The Triora Group

Call me whimsical, but I’m in the mood for some excitement! Thus, I have bullied our fearless leader, Rob McMillen, into authorizing our first ever “Oracle OpenWorld Get Me Some Bling” contest. There are three ways to enter:

1. Get yourself one of those Triora Group Pocket Protectors that Rob describes in his Getting Your Geek On article. He handed them out after his presentations at the NCOAUG last month, and both he and John will be carrying them at OOW. If you can’t make it to OOW, then request a pocket protector here and Rob will send you one. Then get out your glue gun, your Martha Stewart glitter, your beads and whatever other tools it takes to spice up your pocket protector. Decorate it with abandon. Snap a picture of your brazenly exciting perked up pocket protector and send it to geekon@trioragroup.com. The winning pocket protector will be showcased in our next newsletter. And if you win, we’ll send you some bling. But keep in mind, you’ll be competing against my entry. This contest, by the way, is open to Triora Group employees, their spouses, their children, our clients, people we’ve bumped into and anyone else who wants to enter and gets a pocket protector before Rob runs out.
2. Check Rob’s daily blogs from OOW between September 21-25 - Rob will unveil a secret password each day in his blog. Fill out the entry form and enter the correct password, and you’ll be eligible to win some bling. Winners will be announced in our September newsletter.
3. I’m putting one more way to enter at the end of this article, so check it out - click here and enter the contest today:

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2cufwsqfkqh8utc/start

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Recently I was working on a workflow mailer problem, which meant that I needed to use Oracle’s Application Manager tool. If you don’t know about this tool, then you need to pull out your System Administrator Guide for either Release 11i or Release 12, and read up on it. Oracle has put considerable effort into making this tool a useful interface for looking at the E-Business Suite. So naturally, while tooling around between the screens, I began to wonder how Oracle was deriving the various “pots” of metrics that it was using for screens like the one below:

But how could I find out where those pots of information were stored? One of the first places I started looking was in the database. What tables and / or views relate to that interface? The following query got me started: 

select table_name from dba_tables

where table_name like ‘FND%’; 

With 590 tables returned I needed to narrow that pool. Adding the following predicate got me much closer: 

select table_name from dba_tables

where table_name like ‘FND%’and table_name like ‘%OAM%’; 

This narrowed the list of tables to 78. Being an inquisitive sort, and not having to worry about causing poor performance, I ran a “select *” command against  each table to see what interesting information it contained. But that may have to wait until another article. For this go ’round, the most interesting tables were: 

FND_OAM_METS_TL

FND_OAM_METVAL 

These tables contain the composite information presented in the screen above. The FND_OAM_METVAL table contains the values and short names while the FND_OAM_METS_TL table contains the display name as well as the description. To give you a quick-start, I included the code to get that information: 

select fomt.metric_display_name, fomt.description,

fom.metric_short_name, fom.metric_value

from apps.fnd_oam_metval fom, apps.fnd_oam_mets_tl fomt

where fom.metric_short_name = fomt.metric_short_name; 

This made me wonder if there is a view with similiar information. The following query hones in on the view: 

select view_name from dba_views

where view_name like ‘FND%’ and view_name like ‘%OAM%’; 

This gives us the FND_OAM_METVAL_VL view. It appears that Oracle has provided a faster access path for the information we are interested in. Again, the simple starter code is below: 

select metric_display_name,metric_short_name,description,metric_value

from apps.FND_OAM_METVAL_VL; 

Now what? The code shown in this blog is not meant to be a replacement for OAM (Oracle Applications Manager). But it can be a short cut. One of the ways I have employed this information is as a historical reference. I can take the metrics I am interested in and insert them into a table along with a time stamp that gives me some historical information about E-Business Suite metrics. From there I can derive a baseline of utilization or normalcy, and set an Alert to page or email me when my threshold for a metric of my choosing is crossed. Using this “set it and forget it” method, I can be notified when the usages are outside of my norm and immediately log into the OAM interface and drill down on these metrics. There is a lot of information here and we should use it to our advantage.

