehok, Senior Director, Product Strategy, Oracle Corporation

Some other names you may recgonize will be presenting as well:

Alyssa Johnson, ROLTA (Sessions # 10913 and 10933)

Anne Carlson, Oracle (Session # 10868)

Art Dowd, O2Works (Session # 10829)

Barbara Matthews (Session # 10925)

Bill Dunham, OATC, Inc. (Session # 10915)

John Stouffer (Session # 10880 and 10924)

Michael Barone, OATC, Inc (Session # 10905 and 10907)

Mike Swing, TruTek (Session # 10878)

Susan Behn, Infosemantics, Inc. (Session # 10821)

...and many more!

Oh, and I'll be there too! I'm giving my "Anatomy of an Upgrade to 12.1.3 (including Platform Migration)" presentation (Session # 10802). I'll also be participating in John Stouffer's "R12.1 Upgrade Panel" (Session # 10924) along with Bill Dunham, Mike Swing, and Alyssa Johnson. The panel discussions are always entertaining and provide an excellent way for the community to discuss their challenges and experiences.

"Early Bird" Registration is open through June 24^th. Particularly if you're in or near the Austin, TX area, this can be a very cost-effective way to network with the community and find solutions to your problems. More information on the conference is available through the OAUG website or this direct link:

http://connectionpoint.oaug.org/2012/austin

I hope to see you there!

– James

EBS R12.2 Online Patching Webcast

For those of you who are (like me) anxiously awaiting the release of R12.2, the Applications Technology Group (ATG) is hosting a live webcast to preview the Online Patching feature in R12.2.

Kevin Hudson, one of the lead architects of this particular feature, is the presenter for this webcast.  I had the pleasure of attending Kevin's session at Collaborate 2012 where he discussed this feature in-depth.  He is an excellent presenter and is very well-versed on this topic.  I'm sure this webcast will be worth your time.

This two hour webcast will take place on June 14 @ 8:00am (Pacific Standard Time).

Full details are on Steven Chan's blog at the link below.

ATG Live Webcast June 14: Technical Preview of EBS 12.2 Online Patching

-- James

E-Business Suite and the 32-bit vs. 64-bit question

Before I get flamed on this, I want to make clear that, for the purpose of this posting, I'm speaking specifically about operating systems (not hardware). Most of the hardware being sold today is already 64-bit, however, you can run most 32-bit operating systems on 64-bit hardware. It's that distinction that I'm discussing here.

The first thing that you need to know here is that the big benefit of using a 64-bit operating system really is memory. In particular, it is not about the total amount of memory that can be installed in the machine (that tends to be hardware), but, about the addressable size of "per process" memory.

In the case of components such as those used on an appsTier in EBS, per-process addressable memory doesn't matter so much, as each process has it's own private memory (and isn't depending on "shared memory" like the database server is). So, aside from the fact that it makes our life much easier from an administrative standpoint (and the industry is going that way), there really isn't much of technical advantage to a 64-bit appsTier.

For EBS 11i (where the DB is certified on x86-64, but the appsTier is only certified on x86-32), you can still use much more than 4GB on an appsTier node (the operating system has a way of addressing large memory). It's just that the amount of memory that can be addressed by a single process is limited to something between 3 and 4 GB.

In the case of EBS R12, the appsTier binaries are still 32-bit, even when you're running on a 64-bit operating system. This makes sense because the only component that can really take advantage of it is the database (because the database processes all attach to the same large chunk of memory [the SGA]).

Note that EBS R12 appsTier is certified on both Linux x86-32 and Linux x86-64.

So, for 11i, the best that they can hope for is to have a separate dbTier (database only) running on Linux x86-64 and use Linux x86-32 for their appsTier nodes. Remember, that the 11i appsTier is NOT certified on Linux x86-64. That doesn't mean that it can't be done, but I seriously doubt that Oracle has any intention to certify a release that old on, what is effectively, a different platform. In both cases, they can/should be 5.X (5.7 is current). Having, effectively, two different platforms will be something of a headache from a Linux administration standpoint, but it's something that they'll have to deal with.

