Introduction - Oracle Apps DBA

What is ERP?
ERP stands for Enterprise resource planning software. ERP combines all Legacy systems of different departments in a company together into a single, integrated software program that runs off a single database so that the various departments can more easily share information and communicate with each other.

Ex: Oracle E -Business Suite, SAP. 

Who is an Oracle Apps DBA?
In simple Terms, He/She is a person who manages Oracle E-Business Suite Applications .Apps DBA Must have knowledge of Oracle Application Components.
Like..

DB Tier:
Oracle Database 9i/10g/11g/12c/19c DBA.

Application Tier:
Oracle Techstack Components (Apache,Forms,Reports,CMs),Weblogic.

Desktop Tier:
Sun JRE

+Basic Unix Skills : Must be able to Easily navigate through application file systems .

Based on the Organization ,you re expected to know all the above or only some .i e , a Big Organizations might have specialized  people for DBA,Apps & Desktops separately and in a small Organizations ,you might be expected to knw all three DB,Apps  and Desktop support.

Common Tasks of APPS DBA :

Installation : Single node and Multi node installation .

Configure:  License Manager ,adsplice,autoconfig,Contex editor ,Converting to       MRC  and Multi -Org etc.

Maintaining : Adadmin ,adrelink,analyzing the database for CBO,serve process using  adstrtal,adcmctl,..etc.

Patching,upgrading and Cloning :
Upgrding applications and Database ,interactive patching ,non -interactive patching,Merging Patches,Troubleshooting and restarting worker process and cloning using rapid clone utility.

Adop patching ,Migrations ,Deployments ,RMAN backups ,RMAN cloning ,Dataguard ,DR recovery .

Sysadmin Tasks : Creating users ,Assigning Responsibilities ,Registering Forms &  Concurrent Programs ,Long running requests .

Based on the state of the Application projects is in ,we can call Apps DBA as 

   1. Implementations DBA 
   2. Production DBA 
​
Implementation DBA :
Apps DBA working on implementation phase customer ,i e ,Customer did not start using the Apps instance for daily use. They are in process of customizing the apps to fit to their requirement and testing of different modules might be in progress .Most customers don't switch to ERP/Oracle Apps in a single shot.., They go live in different phases.

​In each phase they implement one or couple of modules and the corresponding department will start using ERP from the point of time .

​Usual length of an implementation project is 2 years .

Daily Activities:

1.Installation and Preparing of CRP,QA,UAT and GOLD instances .

2. Registering Menus, Responsibilities ,Forms, Concurrent Managers .

3. Tuning of Oracle DB and Different components of Oracle Applications thechstack for better performance based on QA/UAT results .

4. Follow -up with Oracle Product Support through Metalink for any issues that            functional consultants raise which requires file system level log files etc.

5. Cloning of Oracle Apps Instance .

6. Configuration and performing daily ,Monthly backups .

7. Applying Apps Patches using adpatch ,adop ,registering and licensing products  that customer wats to use .

Production DBA:

Apps DBA maintaining an Apps instance which is already in daily user by Customer.
Main goal will be to take care of performance of the system 

1. Cloning of PROD instance to TEST,DEV,UAT to reproduce and troubleshoot an error  that cane up in PROD and for users testing .

2. Applying oracle Security patches (CPU-Cumulative Patch Update) which are  released quarterly.

3. Applying Bug fix patches which are requested by users /customers .

4. Troubleshoot performance issues that might have come up with data growth. 

5. Cleaning up of log files of different processes like Apache, Concurrent Managers.

6. Making sure that scheduled backup jobs of PROD instance are going fine.

7.  Monitoring the Concurrent Managers queue and DB level free space in each Tablespace. 

8. Incase Standby DB is configured ,Need to Monitor the archive log  shipping between the sites also.