Maybe in a later blog I’ll differentiate AMP (Application Management Pack) data from that in OAM.  

As always, we’d love to hear from anyone that has questions or would like us to address E-Business Suite information. Send us an email or comment on our blogs and we’ll do our best to get an answer to you.

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Over the years, I’ve often been reminded of a diagram in the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  In Chapter 3, Steven Covey discusses the need to “Put First Things First” and includes a discussion about four types of activities that we all face at work.  Two of the activities are critical to success. 

The first type are those activities that are URGENT and IMPORTANT.  These are the crises we regularly face and which are often unexpected.  Working on these types of activities is very fulfilling and keeps the adrenalin going.  In some organizations these activities dominate the workload and everyone is tactically-focused.  The down side is that sometimes it seems that nothing gets done unless it’s a crisis!

The second type of activities are those that are IMPORTANT but NOT URGENT.  I like to think of these as the STRATEGIC activities that offer great rewards in the future but are not very exciting at the moment. Often these activities don’t get much attention since no one is running through walls of fire to save the day.

IMPORTANT and NOT URGENT activities involve more mundane tasks like testing, training, reviewing, planning, and evaluating.  Not the sort of stuff that’s going to get you the employee-of-the-month award…  However, in the book, the point made is that these types of activities (strategic) are where more emphasis should be made.

The book points out that many of the crises we spend time on are caused by a choosing not to work on the strategic IMPORTANT but NOT URGENT tasks.  Let’s admit it, often organizations reward tactical efforts better than strategic efforts.  The person who plans, evaluates and save the organization thousands in wasted effort gets little notice while the person who plays the action-hero part is given a lot of attention.  And the real question is this…

If your organization rewards action-heroes and ignores the contributions of the strategists doesn’t that lead to a culture that ignores problems until they become a crisis and then rewards whomever resolves it?

I was reminded of this because of some recent E-Business Suite Assessments we have been doing.  Many of them were initiated after a crises in the organization that occurred because there had been a lack of emphasis on getting the strategic IMPORTANT but NOT URGENT tasks done.

The strategic tasks of planning, testing, evaluating, and assessing had been pushed back because everyone was focusing on fighting fires and saving the day.  When the crises occurred, they realized that they needed to focus more time on strategy.  To get that started they needed some outside expertise, since they always seemed to be “up to their eyeballs in alligators”.

I offer this because it may be that your organization is doing the same thing.  Take this quick questionnaire and answer YES or NO to each statement regarding your E-Business Suite Applications environment.

1. Our management understands the software/hardware requirements to meet our applications changes and growth.
2. We have a defined plan for upgrading to Release 12 that includes a thorough analysis of the pros and cons for our organization.
3. Our environment is tuned and operating at a very efficient level that includes the appropriate, thoroughly tested, latest patches issued by Oracle.
4. Our Development, Test and Q/A environments are so efficiently managed we never see problems in our Production environment when new features are introduced.
5. We have the right skills, training and experience within our staff to manage our environment.
6. We have access to the best tools for managing and monitoring our environment.
7. We are staying ahead of the requests from our application users and they are very satisfied.
8. We haven’t had any serious production disruptions in the last year.

If you were able to answer YES on most of these, then you deserve a real pat on the back.  Keep up the good work and go ask your manager for a raise!

If you found that the NO answers were more common than the YES answers, then maybe it’s time to consider a better approach.  Everyone recognizes that juggling the responsibilities for operating the environment efficiently and at the same time planning/reviewing/assessing the environment are a challenge.  Even the military understands that tactics and strategy are two different issues!

That’s why a great option is to engage someone like the Triora Group with specific expertise and the ability  to focus on the strategic issues.  In less than a week we can usually assess your environment and provide you with a list of recommendations and improvements that you can start to tackle.  The result is that your environment is better prepared for the future and there’s a unified focus on “FIRST THINGS FIRST”.

