12.1.3 Patch Baseline and Strategy

Upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.3
Establishing a Patch Baseline and Post Go-Live Strategy
David Kelly, February 2015

Introduction
Upgrading your version of Oracle E-Business Suite might not have been a priority
in recent years especially at a time when exceptions to Oracle’s Lifetime Support
Policy, along with an unwillingness to consider 12.2 and Fusion Applications so
soon after their respective releases, may have given your organisation good
reason to delay plans for another IT investment. Conversely, you may be on a
fairly recent release such as 12.1.2 and see no urgency to upgrade while there is
plenty of time remaining before Premier and Extended support ends.
Whatever your version, being proactive and routinely patching your applications is
important both from a stability and supportability perspective. Even if you consider
your version to be stable, there are many reasons to continue patching such as:
 The further you fall behind, the greater the effort to resolve new issues.
 Patches may not be provided for older configurations. Having more
recent patch levels improves the chances of fixes being available.
 The likelihood of encountering an avoidable known issue is reduced.
 Your users may benefit from new features introduced.
 The effort when upgrading to new EBS versions is reduced.
While many organisations are reluctant to apply major patches due to the cost,
time and effort required, tools such as Oracle Patch Wizard can help assess the
impact a patch has on your applications and also help target specific areas for
testing. This combined with a mature set of test scripts covering a broad range of
business scenarios can lead to a faster implementation cycle and may not be as
costly as first thought.

As the evolution of the E-Business Suite continues, Oracle will release new versions
of its software with various levels of impact across the applications. Oracle
versioning can be explained as follows:
 Release: Significant application changes that can
impact the underlying architecture, functionality and
user interface. For example, R12 introduced a huge
number of new application tables as a result of
changes to the accounting and tax engines along with
changes to certain application / process relationships.
 Point Release: A collection of patches that fix bugs,
improve performance and add new features across the
entire E-Business Suite. May introduce major
changes to any aspect of an application (forms, tables,
reports, etc) or require upgrading the underlying
technology stack. Upgrading from one point release to
another is not as big as from one release to another.
 Release Update Pack (RUP): A cumulative
aggregation of product family patches on a given
codeline (point release) created across Oracle E-
Business Suite after the initial release. Note: while it
is recommended that a suite-wide RUP is applied to
bring all applications to the same codelevel, individual
product family RUPs are often suggested by Oracle
Global Product Support to address application issues.
Oracle Point Releases and RUPs are cumulative, meaning bug fixes and new features from previous releases are included
in the latest patches.
Release Point
Release
RUP General
Availability
11 5 10 Nov 2004
12 1 May 2009
12 1 2 Dec 2009
12 1 3 Aug 2010
12 2 Sep 2013
12 2 3 Dec 2013
12 2 4 Aug 2014
Oracle Version Numbers Explained

12.1.3+ Recommended Patch Collections
• Combines recommended patches across entire E-Business Suite 12.1.3 into
a single integrated and regression tested patchset. Potentially contains
thousands of bug fixes.
• Will also contain fixes for applications you don’t have installed, similar to a
Release Update Pack.
• Replaces need to identify and apply individual product family RPCs.
• Includes prerequisite, post-requisite and co-requisite patches.
• Due to Oracle’s internal deadlines for releasing suite-wide RPCs, a patch’s
eligibility for inclusion in an RPC is affected by its state of readiness by a
given freeze date. Consequently there may be more recent product family
RPCs available compared to what is included in RPC1, RPC2, RPC3, etc.
• RPC1 released March 2014. RPC2 released September 2014.
• No formal plans or release schedule for future suite-wide RPCs. Depends on
factors such as customer response to RPC1 and RPC2, volume of new
patches and release schedules of other EBS releases.
• General approach should be to apply latest suite-wide RPC as the foundation
level, then use Patch Wizard to identify any additional patches to apply on top.

Additional Benefits of Applying RPCs
• Your upgrade will commence on the latest software baseline. Ideal for
organisations who currently don’t have an established patch strategy for their
Production environment.
• May be able to utilise new features / functionality that reduce number of
existing customisations or workarounds, or prevent the need to create new
customisations.
• Latest patches may resolve longstanding issues not addressed in 12.1.3
baseline.
• Limits the amount of patching required throughout a project and post go-live.
• Can reduce the amount of regression testing required.
• Improves supportability in the event of issues being raised with Oracle Global
Product Support.

Release 12.1.3 Considerations
• 12.1.3 released in August 2010. Next version up is 12.2.x.
• Simply upgrading to 12.1.3 without further proactive patching can have serious
repercussions further into a project and post go-live.
• Although Release 12.1 Premier Support ends December 2016, Oracle usually
require a minimum prerequisite level of patching before considering one-off
patches, which are generally the latest suite-wide or product family Release
Update Packs or Recommended Patch Collections (refer to Oracle’s Lifetime
Support Policy and the Error Correction Support Policy).
• There are many Recommended Patch Collections by product family (e.g.
Financials, Procurement, Supply Chain, HRMS, etc.) and consolidated patches
released since 2010, with thousands of bug fixes available.
• Upgrading individual product families is possible (e.g. from 12.1.2 to 12.1.3
levels) but not recommended. Less risk involved when upgrading everything
together.

