APPS DBA INTERVIEW Questions and Answers

Questions
1. What happens if the ICM goes down?
2. How will you speed up the patching process?
3. How will you handle an error during patching?
4. Provide a high-level overview of the cloning process and post-clone manual steps.
5. Provide an introduction to AutoConfig. How does AutoConfig know which value from the XML file needs to be put in which file?
6. Can you tell me a few tests you will do to troubleshoot self-service login problems? Which profile options and files will you check?
7. What could be wrong if you are unable to view concurrent manager log and output files?
8. How will you change the location of concurrent manager log and output files?
9. If the user is experiencing performance issues, how will you go about finding the cause?
10. How will you change the apps password?
11. Provide the location of the DBC file and explain its significance and how applications know the name of the DBC file.
Answers
1. All the other managers will keep working. ICM only takes care of the queue control requests, which means starting up and shutting down other concurrent managers.
2.
o You can merge multiple patches.
o You can create a response file for non-interactive patching.
o You can apply patches with options (nocompiledb, nomaintainmrc, nocompilejsp) and run these once after applying all the patches.
3. Look at the log of the failed worker, identify and rectify the error and restart the worker using adctrl utility.
4. Run pre-clone on the source (all tiers), duplicate the DB using RMAN (or restore the DB from a hot or cold backup), copy the file systems and then run post-clone on the target (all tiers).
Manual steps (there can be many more):
o Change all non-site profile option values (RapidClone only changes site-level profile options).
o Modify workflow and concurrent manager tables.
o Change printers.
5. AutoConfig uses a context file to maintain key configuration files. A context file is an XML file in the $APPL_TOP/admin directory and is the centralized repository.
When you run AutoConfig it reads the XML files and creates all the AutoConfig managed configuration files.
For each configuration file maintained by AutoConfig, there exists a template file which determines which values to pick from the XML file.
6.
o Check guest user/password in the DBC file, profile option guest user/password, the DB.
o Check whether apache/jserv is up.
o Run IsItWorking, FND_WEB.PING, aoljtest, etc.
7. Most likely the FNDFS listener is down. Look at the value of OUTFILE_NODE_NAME and LOGFILE_NODE_NAME in the FND_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS table. Look at the FND_NODES table. Look at the FNDFS_ entry in tnsnames.ora.
8. The location of log files is determined by parameter $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG and that of output files by $APPLCSF/$APPLOUT.
9.
o Trace his session (with waits) and use tkprof to analyze the trace file.
o Take a statspack report and analyze it.
o O/s monitoring using top/iostat/sar/vmstat.
o Check for any network bottleneck by using basic tests like ping results.
10.
o Use FNDCPASS to change APPS password.
o Manually modify wdbsvr.app/cgiCMD.dat files.
o Change any DB links pointing from other instances.
11.
o Location: $FND_TOP/secure directory.
o Significance: Points to the DB server amongst other things.
o The application knows the name of the DBC file by using profile option "Applications Database Id."


Q. Explain Oracle Applications architecture – Components?

Desktop tier
Application EBS (Forms, Reports, Concurrent Processing, Web, Admin, Disc)Q. Find application server version ?

FND_PRODUCT_GROUPS
Q. How will you find the Apache, forms, reports version in an EBS suite?
http –v – Apache
f60gen – Forms
ar60run – Reports
Q. Find jinitiator version?

Client side – Control panel
Server side – SID_hostname.xml (s_jinit_ver_)

Q. Whatis US directory in $AD_TOP or under various product TOP’s .
US directory is default language directory in Oracle Applications. If you have multiple language Installed in your Applications then you will see other language directories beside US, that directory will contain reports, fmx and other code in that respective directory like FR for France, AR for arabic, simplifies chinese or spanish.
Q. Whats main concurrent Manager types.
ICM - Internal Concurrent Manager which manage concurrent Managers
Standard Managers - Which Manage processing of requests.
CRM - Conflict Resolution Managers , resolve conflicts in case of incompatibility.
Q. Where is Concurrent Manager log file location ?
By default standard location is $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG , in some cases it can go to $FND_TOP/log as well.
Q. List some ad utilities and their functions?
adadmin, adctrl, adpatch, adlicmgr, admrgpch, adsplice and adworker
Q. List out the modules related to oracle Apps DBA ?