I’ll close this entry with a comment from one of our clients, who said it best:

The Triora team is so knowledgeable.  They not only helped us improve our system’s performance but helped us improve our team’s performance too.  They took a big picture view of our situation and customized a solution that included specific and high-impact systems, people and process improvements.

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Congratulations to Lon White, Triora Group’s second Oracle Ace. Lon was selected because of his thorough knowledge of database issues relating to the E-Business Suite as well as his participation on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Oracle Applications User Group for 4 years (he is the current Chairperson). Lon presents regularly at user group meetings and conferences, co-wrote several books, including “The Release 12 Primer” and “Installing, Upgrading and Maintaining Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10.2+”, and enthusiastically blogs about his findings as he delves into the E-Business Suite with our clients.

Way to go Lon!

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Without a doubt, Geeks, as a social group, have become the latest success symbol in our culture. Of course it doesn’t hurt that they make good money and bathe regularly. Whatever the reasons, it is clear that Geeks are hot right now.

Consider one example, Mr. Bill Gates, who wouldn’t get any attention at most parties. Instead, Bill is a media darling. Everyone wants to know what he thinks about poverty and Linux. As an aside, I do think that Bill sort of leans to the Nerd side of things but since he is my example, I will be generous for the moment and let him remain an official geek.

Please note that Nerds are not what we are talking about here. Nerds have a low interest in hygiene, spend all-nighters in World of Warcraft and invest hours designing and dressing their avatar. And you will find that no one calls up a Nerd and asks them for information. Mainly because they don’t answer the phone.

Geeks, however, are those persons with real technology knowledge and a life outside of technology. Geeks can intelligently debate the value of IPv6 and can tell you why the iPhone sucks/rocks. They know how to create a podcast and can also explain why RAC isn’t always a good choice. At the same time, they have a real life. Many Geeks are active in blowing things up for fun, building rockets to take non-astronauts to the moon and winning the war against international terrorism. In short, Geeks are the emerging “renaissance” persons of this new millenium.

This all brings me to the sordid reason for writing this blog entry, pocket protectors.

To be truly geek, you must also have the ability to laugh at the stereotypical geek-isms. And there’s nothing that best stereotypes a geek than a pocket protector.

The lowly pocket protector was designed to minimize accidental pen leakage and ensured your crisp white shirts remained pristine for years. Plus the correct logo on the pocket protector demonstrated that you were well connected. If you carefully watch the movie Apollo 13 you will notice many of the people at NASA used pocket protectors.

If a pocket protector was good enough to get someone to the moon, then it should be good enough to defend! Defend? Defend from what? I’m glad you asked.

Amazingly many items of geek couture have been ripped off by fashionistas. Take black-rimmed glasses that were a standard geek accessory that even Bill Gates once sported. No more though, because now everyone is wearing them so they can look like a geek.

We should be happy that imitation is the most sincere form of worship but it is still disconcerting. What else will be ripped off from our glorious past? If this continues, soon all that geeks will have beside their stunning intellect is the lowly pocket protector. For now this badge of official geekdom still remains, but for how long?

No doubt we will soon see pocket protectors showing up on the fashion runways of Paris or New York. Scrawny models prancing about with little more than pocket protectors covering emaciated parts of their bodies. The vision is horrific, but there is still something we can do about it. There is still time to protect this last remaining symbol of pure geek-ism. We must take back the pocket protector and enshrine it as our most sacred item.

With all of the sales hyperbole out of the way, I encourage you to consider becoming part of the movement.

You can start by getting one of our official Triora Group pocket protectors. Wear it proudly, wear it loudly, wear it openly or just pin it to your cubical wall (Note: Use caution when using sharp-pointed thingys.)

These one-of-a-kind pocket-protectors are made out of the finest soft plastic and are a pristine white to match your best working shirt. (Note: We wanted naugahyde but the sad news is that the naugas have been hunted almost to extinction.) The heavy-duty flap on the front of the pocket protector provides maximum protection and offers clear proof of your geek heritage.