When they get to R12, they should use Linux x86-64 on all tiers (to simplify administrative tasks, as well as being "among the mainstream" of installations). Keep in mind that 64-bit is where "the market" is going. Even though you can (It is certified) do R12 on x86-32, you're better positioned if you're on x86-64.

– James

Collaborate 2012: On Upgrading to Fusion Applications

So I attended the OAUG E-Business Suite SIG session today at Collaborate 2012 in Las Vegas, NV. One of the guest speakers was Cliff Godwin, Oracle's Sr. VP of Applications Development. During this session, he was answering a lot of questions about E-Business Suite to Fusion Applications upgrade.

One of the more interesting things that he indicated was that upgrading from E-Business Suite R12.1 to Fusion Applications will be more along the lines of what you do during an implementation from a Legacy system into E-Business Suite (than a traditional "upgrade").

What this means is that you will have to ETL data from E-Business Suite into a fresh Fusion Applications install. So, for all intents and purposes, you will be performing many of the same tasks that you performed when you first IMPLEMENTED E-Business Suite. Or, if you were going from E-Business Suite to SAP (for example).

If you think about it, this makes plenty of sense. Fusion Applications is NOT an upgrade of E-Business Suite. It is an entirely different product. Perhaps part of the problem that I've been having with the whole "E-Business Suite to Fusion Applications" discussion has been semantics? Maybe they (Oracle) should stop referring to the process as an "upgrade" and instead a "migration"?

Unlike moving from a legacy system, Oracle is developing templates to aid the ETL process so that you can convert your legacy data. This is a big difference. When you're converting data from a legacy system into E-Business Suite (or any other application), a significant part of the effort revolves around the need to "roll your own" data conversion scripts. In this case, Oracle will be providing this logic for you.

One of the selling points about moving to Fusion Applications has always been that you could migrate one module at a time. That would be particularly difficult if the process was similar to an E-Business Suite upgrade. But it makes perfect sense if you're doing a migration more akin to moving off a legacy system.

According to Cliff, initial focus is on the HCM modules and initial release of the upgrade templates is currently planned for some time "later this year".

– James

Vegas, Baby!

On Saturday night, I head to Las Vegas for Collaborate 2012 (http://collaborate.oaug.org). For the Oracle E-Business Suite community, this is one of the biggest events of the year.

For the uninitiated, Collaborate is the annual conference hosted by the Oracle Applications User's Group (http://www.oaug.org). Unlike Oracle OpenWorld, which is largely an Oracle Corporation marketing event, Collaborate is a community-oriented conference. While there are Oracle Corporation presentations focusing on the latest and greatest products and features, the vast majority of the papers and presentations at Collaborate are from actual users of the Oracle products.

Many of these are actual war stories. Walk-throughs of actual implementations and upgrades. Solutions that that others in the E-Business Suite community have put together for their sites to solve real-world problems that they've encountered. Very often, these are things that are not covered (or are covered poorly) in Oracle-provided documentation.

And it's not just E-Business Suite DBA topics, either! There are plenty of presentations on module-specific issues given by others who have already "been there, done that".

In addition to the standard white-paper presentations, there are also panel discussions and Special Interest Groups (SIGs). The panel discussions and SIGs are usually very lively Q&A sessions with recognized industry experts on a wide range of topics.

Planning an upgrade? There's the two-part OAUG Upgrade SIG (Sessions #10522 and #10722)

Having troubles with cloning E-Business Suite? There's an E-Business Suite Cloning Panel. (Session #9360)

Thinking of moving to Linux? There's a panel for that too! (Session #9361)

I will be giving my presentation, "#9554 - Anatomy of an Upgrade to 12.1.3 (Including Platform Migration)" on Wednesday, April 25^th from 11:00am to 12:00pm i(South Seas E) and I will also be on the Migrations to Linux Panel (#9361), also Wednesday, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm (South Seas F).