FND – Application Object Library, AU – Application Utilities, AD – Application DBA
Q. What are profile options, what are various type of profile options ?
User, application, responsibility and site
Q. List some profile options with their function?
ICX: Session timeout, ICX: Forms Launcher, ICX: Limit Connect
Q. How will you take the forms trace?

http://hostname:port/dev60cgi/f60cgi?play=&record=collect&log=filename
Q. How you put Applications 11i in Maintenance mode ?
Use adadmin to change Maintenance mode is Oracle Apps. With AD.I you need to enable maintenance mode in order to apply apps patch via adpatch utility. If you don’t want to put apps in maintenance mode you can use adpatch options=hotpatch feature.
Q. What are the different types of oracle patches available ?
One-off, mini, diagnostics, cu, rup, language, help, platform specific, OS, OPatch,
Interoperability, family pack and maintenance pack.

Q. What are the different patch drivers available?

C driver, D driver, G driver and U driver.
Q. Explain the steps for applying apps patch and database patch ?

Q. What is autoconfig?
Q. How will you find the autoconfig is enabled?
Q. List out the following logfile locations?

Patch log, autoconfig log, reports output, reports log and Concurrent manager log.
Q. List out the important env files?

Appsora.env, appsSID_hostname.env, adovars.env, APPSSID_hostname
Q. How to enable diagnostics for oracle applications?

FND: Enable Diagnostics.. Tell about RDA and its use?
Q. Describe about Discoverer Configuration and Oracle 10g AS installation ?
So start sharing information which can be useful to others like scripts, document by



Q. Explain Single Node or Multi Node installation
Single Node - All components of Apps 11i i.e. Database, CM, Forms, Web Server on single machine.
Multi Node - Apps 11i components on more than one Machine.
Q. Explain single user or multi user installation ?
Single User - Both Database and Application tier are owned by Single Operating System Account
Multi User - 11i Database Tier is owned by one O.S. User where as Application Tier is owned by different user.
Note* In both cases Apps is installed as user ROOT
Q. What is difference between express install or advanced install (system specific)
Express Install - Single User, Single Machine install where Apps 11i is installed on default location, Not much options during install.
Advanced Install - Advanced install with option to define o.s. Users, Mount Points and advanced installation.
Q. What is difference between fresh database and vision database install types ?
Fresh Database - Database is installed with Apps but with no data
Vision Database - Database installed with Apps with dummy data
Q. What are various components installed after 11.5.10 (11i) install ?
–9iAS (1.0.2.2.2) web server, Developer 6i Forms & Reports, Discoverer, Jinitiator
Q. What is O.S. level software requirement for installing Apps ?
ar, ld, make & X Display server for all unix machines (linux, solaris, IBM, HP Unix )
with following additional as per O.S.
Linux- gcc, g++, ksh
HP-Unix- cc, acc
IBM AIX - cc, linkx1C
For Windows you need
Microsoft C++, MKS Toolkit, GNU Make
Q. What is minimum approx. disk requirement for 11.5.10 (Note these disk requirement changes as per type of installation, languages installed and release )
For 11.5.10
Application Tier File System - 26 GB
Database Tier (Fresh install) - 31 GB
Database Tier (Vision install) - 65 GB
Q. What is staging area ?
Staging Area is special directory structure where you can dump 11i installation software so that you don’t have to insert CD’s during install and these disks will automatically be picked by Installer.
Q. How you set up staging area ?
Use adautostg.pl to create staging area orcreate required directory manually for staging like (following directories under Stage11i - startCD, oraApps, oraDB, oraiAS, oraAppsDB, oraNLS and inside these directories Disk1, Disk2…).

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Patching:

X. Utility used to apply application patch is ??
“adpatch”
X.Various options available with adpatch are
option=nocheckfile, noautoconfig, nocompiledb, nocompilejsp, nocopyportion, nodatabaseportion, nogenerateportion, hotpatch, integrity, prereq, noprereq, nomaintainmrc, validate, nojcopy, noforcecopy, forcecopy, nolink, nogenform, nogenrep
X. For database patch utility used to apply patch is ??
“opatch”
X..log and .lgi files for adpatch will be under $APPL_TOP/admin/SID/log directory.
X. What are .lgi files for ?
X. While applying patch put the system in maintenance mode by running
$adadmin and then select option 5 (change maintenance mode) after that select options enable/disable maintenance mode. (You can also change system to maintenence mode using $AD_TOP/patch/115/sql/adsetmmd.sql)
X.By default where adadmin log file will go??
$APPL_TOP/admin/$SID/log/abc.log
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Workers:

X. How to check what adpatch is doing ??
“adctrl” is the utility to do check status of ad worker, including adpatch.
X. What are various stages of adpatch worker
First of all workers will be in “waiting” stage after that jobs will be “assigned” then “running“, If error doesn’t come it will move to “complete” (waiting -> assigned -> running -> complete)
If error comes it will go like waiting -> assigned -> running -> failed -> fixed -> restarted -> completed
X. What is Default number of workers:
2 times the number of CPU on the database server.
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Deferred jobs
Have you ever seen worker status as deferred, while using adctrl ??
Once you start applying patch , manager assigns jobs and unique ID to each worker. Manager will also insert one row into FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES table for each worker with information about who is doing what ???
1) CONTROL_CODE 2) STATUS, these two columns are important for us from the fnd_install_processes. Manager will monitor the workers by these two columns about status of the assigned job.Once worker is done with first job, manager will assign it the second job to do with the status update as .
Once all the worker’s status is completed for all the jobs, manager will tell the workers to shutdown and will drop fnd_install_process table.
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X. What happens if worker is working on some particular job say updating some table but that table is locked ??? so what the worker will do in such situation…
here comes AD_DEFERRED_JOBS table which will be created at the time of FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES and ad_deferred_jobs too will be dropped with FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES. First time when worker checks and find that table is locked, that job fails and manager will automatically defers the job, and it will assigns a new job to the worker.
The job which was waiting in ad_deferred_jobs table will be assigned again till time it will not become failed or completed.
In such situation above, worker will wait till either the lock is released or timed out is reached and We (DBA) need not to take any action till the job status becomes fails…. once it shows its failed we can fix it and restart it.
X. Why APPS schema present in the 11i application ??
Well it reduces traffic because all the product schemas will grant full privileges to Apps schema. so it will have full access to the complete Oracle application.
All the products like AP,AR,FIN has the code for respective products and APPS will have access to all these code objectives too. Apps will have all the synonyms for base tables and sequences as well.
OBJECT_NAME
——————————————————————————–
OBJECT_TYPE STATUS OWNER
—————— ——- ——————————
BEN_PL_PCP_S
SYNONYM VALID APPS
BEN_PL_PCP_TYP_S
SYNONYM VALID APPS
BOM_CTO_ORDER_DEMAND_S1
SYNONYM VALID APPS
File System

X. What all directories will be there under any “product” top. (To know more about various top’s in 11i click here)
cd $AP_TOP (Example of product top AP) (Below are various directory under each product top - ad, ap, gl..)
admin bin forms help html lib log mds media mesg out patch reports sql xml
$ Here directory “forms” contains all .fmx (compiled version of forms)
X.Where are .fmb (Forms) stored
They will be under $AU_TOP/forms/US
Note* .fmb and .fmx are different
X. When you run f60gen to compile the forms : .fmx will be put to $PRODUCT_TOP/forms/US/ of respective product of form.
X.What is stored in “mesg” directory under each product top ??
“mesg” contains language specific message files and error message for the product.
X. What is stored in “bin” directory under each product top
“bin” directory contains executable files like in $AP_TOP/bin you will see APPBCF APTZGF apxamex.ctl apxboav.ctl apxdiner.ctl apxgecmc.ctl apxusbv.ctl APXXTR
X. How to compile apps schema and when to compile??
You can use “adadmin” utility to compile apps schema (other methods like utlrp.sql exists). Usually you compile apps after application of the patches, maintanance patch, upgrade, runtime error due to AD_DDL packages or scenarios where there are invalid objects in apps schema.
X. How many database connections are allowed during fresh installation of oracle application.
100.
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ADADMIN :- day to day use
AD Administration Main Menu
1. Generate Applications Files menu
2. Maintain Applications Files menu —Snapshot details
3. Compile/Reload Applications Database Entities menu ————-COMPILE APPS schema(invalid objects or runtime error)
4. Maintain Applications Database Entities menu
5. Change Maintenance Mode —–While patching
6. Exit AD Administration
Maintain Snapshot Information
1. List snapshots
2. Update current view snapshot
3. Create named snapshot
4. Export snapshot to file
5. Import snapshot from file
6. Delete named snapshot(s)
Hence question on maintenance snapshot can be like “What all maintain snapshot can do”
a. You can create copy of existing snapshot.
b. You can create a list of current view and named snapshot stored in your system.
c. You can update current view snapshot with any changes to the snapshot since the last update
d. You can export an existing snapshot to a file for storage or to another system.
e. You can delete the current view snapshot
And answer is
We can export/import snapshot:Delete named snapshots (You can’t delete current view snapshot):Update current view snapshot:Create n