So you see, it’s time to come out of the closet or the NOC or the Server room or your cubicle and let your inner Geek shine! Imagine the looks of awe when your coworkers spy you with the new pocket protector. Imagine the power you will project in the room as every head turns toward you when you enter. Keep imagining because there is more.

If you want to take the opportunity to acquire one of these rare pocket protectors, just send us an email at geekon@trioragroup.com. Remember… this offer will not be repeated, it will not be repeated.

Soon you will be eagerly searching your mail for that special unmarked envelope with your very own pocket protector enclosed. Don’t delay, send your email now. Quantities are limited. Operators are standing by!

.

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For those of you tracking the latest releases, 10gR2 Version 10.2.0.4 is now certified for Release 11i. We’re anxiously awaiting certification for Release 12. Oracle has released the latest Critical Patch Update - be sure to check out www.integrigy.com’s evaluation of the July 2008 CPU, which points to the resolution of a high risk database vulnerability that makes applying the July 2008 CPU well worth your consideration. You’ll need to be running at least Release 11.5.10 and ATG_PF.H RUP 5 or RUP 6 to apply CPUs.

And speaking of ATG RUP 6, we had a Release 11i AIX customer experience a complete loss of service when they could not login to their Oracle applications environment (they saw a “Page not found” error) after upgrading to ATG_PF.H RUP 6 and JDK 1.6. The problem turned out to be two independent issues: the first issue was resolved after reviewing MetaLink Doc. ID: 422766.1, Cache Initialization Failure on AIX > platform, which required that the customer roll back their JDK version from JDK 1.6 to JDK 1.4.2. Patch 6801616 is supposed to resolve this issue, but is not available at this point, so the workaround is to rollback. The second issue required Patch 6841295 - DB SESSIONS FROM JVMS ARE VERY VERY HIGH AFTER ATG RUP6 + JDK 1.6 UPGRADE. As it turns out, this patch is needed even with JDF 1.4.2, as the issue is related to ATG_PF.H RUP 6.

Incidentally, if you are planning to apply ATG_PF.H RUP 6, keep careful track of MetaLink Doc. ID: 459353.1, External Tracking Note For Bugs On Top Of 11i.ATG_PF.H.delta.6 (RUP6) - 5903765. This document points to a number of issues, as well as to an unpublished note 550403.1 that describes the ATG RUP 6 performance issue: Connection leaks from fnd_security_pkg.fnd_encrypted_pwd that made it necessary for our client to retreat back to JDK 1.4.2.

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What am I talking about? I love playing with anagrams. Each of the anagrams above describes the topic we are going to talk about. Can you decipher it before reading on? The answer is given at the end of this article…

How about some cool Autoconfig stuff for this month’s article? Last week I upgraded an Oracle Release 11i payroll system that called for the application of the latest Autoconfig patch. This patch, 6372396, was released just last month, so hopefully I may be getting this information to some of you before you have had a chance to read it for yourselves. Before I explain some of the new features included with this latest patch, I should probably mention that you can look some of this information up for yourself using Metalink Doc. ID: 165195.1. This note is the master document for helping you understand more about Autoconfig, as well as providing steps on running Autoconfig on both the application tier and the database tier. This note is also quite helpful, since it provides the specific syntax for generating the new appsutil directory from the application tier and getting it configured on the database side. But, I digress…

I’m assuming that most of you reading this article have a good understanding of what Autoconfig is and its use as the context management system for the E-Business Suite. Briefly speaking, though, Oracle uses Autoconfig to manage the configurations needed for the E-Business Suite. These values are stored in two local repositories, one for the application and one for the database. These repositories are often referred to as the context directories and take the form of <sid>_<host>. You should recognize this label format, as it is the same format as the context file itself, <sid>_<host>.xml, which is a key file used for storing context variables. The notion of “context” is Oracle’s way of grouping information about a singular instance. Release 12 follows this contextual notion and goes even further to group information relevant to a specific instance by developing their $INST_TOP methodology. When you apply a patch or make configuration changes, Autoconfig is the tool that propagates those values. So, as you can see, Autoconfig is something you really want to know if you’re going to be an Apps DBA. But, as I said earlier, this is all stuff that most of you probably already know. Keep reading though – it’s going to get good.