Release 12.2 Features & Considerations
 The 12.2.4 RUP was released in August 2014 and contains more new features
and updates to address issues discovered in versions 11.2.10 up to 12.1.3 and
the current 12.2 base release.
 Premier Support for 12.2 ends in Sept 2018 compared to 12.1 Premier Support
ending in Dec 2016.
 Includes new product functionality, new Fusion Middleware and database
components, and introduces new tools for installing, configuring, and maintaining
environments.
 New online patching capability. Apply EBS patches while users are still entering
transactions and using the E-Business Suite. Short predictable downtime to
restart the application server (the database server does not need to be restarted).
 EBS 12.2 uses WebLogic Server from Fusion Middleware 11g in place of the
Oracle Application Server OC4J 10g as part of the release's internal technology
stack. This supplements the traditional AutoConfig tool for many system
management and configuration tasks.
 Enhanced user interface features such as new skins / colours, detachable tables
displayed as a popup over base pages, and dynamic views in OAF. This is the
first step towards refreshing the user interface over the next several releases.
 Undo and copy OA Framework personalisations.
 Enhanced Workflow Worklist notification and management features.
.

General Patch Recommendations
• Don’t dismiss patches without first analysing them to determine the impact on
your applications. Also refer to the Release Content Documents (RCDs) and
other supporting documentation for information on new features introduced.
• Research any technology changes and understand the impact on your
existing infrastructure, such as hardware and sizing requirements.
• Consider the impact on your customisations.
• Have a patch strategy and keep your versions up to date. Don’t upgrade to
the latest patch levels then forget about patching until the next major upgrade.
• Waiting for a Sev 1 issue to occur before patching is also not a good strategy.
• Monitor Oracle’s Lifetime Support Policy and don’t leave your upgrade until
the end of the Extended Support period. Plan in advance.
• Keep abreast of new developments in the E-Business Suite roadmap and
align with internal goals and strategies.
• Know your upgrade options and consider the pros and cons. Is 12.1.3 the
best version for your organisation or is there added benefit in upgrading to
12.2 or implementing Fusion Applications?
• 11.5.10 customers who are not looking to upgrade - refer to Patch
Requirements for Sustaining Support for Oracle E-Business Suite Release
11.5.10 (Doc ID 883202.1)

Case Study
Oracle customer on Release 12.1.2 and looking to implement Services
Procurement. The customer is on a stable platform with very few patches applied
during the 4 years since it was implemented.
Although it is possible to implement Services Procurement on 12.1.2, analysis of
12.1.3 identified additional functionality available when combined with the latest
Procurement Recommended Patch Collection. Furthermore, it was felt that
upgrading to 12.1.3 would reduce the number of issues discovered in Services
Procurement and improve service received from Oracle Global Product Support.
Patch strategy was agreed after the following was performed:
• Highlight the long term benefits of upgrading to 12.1.3 versus remaining on
12.1.2.
• Release 12.2 flagged as an option not but seriously considered.
• Identify latest product family RPCs and additional effort to apply / test.
• Compare multiple product family RPCs to single RPC1 patch.
• Ascertain whether the very latest product RPCs were required or whether
those included in RPC1 was an acceptable patch level.
• Analyse patches in Patch Wizard to understand the overall patch impact.

Case Study (continued)
Release of RPC1 came after first test environment was built and all individual
product family RPCs were applied. After analysing RPC1 and agreeing to a new
upgrade approach, all future environments were patched using RPC1 as the
foundation level.
Taking a different approach early on in the project meant the impact was minimal
and also made it possible to compare patch timings.
Patch application time reduced from 21 hours (12.1.3 upgrade and all product RPCs)
to under 8 hours.
Patches Applied Time to Apply
Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.3 Release Update Pack and associated
technology patches
3.0 hours
Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3+ Recommended Patch
Collection 1 [RPC1]
1.5 hours
Individual product patches (to fix defects identified during testing) 3.0 hours
Timings do not include other DBA tasks such as performing backups and post-patching steps.

Patch Analysis: 12.1.3 Baseline + Individual Product RPCs

Final Patch Approach: 12.1.3 Upgrade + Recommended
Patch Collection 1 [RPC1]

About David Kelly
David Kelly has over 15 years of experience with Oracle E-Business
Suite implementations, upgrades and operational support, combining in-
depth functional and technical understanding with project management,
process reengineering and application design.
Consulting and operational roles include complex, large scale projects
and support across Europe, Asia Pacific, North and South America as
well as smaller engagements at regional and national level, ranging
from version 10.7 up to 12.1.3. Most of his experience comes from
working in financial services, manufacturing and construction industries.
David’s recent operational focus has been on implementing PTP
initiatives aimed at making business and system processes more
efficient and targeting cost savings through improved utilisation of
standard Oracle functionality, supplier spend analysis, supplier
rationalisation and redistribution of underutilised resources. As well as
having a strategic and leadership focus, David also likes to remain
hands-on by working on the analysis, configuration and support of new
solutions.
LinkedIn Profile: http://au.linkedin.com/in/1davidkelly

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