And, while you're at it, stop by the RedRiver Solutions booth (Booth #1226). I will be hanging out there and helping to pass out updated versions of John Stouffer's books Oracle E-Business Suite Patching 101 and Oracle E-Business Suite Apps DBA 101.

I hope to see you there!

– James

E-Business Suite R12.1.1 is Certified on Oracle Linux 6!

Back in February, I blogged about the pending certification of Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Enterprise Linux 6 and RedHat Enterprise Linux 6. In that blog post, I noted that the certification announcement was "planned" but, of course, Oracle doesn't provide dates.

Well, guess what? The waiting is finally over. As these things go, the announcements come out in parts.

First, on March 22, 2012, Oracle announced that Oracle Database 11gR2 and Fusion Middleware 11gR1 were certified. (The press release can be found here.)

And today (April 4, 2012), through the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog (known to many of us as "Steven Chan's blog"), we have the E-Business Suite announcement (available here)!

While this is fantastic news, read the announcements carefully!

These certifications are ONLY for Oracle Enterprise Linux 6 on the x86-64 with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) version 1.

This means that if you're on the x86-32 platform, or if you're on RedHat Enterprise Linux 6, you'll have to wait a bit longer. The sames is true for customers on Oracle Enterprise Linux 6 who have NOT upgraded to the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) version 1 at ALL, or have already upgraded to the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) version 2 which was released on March 13, 2012 (press release here).

According to the database announcement, certification on RedHat Enterprise Linux 6 (and Oracle Enterprise Linux 6 [without UEK]) should be available within 90 days. I would expect the E-Business Suite R12 announcement to follow shortly behind.

What about other E-Business Suite releases? At this point, I have no actual information. But, I can speculate (with a good degree of certainty) that you won't see any 11.5.10.2 certifications against OEL/RHEL 6. E-Business Suite 11.5.10.2 is currently in Extended Support. Even though the support fees have been waived (through the end of Extended Support, November 30, 2012), Oracle doesn't typically certify new platforms once a product goes into Extended Support. (A more detailed discussion of Oracle's recent support announcements can be found here.)

The other question mark out there is OEL/RHEL 6.0 on x86-32. Personally, if you're implementing R12 or upgrading to R12 on Linux, you should be using an x86-64 distribution on x86-64 hardware. However, certification on x86-32 is also forthcoming.

As always, be sure to read/follow the relevant notes through the Certify Tab on My Oracle Support before you start any project to make sure that the combination of components you intend to use are, in fact, certified. These certifications will also detail the various always steps, operating system parameters, packages, and even patches specific to your combination that you will need to follow.

All of this is excellent news, as the OEL and RHEL 5.x line is getting pretty long in the tooth and is approaching it's end of life.

Now... when will we get that R12.2 announcement? Collaborate, maybe? OpenWorld? … the waiting continues.

– James

UPDATE 6/27/2012:  Oracle has just announced certification for Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.0 (x86-32), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 (x86-32 and x86-64), and  Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) version 11 (64-bit).  See Steven Chan's blog for more details:  https://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/oracle_e_business_suite_release3

OAUG Survey (part two)

As I'm reading through the OAUG survey (available here) one thing really strikes me.  If you look at Figure 30, only 24% of respondents are on E-Business Suite R12.1.  Of those that remain, 74% indicated that they are on a version of E-Business Suite that no longer covered under Premier Support.

Release	Premier	Extended
11.5.10.2	11/30/10	11/30/13
12.0	01/31/12	01/31/15
12.1	05/31/14	05/31/17

Remember that, for Extended Support, you will need to achieve "minimum baseline" code levels too!

More information on Oracle's Support windows in this post.

-- James

What drives E-Business Suite upgrades?

You'd think it would be new features, or security requirements. But, apparently, it's Oracle's end-of-support deadlines...

http://www.cio.com/article/print/701911

...at least according to 73% of the 327 OAUG members that responded to a survey.

UPDATE:  Here's the link to the full OAUG report:

http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/oaug-erp-upgrades-1531330.pdf

– James