Working on this upgrade required me to install the latest Autoconfig patch, 6372396. While reading through the associated Metalink note, I hit the appendix where some new features were introduced. Oracle now provides a method to “profile” our Autoconfig runs. This is interesting, as I have been at clients whose Autoconfig runs take only 10 - 15 minutes, and I have also seen runs take upwards of 90 minutes. So, what’s in it for me? What is profiling? Why do I care? In the past we have had to resort to watching the wall clock, or some kind of clock, to get timing information. Sure, we can also look at timestamps of the start and finish as well, but the important notion here is that the timing information is generally not straight forward and for the most part is relevant only to the entire run of Autoconfig. Now we have the option to pass a “profile” flag for our Autoconfig session that results in a nice HTML report that shows every script that has been run, as well as the time it took to run that particular step. Even more helpful, the report has a column for the status of that section, so we can see specifically where the session failed and what script it was on when it did so. The example below is a section of this report:

As you can see, the profile report shows us the step Autoconfig ran along with the instantiation time, execution time and then the combined total time. Oracle has also included a column that helps all of us evaluate this profile, as Cary Millsap would want us to… Millsap has long professed that we should first look at the performance impactor with the greatest time contributed to the overall elapsed time. For example, looking at the output above, cutting the running time by 50% for “ecx” would only save you half a second. While cutting the “ad/fnd” process by 50% would save you 66.5 seconds. Therefore, Millsap would say that we should be looking at the “ad/fnd” process first.

As you can see, there is also a column that shows the status for the process. Again, this overall information has been available when traversing the log file but here it is plain and simple, and easy to see specific problems. Furthermore, the following excerpt is a section of what you would see if you clicked on the “ad/fnd” link in the report:

instantiate file: 

   source : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/adconfig.txt

   dest   : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/adconfig.txt

   backup : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/adconfig.txt to /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/oaptch_hpux3/out/07282234/adconfig.txt

instantiate file: 

   source : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/adalldefaults.txt

   dest   : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/oaptch/adalldefaults.txt

   backup : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/oaptch/adalldefaults.txt to /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/oaptch_hpux3/out/07282234/adalldefaults.

txt

instantiate file: 

   source : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/runform.htm

   dest   : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchora/8.0.6_10222/tools/web60/html/runform.htm

   backup : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchora/8.0.6_10222/tools/web60/html/runform.htm to /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/oaptch_hpux3/out/07282234/runfo

rm.htm

instantiate file: 

   source : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/runrep.htm

   dest   : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchora/8.0.6_10222/tools/web60/html/runrep.htm

   backup : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchora/8.0.6_10222/tools/web60/html/runrep.htm to /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/oaptch_hpux3/out/07282234/runrep

.htm

instantiate file: 

   source : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/ad/11.5.0/admin/template/adadmat.pl

   dest   : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchcomn/admin/install/oaptch_hpux3/adadmat.pl

   backup : /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchcomn/admin/install/oaptch_hpux3/adadmat.pl to /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/admin/oaptch_hpux3/out/07282234/adadmat

.pl

script execution command:

/oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchora/iAS_10222/Apache/perl/bin/perl -I /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchora/iAS_10222/Apache/perl/lib/5.00503 -I /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptc

hora/iAS_10222/Apache/perl/lib/site_perl/5.005 -I /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchappl/au/11.5.0/perl /oa41/apps/oracle/oaptchcomn/admin/install/oaptch_hpux3/

adadmat.pl -nopromptmsg

script returned:

****************************************************

##########################################################################

             Validating information in AD_APPL_TOPS table........

##########################################################################

SQL*Plus: Release 8.0.6.0.0 - Production on Mon Jul 28 22:37:58 2008

(c) Copyright 1999 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Enter value for 1: Enter value for 2: Enter value for 3: Enter value for 4: Enter value for 5: Enter value for 6: Enter value for 7: Enter value for 8

: Enter value for 9: Enter value for 10: Enter value for 11: Connected.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Current data

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

APPL_TOP Names in AD_APPL_TOPS:

*PRESEEDED*

GLOBAL

hpux3

mr

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Updating tables...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Register a node ...

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Updated data

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

APPL_TOP Names in AD_APPL_TOPS:

*PRESEEDED*

GLOBAL

hpux3

mr

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Done

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Commit complete.

Disconnected from Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.6.0 - 64bit Production

With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options

JServer Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production

ERRORCODE = 0 ERRORCODE_END

.end std out.

.end err out.

****************************************************

Clearly these new features provide us geeks with excellent information as we look to deconstruct Autoconfig for a more thorough understanding of how things work.

And, if that new feature wasn’t cool enough, Oracle has also delivered a “context search” capability that is very helpful. I really like looking through the context file (remember the <sid>_<host>.xml file?) at client sites, as it provides a wealth of information. This new feature isn’t as handy as strolling through the context file, but it is definitely more pointed and more robust. Below is an excerpt from the html output of the context information report:

The search string I used here was “JVM” as noted in the very first row labeled “Entered Keyword”. There was much more information returned than this small excerpt, but you can see where this could really be handy. I really like that in addition to the values matching the search criteria being returned, we can also see in what files they exist. Even better, for some, is the inclusion of the current value of the variable as well as the default value. I know, I know… we can get the same thing using the Unix find command paired with greps and awks, or perhaps you’re a wizard with Perl. On second thought, you would have to do some additional work to get the default value as a comparison… No matter, if you still want to get your information using those techniques, that is awesome. In fact, if you have some good command lines, pass them on; I’m always looking for good code to make my job easier… In the end, Oracle has provided some useful new options that I am really looking forward to playing with. I’ll let you know if I find anything interesting as I stress them.

The syntax used for these two examples were:

perl $AD_TOP/bin/adconfig.pl contextfile=$CONTEXT_FILE –profile

The above command gets you the profile output we talked about first. Appendix E, titled AutoConfig Performance Profiler, in the Metalink note, provides additional information you’ll want to read. The following code gets you the context search information:

$FND_TOP/bin/txkrun.pl -script=GenCtxinfRep -keyword=”JVM”

There are some additional flags to this command, which can be found in Appendix F of Metalink Doc. ID: 165195.1, Context Variable Information Utility.

And now for the answer, if you haven’t deciphered it yet… The anagrams above were derived from the phrase: Oracle Autoconfig.

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Yesterday as I was walking my dogs, I spotted a little bit of “little boy heaven”: two slugs – really big slugs – slithering on my hillside. I did the only thing a reallly cool Mommy could do under the circumstances – I ran back to the house and dragged my son out of bed, made him get the camera and set off to enjoy the world of slugs.

What, you might ask, does this have to do with the Oracle E-Business Suite of Applications? Well, first off, I can honestly say that I was as excited about this discovery as I was when I read that 10gR2 Version 10.2.0.4 is now certified with Release 11i. I hear there are performance improvements as well as functionality improvements to be had with this new release, so I highly recommend that my E-Business Suite friends consider upgrading.

But back to the slugs…

I have to admit, I was curious to see if my dogs would eat the slugs, and was disappointed to discover that while my dog will eat the pillar of my house, the thorns off of my rose bushes, and empty milk jugs, he will not eat slugs. Of course, this made me think about the exciting announcement that DB Vault 10gR2 is now certified with the E-Business Suite. I’m sure it was not the intent of the article writer to make it look like we DBAs are all an evil lot trying to sneak forbidden access to our companies’ financial data, but I did get a laugh out of this picture that I snagged from Steven Chan’s blog that showed that with Database Vault, only the FIN Realm Owner gets to peek at this precious data, while the DBA is unable to get to the data. So for all you DBAs, peeking can now be officially restricted.

For what it’s worth, the intent of Database Vault is to protect data from insider attacks and help meet SOX requirements for privacy and segregation of duties. I think the picture below gives a better idea of the sort of ne’er-do-wells that we are after. And for what it’s worth, DBAs aren’t the only people in your company who might like to see your data, so I’ve coined a new role for companies: The Insider Slug:

Now, you might say to yourself that you work with a great bunch of people, none of whom could ever make the ranks of The Insider Slug. But my cousin Anne Marie once gave this pearl of wisdom, after spending years consulting with newspaper companies. She said that she would go in to review their systems, and the newspaper owners would always say that there was no way that anyone was stealing from them. And Anne Marie and her husband Bill would pore over the records and at the end of their visit give the owner a list of who was stealing, and how much. To this day, Anne Marie says that if you run a company that doesn’t have checks and balances in place, or that does, but doesn’t follow them, then you should assume that somebody in the company is stealing you blind.

If only The Insider Slugs were so easy to spot

Smart companies use auditing to watch for cases where The Insider Slugs have found a way past security firewalls. And smarter companies put measures in place like Database Vault to keep those slugs from getting to their data in the first place.

And now, to finish the story of the slugs…

In the world of this really cool Mommy, I sometimes have to accept some uncomfortable liaisons in my life, so I steeled myself for the likelihood that we would become slug pet owners that night. In fact, I found two more slugs, bringing us to a total of four. They were very big, and not particularly good looking, but we diligently photographed the slugs and then my son, after considerable experimentation, used two sticks as chopsticks to pick up the slugs and put them in a box (yes, we did haul them out of the box and pose them on a rock).

Our slug box is kept handy for occasions like this. Last week we used the box to bring in two toads for overnight guests. We’ve put an awful lot of thought and research into what kind of food would be appealing to toads, but so far have not hit the mark, so toads are only allowed as overnight guests.

Ultimately, the slugs made it into our aquarium, which is filled with slimy dirt from the backyard. I thought the adventure was over, but my husband reviewed the slug habitat situation and concluded that putting a book on top of the aquarium would not be sufficient to keep the slugs where we wanted. Out came the slug box, and the slugs were returned to the wild, with a brief argument about whether putting them on the porch was sufficient, or if they should be taken back to where we found them, with side comments from my husband about what we normally do to slugs in our garden.

With all this said, I’ll just finish up by pointing out a few important observations:

1. One should probably not assume that Insider Slugs always work by themselves. My slugs looked ready to form a conga line.
2. Our slugs were quite slimy and left a trail behind them. I am not convinced that Insider Slugs are so obvious or easy to spot.
3. I can’t emphasize enough how tickled I was that my son used sticks to pick up the slugs rather than grabbing them with his bare hands. It’s bad enough when toads pee on him, I’d just as soon not see slug slime on him.

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It seems that in every organization we work with that there are always as many people/organizational challenges as there are technical challenges. Often when doing assessments we find that there are organization problems that have contributed to the situation. Sometimes different departments don’t communicate well with each other and tasks fall through the cracks. Or maybe there is a lot of distrust between groups and the tend to compete with each other rather than collaborate. It seems we must tackle both to some degree if we hope to have better effectiveness.

Several years ago I was working in non-profit organization and this issue of improving team productivity became a big topic. How could we improve the way the various departments and teams worked together? How could we reduce the amount of friction and distrust that tends to build up over time?

We were fortunate to have a facilitator introduce us to a book from Patrick Lencioni, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”. Lencioni works with all types of organizations to improve productivity and he has summarized the issues that need to be addressed before organizations can improve their results.

The five dysfunctions he identifies are built one on top of the other. The first dysfunction that must be dealt with is LACK OF TRUST. Trust means that the team members have confidence that their team members intentions are good and that honest communication is ok. Teams without LACK OF TRUST don’t ask for help, hide their problems, jump to conclusions, waste time, hold grudges and have unproductive meetings. To build TRUST requires management involvement to help break down barriers between groups and create honest communication. The book provides recommendations on how this is done.

The next dysfunction is FEAR OF CONFLICT. All great working relationships inevitably require some conflict because of differing opinions. Teams that avoid conflict at all costs or those that are the opposite and are always involved in conflict are usually unproductive. Certain conflict in meetings is healthy and needed to find the best solution and get everyone’s input. If your teams have a FEAR OF CONFLICT, they will have boring meetings, use back-channel politics/personal attacks, ignore controversial topics and spend a lot of time posturing.

The next three dysfunctions of teams that Lencioni discusses include LACK OF COMMITMENT, AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY and INATTENTION TO RESULTS. As a team or organization builds trust, becomes comfortable with conflict, rebuilds commitment, encourages accountability and attends to the results then its productivity exceeds that of its competitors.

Since almost all of us work in teams to complete projects, it’s important to understand the dynamics within the team and work to avoid these types of dysfunctional team behavior. Just being able to identify the behaviors can help to work through them before the team productivity is impacted.

Lencioni has written several other interesting books on leadership and how to conduct good meetings. I encourage you to check them out. As I said at the beginning, the organizational issues can often be more difficult to address than the technical issues, but you can’t separate them. Teams that have strong trust inevitably perform more effectively and have more camaraderie. Who wouldn’t want that type of environment all of the time?

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Since its introduction in July 2005, 10gR2 has become the database version of choice for many E-Business Suite environments. Originally released as 10.2.0.1 it has been regularly enhanced with new patches to 10.2.0.3. In the last several months, the third patch set was released for 10gR2, raising its current version to 10.2.0.4. In the last week it has been certified with most platforms for the E-Business Suite 11i.

Oracle Database 10gR2 is eligible for Oracle Premier support through July 2010 and eligible for Extended support through July 2013. Sustaining support is still listed as “indefinite” in Oracle’s Lifetime Support Policy located at http://www.oracle.com/support/lifetime-support-policy.html.

This new release is certified on all platforms (HPUX, AIX, Linux, Solaris and Windows) in both 32 and 64 bit versions. Keep in mind that this patchset does not provide any additional functionality only applying bug fixes.

Digging into the Metalink documents (Patch# 6810189) it was nice to find that10.2.0.4 includes the January and April 2008 Critical Patch Updates (CPU), which consolidates the effort of doing them. The CPU for July 2008 (Doc# 467881.1) would still need to be applied after this patch. Three issues are noted with this patchset. The one of interest is that parameter “CURSOR_SPACE_FOR_TIME” is being deprecated.

So what are the primary fixes in this 10.2.0.4 patchset? You can check them out in Doc#401436.1 on Metalink (metalink.oracle.com). A quick read show that this new release includes over 3,000 individual bug fixes. In the patchset notes Oracle has identified 14 new issues/bugs that are introduced by this patchset, so be sure to read through them as well.

Stephen Chan has a brief article on the certification of 11i and 10.2.0.4 on his BLOG, so check that out as well. To summarize, it indicates that 10.2.0.4 is certified with E-Business Suite Release 11.5.9.CU2 and higher as well as 11.5.10.CU2 and higher. Real Application Clusters (RAC), Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) and Automated Storage Management (ASM) are also certified. Database Vault is not yet certified.

This patchset includes an update to the Oracle time zone definitions to Version 4 which includes the changes to daylight saving time in the USA in 2007. You can determine which version you have with this query, “SELECT version FROM v$timezone_file;”.

Lastly, while some of the documentation says that this patch includes up to the January 2008 Critical Patch Update (CPU), it actually includes the April 2008 CPU as well (see Metalink Note 555579.1).

Happy Patching!

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